Because I hadn’t been kicked in the nuts in nearly 24 hours, my car was broken into in the staff parking lot yesterday. One of the guards came up around 6:00 PM to see who drove a gray Passat. It’s smokey blue but I knew it was mine. Some wingnut broke the driver’s side rear window to steal my portfolio case of mediocre mechanicals from when I attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1995. I guess they would have taken the other, bigger, AIP bag I’ve been toting from place to place for 15 years but it weighs over 20 pounds and won’t fit through a window. There wasn’t anything else of value in the car. The stolen case isn’t even leather. The two cases have been in the back seat since I moved. I kinda forgot they were there. I’m slightly bummed about the print copies of the Blue Ribbon Coalition newsletter I edited in about 1992. That was my first job out of college and this was way before PDF archives.
Then I had a full-on vertigo attack last night at 8:09 PM, my first in nearly 8 weeks. It feels like the vertigo was saying, “Hah! I scoff at your Dramamine. See? I caused you to puke it up. Where is your precious Valium now, huh? I will not be denied. Mwahahaha!”
Today at work I got one of the nicest compliments from one of my library kids. One of our regulars, we’ll call him AA-E, told me I do a lot for them and if I ever needed a reference from a patron he’d help me out.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. season eight. vol. 3, Wolves at the Gate by Drew Goddard. Buffy experiments, Dracula makes an appearance. All together satisfying.
Seize the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon. My favorite Dark Hunter novel, this was a re-read
Hot gimmick. Vol. 12 by Miki Aihara. Manga.
Love com. 1 by Aya Nakahara. Manga.
Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read By Scott McNulty. Highly recommended if you have anything to do with WordPress. I had it on hold for a long time before I got it. Apparently so did someone else because I couldn’t renew it. So I kept it and paid the late fee. It was worth it. It gets into the mechanics of WordPress rather than the best ways to write and publish your blog. I hope to find it electronically to add to my collection.
A Touch of Dead: Sookie Stackhouse: the Complete Stories by Charlaine Harris
The Dark-Hunters. Volume 1 by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Graphic novel. I had to put it on hold. It tells the beginning of Kyrian and Amanda’s story which I’ve not read in novel form. Now I don’t have to except I doubt the graphic novel will turn x-rated like the books do. Alas.
Remember Me to Harold Square by Paula Danziger. I love this author. I read The Pistachio Prescription when I was in junior high. I love this author.
Picket Fences by Kimberly Cates. Maudlin.
The Disciples of Trotsky by Cevin Soling. Graphic novel. I found it shoved behind other graphic novels when shelving one day. I don’t think it circulates and will get weeded which is a shame. It should probably not go in Teen, despite its cartoonish style. I found it delightful and subversive.
Chasing the Bear: a Young Spenser Novel by Robert B. Parker
The Boxer and the Spy by by Robert B. Parker
My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent. Teen book. Well plotted, not too contrived for a book about banshees (spelled bean sidhe in the book). Kaylee was a cool teen I’d want in my library.
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. I didn’t like it as much as The Sugar Queen. Garden Spells was her first book. It’s a good thing I didn’t read them in order or I may not have made it to The Sugar Queen which I did like.
The Jungle by Peter Kuper. Graphic novelization of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The artwork was really excellent. It really communicated the despair, hopelessness and filth.
Er, I mean Aspray. Pronounced A-spray. Not ass-spray as I originally assumed. I stand corrected. Even though that’s essentially what it’s for. Pay special attention to the guy 1:15 in. He’ll provide you with a quote you’ll want to remember.
I mentioned a few posts ago that I have been diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease. For my 12 readers I thought I’d post what it actually is. Meniere’s is a fancy-pants name for a wildly inconvenient inner ear disorder. It’s named for a French doctor, Propser Ménière. The four classic symptoms are: tinnitus, hearing loss (mostly in one ear but some unlucky individuals lose hearing in both), ear fullness, and last but not least, vertigo. Ah, yes, vertigo. How I loathe you. We’re not talking being wobbly at heights. No, no, no. Your eyes won’t focus and the world spins violently so immediately you can’t walk without resembling the worst drunk. All you can do is lie down and sleep it off. Except you can’t sleep because of the heart racing, mind spinning and vomitting. At least that’s how it is for me. It occurs with no warning. I’ve had it last anywhere from 2-6 hours. Sometimes months will go by with no vertigo attack and then I get it once per week. Thankfully only once at work. That was embarrassing.
The causes are unknown and there is no cure. Probably because it won’t kill you although you will want to die a little bit while you’re in the midst of a vertigo attack. To further complicate matters, my Menieres might have different causes and triggers than anyone elses. Although there is enough commonality to diagnose it, what works for me may or may not work for someone else. And there’s a lot of trial and error involved.
Right now I’m trying a regimen I found after much research. It’s all herbal/homeopathic. I ran it by my doctor and she gave me the OK to try it. She also perscribed Valium for when an attack is imminent. I hoard those since they are prescription. I also take Dramamine a lot. I really like it, actually. My dreams are really mellow and I sleep well. I avoid the Less Drowsy Dramamine because it makes me loggy the next day. Dr. L has also recommended vestibular rehabilitation which I will try next. She thinks it will work and so do I. I find that if I lay without a pillow I can feel the world tilting. This tells me that some exercises to help balance my ear goo will help. Basically, there’s not much I won’t do to avoid the vertigo.
According to this New York Times Interactive whatever-it-is, white, women, aged 24-44, college educated have an unemployment rate of 3.6% compared to 8.6% for all people. I wonder how accurate these numbers are as my library goes into yet another round of cuts, 30% to be exact, rather than the previously identified 7.5%.
