cheap thrills

So surgery was yesterday.

This is something I haven't really blogged about. Not so long ago a tumor was found in my arm and initially it was harmless, but further testing showed that it was malignant and thus a wee bit nasty. Anyway, after a load of treatments that may or may not have worked, we all decided it was for the best (we - myself and a lot of people significantly smarter than me, with lots of degrees) if it was cut out. This posed a significant risk to my arm, but it was a risk I deemed worth taking.

So far so good. I can use my arm (the right, so I use it for just about everything) and so far it's only causing me great discomfort if I knock it or move suddenly or something like that. It's a relief. Because of treatment for that and other things I've been off work for quite some time. It's very unsettling, I didn't want to be away for as long as I've had to be, but at this stage I'm inclined to follow doctor's orders to the letter! It's given me time to blog though and set up things on eBay, which I wouldn't normally find time to do, I get home from work generally exhausted and all I want to do is make food and collapse in front of the TV.

One thing I ' ve seen on a lot of blogs that I'm a bit obsessed with, is people making their photos look like Pola roids. I love that style and I've seen it in a lot of editorials lately. Coming up to summer, I think it's perfect for all those getaway photos and meetings with friends. I've found a program called 'Poladroid', which seems to be doing the job. It's quite cute. It puts a little Polaroid camera in the corner of your desktop, when open and
then you just click and drag your photos from their folders, onto the camera. There's a sound effect, like taking a photo and then a smaller, fainter, Polaroid version of your image appears on the screen. It takes some time to 'Develop', but there's a chime when it's done and red ribbon appears in the bottom corner of the photo so you can tell. Then the images generally appear in the 'Pictures' library on your computer. I'm having loads of fun with it so far!

I'm putting some photos of my friends and I at the park not so long ago. This was when a whole bunch of my guy friends from back home came to visit. I love times like these the best. Simple pleasures! I think some people got a laugh out of seeing a bunch of 20 yr olds running around more like they were a bunch of 5 yr olds, but I'm pretty sure we were beyond caring.

Sometimes when I look at these photos I miss being at school and living in the town I grew up in. I remember when we were underage and this type of stuff, going out, acting crazy and photo-documenting ALL of it, was fun. The sneaky underage drink at someone's house party, mostly of the fruity, extreme colored variety, late night swims, driving around town with whoever had their licence, turning up the music as loud as we could handle and hurling ourselves through the streets. I miss those days. Now everything is so complicated and requires so much planning.

I miss the simplicity of youth most of all, I think.