Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Staying home today. The vertigo progressed a little last night, but it was hard to tell because the drug they give you to treat this stuff (meclizine) is simply an antihistamine which, like benadryl, tends to knock you out. I’m convinced it only works because you’re not awake to tell whether or not you have the vertigo anymore.

This is likely just some viral bit of nastiness in the ear which will resolve itself in a week, according to my doc. Nonetheless, I have a reference to an ENT (ugh), so am trying to get an appointment with them. Scarily, the “muzak” for them when you’re on hold includes a man who sounds like a perky version of David Sedaris talking about facial plastic surgery to make you look younger. It’s more than a bit odd – David’s voice should never, ever be perky. Okay, muzak’s over, and appointment set up for Monday afternoon (during the Federal holiday? Hmph).

BC came over last night after dinner. Was good to have a body to grab (instead of just the bed) when I laid myself down and let the spins wash over me until my ears settled (if you ever wanted to see a lawyer/control freak have a near panic attack, yesterday was your chance). The freak-out aspect has calmed down some today, though. When you’re a bit of a control nut, having the world spin due to nothing you’ve done to or with yourself is more than a bit disconcerting. A nice chanting of “this will pass, this will pass” was ultimately helpful for getting through the shift in head position, kind of like reciting the litany against fear.

So, in the meantime it’s going to be mindless entertainment today while the brain adjusts to the meclizine. That or a lot of napping. And a trip to the polling place (which is, thankfully, literally right across the street from our front gate, so about a block to block and a half walk over there). Because through fall, fog or fire I will vote.

Okay, it’s still here, so I have an appointment with the doctor this afternoon. Whee!

No swim for me tonight, it seems. I just hope this doesn’t mean I get to add yet another specialist (Ear, Nose and Throat, or ENT) to my list of doctors (orthopedist, podiatrist, opthalmologist, neurologist, etc.). I’ve managed not to have to visit an ENT since I was in elementary school (multiple sets of tubes from recurrent ear infections) and I’m getting tired of adding to the list.

Plus this puts a major damper on training. And has BC worried since I called to tell him I was going to the doc, which just all around sucks gorilla butt.

Nothing like an attack of vertigo to start off your day on the right foot.

Woke up, swung my legs over and sat up, per the usual routine, and whammo! Felt like I was still drunk from the night before. Which would be fine if I had actually been drinking the night before, but I hadn’t. Not a pleasant sensation, but it did fade fairly quickly and I cautiously went about my morning. Had one more ‘relapse’ when I laid down on the floor to do some ab exercises while waiting for BC in the shower, but none since (maybe the usual sudafed dose kicked in and dried out the ears? who knows…).

Will test myself again before I go swimming tonight – definitely not into drowning, and I suspect an attack of vertigo in the water would be pretty damned terrifying.

• Went dancing last night. First time in years (literally). Had a friend ask BC if he had known I could dance. His response: “Oh course; I’ve slept with him.”
• Saw Rambo this past week. The highlight: a trailer for Midnight Meat Train. The trailer was all serious, looked good, Wes Craven, etc., then they announced the title in this deep, serious voice. I about spit out the water I was drinking. So going to see it when it’s out.
• Brunch sometime around 3 this afternoon, after recovering from last night. Dragged Brian out for it, and was good to see him.
• Busy, busy at work. Not sure that there’s an end in sight for any of it, but I’ll just keep slogging through it.
• Did a sample swatch of stockinette stitch (finally taught myself to purl yesterday), and learned how to bind off the swatches. I need to go get a needle so I can weave in the ends. That and drag BC to Stitch to pick out some thread for a scarf. Which will be a good excuse to pick up more needles, too, since the pattern calls for a circular needle (I know, it’s not strictly necessary, but hey, why not?).
• And with that, it’s crash time

Back to the training grind this morning. Short run before work, and a short swim this evening. Felt good to get back in the pool, but I definitely need to work on drills again – my form started to fade too quickly as the swim went on. I did do some limited drills among the laps, but I need to look back at my materials to refresh my memory on them.

Oh, and training 2x a day = getting home to my body screaming “FOOD!” It’s a good thing I went to the farmers’ market on Sunday.

Work was … work. Thought a particular crisis was going to come to a head, but no calls, so I assume we’re still in a holding pattern there. I’m feeling somewhat unmotivated, but I suspect that’s the decaffeination talking.

Bike ride planned for the morning, and I hear I’m going to see the new Rambo movie tomorrow evening with BC. Promises to be a real stinker, which should be nicely amusing.

I decided to give up caffeine again because it was affecting my sleep, which in turn was screwing with my training. Today was day two, and I warned BC that I might get a bit testy in a week or so. So far, so good, no headaches, sleeping better, all good.

