F=MA

Force equals Mass times Acceleration. So a 222-lb. human going into a bike path at 14 miles an hour is exerting how much force onto the ground and his shoulder when he lands?

One mega-ouch, that's how much. I'm not sure exactly what happened, if I hit a bad patch of gravel, a rock, or if my fucking shoelaces got hung on my cog, but my front wheel went 90 degrees to the path and my body, adhering to Newton's first law (a body in motion tends to stay in motion), stayed in motion. Until I landed on my shoulder. At least I was able to kinda roll with the impact, which mitigated the blinding pain into something survivable rather than something that required an ambulance.

So when I realized that I was on the ground, I decided standing would be a good idea. Then I moved my right arm, and realized that wasn't such a good idea. I heard a loud 'pop' from my right shoulder, and then decided that I'd better sit down to pass out for a minute.

So I did.

When I came to, my vision had cleared, so I was pretty sure I wasn't concussed, and my shoulder hurt like a mother. As did my knee, but the cause of that was pretty apparent - road rash. The abrasions on my shoulder really didn't hurt until this afternoon, when the Aleve kicked in enough to take my mind off the other pain in the shoulder and let me focus on the big scrape. I'm fine, long term, but I think I'll take a couple days off from my free weights program. Especially since I kinda can't lift my arm over my head.

In other news, Suzy won the Best Costume Designer for a Drama in the Metrolina Theatre Awards on Sunday. The awards show went well, I think it looked great, to be honest. I did a lot more work on the lights than I have done in the past, and I think it added a lot to the musical numbers. Just one more little swan song as I try to move out of doing as much design work. I'm currently booked on 6 shows this season, one of which I've completed (and apparently helped destroy the entire Dickens theatrical legacy, if you believe the review. I don't. I think it was an excellent show with a very clear concept.). I'm currently under contract to design Oliver (done), Killing Time and The Diary of Anne Frank. I'm verbally committed to Tweaks, an opera at UNCC, and Sideshow. I think I'm going to back out of Tweaks and the opera, which will cut me down to only 4 shows this season, fewer than I've done in years.

Basically, I'm tired of it. I'm only designing shows for money, and there's not enough of that in theatre to really make it worth the time. There are certain companies and directors I will always work with if I can make the schedule work (thus sticking with Sideshow), but for the most part, unless it's a show that's really exciting, I'm gonna pass. I want to concentrate on acting and directing, and even then I only want to do shows I'm passionate about. I've done so many shows at this point (well over 100) that I don't need to see my name in a program, or get mentioned in a review (especially if it's like the mention I got for Oliver!, not that I'm bitter (much)). I only want to do theatre that I care about, and have fun doing. So I'm cutting out a bunch of my design work and trying to find other people to pass it off to.

But one thing that I am excited about is the chance to audition for Dog Sees God, a play about the Peanuts gang all grown up. It's one of the funniest plays I've read in years, and my buddy Glenn is directing, so he knows what I can do on stage, so I think I've got a shot at a role.

Another happy/annoying moment this weekend was having to rent a tux jacket for the awards because I could no longer fit into any of my dress clothes. All my tuxes and other snazzy clothes could now fit me and a friend inside them (which has possibilities...), so I had to go with a rental. Also this weekend I started wearing my wedding band again. Not the one I bought last year because I decided Suzy and I needed new wedding bands for our anniversary, but the one I got when I first got married but had gotten too fat to wear for the past 8 years or so. I also fit back into my cowboy boots, which had been too small. Who knew I had fat feet? Not me.

Down to 222, with a total weight loss of 43 lbs. I'm into 38 or 40 jeans, down from 44 relaxed fit six months ago, and had more than one person at the awards show tell me they didn't recognize me at first glance. I have to say that made for a successful re-emergence into the theatre scene.