Sickness, broken bones, Alzheimer's disease, and PowerPoint...

...All of the above.

I'm sick. I have diagnosed myself with sinusitis...My left gland on my neck has been swollen for a couple of days. My neck hurts. Tylenol kills my headache for about three hours and then it comes back with shock-like stabbings from deep within my skull. My face hurts. The top of my head is sensitive. In fact, the left side of my face feels heavier than the right, and although my nose isn't stuffy, it isn' t 100% clear either. I'm tired, cranky, and running a slight fever of about 100 degrees. It's too early to go to bed...

Two weeks ago my mother decided to do a sweet thing. She thought it would be nice to come upstairs to visit me while I was building my new bookcase from IKEA. This she did, and unaccompanied. On the way down the stairs, her worn out old slippers slid out from underneath her and she almost tumbled, but instead bumped a couple of steps down. Unfortunately she broke a rib. This has meant more bed rest and Vicodin for her. After recovering fully from a broken sacrum last spring and erlichiosis this summer, she is back in bed.

Fuck.

Still it's not her fault. She's the one with Alzheimer's, not me. Why am I so pissed off? I am thankful for the 24 hour caregivers here. They allow me to move along with my life, but actually they have freed me up to assume responsibilities that I could not last year, mostly financial ones.

School is moving along. I am suddenly swamped with work this week (and I'm sick, remember?) but I'll get done what I can. I have three papers to write and a module of my Digital Art and Design class.

Yesterday I drove to Syracuse and gave a short presentation today on relief work I was involved with last summer. 3 1/2 hours each way at 80 mph for a 35 minute PowerPoint show. In some ways I was a little disappointed in the other presenters. So many of them seem to be gravitating towards the overly popular 'gender studies' subjects. It's boring, I tell you, boring. What ever happened to literature, art, science, history, and philosophy? Now all of these admirable subjects are examined through the strange lens of sexual identification? Please...! It's worse than teaching Rhetoric as a writing subject.

Still the 12 people who saw my presentation liked it, and enough so that some of the faculty want me to present it in classes in Albany. So that's good news. I guess I'm grateful.

I feels like shit. Achy, cranky, tired...Plus the caregiver who worked this morning didn't pick up the fucking mail, which means no NetFlix, therefore I cannot watch 'Grey's Anatomy: Season 4' until Monday....


Johnnyboy