So I Creep, Creep, Yeah...

Okay. First day back on campus after the foot surgery and I am discovering just how difficult walking around is.

Scientifically, it's because the cast and shoe immobilize my foot, so I can't "push off" from my toes. I can't push off from anything. I take a step with my left, and then literally lift up the immobile right foot and set it down next to the left one.

Ca-CHUNK. You get the idea.

This is also a fairly slow and laborious process. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so laborious. It's kind of exhausting. Which is driving me crazy, since I'm the sort of person who tries to suck it up and keep putting one foot in front of the other (it's what saved me during many of my Indian adventures, for example; the ability to just keep walking despite pain, sun, food poisoning, and repeatedly getting lost).

Side anecdote: today, limping down the street towards my university building, I got offered a ride from a friendly guy in an electrician's truck. I hopped in, and he asked me where I was going. I told him I was going to the theatre building, and then he told me that he was also a MFA graduate... in my very program. I almost asked him to teach me how to become an electrician, instead. ^__^

Anyway. But I've got to figure out some better way to get around, because this method of "walking" isn't working. It takes me ten minutes to shuffle from one end of the building to the other. People have suggested I go on crutches, but I'm not sure that would increase my speed (not to mention that I wouldn't be able to carry things very well).

I'm going to have a meeting with our Alexander Technique instructor later this week, and I hope he'll give me some tips for how to limp more effectively. Just slugging it around today has made my entire body hurt, and I've got to figure out how to get across campus to teach my class tomorrow. Perhaps I'll start walking a half hour early.

Thoughts?