My computer is finally fixed. It spent most of the weekend at some repair center in Tennessee and then spent the last two days waiting in the back room at the Cherry Creek Apple store (they have to officially “check in” your computer before they’ll give it back to you, which took longer than the actual repair did), but now it’s back, and, for the first time since Christmas, I have a fully charged laptop battery!
I’ve spent most of the last week feverishly researching, spending far too much time in front of various microfiche machines. I’ve been pretty productive — the large pile of documents piled on the desk in here proves that, if nothing else — but the process of researching is mentally up and down. I had a hard time getting into it for the first few days, since I’ve been ignoring my thesis for most of the last month. I seem to be alternating good days and bad days. Tuesday, for example, was a very good day of research: I blazed my way through rolls and rolls of microfilm, and actually felt like I took care of a big chunk of the things I came here to find. Today, though, just dragged, and I barely got anything done. The slow days are the worst, since I tend to obsess about how much time I’m losing and about how much money I’m spending on hotel/food/etc. costs. Never mind that my thesis isn’t due for ten months, and that I negotiated a very good hotel rate for this part of Denver: my default setting is, as ever, “fret.”
The appeal of this hotel is that it is within walking distance of both of the libraries I need to go to (as well as the fact that it overlooks the Thesis Topic). I planned to do a lot of walking while I was here, and I have been. Something strange, though: the 20- to 45-minute walk each way (depending on the library) has been killing my legs. This is odd because I walk all the time when I’m in ABQ. The walk to the public library is about the same distance as the walk between my apartment and my office at UNM. The walk to the other library is shorter than the walks I was taking every morning with the dog back in GJ; and about the same distance as the walk between my apartment and the Nob Hill Flyinf Star. These other walks didn’t hurt my legs and feet, but ever since I’ve been in Denver, my legs have hurt a lot. My left leg, especially, which is not particularly normal. Usually, it’s my right leg — the leg I broke in four places five years ago — that hurts. Last night, my left shin felt so tight when I was walking back to the hotel that I worried that I might tear something along the way. At least my hotel is right next to a hospital.
I don’t know what is making my legs hurt, since these are not out-of-the-ordinary walks for me. I lay part of the blame for the crappy hotel bed here (beds at hotels are always crappy), which leaves me feeling especially unrefreshed each morning. I have to say, I am sick of living in a hotel. My room is fairly comfortable, but it seems to be specifically designed to be Not Your Home. It has the kind of furniture and fixtures that you would put in a guest room: they look nice, but they’re not welcoming enough to encourage a lengthy stay of any sort….
