Bit of Ivory

I’ve decided that I need to update more. At first I thought of posting every single day, but then I realized that the main reason I haven’t been posting much lately is that my life has become incredibly boring. I figured you didn’t want to read about how I got up, went to work, went home, and failed to get stuff done on my thesis every day. So I decided that once a week is a much more reasonable goal, and much less annoying for my loyal flist. If I have anyone left.

I’ve been feeling kinda weird lately. I woke up on Monday morning with my ears plugged– you know, the pressure thing that you get on airplanes and such, or when you have a bad cold. Except neither of those things had occurred, and there was no pain involved, just pressure. So, I took the only decongestant we had on hand that didn’t also include cough suppressant and/or pain relievers, which happened to be Mucinex. Then I went to work. Stopped at my usual 7-11 for my usual hot chocolate, and got a Nature Valley Sweet & Salty bar (almond) to go along with it. Well, I don’t know if it was a reaction to the Mucinex, or a lack of eating enough breakfast to go with said Mucinex, or if it was just the pressure on my inner ear, but right at lunch time I suddenly got horribly dizzy. And weak. And the dizziness made me sick to my stomach. And I thought I’d better eat something, so I drove my dad’s Prius (which he’s been able to loan to me this week while he’s off work and Lizzy’s still in the shop) to the closest place to get food that I could think of, which happened to be a grocery store (that also has a dang good deli– their sub sandwiches are a thing of beauty and a joy forever). But I found that I was too dizzy to stand in line to have a sandwich made, and none of the pre-packaged deli stuff looked at all appealing, due to my nausea. So I did the only thing I could think of– I bought a bottle of Power-ade and sat down in the bistro to drink it, hoping that whatever they put in it to help athletes would help me.

It didn’t, particularly. At least, not at first. So I got back in the car and called my mom. I was feeling really ill by this point– like I’d just touched down after a ride-along in an F-16 during a Thunderbirds performance. I really needed to lay down, but I knew I could drive all the way home. We decided I’d try to make it back to work and see if Kim (who covers me for lunch) would be okay with covering the rest of the day. Then she and dad would come pick me up. Luckily, Kim managed to work it out, and I got home and collapsed on the sofa. A nap helped a little (although I think it was more the fact that I was laying down), and some Sudafed helped a bit more, and food helped, too. But I still wasn’t feeling a hundred percent, and I couldn’t be vertical without being a bit dizzy.

Yesterday I made it through work, but still spent almost the whole evening horizontal. The pressure was gone, but the dizziness was still there, a bit. And today, the pressure is back, and I can feel the dizziness coming on again. I took Sudafed this morning, but haven’t noticed an appreciable difference. I did eat more for breakfast, though (two pieces of multigrain toast and a banana in addition to my hot chocolate), so I hope I don’t have a complete repeat of Monday. If this keeps up, I may end up at Instacare after work.

So there’s a guy standing here at my desk filling out an application. Even if we were hiring right now, which we’re not really except for one particular job for which he’s definitely not qualified, he wouldn’t be getting hired at our place. First off, he just walked in and asked for an application. When I asked what job he was applying for, he said “any job.” Umm, yeah. And then he asked if we and the hospital across the street are the same. No. Way to be informed about the company you’re applying for, dude. And then, when I gave him the application, he stood at my desk instead of grabbing a magazine from the seating area to my left to use as a writing surface. And then he started to sing along to the music. I guess I should be impressed at his knowledge of Oldies, but I wasn’t. And then he talked about how he’s probably going to move away anyway, because there aren’t any jobs here. Except, of course, that Utah has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, to the point where there are many more jobs than available workers. I doubt the same is true in Massachusetts and North Carolina (although I can’t be fussed to look it up. I might be wrong). He just handed me the app. In the “position applied for” space, he put “warehouse.” Yeah. We’re a medical facility. And then he came back and asked for a card, which made it abundantly clear that he’s just walking up and down the street, filing applications in any place that will let him, so that he can qualify for unemployment.

I’m tempted to just throw this away. I don’t even know who to give it to, honestly.

It was snowing this morning, but as I don’t have any windows, I can’t tell if it still is. We’ve been getting a storm pretty much every other day ’round here, although the weather report this morning said that after another storm on Friday we should be getting a high pressure that’ll keep the storms at bay for a bit. It’s been kind of nice– I can’t remember how long it’s been since we’ve consistently had snow on the ground for several weeks at a time. Part of that is because it’s been so dang cold the snow won’t melt, but still– it’s more like the winters I remember from my childhood, rather than the drought-type winters we’ve had recently.

I wonder if I scrimp and save and don’t buy any new yarn this year (I really have quite a few projects waiting, with the yarn already purchased) if I could afford to go to England. I’ve wanted to go for ages, but I have a new inducement– David Tennant will be playing Hamlet this summer and fall with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The fact that Patrick Stewart will be playing Claudius is an additional temptation. I desperately want to compare David Tennant with Brian Vaughn. I wonder how he’ll stack up.