Sick Again
That is the name of a Led Zeppelin song, as well as my current condition.
When my doctor handed me my prescription and said, “You may experience nausea with these,” I believed it as much as I believe the side-effects listing on any random bottle of pills.
Then, I went to work today and stuck around for about thirty minutes before having to pack back up and get the hell out of Dodge. New Contraceptive Nausea + Junior-High-Level Bloody Bathroom Accident + More Stressful than Usual Work Situation = Mandatory Sick Day, I’m afraid.
I am upset that I actually slept until 1 PM instead of driving to Harwin and buying 26 purses for $32.
Now it is 2 PM – almost time to go get my kids.
At the Movies Again
Don’t see The Brothers Grimm unless you really, really like Matt Damon, which I do, but it still wasn’t enough. The movie kind of sucked.
Me and my cousin Randy are quite the cut-ups when we get together. For instance, when we went to the movies a couple of weeks ago, they showed that Diet Coke commercial with the people on the seawall, roller-skating to Paul Oakenfold’s “Starry-Eyed Surprise”, okay? And Randy said he and I should bring roller skates to the theater next time, and when that commercial comes on, we should get up and start skating through the aisles and the rows between the seats. And I said we should also bring cans of Diet Coke and shake them side to side so that just a little soda splashes out, emulating the magic bubbles that are all over the commerical.
Every time I see that commercial now (and, believe me, they show it every freaking time), I think of Randy and me skating through the theater and laugh my ass off. And I lean over to my boyfriend and whisper an explanation of what’s so funny. And he doesn’t laugh, or only laughs politely. But I don’t mind. You have to be there when me and Randy are building our story arcs, if you want to understand. You have to be right there with us, sharing the hilarious shared hysteria.
Waiting, Waiting, Waiting Again
I feel good things on the horizon for myself, but first I have to wait a while. That’s always the way. I am the worst person you can know for enjoying good luck or happy endings. I mean that, by the time some good luck or a reward for hard work arrives, I have agonized about it so much that I can’t even enjoy it. That, plus I’m already agonizing about the next good thing that I’m trying to make happen.
People (friends) get on me about this. They call and say, “Hey Gwen oh my gosh! Have you celebrated your latest sprocket-forging yet? I can’t believe you forged another sprocket! Let’s go out and sing karaoke and get drunk on Mike’s Light*! And buy some purses at Harwin!”
And I’ll say, “No, dude. What? No way. Are you kidding me – I am such a freaking loser, I’m just sitting here trying to fill 1,000 sprocket orders before the weekend, and also I have plans for two more sprockets, but I’m such a lazy bastard, I haven’t even started on them yet. Oh my god, you guys. Don’t talk about the sprockets. I’m so behind… I’m such a loser. I’m never going to move my kids into a better place. I’m never going to get out of this hole I’m in. I have to work harder. How can I work harder than this? I’ve already failed!”
And then my friends slowly side-step away. And I don’t blame them. But, dude, seriously. I have a long way to go. I hate to celebrate before it’s time. Even if it never seems like it’s time. You know?
(* If you know where in the heck I can buy Mike’s Light in Houston anymore, please leave a comment and let me know. Not Mike’s Hard Lemonade or Mike’s Lime… not Mike’s Cranberry, but Mike’s Light. The low-carb one. I talked to the distributor, actually, so I know that it’s still being sold, albeit to limited markets. I just don’t know where. Help!)
Book Corner
I finally read The Poisonwood Bible. Everyone keeps saying they love that book so much.
In the middle of it, a bad thing happens. That bad thing upset me so much, when I read it, that I cried my ass off. (Which means that it was well written. Of course.)
After the bad thing, though, I stopped giving a shit about the remaining characters. One of them – the one I knew was supposed to be the heroine of the whole thing – actually pissed me off. I totally stopped caring about her and didn’t want to hear anymore about the stupid shit she was doing with her life.
Also, I didn’t get the vengeful, justice-filled resolution I’d wished upon other characters. So that sucked. The last ten chapters or so went by in an annoyed cloud for me.
I’m sure it’s still a good book, though. If you haven’t yet read it, you should. Just make sure you’re not PMS-ing, though, and that you have a little perspective on you when you do. It’s possible to suspend your disbelief too much, I suppose. I mean, I’m still pissed off about what happened in the middle of the book, as if it happened to someone I knew in real life. I guess that means it was a good book, huh?
Right now, in my continued observation of Catch Up On Books Your Friends Recommended, All of Which Happened to be Oprah’s Book Club Choices Week, I’m trying to read Memoirs of a Geisha. I kind of dislike it already, and I’m only on Chapter One.
Maybe I need to take a break. Maybe, after Poisonwood Bible, I still need time to heal.
