new jobs and kneecaps

two brief things occupying my brain right now:

1.) so far, the new job is great. i have a nice classroom, i like all my textbooks, and my coworkers seem really awesome (although now, thanks to my grandma, i always read that word in my head as cow-orkers). we'll see how great i think it is when i have students.

2.) i'm sensing a visit to an orthopedic surgeon looming in the future. drat. for years, if i put pressure on my knee the wrong way while kneeling, my kneecap gets pushed out of place and crushes nerves, tendons, and ligaments in my knee, requiring me to wrench it back into place. this is, by far, the most painful thing i have ever experienced. blinding, searing pain. gasping for breath pain. literally the entire world halts until it goes away pain. i'm sitting here trying to find the words to express just how much this hurts, but i'm coming up short. naturally, i have learned how to avoid this. but every now and then, i'll not be paying attention, and it will happen again. which it did last week at the beach, except this time it took about four times longer than normal to fix. my knee hasn't felt normal since then, so now i'm having to be hyperactively careful about not putting any pressure on it. i'm a little worried, but i'm hoping that it will get better and i won't eventually have to have surgery.