Susan Arthur

Not an exciting day. I suppose I should be grateful for that. Not a particularly good day, either. I woke up at 5 with a migraine, AFTER taking an Imitrex last night before I went to bed, because I could feel it starting even then. I only slept 4 or 5 hours, and that includes feeling the migraine every time I woke up. I wanted to take a nap this morning after the second Imitrex kicked in but the caffeinated coffee I took for medicinal purposes foiled that scheme, except for dozing off for a couple of minutes while I was reading whatever bad book I had in my hand. At least I know that author isn't worth checking out again.

Before I forget it, I wantI have an appointment to thank wakeupmagy for her recommendation awhile back for a treatment for cold sores-- I got some l-lysine at Whole Foods, and damn! That stuff worked, literally overnight. I forgot to take it with me when I went out the next day and the swelling came back a little, but it was pretty much over with. Yay for that!

I was an impetuous woman yesterday. My iPod, upon which I have come to rely, wouldn't turn on one time too many. If modern gadgets can have loose connections, I swear this one did. It worked, it didn't work, totally at random. It was fine yesterday morning, but in the afternoon, no dice. Having recently received a check for three months of disability from the state, I said tohellwithitall and stopped at the Apple store, which just happens to be conveniently located between the Book Repair lab and my house. Convenient, eh? I was originally lusting after the cute little Nano, but when I realized that the regular size iPod provided three times as much storage space for the same price, I abandoned "cute" in a heartbeat. Screw cute, give me more music. And just like the nice man at the store promised, it "recognized" almost all the music on my computer as being mine, or assumed since it was on there, and it was bonding for the first time, it must be okay, or something, and loaded everything. Except one Lyle Lovett song, for some bizarre reason. Just the one song. So I've been playing with my new toy, which of course led me to play with my iTunes and set up some more playlists and such. Fun.

I have an appointment on Saturday with a doctor to see if I'm disabled enough for Social Security, which as we've already discussed, I know I'm not. Still, I'll play their silly games and go. As I said to someone this morning, I have no idea whether this guy will give me a cursory once over before telling me "Nope" or whether he'll examine me in excruciating detail before saying "No."

A mental health professional recommended yesterday that I only work halftime instead of full time, in the interest of not provoking the migraines to greater heights. Since the disability guarantees me a certain amount of income whether I work or not, (as long as it isn't the job that made me sick in the first place-- not bloody likely!!) that makes a great deal of sense. I think getting out and working some will help keep me sane(r) but I hadn't really considered all the ramifications of this whole disability thing. I have been blithely assuming that I'll be able to do a less stressful job as long as I keep taking my Imitrex, but there's no real guarantee of that, or that this will be less stressful, for that matter. Maybe it'll be the same amount of stress but in a different way. Joy! It's given me a lot to think about. In between thinking about the papers I have to write, and the random other assignments, and of course, most important of all, squeezing in time for a scroll blank or two for Coronation. I mean, let's keep our priorities straight here.

Now that the Imitrex has kicked in, I've had lunch and a couple of winks of nap, I think I feel alert enough to work on one of the random assignments, so I'll start writing now.

So. On Saturday I had class, and found out more about our first assignment, due in two weeks. I'm still not feeling like I have a good idea what I want to do. There has been some sort of problem with the Blackboard program through which my other structured class is offered, but it's now apparently working again, and there's homework on there, too. And on Tuesday I have a meeting scheduled with the librarian in charge of the Preservation department and thus the Book Repair section where I'm doing my practicum. I'm trying to get my notes and pictures of what I've been doing and learning organized and printed to show him. In other words, the homework part of the semester has kicked in with a vengeance.

On Friday I had a sore throat but yesterday it was okay. Today it's sore again, and my eyes are dry and my nose is runny--and I have a nagging migraine, to boot. I've been trying to listen to music while I work on the practicum stuff, but since I'm using a graphics program as well as Word, trying to play music on the computer too has slowed things down so much I had to abandon it. Too bad, because it was helping to keep me going.

Tomorrow I am volunteering at the library; last week I did lots of running, shelving, moving around. If this really is a cold as I suspect, tomorrow is going to be most unpleasant.

This is just SO not shaping up well.

This time I'm working on the Baronial Polling instead of a paper, so it isn't quite the same. Baronial pollings, however, always fall into the same pattern... there's a clear top rank, and a clear bottom rank, and the middle.... damn middle is always a problem. Too bad we can't just put "whatever!" in the middle, when the goods balance each other, and the bads balance each other, and the goods and bads balance out, too. Totally a "whatever" moment.

And Tuneless Boy is having his way with my eardrums again. Too bad, too, because I was enjoying JJ Cale and Eric Clapton. Sweet. Tuneless Boy has a reasonably short attention span, though, so I should be able to get back to JJ and Eric soon.

I'm itching with curiosity about the Health Resources grade-- she said they'd be posted by now. I was amused to get That Damned Paper back today, via the mail, with notes written all over it. She's not as vague as she acted in class. I got the grade I deserved on the paper, and I'm good with that. I couldn't argue a single point she made. I'm happy with my overall class grade, though.

