Finally

It is still May for a few more hours yet. Tomorrow is June, the month when the stress is supposed to all dissipate because all the reports will be in and done. It is not as clean as that, though, and everything is dragging on, so the stress continues, but it's not too bad. It helps that I finally have a non-horrible diagnosis for why I have been feeling tired, nauseated, dizzy, and tingly since before Christmas. It's not multiple sclerosis. It's not chronic fatigue syndrome. It's not a tumor. It's an inner ear disorder of unspecified everything. It might be problems actually in the vestibule. It might be damage to the vestibular-auditory nerve. It could have been caused by shoddy materials. Or my concussion 4 years ago (some gifts keep on giving). Or a virus. Or maybe it's something else. Anyway, I have been doing vestibular therapy, which consists of eye and neck exercises, and sitting up and lying down quickly. The problem is that I don't do them nearly as much as I am supposed to. The first eye exercise has really helped (or maybe it's a coincidence), so although I am still dizzy and kind of tingly, I haven't been as diligent as I should be with the exercises. And I haven't done any of them today. oops.

Here is poem, written to my friend Carol:

"Poor Toe"

A battle between wall and toe.
Wall won.
I thought of you.

That's all. Carol might understand it because she broke her toe months ago. Or she might not.

Did you hear about how cute and lovable walruses are? They are the sweethearts of the pinniped world.

not quite Sunday

It is Saturday night, and (1) I am at home, (2) I am happy with that, and (3) I am listening to an auction going on at the Children's Museum (aka Kiddie Mu) 100 yards from my apartment. I think it is a weird place to have an auction, but possibly it benefits Kiddie Mu. I also think that it is annoying that I have to listen to it in my apartment. I guess I could close my window, but it's summer and I live on an upper floor and I don't close my window.

I tried watching "Apacolypto" earlier (Mel Gibson, so I was kind of turned off from the start). A friend loaned it to me. She thought it looked authentically Mayan, for a movie. I think the actors don't look particularly Mayan, although they appear to be speaking in a real non-English language. The hero and heroine were quickly identifiable by their big eyes. I stopped watching in the middle of the Attack on the Happy Villagers scene. I don't think I can finish it. I know I don't want to. PBS has a Willie Nelson concert (or maybe more than just Willie Nelson) instead of something good (no offense, Willie, but I wanted British sitcoms), but of course they (PBS) are fundraising as they always are. If it's not a stupid concert it's Antique's Road Show. Boring-boring-boring-I'm-not-giving-them-any-money-this-is-why-people-mock-them. The only other thing on is sports. So I must update my blog.

My choir recorded music for an album of movie trailer music today. It was fun, and we are all exhausted. It's like doing two concerts in one day without preparing for it physically or vocally. My vocal cords are all stretched and ready for the season now, though. And the SCC has a nice sum of money in its coffers, which will probably be gone very soon. Last Saturday the treasurer informed us that there was no way that we can break even on a concert, even if we sell out. It's just impossible. The least amount of money we lost on a concert last year was $3300. The worst was something like $50,000. Par for the course of performing arts organizations, apparently. Scary. So I increased my monthly donation by a buck. Now they will have a whole extra $12 per year, which should make a big dent in the debt. I might have considered giving more, but a buck increase was what they suggested, and suited me fine. You can hear some of the music we will be performing at our next concert here (Jenny will like it). And here. And here. We won't have the candles or the funky cloaks and there will be many more of us, but it's basically the same thing. Except that we have really very little idea of how to pronounce Irish Gaelic, and we generally don't look so good.

Hey, the auction is over. That's nice. Now they are frantically cleaning up and trying to get everybody the things they bought so they leave with happy thoughts toward Kiddie Mu, or whoever it is for. Yay.