finding_neo | Just when I think I'm winning

This has been a bit of a summer. Now that it's meteorologically fall, I am trying to put summer '17 behind me, although I feel like it never got its deserved due.

My job had gotten better because an employee who had overstayed their welcome finally made the right decision and moved on. I was saddened to see another employee go, but he's gotten promoted at his new job with our company, so I'm happy for him and he still visits which is nice as there's no hard feelings there.
The result was a re-energerized remaining staff with two promotions and an amazing effort which propelled us to win sales contests, something we've struggled with in prior years. Of course good times only last so long and now one promoted employee is making life miserable for a couple of us. They're young and because life had been shitty to them as they grew up, the reaction is to belittle others to make themselves feel less miserable. I guess. I'm not a psychologist. It's better to believe someone behaves undesirably toward others because of life's unfairness, than to believe they're a horrible person. Unfortunately it's occupying too many of my daily thoughts, so I feel like I'm back to square one with job contentment, all while making less money because our stupid state has been bankrupt for 2 years without a budget and now needs its citizens help to get out of debt. I'm down at least a tank of gas a month, until the price skyrockets because of hurricane Harvey then probably half a tank.
This was a musical summer. I saw Blondie, Garbage and X in July, and also saw Steve Martin and Martin Shorts' "An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life" 2 man show, at which Steve played banjo with his group the Steep Canyon Rangers. My favorite "gig" though was a band named Poptone.
The internet has made my musical life better because I find out about gigs like theirs, which in the pre-net days, I probably wouldn't find out about until it was over. I am a huge '80s music fan, but only alternative '80s, not the commercial radio fodder like Hall & Oates. One of my favorites back-in-the-day was Bauhaus and their incarnations Tones on Tail and Love & Rockets. Poptone is the guitarist and drummer from those bands, Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins, along with Kevin's daughter Diva on bass. They played at a new little club in St. Louis and although I expected it to be packed, only about 100-125 people attended. I was the 4th one in the door and despite wandering around, buying a T-shirt which I took out to my car, and talking to other attendees, I still got a spot at the stage. It was without a doubt the best gig I've ever attended! Daniel is one of the top guitarists from the '80s and hasn't lost any of his fancy-French-word-I-can't-spell and all 3 were a tight ensemble, playing songs from all 3 previous bands' discography. "Pop" was the name of one of Tones on tails LPs, hence the name Poptone, I assume. I'm a fan for life, just like for their other 3 bands.
All those fun things I did this summer was in the midst of a health problem I needed to take care of but waited until it my summer activities were over to do so since I wasn't 100% what was wrong. In the midst of being diagnosed with a 2cm breast cyst in one breast, they also found an unusual mass of tissue in my other breast which wasn't causing any problem and I noticed no actual lump, unlike the cyst, which felt like a grape and hurt. So I had the cyst aspirated and a biopsy on the mass. Thankfully it was sclerosing adenosis and benign. The type of biopsy procedure removed a good portion of it, so hopefully it won't get larger. There is a possibility of this type of mass increasing my risk for breast cancer, but some studies say no it won't. I have to get another mammogram in 6 months.
In the TMI department - I had a vacuum biopsy and man, those suck - literally and figuratively. The procedure wasn't horrid, just a lot of pressure, but my surgeon was good. The healing period was the worst. Not only was the incision left open, but the skin is sensitive below the armpit and the bandage tape and band-aid I used made my skin raw. They put a tape over the scar that's supposed to stay on for a week according to the info sheet I was given - hahaha - it came off the next morning in the shower. I had to get some cold water and sit down when I saw the open incision. I'm not particularly squeamish, but an open wound is my limit. I had to wear a sports bra for 4 days after and even while sleeping. Recommended is 48 hours, but I was so sore, the less my boobs moved the better. To top it off, since I'm not yet in menopause (OMG, would you hurry up!) I still get occasional breast tenderness during my cycle and that happened within days of the procedure, of course. I regretted having anything done with the suspicious tissue at one point because it seemed like I traded one problem for another. The side with the cyst healed quickly, although I had to get an antibiotic because I got an odd redness and serious pain in it the 2nd day after the procedure.
I had to wait over a week for the results because my surgeon was on vacation the week after the procedure. I opted to wait instead of being called and potentially told bad news over the phone, because I couldn't act on the results until she returned anyway and I hate not having a plan. Waiting was not the best option because the anxiety built up and by the end of the week before, the tension aggravated an old hip/back injury and I had to call off work for a day. That's the only thing I can attribute it to, I didn't remember anything in particular that I physically did to aggravate it so much. After discovering a yoga posture that stretched out my hip, it's much better, but still aggravates me when I sit too much. Which I do too much.
So summer '17 had an uncomfortable ennui to it. I didn't enjoy or appreciate it as much as I should have, because aside from the health problem, it was pretty cool. I even got to see a total solar eclipse!