Thursday, October 07, 2010

This Post Brought to You by Benadryl

The plague seems to have returned and mutated. I pretty much bought the pharmacy at Target the other day, and now I have different symptoms that require the medications I didn't buy. I was rather surprised that I had to show ID to buy Robitussin. Apparently, that's one of the drugs that can be cooked into some kind of drug cocktail that gives you a buzz. I offered to cough for the clerk to prove I really needed it. I can't imagine getting high off that stuff. For one thing, it's nasty, and for another, the only high I get from it is the blessed respite from coughing. But on the upside, I only had one middle-of-the-night coughing fit last night, and it didn't come until 4:30 in the morning, so I almost got a whole night of uninterrupted sleep. Woo hoo. I'm practically well.

I don't know if it's related to the plague or to all the cold/allergy drugs, but I seem to have been living in simultaneous parallel timelines lately. Twice in the last couple of days I've discovered answering machine messages referring to the need to talk to me about something, from someone I had actually talked to about that thing at about the time stamp on the message. It's like there's a timeline where I did answer the phone and we had the conversation and a timeline where I didn't and the person left a message, and the messages are spilling over into the timeline where I answered the phone. Or I suppose the people could have called me in the very brief times when I was at the mailbox, taking the trash out or taking a shower and then they called back right away and then I didn't notice the message until later, but where's the fun in that? At any rate, it's disconcerting to realize I have a message and then find that it's from someone who needs to talk about something that we did talk about already.

I've been working on plotting a story idea, and I thought I was being easily distracted and wasting time yesterday because I was working at my desk instead of disconnecting from the Internet, and I kept thinking of things I needed to look up, which then devolved into web surfing until I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. But then when I went back to work on the synopsis, I'd have an idea that was even more fun and crazy than the direction I'd been going before I got sidetracked, so maybe it was my creative process at work. And then when I was on my way to choir (I can't sing right now, but we have to have two adults in the room at all times with the kindergardeners, and I figured I might as well stay for at least the first part of the adult choir rehearsal so I'll know what we're doing Sunday in case I can sing then), I came up with an idea that was so much fun that I was cackling with glee and saying "Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh!" the rest of the way there. It still sounded good this morning and now I'm excited. I may disconnect from the Internet to really focus today. And if this book gets published, I should probably get a sponsorship from Benadryl: "This plot brought to you by Benadryl. Literally."

Finally, I have finally had success on the shoe shopping front. They weren't exactly what I wanted, but they met most of my requirements and were on sale. I'm almost ashamed to admit that this success came at Payless, but hey, it was the only place that had something like this. The current style of flats all have that sort of exaggerated rounded toe that looks like it should be more comfortable than the pointy toes, but the shoe is cut so low at the toe that it gives this Minnie Mouse look, or else makes you look like the ugly stepsister trying to squeeze your foot into Cinderella's slipper, like the shoe is totally out of proportion to the foot. But worse, it makes the edge of the shoe cut right across the big toe "knuckle," and that hurts. I kept trying on shoes that looked like they should be comfortable, only to find them painful right away. But now I have very low-heeled black semi-dressy shoes that aren't falling apart and that don't hurt, and they may hold me until styles change again.

Now time for more drugs and more liquids. I have a library event this weekend, so I'm hoping to get back to semi-normal, or at least able to talk, by then.

No comments: