Happy Holidays

This year is quickly coming to an end, and I thought I should finally stop putting off writing this blog entry.

This semester has not treated me well. Even the start was rocky, what with missing the first week of classes due to a severe cold. Later the same cold came back in a milder form, and I missed another lecture as well. Through all of this I have had a lot a back pain, which has become so excruciatingly painful that it is difficult just to show up to lectures and seminars. I cannot stand or walk without being in extreme pain. I went to the chiropractor, and he made some adjustments and gave me some pain medication and a muscle relaxant. However, I suffered an extreme side effect from the pain medication and I was very ill. The whole thing has been such a disaster. I’ve now got a referral to an orthopedic specialist, so I hope this will help.

All of this pain and illness means that even when I have a little bit of free time to actually play the sims (between studying and teaching) I just don’t. Sitting at the computer is extremely uncomfortable, and it does nothing to help heal my back. In fact, it probably makes things worse. I did finally buy a new, very comfortable desk chair, which helps, but my motivation to play computer games in general is fairly low. Of course, this also means that my hopes of digging around in the game and making a few mods have all fallen to pieces. I can’t really say whether I will make mods for the Sims 4, though I do think that at some point I’ll want to do it again.

If I had to ask for once thing for Christmas, it would be that I would be forever rid of this back pain. It makes me feel incredibly sad to ask for this and it bring tears to my eyes to say it out loud. It makes me feel weak and whiny. But this back pain is wearing me out, and my emotions are all over the place. Normally I have trouble enough controlling my temper and my mental state, but compounded with a chronic pain that is very nearly debilitating, I have trouble smiling at all. I feel like a bad friend and wife, because I cannot tell cheerful stories and little things like waiting an extra five minutes for my husband to get out of his lecture make me extraordinarily irritated and tired because the pain is so difficult to bear. But no amount of wishing or begging Santa to heal my back will help. It’s going to take hard work and patience, and maybe a really good doctor to get this thing sorted, I suppose.

All of that said, 2014 has not been such a terrible year. I enjoy all of my lectures and seminars and I’ve made new friends that I hope to keep for the rest of my life. Losing Simlogical forums felt like a real blow to me, but I’m grateful that all of the mods and tutorials at least remain in an archive. Once I’ve gotten my health sorted, I hope I will have time to go through my Sims 3 mods and figure out if I want to host them elsewhere as well.

I miss the Sims community very much, and I’ll try to post more, just so I can hear from you all more often. I wish all of you Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year.