Monday, December 16, 2013

You Must Miss Me. Sure, You Do. How Could You Not?

Seriously, one mammoth paper every few days is about as much as I can intellectually/mentally handle without going cuckoo, so the last paper due will have to wait until tomorrow, so that by the time I go out for my Christmas with Meg! on Wednesday night, I can be free-wheeling until I have to go back to school on January 6th. Of course, I have to touch base with my new internship supervisor before the holidays, but that ain't happening today. This last paper is hard, and a pain in the ass, but I'm still well within my accommodation to take my time with it for another few days. I think I have until Thursday, as a matter of fact. Reserachy research, over which I picked a shitty topic and can't compose a single lucid thought. Friday's 15 page paper in 4 hours was a manic triumph (if I don't fail it) and yesterday's 6-pager in about 2 hours was reasonable (note: I had done most of the background work on it).

(Attn Pandora: You are STILL GROSSLY OVERESTIMATING my interest in Johnny Cash.)



I woke up last night at 1:30 am and stayed up until 5:30 am, slept another hour and a half and then had to take Luke to school. He said my driving left something to be desired, and I almost ran over Pastor Dave in the parking lot, but I got the sprite to school on time IN my duckie footie jammies and promptly went back to sleep until 12:30 pm. I did NOT awaken refreshed. I was downtrodden after a couple of days of mania (I got a 15-page paper done in 4 hours on Friday, and another major one done yesterday afternoon, leaving one more paper to write.) I guess I'm mixed-mooding, because today I feel rather depressive whereas I had a ton of energy this weekend. I even managed to take Luke Christmas shopping last night after dinner.

Last night was a trip. Very was taking requests of 4-line glibs to turn into songs, and she did one about a remark I made about trying to be like a cheetah but ending up like a spraying skunk. I talked to Rob for a while on the Isle of Wight, who was "chipper" despite having a long night himself, and someone from the medical practice was on the blog at midnight watching the "Go Tell It on the Mountain" video (I have a reasonable guess who it was, which cracks me up). I think he really would've enjoyed this one better--definitely on my top 5 favorite versions of, well, anything:


If I laid down now, I could sleep another 4 hours at least. But I have my ever-caring mother asking me, "What's WRONG with you?" I said, "I'm exhausted." She argued that she thought the Risperdal I was put on 2 months ago was supposed to regulate my sleep patterns. Well, guess what? Not only did it not work, the side effects I'm dealing with are debilitating. I'm puffed up like a blowfish. Even my skinny little narrow feet are swollen to the point I fear I have gone into congestive heart failure, which'd be a Guy issue to manage, but I don't want to bother him with my medical problems (uh, though he is my doctor). Frankly, I'd rather snuggle.

I don't see the psychiatrist until next Monday. In the meantime, I'm tapering myself off the Risperdal. I also am lowering the dose of the original antipsychotic, Geodon, to twice instead of 3 times a day and when I wake up, am flying full-force into yoga, because this is just ridiculous. I'd rather be skinny and crazy than heavy and stable. The trade off is worth it to me. Aren't you glad? Consider it a public service.



Fast forward 3 hours. I napped from 4:30-6:00 and awakened to have a bowl of chili & some tea w/my mom, who didn't bitch at me, other than to say she was "surprised" I woke up to eat dinner. I was a little off the time/space continuum when I woke up, but I did pull myself together. I'm so stuffed up and itchy I feel like my mom's got a secret poinsettia somewhere in the house, to which I'm deathly allergic.

I hope Guy can be coerced to come out and meet Meg and I on Wednesday night. I'll bring along his Christmas presents just in case and no, I hardly feel he'll be remotely ready with whatever it is he is or isn't getting me this year. I told him all I wanted in the first place was a day at Chicago's Art Institute with him sometime this winter. I want to walk around looking at art with him. Sigh. I miss him SO much.


 I'd be remiss not to mention BMF's really beautiful Christmas gift which arrived the other day. It was on  leather cord, which was kind of a choker and plus won't hold up well in the shower, so I put this gorgeous sterling OM pendant next to my late Gram's cross on my dad's gold chain. I'm out being bi-religious, ack! It's really purdy, BMF. Well played. Thanks again. I love you.


Speaking of Hinduism, my newly Lutheran confirmed son was listening to the George Harrison early takes CD with me in the car Christmas shopping last night, and he really seemed to get into this one, which is admittedly a funky favorite, "Awaiting On You All":



Luke asked me WHY there were early takes of songs and why they didn't just auto-tune everyone and overdub all the music so it sounded perfect on the first take. Silly boy doesn't understand artists--real musicians who played on real instrument with their real voices had to go through dozens of takes to get a song "just right." There was no such thing as auto-tune when George Harrison was making "All Things Must Pass," and even though it'd been invented before he died, he insisted on doing all of his recording on analog, not digitally, and seeing where things went from there. Good stuff.



4 comments:

BMF said...

I'm really glad you like your OM, Annie. I agree that it looks better on your necklace than on the leather cord and you're right, that would wear in time. It looks cool next to your cross. I'll bet your family is thrilled! Like I said, I picked it up in Asia, so it's doubly authentic! :)

For the record, you're beautiful and sexy no matter if you've gained weight or not. I know medications wreak havoc on your system, especially psych drugs. Don't do too many drastic dose changes without talking to your doctor first. You don't want any more scary side effects, or seizures or anything. You'll be back to your fighting weight in no time....in the meantime, watch your diet, eliminate what drugs you can and still be not totally crazy and DO YOGA!!!!

xoxo

BMF said...

PS--I really like those Harrison demos myself and have that CD too. AS far as audio-tune is concerned, admittedly we've used it on a few songs in which our vocalist, um, sounded less than on-key despite numerous takes. It' generally used to make a really shitty singer sound like a superstar, and is used in contemporary pop more than anything.

But overall, no, we still do it old-school, except most of our stuff IS done digitally or by using computers these days. I know it takes some of the warmth out, let's say, of recording, but it' much faster and less harrowing. I totally respect GH's desire not to use advanced technology, and he'd be amazed if he were still alive at how "music" is recorded in a studio these days. His ashes are rolling around in the Ganges, I'm sure.

VHM said...

Ahhhh yes!! I love that Christmas tune by U2! I think it was on a compilation album for Christmas songs. Boom! Got it! Great compilation. Back when I worked at Blockbuster Music in Arlington Heights when I was but a wee lass, we played this one in heavy rotation the season I was there.

https://www.murfie.com/albums/various-artists-a-very-special-christmas?mktsrc=pla&gclid=CJ2zs4OVwbsCFYN_QgodMQIAig

Good times.

The Offbeat Drummer said...

Yeah, it was on "A Very Special Christmas," benefiting the Special Olympics or something. There were some awesome tunes on that first compilation (they'd go on to do a few more, but they weren't as good). Another stand-out from this album was Sting's "Gabriel's Message." That song just gives me chills.