the weather today is incredible and the air smells like honey and flowers. SPRING!
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ok so (mom and dad i didnt tell you this before because i didnt want to worry you) but a while ago i was having some really severe back pains in my lower lumbar area. One would think that this was caused by say, carrying a bed across Madrid, but i think it actually happened from sleeping in a bad position...i cant imagine what that position was to create such extreme pains, but...leave it to me...so, first it really hurt to bend down and do things like tie shoes or pick things up from the floor...i thought id wait it out a bit, i was kind of worried it might have been the actual spine that was hurt, but was hoping it was just a strained muscle or something. the pain actually worsened...and worsened...and worsened to the point where one morning when i woke up my entire back was seized up and a giant knot of muscles. i had difficulty getting out of bed and although it really sucked, i was kind of relieved cuz at that point i knew that what was happening was that other muscles of my back were trying to compensate for the muscles down in the lumbar area that had grown tired/been strained. so i went to a traumatologo, and he looked at me, and told me my right leg is about 1 cm longer than my left leg! (that means if my left leg were as long as my right leg id probably be 5'3"!) and that this discrepancy was causing my hips to be slightly uneven, causing a SLIGHT curvature in my spine (something dr. Cirone told us about back in like 8th grade). and that this slight curvature makes my muscles ever so slightly stressed, so they are prone to being hurt down there more than normal. he said the pain would go away on its own and in fact by the time i had my first meeting with the doc it had gotten much better anyway...he offered some anti inflammatory and strong pain meds but i said i didnt want them and id just get over it au naturale. he told me to make an appointment for an x-ray and to see him again. well that appointment was today! (by the way my back is 100% better, no pain at all, but the doc said to come in anyway to see what the problem was and to do some fisioterapia to strengthen my muscles so as to prevent similar occurrences in the future. i'm all about prevention)
i woke up at 7:55...but didnt end up getting out of bed till 10. the appt was at 10 30. so i quickly threw on my WORK OUT CLOTHES (black leggings, burgundy american apparel v neck, sports bra, and black american apparel cardigan with my uggs and chucked on my black peacoat thing and threw my hair in a sloppy pony tail slapped on a rubber headband and was out the door. standard.
now, i need to explain something. in spain people are pretty high maintenance. especially women. NO ONE ever goes out in sweats like they do in america. if you even wear your hair in a pony tail here people think you look like shit. women always look really good. or even if they dont look good, you can tell they tried really hard and put a lot of effort and time into making themselves look that way. so i guess its the effort thats appreciated by society. "thanks for trying to look good" is what they are thinking. so theres this concept in spain: GUAPO /GUAPA. very similar to "khosh typ" in iran. where, you dont necessarily have to be physically beautiful, but just have some sort of attractive thing about you, usually in the way you dress yourself/carry yourself. and thats probably the most common word used in spain. people call each other guapo and guapa all the time. you see your friend "hola guapa!" you walk in to your 1st grade class with your hair down and curly and the students tell you you look guapa today. your student is wearing a nice shirt you tell them they're guapa. you go to the goya awards (spanish oscars) [which i DID BY THE WAY AND SAW JAVIER BARDEM from like 20 ft away, i cant believe i forgot to write about that until now] and the crowd of non-celebrities (in america it would be screaming crying fans) standing quietly behind the fenced off area just shout GUAPO! or GUAPA! when they're favorite celebrity steps out of their car and onto the red carpet... many a times, when i'm going out at night on my way walking to the metro across the street, i have to walk by the cervecerias (restaurants) by my house, and the waiters standing outside i use as a gauge...if they say hola guapa it means my outfit is good. if they say hola bonita. it means my face looks good. and if they say nothing it means i don't look noteworthy. {side note: actually i really dont care what the 35+ yr old waiters by my house say or think about what i'm wearing or look like. i dress for my own enjoyment, which is probably why i wear weird clothes sometimes. and really, men can go to hell with their double standards and hypocritical judgments about women...but thats another conversation entirely.}
so today, since i got ready in 2 seconds, i thought i would be highly frowned upon by society for being low maintenance, for not looking like i cared to impress anyone with my outfit (WHICH actually, normally, i dont, mom and dad you know. How many times i have heard "shayan, please take a shower and do your hair NICE, we're having people over...and put on make up!" haha!) and ive gotten used to people staring at me for going out in workout clothes/baggy jeans etc...but today, i believe i stepped OUT of my front door and INTO a twilight zone in which i was irresistably guapa in my workout clothes.
the first thing i noticed was women staring at me up and down at the metro...i know, i'm wearing uggs...sorry....i KNOW...my hair looks like crap...i know, i know, i'm wearing a sports bra! i'm going to a doctor, then to the gym, god, back off you b*****s! i thought. uh, then i noticed there were some guys looking too...yikes, is there something on my face?? then as i was walking to the doctors from the metro i was getting CAT CALLED from across the street! (which normally really makes me really uncomfortable) and i know they were cat calling me because there was no one else around me...i couldnt believe it! i got called guapa like 7 times just walking from the metro to the doctors...i even had to dodge a guy who got too up in my face...unbelievable, I didnt get HALF as many compliments last night when i actually DID put in some effort..
ok and then i actually went to the doctor and got really irritated with Spanish bureaucracy (as usual) but then i finally got x-rayed which kind of always scares me...especially with japan, radiation as been on my mind a lot lately, so i felt kind of nervous. aren't xrays always so anticlimactic?? you're there, in the robe, half naked, there are yellow and black signs warning you about the dangers of too much radiation, its cold, and scary, and the machine is making noise, and the doctor is serious and telling you not to move, and you almost expect like a giant beam of light or a LASER or something to be emitted from the machine and like penetrate your body...but no, you hear a squeak, a click, and that's it.
uh, so then i got the x rays, and I LOVE THEM. I'M COMPLETELY FASCINATED BY THEM AND i kind of want to frame them. or like get an x ray of my whole body. i love seeing my skeleton! its so WEIRD!! um, so ya i became totally obsessed with my x-rays and strangely enough, the doctor doesnt keep them, I'M supposed to keep them and take them with me every time i go to the doc...annoying, but whatever, maybe i actually WILL frame them, since i have no better way of keeping them safe and filed away and not lose them. so the doc told me its a VERY MINUSCULE problem, but that i should do 10 physiotherapy sessions just to strengthen the muscles and learn some good exercises and what do to/what not to do etc etc. so, i'm really excited!
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| sorry the pics are bad... but look! those are my lower lumbar, and my pelvis is that big white thing down there. and the white blob up top is my ribs! he said the last two disks have a slight bit of tension between them and thats where my problem stems from. |
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| can you see the curvature? its slight. and can you see that my hips are kind of off. I CANT BELIEVE THAT'S ME! so weird to think thats what i look like on the inside... |
and THEN on my way leaving i got hit on my like 3 more people, and ran into pasteleria mallorca which i had been wanting to go to for about a week now cuz i know they have macarons and i'm addicted to them. and i had no idea that there was one right by my doctor. so i went and bought THESE BAD BOYS
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| MOM AND DAD COME TO SPAIN! |
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Epilogue:
i have only 2 possible explanations for this phenomenon that i experienced today: either, my pheromones must be in overdrive; or its spring and everyone's hormones are raging to the point of delusion and hallucination. Maybe its a combination of both.
also, x-rays are awesome. get some and frame them.
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