And tomorrow I get to go talk to the Doc about my magical mystery cholesterol score. Sigh.

I had a very pleasant Turkey Day. Made two pies (not the most successful; I think my oven Has Issues) but still good. Kind of puttered around and called everybody I needed to call for a Holiday.

My brother is in California soaking up the sun; it was the usual Akron winter weather when they left so it obviously didn't occur to him to take shorts; he's now regretting that oversight. What a way to suffer. And anonamys couldn't leave her internship till Thurs AM sometime, so was just getting into Seattle when I called. She was getting doggy-kisses and much affection from the cats (nothing so tacky as kitty kisses; they'd save that till nobody was watching, get a grip) and she and freudian_slip were getting ready to go to his family's for dinner. Mother said she fixed a much-scaled-down version of their traditional meal; she and Daddy just enjoyed the hell out of it. They're both sick to death of institutional food by this time, so home cooking was just the ticket. Plus, some friends brought them a jam cake, which I hadn't thought about for years, probably, but made my mouth water when I heard the words. Yum. Mother also said Daddy hasn't been disoriented, which was the thing that had me the most worried. And she said they think his foot-drop (learnt the name from Amy) will go away after some time.

So I was happy as a clam to hear that my peeps are doing well, and was able to go to harleenquinzell's house for dinner with a light heart. Everything was well in hand when I arrived, though breathless as any major meal is at that point in the prep. I'm glad that I'm "family" enough that I can get there early and help a bit instead of it being a big formal type thing. Yay, family! zihuatanejo and his parents came for dinner, too. His parents were great fun. They had just driven up from Fla; believe me, after I make a trip of that length I am incoherent and certainly not up to being alert, nevermind charming and funny. Mad props.

Dinner was wonderful, of course. It always is, there. And I had fun talking to foklens about rock-and-roll. And it was real rock-and-roll we were listening to/talking about, too, not over-processed "rock." I espoused my theory that rock-and-roll should be something that your mama would hate and didn't think till later that I don't hate it, but my mama does, so that makes it okay for me. I don't know how their mamas feel about it. I was feeling good enough (after having to take more Imitrex than I wished, but damn, it worked) that I was enjoying the hell out of having the speakers cranked and a good bass line having its way with me. I remembered how much I like that music, and was able to articulate that the only reason I don't listen to it more often is the damn migraines. And I'm gonna go hear foklens' band play at the Upper Deck on New Year's Eve. Yay! I've been wanting to do that, so I'm happy to find out they're playing some time when I don't have an exam or paper due within two days, or some event that I have to attend for whatever reason.

Well, I suppose I should get started on the next big project. Le Sigh. Here I am, all in the mood for kicking back and enjoying turkey and rock-and-roll, and I have to write a paper. And, oh, yeah-- this one is 50% of the grade for the class. Oh, I had definitely better get to work.

I got all my errands done today that were critical, including visiting the library about which I need to write a review. It was a really nice building, and I enjoyed the visit. The trip wasn't even too bad; traffic got a little slow coming home since it was rush hour and there were two wrecks within about 5 miles of each other; one was a fender bender and the other left two cars totalled. No ambulances, so I could afford to be philosophical. Whenever I see a wreck it makes me think about the immediate sense of time stopping when you are the one in the wreck. Everything that you were doing suddenly drops out of sight; your world shifts and and all you do is deal with the cops, and the traffic, and if worst comes to worst, the medical types.

I stopped at the grocery on the way home and made a very focused trip inside: I bought two cartons of ice cream. Yeah, baby. Chocolate and vanilla-- I guess I'm in a classic mood or something.

And then I sat down and knocked out the one page synopsis of the term paper; the synopsis is due tomorrow night. Since it will incorporate much of the information from the paper I finished today, I just wrote it off the top of my head. Just to impress him, though, I threw in two quotes with footnotes. Heh. That only leaves the review of the library. Since I liked the building and was able to make notes of answers to all her questions, that one should go pretty quickly, too.

Ysolt gave me some catnip for the kitties when I was over there last time, and today I remembered to bring it in from the car. Heh. They were funny. Miranda was her usual assertive self and tried to get to all the bits before anyone else got a chance. There was a fair amount of tussling, but they were silent about it. It was highly amusing, like a silent movie.

I think I have earned the right to take a small bowl of ice cream and a book and go to bed and relax for a bit. Yay, me.

Today's incredibly wonderful journal entry

I am really enjoying the music that's playing this morning-- It's great Sunday morning music, but I guess it's pretty much what I've been enjoying lately anyway. Right now it's Ladysmith Black Mombazo, and before that it was Dill Pickle Rag by Chet Atkins and Doc Watson; Otis Redding and Jack Johnson. Earlier I caught the videos by OK Go, which are a hoot. I like the treadmill one best-- who the hell ever thought of that? Still, since I have homework to do, I needed something a little more conducive to study. Problem is, I still get distracted and sing along. I suck at multi-tasking. Which does not address why I'm writing a journal entry and IMing instead of doing the aforementioned homework.