I have, however, been extra-snarky. Like, really, really overly sarcastic at every little thing. Poor BC got to see a lot of it this weekend as we watched TV and I did a complete snark-a-thon at pretty much every show. Not quite what I was intending when giving up caffeine (New and Improved! Now with extra Snark!), and hopefully it’ll pass shortly as my system gets used to the change. Until then I suppose I’m going to have to watch my tongue more than usual.

We should have this “Superbowl” thing more often. I just went to the grocery store and it was dead. I mean, a dozen people in the entire store including all of the employees. Dead. And, on the way there, I literally so no one on the streets, no cars, no nothing, until I got to the grocery store parking lot. Wild.

The day started early with a volunteer stint down at Hains Point with the tri club. They were running a 5k and 10k, so I helped hand out numbers and what not. Then BC and I met a friend in Dupont at the farmers’ market for shopping and lunch.

Since I don’t do the football thing, and BC was headed out to a superbowl party, I instead did a little needed shopping, picking up moisturizer & hand lotion at the mall. Also picked up a couple balls of yarn to knit samplers with (lighter than dark brown, thank heavens) since they were having a sale at the local place. Then I picked up The Orange Box for the Xbox so I could play Portal. Let me just say, GLaDOS is one twisted computer. Love her. Didn’t take long to finish the game, but that was quite fun. No health, no weaponry, just getting from here to there. And, of course, cake.

Quiet rest of the night planned with some volunteer work, and then perhaps some more gaming of some sort.

After spending several hours reviewing a document just to find out that the office who sent it up for review couldn’t actually make any of the changes we sent back, I was more than a tad pissed as I left work this evening. Walked home (no buses convenient when I was near a stop), made some dinner, pigged out on some soy ice cream (better than drinking), and popped down for more knitting. Managed to add several inches of knit stitch to the thing as I cleared out stuff on the TiVo. It was mostly calming, and I feel a little bit better, but it’s going to be hard not to go in tomorrow and want to bite someone’s head off over wasting several hours of my time which could have been better spent doing work that actually needed to be done.

In other news, work actually gave me a choice of blackberries, which is both gratifying and annoying. Gratifying because I won’t get one of the ancient, leftover ones from someone else. Annoying because I have to choose and I know nothing about the devices. If anyone has a reason why I should go with either an 8800 series or an 8300 series model, let me know, otherwise I’m just going to tell them 8800 series.

I’m also missing BC. We moved a date originally scheduled for yesterday to tomorrow, and I’m feeling withdrawal. Hopefully our schedules will better match for it then.

The SOTU was a good excuse to sit still and knit for a while – listen to the speech, but not watch the goings on. I got several rows done on a new swatch, all knit stitch (I’ve still not braved purl yet), and I’m happy with how evenly it’s coming out this time. It helps that I cast on only 30 stitches rather than 42 – the needles aren’t really big enough for 42 – so it’s nice and even this time. It’ll either be a scarf or a pot holder, we’ll see. Depends on how often I can sit down with it in the evenings, and how bored I get.

Still don’t have the whole “how to hold the thread in the right hand” thing down yet – I keep twisting it too tightly around my index finger. Will have to get my friend TH to show me how she holds the stuff. Or learn continental style. Who knows. I’ll get it eventually, I know.

Interesting speech for some of the stuff he addressed. The earmarks portion (the reason I watched, actually, since it has a bearing on my practice area) will be an interesting change, and is going to cause a lot of headaches with Congress (who will find a way to earmark funds, even outside the official committee reports, trust me). It’ll certainly keep my BGA’s government relations people busy. I suspect those same folks will be culling quotes from tonight’s speech for a letter we have to finalize tomorrow morning as well. Makes me glad I don’t have my work blackberry just yet.

It is, of course, too little too late. Earmarks rose precipitously under the last term of (R) control of the Congress, and while they’ve come down some, they’re still pretty high. Not that (R)s alone are to blame – (D)s earmark plenty, too. Not sure of the solution, past taking the measures he’s going to put into place – an executive order signed tomorrow to ignore these extra-legal set-asides is a good start. Weaning Congress completely off pork, however, is going to be an uphill battle.

Got my heel shot up this morning with cortizone, to counteract the plantar faciitis I’m dealing with off and on. The night brace is helping, but I got to a point where I finally agreed with the doctor that a shot was called for. We’ll see how that does. I want this stuff done with, it’s not comfortable at all.

BC seemed shocked when I told him, “Why yes, I do own that lovely red & black Nasty Pig jock that you sent me the link to, and it’s quite nice.” I think he thought he’d seen the entirety of my toy/play clothes collection. Silly man.