Category: Uncategorized

Hey, hey
Have you ever danced in the rain
or thanked the sun
just for shinin’, just for shinin’
or the sea
Oh no –
Take it all in, the world’s a show
and yeah, you look much better
look much better when you glow
— Sister Hazel, Change Your Mind

1. The very mild summer we’ve been having so far (which I’ve probably just jinxed)

2. Our first cucumber!  We’re having it for dinner tomorrow!

3. Playing tennis again for the first time in a very long time – like 5 years or more

Tell me what you’re happy about or grateful for today!

We’re horribly mundane, aggressively mundane individuals.  We’re the ninjas of the mundane, you might say.
— Andy Partridge

Because I know you’re dying to “watch” me sit at home all day.  Here’s what’s happened so far:

7:00 am: Alarm goes off, hit snooze, notice the mild headache I went to bed with has morphed into a full-blown migraine overnight, cover my head with pillow

7:05 am: Alarm goes off again, hit snooze, moan in pain

7:10 am: Alarm goes off, get up, fully intending to hit the shower, realize there’s no way I’m going to make it into work, pop 3 Advil, crawl back into bed, email boss to say I won’t be in

7:50 am: David leaves for work; I wish he could have stayed home with me – not that I need taking care of, but the company would be nice.  Roll to his side of the bed and cover my head with the pillow, attempting to block out all light

8:30 am: Wake up, toss and turn, try to put pressure on the eye the pain is behind, can’t get comfortable

9:45 am: Wake up again, migraine still in full effect, decide sleep will not happen until it’s gone; check Facebook, announce sick status to elicit sympathy, check email

10:00 am: Decide to eat to see if that will help before turning to emergency stash of Excedrin (since I’m not supposed to have caffeine); go downstairs, make cream of wheat and grab a soda; head back upstairs intending to order a movie on demand that David would never agree to watch with me

10:23 am: Get sucked into John and Kate Plus Eight on TLC, which I have honestly never watched before (but know the details of the latest saga because, well, I can read, and they’ve been all over the news lately)

10:30: New episode of JK+E; enjoy the irony of TLC replaying their trip to Hawaii to renew their vows, which Kate tells the kids they’re doing to show them they’ll “be together forever, no matter what.”  Head pounding.

11:00 am: TLC switches to What Not to Wear, and I consider watching, since the subject is a man, and I’ve only ever seen them makeover women but the episode doesn’t hold my interest; check On Demand movies, see nothing worthwhile

11:05 am: Commence channel surfing; wonder when “midday news” started at 11 instead of noon on the local channels, decide it was probably about the time the “early” evening news moved from 5 pm to 4:30); stop briefly on The View, watch the ladies recapping the Michael Jackson memorial

11:15 am: Come across Forces of Nature on TBS; I own this movie and can watch it whenever I want, but I love it, and there’s nothing else on, so here we are.  Head still pounding; seriously considering taking the Excedrin.

Noon: Movie’s over; I only half-watched and tried to sleep during the commericals – no luck.  Channel surfing.

12:11 pm: Came across Tour de France on Versus; nothing else on, really, might as well watch ridiculously fit men cycle through Provence (or wherever the hell they are); I don’t understand all about time trials and sprints and peletons, but apparently Lance Armstrong is essentially tied for first, just a fraction of a second behind the leader.  It’s weird not to see him in the yellow jersey.

12:20 pm: G-chatting with David at work; just like any other day, really, except that I’m in bed instead of at work and I feel like I got run over by a truck.  This sucks.  But I’m glad David talked me into putting the extra TV in our room instead of the guest room.  So convenient.

12:57 pm: Decide laying in bed trying to sleep is making it worse because I’m focusing on the pain; get up, get dressed, pop one Excedrin (hoping it’s enough to do the trick – I hate taking it because I always run the risk of getting hooked on caffeine again), gather my computer and breakfast dishes and head downstairs; just about time for lunch.

1:03 pm: Open the vertical blinds to the balcony, notice that some creature has, for the first time since we’ve been growing stuff out there, stolen a ripe tomato off the Roma tomato plant, eaten half and left the other half in the dirt.  Jerk.  Notice my poor petunias – which just two weeks ago were huge, overgrown, and lush – are now very small, thin, and dried out.  I’m not sure what the problem is, because we water them every day, and they were totally fine before, but I notice the soil is very dry, so I water them and the other flowers (the Alyssum have also begun to die, again inexplicably, though the geraniums are still going strong) copiously, hoping it’s not too late.  I wish I had taken pictures of them when they were so full and in bloom – you would have been proud of me.

1:17 pm: Realize that I can have my usual Wednesday lunch – grilled cheese and chili from the takeout place in the lobby of my office building – at home because we have canned chili (moved from David’s old place and never eaten) and American cheese (which I never buy, but did this weekend for the 4th) and am totally psyched.  Pico, who never heard a can open and thought there not might not be something in it for him, rushes to the kitchen, only to be sorely disappointed.  I think he was hoping for creamed corn.

