A post in which I am back at work

Well I felt like a used tea bag (which is more accurate than I really want to contemplate, on a philosophical level) but I went back into the office today.

I got done pretty much what needed to be done.  By the end of the day, though, I was ready to go.

I just wanted to go home and collapse, so that was what I determined to do.  I didn't want to worry with supper, so I stopped in at Subway to use up the last of a Subway gift card that has been in my wallet for about a year.  Apparently it was Subway night - there were 8,569 people in there.  I was just messing on my phone while I waited in line, and then realized that there were two guys in line in front of me whom I knew.  Unfortunately.  I have a long history with this pair.  One of them is a dirty old man who used to be in the military (which he tells you about ceaselessly).  He is warm for my form, and always trying to get me to do stuff with him.  Yergh.  He looks awful - he's reached that stage where old men look crusty all the time even if they're clean.  He probably used to be a good-looking guy if you like that 'daddy military' type (I don't particularly), but tonight he just looked old.  I haven't seen them in a couple of years.  They used to bowl with the gay bowling group. 

His lover is a nerve-eater supreme, and used to drive me crazy when we saw them every week.  He coined a new (at the time) and annoying pronunciation of my name which Russ still uses to torture me with when he's feeling feisty.  He also used to come on to me by giving me horrible "shoulder rubs" which felt as if a pterodactyl was trying to take me back to her nest.  He actually looks better than he used to, but still really isn't my type, and even if he were Adonis-like, his personality is like nails on a chalkboard to me.  I don't care if he had a five-foot long golden dick - no way. 

But because I knew them, I did offer the courtesy dictated by polite society.  I finished up on the phone and made polite chit-chat for our extended wait in line.  I didn't use up the balance on the card still, so the sandwich was free, although when I made my escape I felt that I had paid for it anyway.

I got home and chatted online, ate supper, and watched some TV.  I didn't really want anyone to come over - I was way too wiped out - so of course I was the belle of the ball, and everyone wanted to be up in my world.  I finally just signed out of the website to put an end to it.

Then Anthony started sending me texts.  Now Anthony is cute as a bug, but he's way too young for me, and he lives about an hour away.  The thing that bothers me though, is that he always makes plans to go out with his friends after he stops by to see me.  That unequivocally makes me a trick.  Now it is certainly nothing new for me to be a trick, and I don't even have a high horse to get up on, but it makes me feel 'less than', and I don't do that any more.  When I told him not to come, he asked why, so I explained all that.

It turns out that Mr. Anthony is not single, and thus he has to set up something with friends to use an excuse to get out of the house.  He claims that he told me that, but I don't remember it.  Since a) I am trying to give up married guys to improve my love-life karma; and b) don't enjoy being some one's dirty secret, I have to doubt the veracity of this avowal.

When I stuck to my guns and told him not to come, he was of course in no way deterred.  Since there is nothing more attractive to a gay man than indifference, he actually became more ardent.  Sigh.  People are nuts. I finally made him understand that I wasn't going to change my mind, signed out of everything, turned the sound off on my phone, and prepared for bed. 

One of the reasons I had been so wiped out tonight was that my foot pain, which has been growing steadily worse, really went off the scale today.  By the end of the day I was ready to go home and gnaw my own foot off.  When I got up tonight to go to the bathroom, I almost fell.  Sharp, shooting pains ran up my leg, and I hobbled to the bathroom going "ow, ow, OUCH" with each step.  I finally have to own the fact that I have plantar fasciitis.  It seems I can't sort one problem without another rearing its ugly head.  Sigh.

The last thing I want is a referral to a podiatrist, and yet another doctor in my life, but it seems it's either that or a wheelchair.  I looked it up online tonight, and the prognosis is grim.  There doesn't really seem to be a treatment for this, but stretching exercises are recommended.  Skeptically, but out of desperation, I tried some plantarflexion tonight, and was pleasantly surprised.  Some relief was almost immediate!  I finished getting ready for bed, walking, amazingly, almost normally.  I was greatly encouraged.