Like the Wild Kingdom

Guess who has the evil eye?

What if I added "again" to that question?

Yep. I have pink eye for the second time in about three weeks. Totally bizarre. I've called the eye doctor per my GP's advice. So there's that.

In other weird news I spotted a giant coyote on my way to work yesterday. We were driving near the big Alewife T station, approaching the back entrance when I spotted a big dog in the distance.

Deeps is a little skittish around animals - he wasn't raised with any pets and I think large animals make him nervous. This coyote wasn't quite as small as I've seen in the past near my parents' house in Indiana. I wasn't inclined to say anything to him about it, but then he said that the dog looked sick.

Me: He has mange.
Deeps: Oh yeah?
Me: Lots of coyotes do.
Deeps: That's a coyote?
Me: Yeah.
Deeps: So I've finally seen one?
Me: Yep.
Deeps: And now I'm going to drop you off just a few hundred feet from the coyote to walk to the station?
Me: Of course!
Deeps: Can you out run a coyote?
Me: He's probably more afraid of me than I'd be of him.
Deeps: I finished listening to the This American Life Halloween episode where the lady is attacked by a rabid raccoon.
Me: I'll probably avoid that.
Deeps: Fine, but if you're attacked by wolves commuting to work don't blame me.
Me: I think it's much more likely I would be attacked by a pack of tourists.
Deeps: And you have no idea if they are vaccinated against rabies either.
Me: Exactly.

I do not have an eye disease, I am not an alcoholic

I have had to wear glasses since the…. I think the fourth grade. Thanks to my mother and father I’m pretty vision-impaired. Not blind, but without glasses or contacts I’m able to vaguely distinguish shapes and colors – unless they are directly in my face.

Yesterday I popped my contacts in and noticed that my eyes looked a little red, but no big deal – sometimes that happens. At work I had a meeting around 10 AM and someone mentioned that my eyes looked bloodshot and asked if I was okay. Someone else suggested I had an allergy problem.

Nope. Not a sniffle or a sneeze. And my eyes felt okay. After the meeting I stopped by the ladies room to check in the mirror.

I looked like a crazed, bloody-eyed killer. I’m talking way beyond a little red – my eyes looked like I’d been on a 9-day bender/murder spree.

I was all weirded out and self-conscious about it for the rest of the day. After the Blogtoberfest event (which was thankfully dimly lit) we stopped by the ol’ CVS to get some Visine. I am happy to report that I’ve gotten some of the red out but still look kind of scary this morning.

I’ve busted out my old-school eye glasses for work today so that I might give the eyeballs a rest. God knows that if I roll down to the in-laws tomorrow with bloodshot eyes, I’ll hear about it. They’ll assume that they don’t have any grandchildren because I’m a lush.

I have made a terrible mistake

After a lackluster day of sitting, quietly and sipping broth and tea at work I came home with my low-grade fever to figure out my next step. But then Deeps suggested that we order some Thai food because it would make me feel better to have some awesome Tom Kha Gai.

I also got some spicy chicken dish that I usually love – and I loved tonight. When the food showed up I thought, “Yummy! Food!” and I ate soup and some rice and some spicy chicken stuff… it seemed like such a good idea at the time.

But now I feel all hot and nauseous – could be the ick or the Gilmore Girls that I’m watching. Ooooh no! I’ll have to save that for my next podcast. I think I’m breaking up with the Gilmore Girls.

And my head is throbbing. But I will be okay for Jon Stewart. We love him and I spent four million dollars on those tickets. I don’t care if Deeps has to pour me into a Dixie cup.

Insomnia is in!

So we've sprung forward! Yaay! More light! Less dark!

And ultimately (at least for a few weeks) that means less sleep for me. But I'm not alone. The National Sleep foundation released a study saying that about 60% of Americans suffer from symptoms of sleep disorders at least one day a week.

I've been an insomniac for about 15 years. As a kid I apparently slept like a log and had no problems sleeping long and hard all through the night. I slept in the car, at school, at home, in the living room, at my desk -- everywhere. Now I sleep lightly for a few hours each night. If I can get 4 hours without interruption I'm thrilled.

