Reasons

A few weeks ago, I got hit in the head at work and sustained a concussion. Yes, apparently, even office jobs aren't safe from accidents.

Artist's Representation

Reasons why that was bad:

1. It was the day before my Jeopardy! audition.
2. I had online grad school classes, and screen time irritates concussions.
3. This is my 3rd diagnosed concussion in less than 10 years: 1, I got dropped while swing dancing; 2, I flopped down on my bed and whacked my head against the wall; 3, something fell on my head at work. 
4. If you ever swallow something poisonous and need to induce vomiting, try asking the HR department of a nonprofit about their worker's compensation policy. You'll be sick before you know it.

The doctors keep telling me to stop getting hit in the head. I've been trying to tell them that's not something I can guarantee.

Reasons why I can't guarantee I won't hit my head anymore:

1. My left foot and my brain literally don't communicate, sometimes. This leads to occasional incidents of becoming horizontal unexpectedly.
   
2. There are 7 billion people on the planet, any number of whom might ask me to swing dance, or help them move something at work.
3. The universe is infinite and chaotic.

Fortunately, my friends are on the case: there's been a resurgence in the call for someone to invent a human-sized hamster ball to protect me. They've been campaigning for this since concussion #1. I do have some personal doubts about the effectiveness of such a system, however.

Reasons why a human-sized hamster ball might be problematic:

1. Subway doors.
2. Showers.
3. Stairs.
4. Toilets.
5. Corners.

Not coincidentally, that's also a partial list of places I've injured myself.

Anyway, my concussion is healing pretty well. My worker's-comp neurologist was pleasantly surprised to learn that she wouldn't have to prescribe the medication they usually prescribe to people with post-concussion syndrome. As it happens, I'm already on that medication to treat my nerve pain.

Meanwhile, there have been several staffing shake-ups at my place of work, which has given me some reasons to reflect on my future:

1. Should I keep doing what I'm doing, or try to do some other thing?
2. If I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, should I do it here or some other place?

I do have reasons to celebrate, though:

1. I finished semester 1 of grad school, with straight A's.
2. Game of Thrones Season 7 is in progress, and thus I get to hang out with cool people at New York City's Game of Thrones Meetup every week.
3. My sister, my parents, my parents' best friends, and most of my sister's college friends made it safely to Idaho for a wedding, even though the weather was so wild that they all got rescheduled, rebooked, or rerouted about a dozen times. At one point, I had to call the airline while my sister was in the air to demand that they figure out what to do about her missing her connecting flight - and wonder of wonders, I got an actually-helpful help desk employee on the phone!
4. My pain management doctor told me I'd be his first call if they ever invented wireless hacking of the spinal cord.

Although things aren't perfect, I'm definitely looking up!

Watching for anvils.