THROW YOUR SKINNY BODY DOWN, SON!

I think I broke my butt. I have no explanation for it, but last Thursday I woke up and my left cheek was totally sore. It felt like some kind of pulled muscle, and it worked itself out for the most part throughout the day, only maintaining a dull ache over the next two days. That is, until Saturday night, when I was walking home from playing pinball and it really started to hurt, and my bad knee, also on my left leg, started to go with it.

I chalked this up to being tired. My legs get stiff when I need to go to bed. They don't predict the weather yet, but they tell me when I am getting sleepy. By the next morning, I still hurt, but I got through work that day fine. Sleeping became an issue, though. It's hard to get comfortable when one half of your ass is in pain. Monday nights are my shifts to work alone, which means a lot of movement, and I was really starting to feel it. Some people gave me that scary look sick people often get, that makes you think you must have rotting flesh or something. Apparently the trouble was evident. I know I was sweating, perhaps slightly feverish. The worst part, really, is when you stop moving. The actual pain is no big deal, I find, it's how your body reacts when the pain subsides. It seems to scream, "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO TO ME?!" I nearly passed out a couple of times. To make matters worse, when I got home, I discovered I had taken the key to the lockbox with me and had to walk all the way back.

So, I finally started to fall asleep around 1:30 am, but was up and down all night. I definitely developed a fever that seems to have burned out a lot of it. I was much better when I got up this morning. I took a bath and went back to bed and slept for a couple of hours pretty well. I'm feeling much better and am going to call in sick today. This whole thing has put me behind on my stated goals of last week, but even worse, while I have a pot of leftover coffee from yesterday, I am out of fresh beans and I accidentally left the creamer out all day, so I have no cream for my coffee. Quel tragedy!

In other business, the Trilogy staff picks return this month. I didn't post any last month because our feature section tied in with the Portland International Film Festival. But here are my five for this month:

* Blue Spring, directed by Toshiaki Toyoda, based on the manga by Taiyo Matsumoto (U.S. comics script by Kelly Sue DeConnick, who turned me on to both the movie and the book)

* Days of Being Wild, dir. Wong Kar-Wai

* I Vitelloni, dir. Fellini

* Shadows, dir. Cassavetes

* Who's That Knocking at My Door?, dir. Scorsese

All of these films are stories of restless youth, and except for Blue Spring, are either first efforts (Cassavetes, Scorsese) or the breakout films of the directors (Fellini had co-directed Variety Lights; Wong Kar-Wai made As Tears Go By, but Days of Being Wild was the one where he had the freedom to really show his distinctive style).

Also, in bookstores and comic shops now: Clamp Paranormal Investigators novel vol. 3, and Ai Yori Aosi vol. 8, both rewritten by me.

Current Sountrack: Ride, Live Light

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2004 Jamie S. Rich