Dealing With Boredom

Hi everyone.

At the start of this whole living-with-CRPS-thing, I was bedridden and it was quite an adjustment. I’m not bed bound any more, but I do have to rest a lot. My energy is limited, and I generally live in a pain allowance where I only have so much room to go before I hit that limit. I spend a lot of time resting and recuperating, and the most common questions I get is, “don’t you get bored?”

Yeah, of course I do. It seems to be a different type of boredom though, one that comes from frustration rooted in new physical limits defined by the CRPS that lives alongside me. Sometimes I am just bored though. There’s only so much lurking that can be done before I get physically frustrated.

Timing is everything. For a while, I really enjoyed watching House because I connected with the idea that something was wrong and most medical professionals weren’t helping. Then seemingly overnight, I couldn’t handle watching it. Maybe it was because these people had their issues “solved” in a 43-minute episode, or maybe it was Dr. House being super shitty to those around him because he was in pain. I remember being mad that he liked to use it as an excuse to be difficult to be around. Just because you connect with something on Tuesday, doesn’t mean you won’t turn it off or close the book immediately on Wednesday!

So here’s a semi-organized list to give you some ideas if you are in the same boat, or if you are curious as to what I’m personally filling my down time with.

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Things I am into right now:

NCAA Women’s Gymnastics.

These athletes are absolutely amazing, and I really enjoy watching these women leave everything they’ve got on the competition floor. You may have caught a glimpse of NCAA Gymnastics with Katelyn Ohashi’s floor routine that went viral. Katelyn’s backstory is a compelling journey through her hell of elite gymnastics to her rejuvenation in college gymnastics. Check out I Was Broken. You can also check out her blog, where she talks about body shaming, and living with a chronic illness, something not many people know even though she has been wonderfully open about it.

The NCAA Men’s Gymnastics meets are also great to watch, but the women have just stolen my heart. These are some badass boss women who are athletes and scholars. Don’t forget they are in university full time while pulling all this off!

There are some YouTube channels (NCAA Gymnastics, clintdempsey76, or soonerdude101) who post quite a few of the meets. If you want to watch all the meets I believe you need some sort of sport package cable add-on available in the USA but I’m unsure, as I am Canadian. You can also find some links for NCAA and general gymnastics info through The Balance Beam Situation. I use YouTube because it’s free.

The post-season championships are upon us, so there is no better time to check this world out!

Shameless promotion of a few (eh, more than a few) of my favourite athletes to watch in NCAA Women’s Gymnastics right now:

UCLA Margzetta Frazier’s floor.

ALABAMA Shallon Olsen’s beam routine. Also her floor (start @ 37:20). Also her vault.

GEORGIA Alexa Al Hameed’s bars.

OKLAHOMA Jade Degouveia’s floor. And vault.

FLORIDA Alicia Boren’s floor.

LOUISIANA STATE Ruby Harrold’s bars. And vault.

ALABAMA Ariana Guerra’s vault.

CALIFORNIA Toni-Ann Williams’ floor. Toni-Ann is unfortunately dealing with a serious injury right now, I wish her all the best and hope her recovery is swift and thorough.

OKLAHOMA Brenna Dowell’s floor.

OKLAHOMA Maggie Nichols’ vault. 

I could go on and on, maybe you can see why NCAA Gymnastics is the first thing I put on this list!

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Any and All Dog Content

Facebook’s Dogspotting and Dogspotting Society are particularly exceptional groups. People post dogs that are unknown to them in the former, and known to them in the latter. There are some great ‘storylines’ that are ongoing with some of the Dogspotting Society members. I seriously love dogs. Wholesome content. Sassy dog parents. Canine comedy. Excellent pups.

***[Edit: March 29] HOW DID I FORGET DUNKIN AND KIRBY AND FRIENDS?! This instagram is awesome. The girl who produced the videos has a great sense of humor, and the dogs are great. Please check this out. Wow, I knew I missed details on the “Dog Content” section of this post but damn. Check out Dunkin And Friends, you will not regret it.

