Alright, well, to recap; Roughly three weeks ago I was out hiking with Kiara and tripped on some rocks, falling and twisting my knee. The MRI i got 2 weeks later confirmed that when I'd tripped I tore the lateral meniscus of my right knee. The Meniscus is a circular-shaped ring of tough cartilage that the bones rest on, behind the knee-cap.

It doesn't take much to tear the meniscus, something as stupid as tripping on rocks or wet grass and twisting just the wrong way can do it. What mine did is not only tear, it "bucket-handled" and flipped under the bone. Since it had already torn, I was able to pop it back into place, but it was still obviously painful. Instead of going to get this fixed asap, I kept on working and putting stress on it, making it worse. And every time I bent my knee too much, it flipped into the middle of the bone again, locking up and causing a lot of pain.

Between the first Orthopedist App and the surgery yesterday, I was on Percocet and Motrin 4 times a day, And adding the first Orthopedist app, the MRI, the pain meds, and the finally the surgery, I would have racked up around $20,000 dollars in hospital bills. Luckily, and I attribute God to this, I found out that I am still on my father's army insurance and all expenses paid for.

So, come surgery day, I was up at the hospital at 5am and made it into the O.R. around 11. I remember sitting there, taking to my dad, getting the IV put into my hand and then being wheeled into the operating room. After that, aside from about 1 minute of talking, I don't remember a damn thing. Afterwords, they got me hold up in a hospital room for the rest of the day, night, and half of the next day. I have to say, the army makes great freakin food. Can't really beat free eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, and hot tea for breakfast, room service style. All the nurses were really nice too, but only one actually took the time out to know more than my first initial, last name, and birth date.

So, I'm home now, with a nice big bandage wrapped around my knee and an immobilizer strapped on top of that. And tomorrow I'll be back up to the hospital (1 hour drive) for a bandage change. For the next 6 weeks, I've gotta take it easy. Doing physical therapy 3 times a week and taking pills when I'm not doing that.

Doc says I'll be walking like normal again in 6-8 weeks, and I'll be able to slowly increase the weight I put on it after that, depending on how fast I heal. With that in mind, I freaking miss work like hell. Don't get me wrong, I like laying around all day with no responsibilities as much as the next dude, but after more than 2 months of doing that, I fucking miss the smell of the bakery :]

Yeah, strange, isn't it? I check DevART at least 4 times a day, but never post anything. My favorites list keeps growing and I'm lucky if I get any comments on my work at all.. I think I need to start posting more stuff. I actually have more, I just don't care to put it up. Between work, my friend(s), and building my guitar, I don't really have any brain space left for art motivation. I'd post pictures of the guitar, but I don't have a camera with a decent dpi so we'll wait on that. It's currently painted without lacquer, slightly off white, and has a few drip marks I think I'm gonna be forced to live with.

I bought a disposable camera from CVS like 3 months ago and have gone through about 4 rolls as of yet, basically just taking pictures while driving or doing whatever. It's the hobby I don't invest in, especially considering that the camera comes with a free roll of film when you develop the first one. It's a steal of a deal for an $8 camera and $5 per photo cd. I've got some awesome shots actually.

One of these days, hopefully, you'll see a photo or two.. or twenty. We'll see.

Well, due to things like lack of feedback, increased hours at work, and an actual social life (however small) I won't be updating DevART with new art very often. I still check back at least once a day (usually several more) and I enjoy seeing new art and commenting where it's due, I don't have Photoshop anymore nor do I own a scanner, so I'm SOL when it comes to the art department. Maybe once in a while I'll unload some of my new shit, but it's not like anyone is reading this anyway..

I finally have new art. For like the first time in a year I have new art to show. So get on with the favs and commenting -I miss those! Some new scraps too.

Yep, looks like today was my very first car accident. It happened on Kings Highway, around 3ish, when I was driving down towards town and the sun glare was all I could fucking see. Next thing I know I'm slamming into the back of a small delivery truck for some private company or something and my head goes right into the steering wheel. Half an hour later I'm sitting in the cramped lobby of the police station below Town Hall waiting for the police man to finish his Dunkin Doughnuts coffee (not kidding) and talk to us about whats going on.

We got the information report and all and they sent us on our way.... thanks for the help guys. I gotta take it over to Brady's tomorrow to get it looked at. My brother gave me a rough 50-60 dollar estimate to fix the lights and all, but the front chassis is bent up a bit and pushing on the radiator -but I'm not sure if that'll end up being a problem or not. I'm fine, he's fine, and hopefully this won't end in court. Like I don't already have enough to worry about with a negative $900 bank account listing. My life is looking up.