First, as much as I think of Benadryl as a miracle drug, it’s failed me this time around. Spent the vast bulk of yesterday in a antihistamine coma on the couch, with a seriously messed up ear. Went out last night cause I was feeling slightly less than death, but desperately needed to get out of the house. Repeated again today, and when the last B-dryl wore off around 5 with really no decent improvement, I went old school. Shot of whiskey (Jameson’s if you’re interested) followed by sitting in a hot bath til my forehead broke out in a sweat, followed by another shot for good measure. Less than 1 hour and I had a cleared out ear and was feeling right as rain. So, don’t discount your grandma’s “liquor + whatever” home remedies.
The other thing I discovered tonight is - I’m the bar freak. ;) (Well, depends on who you ask.)
At the moment, I have some deadlines - some self imposed, some hard. Townhouse ready for sale by 1/1. Estate totally distributed by 12/31. Grandma arriving on 12/20. Granted, “Grandma” is the only truly hard deadline, but the other items I really, REALLY want to have done by those dates. Each is a fairly large project in and of itself. Lots of little things to make the big things happen.
I have a steno pad that I (now) keep in my pocketbook. The front side is writing ideas. The backside is the to-do list from hell. I’ve discovered that when I am out for last call at GD’s, that seems to be when I have those random “OMG, gotta do X to accomplish Y” thoughts. I realized I just need to have the damn notebook with me so I can write things down so I don’t have to remember them. I will readily admit that this is in no small part to the fact that I am a control freak, and if I have shit written down, I feel like I am just slightly more in control. Hence, the steno pad is with me at all times so I can write shit down.
It has actually greatly reduced my stress on these three pain in the ass projects. Once it’s written down, I don’t have to try to remember it anymore, and I can just let it go (and given how much runs through my head at 100MPH, this is a good thing), and I have a snowball’s chance in hell of actually remembering where my keys are since that part of my brain isn’t occupied with something else. Most of the folks that know me at GD’s know I have all this nonsense going on and understand why I might be sitting there having a Guinness or Irish Coffee and watching SportsCenter and suddenly pull it out and write something down, and that some nights, I just get my drink and go through the list and cross things off and add to it. Tonight I ran into someone who does not know this, and he was greatly concerned about my mental state. It took the better part of an hour to convince this well meaning (and I will say, somewhat burned out) gentleman that I was really OK, and that writing things down as I think of them really does keep me from going over the edge, and that I really didn’t give a rat’s ass if it looked weird or not. I told him to check in with me around mid-January and he’d see that I was a fair amount more laid back. :)
I think what cracked me up the most about the entire encounter was that by time all was said and done, he was praising me for knowing what I needed to do to keep myself from losing my mind and that perhaps I didn’t really need to “talk to someone” (ie, seek professional help) after all. Cause yeah, I am really going to seek professional help because I am a list-maker and will tend to those lists whenever the mood strikes me… ;)
