Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Thursday, January 20, 2005

The early bird catches the filing cabinet

Listening to: Evanescence, Fallen

Last night D and I had Girls' Night Out by going to Joe Bologna's and then over to Starbucks for a game of Othello (we would have played Clue, but you need three players). For the first four months of her pregnancy, she really wasn't up to socialising, so it was really great to just hang out, brainstorm, and interact.

Once I got home, around 8:30, I just crashed. I probably had too much carbs in one sitting--the manicotti and breadstick were wonderful and I actually passed up the homemade carrot cake, but it was still too much. I slept until a friend called for a ride about midnight, then came back and slept more, until about 4:30 am, at which point I was wide awake and bushy-tailed. I got all the recycleables into the car, took out the trash, did some household chores. When I went to the Dumpster I found a two-drawer filing cabinet in good condition nearby. I don't Dumpster-dive per se, but if someone sets out furniture on the street or near the Dumpster (in the case of my apartment complex), then I'll consider it. I managed to get that back in and then around 6 went back to sleep, having thoroughly placated the organisation gods. Still, I should have stayed up, as I almost overslept (woke up at 9:30, still got to work on time, thank you).

Organisation continued at work; I was very productive, got several bills paid, finished one big project and started my 2005 office purge. I ran out at lunchtime, put in my paycheque and found that my rent had gone through okay, got out what else I needed for the week, and had Gumbo Ya-Ya's copanata (eggplant in tomato sauce) for lunch.

After work I went to my psychiatrist appointment. The new medicine has been useful so she wrote me a script for 1.5 mg and upped my Paxil to 80 mg. 80! There goes my days of 30 or 40 mg. But I have to admit, the higher dose helped. Apparently a lot of my concentration issues are actually OCD related (what I call spinning head syndrome). As an extra bonus, my emotions feel completely normal--not sedated, not bonkers. Yay. We talked a little more about my father and some of my early homelife, and I go back in two weeks. At that point I think I'll ask her to recommend a therapist, since she'll have a better sense of what I need.

Then it was off to the station to publish a directory of edits I'd made. What a day! And to be honest, I'm still going.

Getting my meds right is crucial because in the summer I'm going to start classes at Lexington Community College majoring in Computer Technology and Information Management/Design. The first is programming, networking, hardware, that sort of thing. The second includes library stuff for training paraprofessionals (obviously I'll skip that), but includes graphic and web design. The idea is to increase my marketability drastically, and with any luck I'll transfer/test out of a lot, so I might be able to finish within a year. I'm going to have to review my calculus, since it's been (gulp) 20 years since I last took a derivative of anything. I'm checking with some of the people at work to see if I can borrow a recent textbook...the only one I have is my dad's, from 1964...I very nearly burnt mine but couldn't bring myself to destroy a book. I did sell that puppy at a loss, though, and thought I'd washed my hands of it forever. But I'm actually looking forward to doing math, coding, and tech stuff again.

Well, that's all for now...signing off.

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