Last night I saw An Inconvenient Truth with Nia, Nikulai, Adam, Manus, and Francesca. Beautifully done movie. If Al Gore had been like that when he was running, I'm thinking the last 8 years would have been incredibly different. Hell, the rest of our lives would be incredibly different. Sigh.

And finally, I agree with a lot of what this guy has to say. I'm awfully afraid we're gonna let the same thing happen again. Because I have no doubt that the R's will play the same games; the only question is, will we have the nerve to do anything about it?

There's nothing quite like Gregorian Chant to help focus my mind. Instead of cluttered little spaces with random bits tucked into every corner, my head turns into a Gothic cathedral with elegant columns and vaulted ceilings, filled with light and air. (No, I didn't just say I'm an airhead. And even if I am, I don't have to tell everything I know.) Even Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are too busy for right now.

I usually keep my music turned way (way, WAY) down when I'm working on the computer, partly so I don't disturb the neighbors and partly not to distract myself from whatever I'm doing. I was just sitting here playing a silly game and found myself grooving (geez, I'll bet the cool kids don't even say that any more) and sort of rocking in my chair and humming along to "Six Strings Down," a blues song I really like but hadn't ever really cranked up, so I just got wild and crazy and turned it up enough that I could really hear the words. Do I know how to live, or what? Then I left it turned up and listened to "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" which I discovered thanks to the lovely madlori. I could get to liking this actually hearing the music. Heh.

In other news of the 'hood, it looks like the Guatemalan(?) neighbor may not be staying. In fact, he may be gone already-- I haven't seen him for a month or two. The real clue, though, is all the notes from the management stuck in his door-- the ones that say things like "To The Defendant" and stuff. I know he hasn't moved his stuff out yet.

I've finished two of my three classes for the semester. We got our final exams for the cataloging class last night (caused me to miss Veronica Mars. Geesh! Doesn't she have any priorities?) It's obviously a take-home; actually since we'll have to use the reference books in the library, we'll probably all run into each other there. It looks like a killer. She said she expects us to need 5-7 hours to finish it. Holy shit, batman.

I thought I'd enjoy being home for dinner, so I got some fresh salmon on special, and fixed some rice and green beans almondine to go with it. I lost track of time, and what I did to that poor fish was downright criminal. I don't think I've ever overcooked it so bad. Embarrassing, really. No idea why, either. The whole "losing track of time" thing seems to have been a theme all day long, though. I was late to work, and didn't remember to call Mother for her birthday till 10:30 at night. Yikes. Time was she would have cried all day, but she has mellowed to a HUGE degree, thank all that is holy. She was downright calm about the whole thing. She said she's had a bad headache all day, which makes it hard to care about anything besides stopping the pain.

Well, I'm gonna go crawl into bed now and hope I don't repeat the time thing tomorrow. Y'all be good, now, y'hear?

For some reason, the song playing in my head this morning is Country Joe and the Fish:
"And it's one, two, three, what are we fightin' for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, the next stop is Vietnam." Last night it was Arlo Guthrie's City of New Orleans. At least I know enough of that one to get some variety!

Woo hoo! I must be feeling better. I've been listening to music all afternoon while I've been on the computer and have enjoyed it instead of being annoyed or pained. I've been playing "recently added" stuff, and a lot of it is from madlori's ketchup list. When I was searching out music from her list, I apparently also just downloaded some stuff because I like the names, or something. One of my favorites is "Take Your Mama Out Tonight" by Scissor Sisters, and I don't see it on the list anywhere. No idea where it came from. Interesting.

Of the musicians that were actually on her list, I've liked Rufus Wainwright, Presidents of the United States, The Shins, Jack Johnson, Michelle Branch, Dresden Dolls, (esp Coin Operated Boy,) Radiohead (Karma Police) and Franz Ferdinand (Michael.) I also ran across one called "Honeycomb" by Frank Black that I like. And either there are two Frank Blacks, or he has a split personality or I had someone else in mind altogether, because I expected screaming vocals and guitars, and this is neither. It's also not the "Honeycomb" I was expecting, but hey. I like it. I like The Decemberists, too-- I think the song "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect" got me hooked. Heh.

There's a mystery song... it's a female singer and the chorus says "Goodbye to you/Goodbye to everything/You were the one that I loved/ You were the thing I tried to hold on to." The title downloaded as "Track 08" and the artist's name as "artist." Very helpful. I like it, too, and would like to know who I'm listening to.

It was amusing, though.... all this new stuff was playing, and so far it had all been pretty recent-style rock. All of a sudden a wailing blues rock number came on and woke me right up. Good old George Thorogood!

I've got so little of my Christmas shopping done, I don't even want to think about it. I'm going to have to break down and go, even if my headache doesn't completely go away. Dark glasses, hat, whatever it takes. Oh, yeah. Ideas would help, too.