No, this is not Theñor Gometh from Barthelona, and unless he's hiding under my bed, you have the wrong room. -- Victor Victoria
Not so long ago, Pharmacies were pulling drugs from the shelves that contained pseudoephedrine because some morons were making Meth out of it. Well, drug companies are now starting to sell cold meds with alternative decongestants in them which I guess can't be used in the same way to make illegal drugs. This makes me very happy.
You see, I never really liked pseudoephedrine. It makes me jittery and keeps me awake. I can't even nap when I take it consistently, and it used to be that I couldn't find a good cold med that didn't have it. Enter Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom. [Insert angelic 'ahs' here] This stuff is the best. It has a different decongestant AND a different antihistamine, as well as cough suppresant and pain killer. All the stuff I need, in a PILL and not some vile liquid, and it lets me sleep like a rock.
Thank you, meth-heads of the world, for forcing drug companies to think again. May your overdoses kill you swiftly and euphorically.
The test went very well. We got the results we were hoping for: a reconfirmation of L5-S1 and negative on L4-L5. It was just as painful as I remember, but this time they gave me a good shot of post-test pain meds so I'm doing a little better than last time. Dr. M also said he thought that Dr. S wouldn't have had me go through this test if he didn't think I was going to be a candidate for the surgery, so I'm pretty much a go at this point. Now all I have to do is see Dr. S again and set a date. Soon the 15 years of back pain will be at an end, and that's one helluva Yule present if you ask me. Thanks for the support and healing energy everyone.
So, I was very close to changing Doctors yesterday. I arrived at 3:20p for a 3:30p appointment, signed in and sat down. Around 5pm, they finally called my name. The nurse took my blood pressure, and it was 164/113. Think I was a little upset?
Anyway, I'll spare you the details, but the end of the story is that I have to get another discogram (and no, that doesn't involve platform shoes or sequins). It's a rather painful test in which, under only local anesthetic, they stick a long needle into the disc they suspect they is causing my back pain, inject saline, and attempt to cause the kind of pain I normally experience when my back is 'out.' Then they are doing the one above it as well, just to be sure. If I get pain, then the test is positive at that level. If there's no pain, it's negative.
The last time I had this done about 5 years ago, I couldn't walk for two days afterward. The test is this Thursday at about 8:30am. Send some healing vibes if you can.
So, my sister told me about 'manifesting' -- a method of essentially telling the Universe what you want to happen on a given day instead of letting things just happen. I've used it MANY times now, and only rarely does it fail me. (I use the term 'fail' loosely -- who's to say that my days wouldn't have been much worse had I not used this technique?) I still do it though, because it works more often than not, and I put my own Pagan 'times three' twist on it because frankly I'm a little OCD. I hope you'll join me in chanting in favor of Rob's interview today:
I take this time to manifest a lucrative job for Rob
I take this time to manifest a lucrative job for Rob
I take this time to manifest a lucrative job for Rob
Namaste,
Ian
Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you don't see an erection, make him a sandwich.
So my aunt had a temporary port for her medication put in. They choose to exit the port from her neck, which is understandably uncomfortable. As expected, the initial dosing of the medication was hell -- first redness, then nausea, then sleep. Apparently some other woman on it stopped by to reassure her that it does get better, but I know how hard it is to see past the initial discomfort.
Please continue to send her good energy -- she still needs it!
So, it seems like the time for it.
My aunt in Ohio is going under the knife to get a heart catheter put in so she can be treated for pulmonary hypertention today most likely. PH is a rare disorder in which the blood pressure in the artery going to the lungs is abnormally high. Since gas exchange is pressure-differential dependent, the increase in blood pressure means less oxygen makes it in, and less carbon dioxide makes it out. In short, it's slow, progressive suffocation. Send her some positive thoughts and prayers if you can.
I'm also talking to my spine docs about getting this pesky L5/S1 disc replaced. I'm opting for this surgery for a number of reasons, but chiefly because it's not fusion and its recovery time is a fraction of other surgeries. Hopefully, it will give me back my life. 15 years is a long time to be in pain. Wish me luck.
So, I'm feeling a bit "blah" today. Nothing I can't handle, but I hate feeling like this. Computer, run program "find a happy place..."
I'm backing up my hard drive as I wait for our gaming friends to show up. I'm going to install Vista on my laptop and get used to the feel of it. It should be interesting to see how this HOG of an OS runs on my little Dell Latitude X1. I expect to have to go back to the Win2000 interface just to be able to open the Start menu. I hope not though.
Canada and the SIGUCCS conference was a blast. I love it there, cold, snow and all. I stayed at the Fantasyland Hotel, which is attached to the West Edmonton Mall. It's a magical place with a pirate ship, sea lions, an ice skating rink, an indoor beach/water park, a defunct 20,000 Leagues-like submarine ride. Ok, that last bit isn't so magical, but the rest is just... Wow. Oh, and there's a million stores, two movie theaters and an IMAX too.
The conference was basically a bunch of IT people getting together to talk about how other Universities and Colleges do things, and what we can all do to make things better. I got a lot of good ideas, and my boss was very agreeable to putting them all into action ASAP. Now I have to do the prepwork. Lots and lots and lots of prepwork. Wait... I just created a mountain of crap to do for myself... What a goober!! Oh well. It's resume-building stuff.
Anyway, things are going ok for the moment, and with a new-found sense of purpose and direction, I am finally looking forward to work for the first time in a long while. Wish me luck.
Why can't I find a choral group to sing with whose board / artistic director that doesn't have its head up its ass?
No, I'm not a marketing guru. I have never taken so much as a single marketing class. There are, however, a few basic tenets that these people seem to be oblivious to:
First, know yourself. Know your limits, know what you're good at, and know that no matter how hard you reject putting the word "gay" in Indianapolis [Gay] Men's Chorus, THE WORLD KNOWS YOU'RE A BUNCH OF FAGS. And even if they don't, it's still universally funny to see men you think are straight acting gay. Just watch Mrs. Doubtfire if you don't believe me.
Second, know your audience. What do they like? What kinds of music do they go to a concert expecting to hear (from a bunch of GAY MEN)? At your most attended concerts, what kind of music was sung? How were those concerts advertised? NONE of this has been researched formally.
Third, know that the people singing are PAYING and VOLUNTEERING to participate. The music has to be just as much fun to sing and perform as it is to watch. If you don't have the time to research and teach the people singing the words, meaning, and PROPER pronunciation of your favorite 13th Century Christmas Carol, don't ask them to sing it. It's hard enough to put both quality and emotion into songs they understand, let alone asking them to do it in German, French, Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew. [insert dramatic foreshadowing music here]
Finally, there's a formula I concocted a long time ago that has yet to be proven wrong. It consists of a triad of three items: Quality, Quantity, and Choreography. In any given concert you can pick only two, and Quality has to be one of them or you might as well not sing because your audience will disappear like smoke at intermission (if they wait that long) and so will your future ticket sales. Consider also that in a group of 50-80 men, a fair to large portion will suffer from an alffliction discovered by my dear brother Roy: Classic White-boy Rhythmic Disfunction Syndrome. In a group of 50 men, about 5 will have three left feet, and will equate the term "jazz hands" with "epileptic seizure." Your choices, then, should be clear. Now that you've chosen, go back and examine the questions in part two.
I'm so frustrated right now I could spit. It's a good thing I have a loving husband who brings me chocolate milk and a classic video game to distract me.
