As one of my friends eloquently posted on Facebook, “Aren’t you bored?” I was using my status update to boast / report that I now have a medical certificate until May 31, so won’t be working or generally being productive until then.

Since the accident on September 11, I’ve been discharged from two rehabs – once on October 30, which is when I’ve been at home since; and the other sometime in January. It’s now April. I’ve pretty much been home for six months, so that’s an absolutely understandable question.

The thing is, I’m not bored. At all. I don’t know if that says more about my ability to keep myself entertained, or how “intense” my recovery is,  even at home. I’m tipping the former.

The thing is, if six months ago, someone said to me, “Would you like six months off work, paid?”, I would’ve been like, fuck yeah! Bring it on.  But the reality is a bit different than what you’d speculate – it’s not partying 24/7, it’s watching a lot of TV and getting out of the house as much as possible because you just might suffocate if you stare at the same four walls all day.

I do try to keep myself “busy” though – that’s ‘stay at home’ busy, not ‘contributing member of society’ busy. I have a routine that’s slowly evolved.

It started out with Ellen and The View – 12pm and 1pm on channel 9, respectively. My continuing interest in them is pretty low, to be honest – you can only watch Ellen dance over the coffee table so many times before it loses a little appeal. But it did give me something to frame my day around; especially considering I started my stay-at-home career during summer, the shit TV season. It has given me a renewed appreciation of Lost and Desperate Housewives though, so I dutifully download the new episodes of those on Mondays and Thursdays.

Once I was discharged from outpatient rehab, I started at the gym. The TAC is paying for me, so I’m really meant to be doing a physiotherapy program, but I’m just doing a normal one. Poorly. Don’t get me wrong, I was a gun at the gym before the accident – and plenty of people have cheerfully now reported back, “Yeah, you were getting in to great condition before your accident” – but without the framing of work to schedule my day around, it’s just harder to motivate myself. And I’m giving myself a very generous allowance to slack off once I’m there, because, as I tell myself, I’m only ‘just’ getting back into it. However, just like Ellen and her dancing over coffee table, that lie is losing steam real fast.

I have friends that only work four days a week, and they’re luckily three different days off. I can harass Monika on Monday, Kelly on Tuesday and Kristy on Wednesday. We don’t do something every week, but texting them at 8am saying DO U WANNA DO SOMETHING TODAY? gives me something else to do.

Since the accident and subsequent coma diary, my sister has gotten adorably clingy – so every Wednesday night we have ‘sibling night’, which has been dubbed ‘date night’ but c’mon, it’s my sister, that’s gay. And since that’s been going well, I started a sibling night with my brother every Monday.

It does seem particularly needy to frame my week around friends and family like this, and it absolutely is, but it gives me something to do and ensures I get out.

This blog keeps me suitably occupied as well. It has probably gone unnoticed, but I do try to update it three times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Or, if I’m feeling slack, I go for twice: Tuesday and Thursday. It’s rarely been kept to schedule, but having something to avoid doing feels just as purposeful as actually doing something.