1:59 pm: Just finished two excellent grilled cheese sandwiches and a bowl of chili, the Excedrin has started to kick in, and I’m watching Brick, which TiVo kindly recommended.  Once this is over, I suspect I’ll have some energy to get up and moving, maybe even go for a walk or to the gym.  Maybe.  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

3:36 pm: Brick is over – good, but disturbing and sad.  Channel surfing has led to Yentl, right at the scene where Barbra Streisand reveals to Mandy Patankin that she’s a woman.  I saw this movie as a kid, and I didn’t understand how she ever passed for a man to begin with.  Still don’t.  Boobs!  Well, impliedly.  Mandy is PISSED.  Oh!  Babs confesses that she loves Mandy.  His heart is melting.  He’s just relieved to find out he’s not gay.  He loves her, too.  Make out session ensues.  Ok, just a chaste kiss, because Mandy all of a sudden remembers Babs’ wife!  Too bad I came in too late to see how she avoided consummating her marriage.  Now Mandy wants to marry Babs, but he wants her to give up her studying because women should keep house.  Babs is not having it.  Babs is leaving town, and leaving a note for her wife with Mandy.  This is the precursor of Berger dumping Carrie by Post-It, I think.  Now the final wave as they part, and in voice over, we see Mandy has taken up with Babs’ wife, and everyone seems to think this is grand.  Babs is on a boat, presumably headed for America, and wait – she’s singing!  Papa, can you hear me?  I don’t think so, honey, because it doesn’t even appear that the other people on the boat can hear you.  Try harder.

4:14 pm: Headache is mostly gone, but I’m exhausted.  I have my counseling appointment at 6, so I’m going to try to nap for 45 minutes and then get ready.

5:33 pm: Man, the nap knocked me out – it took me a while to fall asleep, and then I didn’t want to get up.  That always happens to me; I’m not really a nap person anymore, not like I was in college.  The shower did wonders, though, and I feel pretty good.  Now I’m off for my appointment, and so I must conclude the liveblogging of my sick day!  Thanks for joining me!

If I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out.  I’m not proud.
–Stephen King

I was thinking today about this game Aimee and I used to have, Zobmondo.  It’s basically Would You Rather in board game form.  The only question I remember more or less verbatim – because it grossed me out so much – is this one:

Would you rather chew a piece of gum that’s been stuck under the seat on a city bus or suck on a band-aid found in the shower drain at the YMCA?

So?  Which would YOU rather do (neither is not an option)?

I like my money right where I can see it: hanging in my closet.
— Carrie Bradshaw, on Sex and the City

(I know it’s late, but you didn’t think I’d let you down so early in this NaBloPoMo, did you?  I wouldn’t do that to you!  I’m probably going to let you down later in this NaBloPoMo, though.)

1. Aveda Rosemary Mint shampoo – this was the shampoo in our room at the Palms when we went to Las Vegas in January, and I fell in love with it.  It’s not overpowering at all, but it’s so refreshing and energizing.  David hunted it down when we got back and bought me a GIANT bottle of it.  (FYI: I didn’t like the matching conditioner – it didn’t seem to soak in well.)

2. Old Navy Slub-Knit Active Skirt – it’s too bad they only have XXL left online because I bought an XL one (which is a little too big, but they only had S besides that one) in the store that I live in on the weekends now and I would buy one in every color if I could.  So soft, so comfortable.  That’s summer.

3. Flutter Sleeve Scoopneck knit dress from Ann Taylor Loft – I bought this in purple a few months ago in anticipation of summer and it is perfect!  Breezy and flirty without being overtly sexy, and totally comfortable.

4. Waterpik Aqua Fall Combo showerhead – we just bought this yesterday from Bed Bath and Beyond to replace the shower head that’s in our bathroom.  This one is the bomb – I love the “drenching rain” setting on the big shower head.  Also, you can use both of them at the same time, and the handheld one sits up quite high, which is great for David who is too tall for most showers and has to duck uncomfortably to rinse his head.

5. Bed Lifts – ever since we moved into our new apartment, we’ve had one quibble with the master bedroom: the TV table is just a bit shorter than the foot of the bed, which means that when we lie in bed and watch TV, the bottom of the TV is sometimes cut off.  And if Pico decides to camp out at the foot of the bed, forget it – we can’t see half the screen.  And, we have to hold the remote at odd, uncomfortable angles to change the channel or turn the TV on and off because the cable box sits in a recess even lower down.  We’ve been debating various solutions and finally went with this one yesterday, and it’s worked out perfectly.  These lifts (meant to give you more storage space under a bed) raised the TV table 7 inches, which means the cable box is now easily accessible from a normally held remote and ALL of the TV is viewable from a comfortable reclined position.  WIN! (And these are wicked strong, too – we have a 32-inch CRT TV on top of a  TV table that Target tells me weighs 100+ pounds)

What about you?  What are you loving these days?

Things I’ve Bought That I Love (Original Recipe)

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.
— K.T. Jong

1. I can have peace and quiet whenever I like, simply by turning off my cochlear implant processor – this is particularly useful when a migraine strikes

2. Thunderstorms and other loud noises don’t wake me up in the middle of the night (and David’s snoring doesn’t bother me in the least!) because I can’t wear my processor to bed

3. My iPod brings the music right into my brain, via my processor, and makes me happy that I can still appreciate music I knew before I lost my hearing (and new music that I really work at getting to know)

4. I lost my hearing at the most opportune time in history – after the advent of the internet and text messaging – which has made communicating with others so much easier than it otherwise would be

5. It provides endless amusement when I repeat what I think someone said and it turns out that I was nowhere close to getting it right

6. I don’t use it often, but “the hearing impaired card” occasionally comes in handy, particularly with telemarketers who invariably immediately give up

7.  Being one of only about 150,000 or so people in the world who have cochlear implants

8. Reading lips, a skill I learned after losing the hearing in one ear as a kid and then perfected once I lost the hearing in the other ear, really comes in handy, especially when watching professional sports!

9. The experience of losing my hearing showed me just how much I was loved by the people in my life and allowed me to easily weed out the people who were not worth the energy I wasted crying over losing them

10. Living as a hearing impaired person who normally “passes” for a hearing person made me realize that everyone – literally every person I come across – struggles in his or her own way, whether or not the struggle is evident on a day-to-day basis

This list was, perhaps not surprisingly, much harder to come up with than the 10 bad things.  I’m glad I did it, though – reminds me of how lucky I still am.