Things I am doing today instead of writing my post

- Getting my hair cut (Finally! Big huge thanks to SisterJ, who, I'm assured would not make me look ridiculous.)

- Taking a shower, and then having a shower coma, because of all those little hairs

- Watching the rest of my West Wing marathon on Tivo. Tivo loves me, mostly. And I definitely love him.

- Mourning over the fact that we can't have President Josiah Edward (aka Jed) Bartlett, because if Josh, Toby, Sam & CJ were there, I would feel so reassured about the state of the country.

- Wishing Aaron Sorkin would write another TV show. Also, PS ---> I actually liked Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip for all its flaws. And, although I save my Sports Night DVDs for times when I am feeling particularly crappy, I'm considering breaking them out again.

- Wishing I felt like scrapping, as The Clump (of birthdays) is getting underway & I haven't finished the next three people's scrapbook pages yet.

- Telling lies in my list post: It isn't that I haven't finished them, it's that I haven't really started 2 of the next 4. And that I never finished SisterK's, even though I'm giving them to her as is, anyway. There's plenty, and I'm 'saving' the rest of this year's pictures till next year, that's all.

- Cursing the PUS who vacuumed during my shower coma, which was definitely not appreciated.

- Focusing on my frozen, ice cube feet, which will not warm up.

- Editing a thousand, zillion pictures, because that is the next, necessary step towards scrapbooking. Only I'm not editing those pictures. I'm editing the Halloween pictures so I have something to post tomorrow. And also, because I don't want to look at those other pictures ANY MORE.

- Searching for West Wing quotes to pepper this post with. Prepare to sneeze:

Toby: It's not so much that you cheat sir, its how brazenly bad you are it.
Bartlet: Give me an example.
Toby: In Florida, playing mixed doubles with me and C.J., you tried to tell us your partner worked at the American Consulate in Vienna.
Bartlet: She did.
Toby: It was Steffi Graf, sir!
Bartlet: I'll admit the woman bore a striking resemblance to her.
Toby: You crazy lunatic, you think I'm not going to recognize Steffi Graf when she's serving a tennis ball at me?

Mrs. Landingham: How are you, Josh?

Josh: I've been subpoenaed.

Mrs. Landingham: Oh, I'm sorry, dear. Would you like a cookie?

Bartlet: We meant 'stronger' here, right?
Sam: What does it say?
Bartlet: I'm proud to report our country's stranger than it was a year ago?
Sam: That's a typo.
Bartlet: Could go either way.

---

Josh: I denied it for half an hour, they wouldn't take no for an answer!

Bartlet: You were clear?

Josh: I was crystal clear! They said, "Do you think that, if the President has a plan to fight inflation, it's right that he keep it a secret?" I said, of course not!

Bartlet: Are you telling me that not only did you invent a secret plan to fight inflation, but now you don't support it?

Jeff Breckenridge: You got a dollar?
Josh: Yeah.
Jeff Breckenridge: Take it out. Look at the back. The seal, the pyramid, it's unfinished, with the eye of God looking over it, and the words annuit coeptis - he, God, favors our undertaking. The seal is meant to be unfinished, because this country's meant to be unfinished. We're meant to keep doing better. We're meant to keep discussing and debating. And, we're meant to read books by great historical scholars and then talk about them...

Bartlet: "We hold these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that all men are created equal." Strange as it may seem, that was the first time in history that anyone had ever bothered to write that down. Decisions are made by those who show up.

How to feel semi-human

Take a shower. Seriously, if I told you how long it had been since I had a real shower, you would stop hanging out with me. I got washed and everything, but the grease in my hair could probably have been mined. (I might've been rich! What was I thinking, getting rid of it? Also, is it mining when it's oil? It's something... crap, not as human as I'd like to be apparently.)

And then I had a nice shower coma, even if it was in the parlor.

And now I'm going to eat food, take pills, and attack a list. It better beware! LISTS: BE WARNED!

Here I am!

Two days in a row, even. Can you believe it?

Except very little happened today, and I wasn't sure what I could tell you about. But then, I took a shower. And, showering, by necessity has turned into someting intersting:


It is both torture and treat at the same time.


First, a little background about our bathroom. We live in a very old house: the bathroom door is not wide enough for the wheelchair, so I can't get in or out on my own. It's a small little room, so even if it fit through the doorway, there'd be no room for it to actually move. We have a claw foot tub, which, while beautiful, requires climbing in and out of. I cannot climb. I (obviously) can't stand, so I use a showerchair. Showering stopped being a solo effort for me about 10 years ago. And it is a challenge I am not always up for.


And the actual shower itself is like my own special form of kryptonite: with nerves that read even the slightest touch as PAIN, it's not my favorite thing. I can't handle cold water, at all, and my preferred water temperature is somewhere between "boiling hot" and "actual temperature of the sun." This searing heat zaps my brains right out of me (It's the POTS: my blood pressure is about 20/0 by the time I get out of the shower), and I can almost watch my ability to think or move flow right down the drain with the water. After my shower, my mom pours me into bed, where I have my "coma." At least 2 (and sometimes up to 10)hours of lying in bed, not moving, trying to get my body and brain to reboot.

However, the only time my body is semi-pain free is right after a blistering hot shower. If I hold the heat over the sorest muscles for a sufficent time, when I get out, all I can feel is a blissful numb tingling feeling.

Wow, with the poor descriptive word choice.

I wish I could explain it better, but it's really just that: the intense heat leaving my body, the chill in the air interacting with that heat, it's as if my body is suspended right above my normal oh-my-god-shoot-me-now level of pain, even for just those 3-4 minutes.

Of course, those three or four minutes are just a bit shadowed by the fact that I can't move, or connect two thoughts to each other.


But here I am a few hours later: brain working again, fresh and clean, talking to you nice people.

So, that was my day... what sort of intersting things happened in your life today?