Sing Hallelujah! C'mon, Get Happy!

If you've seen one casted leg, you've seen them all.

Finals for this quarter are history. I feel good about them, though as part of my superstitious nature, I refuse to allow myself to feel too good about them just yet. Grades are to be posted, I think, by the 24th of this month . I believe most profs post exam and/or class results sooner, though none has done so yet.

Part of my feeling successful is contingent upon my brother succeeding, too. It's not enough for me just to sail through the process myself. Matthew, too, must get through with a reasonable margin of error. I understand that his success or failure ultimately rests upon his own shoulders, but if he's doing everything within his power to learn the material, I feel responsible for doing all I can do for him as well. 
I suspect we're fine where Matthew is concerned. Looks on professors' faces as we've passed them in various venues would indicate everything's good on his front, too.

This break couldn't have come any later and have been soon enough for me. I need time away from this situation. This afternoon I needed time to have my cast replaced. When we went to the beach last weekend, I was far less cautious with the cast in regard to sand and water than I should have been over the weekend. The very last thing, or at least one of the very last things, a person wants in his or her cast, is sand. I had it all the way above my heel. The cast also got a bit soggy. For the present, it meant that the cast was not properly supporting the fractured bones. For the long term, it meant that my cast was going to positively reek in a matter of days. Between the sand that was likely to cause blister or possibly worse, the lack of support provided by the cast, and the scent that was son to be emitted by the cast, there was no choice but to ditch it in favor a  a newer and improved model.

The nice thing about getting a new cast was that I had the opportunity to scratch the hell out of my leg between castings. The doctor cautioned me not to scratch too hard because of the tenderness of the skin. She brought in calamine lotion and rubbed my leg thoroughly with it before reapplying the next cast, and put an extra-hypoallergenic sheath next to my skin before putting the cast on.

I have to admit that I'm tempted to get my cast soaked once a week in order to hVE a weekly go at scratching my leg, but the doctor would eventually start charging premium rates for  it, I suspect, and she would be a bit less congenial (the doctor told me under veiled threat of secrecy that she actually won "Miss Congeniality" in her local chapter's pre-Miss America pageant) with each succeeding cast she put on. I'll try to be conscientious about keeping this cast clean and dry.

My brother and I and our parents are spending the weekend at Claire's home with her family. She lives a few miles from the home where she lived when we were growing up.  i was worried the time might be awkward, but it hasn't been. I'm sleeping in the extra bed in Claire's sister's room because sleeping in her room just doesn't quite feel right, yet. Someday I may, as the room doesn't need to be turned into a shrine.