Insomnia, at least for me, is something I have learned to live with. I can manage it pretty well most of the time, but every once in a while I fall off the wagon and go through a prolonged spell of sleeplessness. It's not good. The fastest way to break a human being is to deprive her of sleep.

Anyway, about this time of year I get a little turned around for a few weeks. Daylight savings does that to me.

I blame Indiana for this phenomenon. We never had to change the clocks. The state decided to abstain from participating in Daylight savings and so half the year we were in the Eastern Time zone and the other half in Central.

I never had to change my clock until I went to college.

And so with a heavy heart I spring forward this year. In a week I'll be fine. But at least for this week, as my alarm sounds each morning I'll wish I could hit snooze for a few minutes more.

Movies, movies, movies!
Over the weekend we rented a fine little film called Session 9. It's creepy and atmospheric without being overly gorey or contrived. I think you can see where it's heading, but the journey is enjoyable.

This was clearly a very low budget movie, but I really liked the creative use of camera and lighting by the director. I strongly encourage people who enjoy a suspenseful, psychological thrillers to check out this film.

We also went to the movies which is really becoming a challenge. The movie we wanted to see was sold out at 9:30 last night so we went to see it at 11:45 this morning. The jury is still out on my opinion of the movie. More on that later...

Queenie
I’m not the only one voicing a little sadness over the loss of the Queen Mum. Now I’m disappointed she’s passed on because I’ll miss those lemon chiffon duds of hers. I think others might be taking it a bit more seriously.

The last entry about my eyeballs
Many people wrote in to voice their concern over my pending blindness. Happily I can report after a weird experience in dilated eyes – the peepers are healthy and happy. No worries and my prescription probably won’t change much until I’m about 40. Good news!

Two things

First, I might be going a little blinder. This might be alarming for people who don't know me and assume that I have 20/20 vision. That's what you get for assuming! I'm just about bat-like without glasses or contacts.

But I've developed this annoying little spot on my eye. At first I thought I had a micro spec of dust on my contact lens, but when the itty bitty spec showed up on my right eye while I wasn't wearing my contacts. I flushed out the eye, put in some drops and nothing has worked. Now little tiny spec is driving me slowly crazy. So I'm off to the doctor today.

It's like this weird little tiny blind spot. The best way I can describe it -- you know how kinda crappy laptop monitors are all pixels and how sometimes one single pixel goes out? That's what it looks like to me. Weird. Anyway, I'm calling the doc today to find out what the damage is.

Hopefully I'm not going all blind again like I did when I had the worst case of conjunctivitis ever!

And the other thing...
I'm in love with two new TV shows. The Osbournes over on the MTV is excellent. Seriously, TWOP said it best when they wrote Ozzy is both 7 and 87 at the same time. HI-larious. It's on Tuesdays at 10:30/9:30CT. I'm also intrigued by Andy Richter Controls the Universe. I've only seen one episode, so the jury is still a bit out -- but I like what I've seen. Andy's on over on The Fox at 8:30/7:30 CT.

Good TV is hard to find, hence I'm bummed about my blown eye pixel or whatever this thing is.

And Now for the Winter
I knew it was too good to be true.

Now I'm looking at a steady falling of snow. We're almost a full week into spring and all we've gotten for it -- frigid temps and falling snow. Yaay!

If only my landlord would be a bit more generous with the heat.

The Big O
Lots and lots and lots has been and will be written about the Oscars by people who are smarter and have more cred than me. Let me just say, a couple of things. Yaay Denzel. Boo everything else, except that neat little number by the Cirque.

Maybe everything else wasn't bad. I only watched about 15 minutes. But seriously, do the Oscars need to be 5 hours long?

The Fu Flu
There's this like cold/flu thing going around my office and it's been spreading like wildfire. I call it the Fu Flu because it's so bad it's like some kind of mystical kung fu flu. Even the mighty who are like "I never get sick" are falling. I have not yet become a victim despite Deeps coming back from NY with it. And everyone around me has had it, but I've been enjoying this weird peppery tasting Tang thing called Airborne. So far I have weird breath but no Fu Flu. Beware the Fu Flu and be sure to drink your OJ.

Thaw-tastic
Once I thaw a bit later this week I'll be posting some exciting news about a celebrity encounter and my new crappy digital camera. Who knows -- there may be photos.