Meet Mr. Spike

Hello! I would like to introduce you to my new friend Mr. Spike. 

No, it is not the yellow stuffed animal pictured. That is Chup! He is almost like a de facto welcome wagon to StuffieTown and, honestly, has all the answers. He's a pretty philosophical lil dood. Maybe I'll introduce you to him someday. 

But not today. Today is all about Mr. Spike. 

Mr. Spike helps me when I'm hurty. 

See? I've been trying to pull my home office together for a year now and have made... well, not zero progress? Maybe more like 49%.

But the easy 49%. The getting rid of things you KNOW you want to get rid of and mentally planning what it's gonna look like in your head over and over again. AND THEN you get kind of freaked out because your friend who is gonna have her first baby soon and be a fabulous, fun mom was telling you about her nursery the other day and it is the same aesthetic as your plan for your office, but with a brilliant addition that ties it all together ever better than you could imagine AND EVEN is a nod to your former career. You just gotta shake your crazy lil head over the way the world works sometimes. 

But what I'm saying is, my office is not done yet. So I've been working from the couch 90% of the time (the other 10% I am floating in the pool and planning blog posts and social media ideas in my head.)

And then when I'm not working, I'm either on the floor, arting, or doing some ridiculous house project like test-goldening the entry way in a different way every day...

Or I am in the exact same spot I spent the entire day working, except now I'm studying the Television. And if I'm being perfectly honest this is mostly what I'm doing. 

No big surprise, sometimes my body gets all oogly and sore from sitting in basically the same position all day and night. 

Ok, so sometimes I go into these zen-like shopping states where my brain is like, "Hey, you know that thing that's been nagging at you? Let's see if there's a perfect solution for it that you can buy."

It always happens without warning and I used to be embarrassed and ignore them, but during the pandemic I started listening. 

I googled "back pain at home solution cheap" (cause your girl is on a budget) and after reading pages of reviews of tens of products, Mr. Spike came out victorious. 

I eagerly and kind of afraided-ly awaited his arrival. I say afraidedly because some of the reviews were like, "OMG it is so painful at first!!! I thought I couldn't handle it!!!"

But then they always ended with, "but when I did... it was worth it!"

I like to think I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but Mr. Spike has shown me that I do not. You're supposed to lay on him on your back, on the hard floor, completely naked. 

Yeah, I tried that and didn't make it 5 minutes. 

The next suggestion was to try with a towel over the mat. This was somewhat better but didn't get the big relief feeling I was anticipating from all the reviews I read. At least, not before I had to stop. 

Then the reviews suggested laying the mat on top of your bed and then laying on it with a towel and that's when it clicked for me. For the first 15 minutes, I went through some weird stages of tingly prickles and sharp spikey feelings, but then... everything started to feel warm and (there is no better word for this) loose. I stayed there for about ten minutes more. 

I kid you not that the results lasted for at least two weeks. 

Nowadays I don't even have to lay on it anymore. About once a week, I'll start feeling tight, I'll plop Mr. Spike down on the couch and then plop me on top of him. 

Sometimes I forget I am even sitting on him!