2001-02-07
feeling kinda
i'b dot feelig vehy good today. aghtually, i feel icky. by head is all stuffed up. bleah.
which made for a *fabulously* entertaining class this morning. i don't know if it was the cold medicine or the decreased oxygen to my brain, but man oh man was i lightheaded. and trying to lead a class when you feel like that is somewhat challenging. i must have sucked down three or four cans of orange juice just trying to keep my voice going. (we have a soda fridge in our office, and there are juices there in addition to sodas.) it went well, overall - i got people to laugh, and answered all their questions or promised them answers when i figured them out. the funniest moment (for me, anyway) was when i was trying to walk them thru a particular action in the database, and i heard all sorts of beeping. mind you, the set up is such that i have my head turned away from the class most of the time. without turning around, i offered that anyone who was stuck could hit CTRL-R to reset their sessions.
even funnier was yesterday, when one of the normally taciturn guys managed to throw his mouse off the back of the desk while i was answering his question about database security. apparently, the answer was so thrilling that he lost control for a second and pitched the mouse.
okay, maybe that's only funny if you're the teacher. so, i'm doing hands-on training in a small classroom. my computer is up front, and i replaced the monitor with a projection unit so that my session is up on a screen in front of the class, like for slide shows or overheads. but given the constraints of cords and keyboards, i can't actually turn myself around too far. so i sit sort of sideways, with the keyboard in my lap, the students to my right, and the projection screen to my left. this means i spend an awful lot of time with my neck cricked to the left. my massage therapist is going to love me, come the end of the week...
the last step in the court case (i don't call it my court case, as i don't really feel like it's my problem any more) is supposed to be tomorrow. but the court, in its infinite red-taped bureaucracy, appears to have fouled up the schedule. so the case is not listed on the docket. what does this mean, you ask? it means that i can go into work, but have to stay on call in case they manage to shoehorn the case into the morning lineup. i had to laugh - the DA said, 'well, you're about 10 minutes away, right?' hah! c'mon, buddy... even if i had a car, i a) wouldn't use it to commute and b) could never get cross town and find parking in 10 minutes. what the hell kind of crack was he smoking? i mean, really... so the agreement was that if they didn't have an answer by mid-morning, they would reschedule, and if they did get on the docket, they would give me more like a half-hour to get there. i get the feeling this will continue to get dragged out, because of the amount of money involved. hey, that's fine. i can wait. i found a great deal of closure in her sentencing, which makes all this easier.
eh. ever notice how having a cold can just sap the life energy right out of you? even just trying to focus enough to write is a challenge. i find myself talking out loud to the terminal, saying what it is i want to type, as if my fingers need the added encouragement of a little verbal motivation. sad, eh? all i want to do is sleeeeeeeeeep... which isn't likely to happen soon, considering that i have trash to take out and dishes to wash before i can crash. can't those wait, you say? isn't your health more important? well, yeah. and part of staying healthy means not waking up to festering dishes or rank garbage. so, a few chores when i get home tonight. then - LaLa Land, here i come. i actually went to bed by about 10:30 last night, which is a novelty for me. i'm much more of a night person. but the last few nights it's been early to bed, early to rise. get this - i was actually awake at 6 AM, before the alarm, and couldn't go back to sleep. what's up with that? sleep is the manna of the gods, and i crave it... so this not being able to go back to sleep was killing me.
oh, good lord. i just skimmed over what i've written, and i sound really loopy. y'know, cold medicine has it's up side, but improving my writing skills is not one of them. how did the great writers ever do it while drinking or indulging in various substances? i'm thinking foremost of Hemingway, whose writing i like. he was quite the drinker, wasn't he? at least, that's what i remember reading. did he write when drunk, i wonder? or Poe, quite the laudanum addict (or was it opium?).
ih. or maybe i just need food. i've inadvertently gone on a juice fast the last few days, because i can't taste a damn thing, but i'm thirsty. beyond thirst, i'm just not hungy. i've forced myself to eat a few things, just because it's important to keep the blood sugar level. but it's just texture, no taste. now i can see why my gram doesn't have much interest in food anymore; she lost her sense of taste when she had her stroke. lemme tell you, when french fries taste like hot mush, they aren't so appealing. i really hope i can kick this cold in a day or two, because no taste is no fun.