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On Netflix (Canada):

Hip-Hop Evolution. Incredible interviews facilitated by Shad. He is not my favourite interviewer generally, but his excitement and awe being in the presence of legends adds to the vibe of the documentary. The information presented in this series is attention grabbing and lush. Yes, I said lush. 

Losers. French skater extraordinaire Surya Bonaly’s episode is everything I have ever wanted. I loved watching her as a little girl, because even at 5 years old, I realized she had incredible nerve to do what she did. Some of the other episodes are good, but check out Episode 3, Judgement.

RuPaul’s Drag Race. Seasons 4, 6, and 8 are my personal favourites.

Luke Cage. Amazing acting, amazing setting, amazing soundtrack. Generally excellent.

Jessica Jones. Wow, do I love Kristen Ritter. This show is dark, creepy, violent, with some great little dark comedic breaks. I also enjoyed Kristen Ritter in Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23, although the main character in that show disturbs me greatly with her forced happiness.

Dynasty. Pretty ridiculous and more of a soap opera vibe than my usual content. The styling is amazing, beautiful scenery, and some straight up beautiful people. Elizabeth Gillies is an incredible actor. The character of Fallon Carrington is stunning with a grating personality. 

Sense8. Mind twisting, depressing, jubilant, exciting, inspiring, and more. The Wachowskis really did it with this one. Sense8 is no longer being made, but the outcry from fans after it wasn’t renewed for further seasons allowed the making of the Finale episode. I love the LGBTQ+ positive world created inside this show and among the cast and crew. I think it’s beautiful.

Z Nation. Probably the best zombie spoof show out there. Serious enough that you can be invested, but spoof-y enough that you are guaranteed to be waiting for the next laugh and not the next jump-scare. The Grand Canyon episode (Season 2, Episode 10) is one of my favourites by far.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Generally hilarious. A near perfect cop show satire of cop shows.

How To Get Away With Murder. Viola Davis is incredible. Pretty dark, sometimes slow in a suspenseful way, and difficult to turn off.

Black Lightning. A pretty powerful show with a lot to say. The cast is amazing, and there are quite a few badass, strong women in this show! That’s just a bonus.

Grey’s Anatomy. So many episodes available to watch! I think this is now the longest running medical TV show ever, so that is wild. the cast has changed over many times, so if you are half-half on wether you enjoy this show, just try skipping a season or two for some fresh faces. It’s no secret Grey’s Anatomy likes to kill of its characters!

The Get Down. The first thing I noticed about this is that Nas is narrating. Nas is from Queensbridge, and this show is all about the Bronx. Besides that very odd choice, this show is visually appealing, hella entertaining, and full of good music.

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John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight

On HBO, or you can watch portions for free on YouTube, or purchase in full.

I first found John Oliver about 4 years ago when his piece on Miss America was featured/trending on YouTube. The new segment on Public Shaming is a great piece to consider.

It’s a political commentary/comedy show in a similar style to The Daily Show, The Colbert Show, etc. In fact, John Oliver appeared with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show for years before he got his own gig.

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YouTube. Apparently, around 300 hours of content is uploaded every second to YouTube. So you can find some great, and terrible things there.

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Suggestions given to me:

Video games. I did download an old version of Pokemon Blue, because memories. Overall, I’ve never been into gaming and I don’t have the equipment. So, that one is not really for me. I must admit, the Pokemon Blue download was fun for a week or so though.

Books. I used to love reading books, and now I seem to prefer digital media. I still love National Geographic though, and am very lucky my family still has a subscription. I enjoyed Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan, I felt like I could relate to some of it. I tried a few other books related to health, including some Jon Kabat-Zinn, Norman Doidge, and John Sarno. Timing is everything, and at the time I didn’t seem to be connecting to these.

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Oh, and this blog! I like to write, although sometimes I am more inspired than other times. I don’t publish everything, sometimes I just write to get things out of my brain.

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Happy Time Filling!

🙂