Tuesday, March 28, 2006

What I did on my day off

1. Slept in.
2. Tried to sleep longer but was awoke by D's mom. Our phone is turned down so we only hear messages. I was just lying there when her voice boomed out across the bedroom. She has recently discovered the internet and email, with some long-distance tutoring from D and me. ("The icon. No, icon. It's a little picture on your screen. You click on it. What do you mean, how? With the mouse!" etc.) Now she thinks that D has blocked her from sending him email and calls wondering what she's done to make him so mad at her, so upset... All she's ever done is love him and now he's blocked her emails?
Of course he didn't, he just called home last week. She's just email-challenged. Not a great way to start my morning-- I called D at work and told him to call home pronto.
3. Walked the dog.
4. Went to the bookstore, read a book, talked to Ben. Contemplated the fact that I can in no way be considered mysterious or to have an 'interesting' past unless it's by someone who doesn't know me at all.
4. Developed fucking massive sinus-headache-turned-migraine-headache.
5. Went to Tom Thumb in search of Sudafed. They keep it behind the counter like it's cigarettes or dirty magazines.
6. Took Sudafed, took Advil, took shower in the dark.
7. Leaned against the shower wall and cried in the dark because it hurt. If there's anyone out there that wonders if their headache is a migraine, considering the following questions.

Does the headache make you vomit?
Is the light too loud? Do you seek out the darkest corner in your apartment, like the bathtub with the lights out? Then it might be.

I don't understand why this only seems to happen on my off-days. Maybe because I couldn't handle it at work, I don't know.

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Update:
8. After the shower, sat into a hot bath for a long time.
9. Took a nap, until like 6:30. Realized my hair is really soft because I left in the conditioner for the whole bathtime. I feel much better now.
10. It turns out that D's hotmail account will deactivate if he doesn't check it every 30 days, which is why his mom was getting her letters returned. Damn these free services that up and quit on you! He reactivated it and sent her an explanatory email.
11. We went to On the Border and I tried something called the Big Borderitto or something to that effect. Imagine a normal meal, with rice and beans and a chicken burrito with sour cream sauce. Now imagine someone took that whole plate and emptied it into a tortilla. It was an 8-pound burrito! I was, "Hey, where's the rice? where's the beans? oh, they seem to be inside here... and there's sauce. On the inside!" It was good in a messy sort of way, plus I have half of it to take to work tomorrow, as if I have time to eat a 4-pound lunch in half an hour. Ah well.

I'm working a kind of short day tomorrow, mainly because of the 12-hour monster day Monday. I'm so glad that I'm full-time and they can't cut my hours as we finally have new people coming on board so all the part-time folks' hours are being cut back to what they should be, like 20 or 24 hours a week. But it's hard to go back after you get used to being paid for say 30 or 35 instead when we're shorthanded. I'm slated for 40, and I get 40 no matter what, thank goodness.

I inadvertently pissed off someone I haven't even met, isn't that funny? My co-worker Kristin is dating this guy who wants to be a journalist and has to write papers for class. She brings them to work to edit and had me edit them as well because the guy sucks completely as a writer. I merely tried to help him but I guess he's sensitive or something. All I can say is that writing in the first person makes whatever you're writing sound like a 5th-grader's book report. As it, "I totally loved this book! My favorite character was, my least favorite part was..." And passive voice was sucked.

I think I've been put on the track of a new career path: being a mean, heartless editor and cutting pretentious writers down to size. Now how do I go about doing that. Does editing require a degree in English or something, or previous publishing experience? I wonder.

5 comments:

Benjamin said...

I NEVER said you weren't mysterious or that you didn't have an interesting past. In fact, YOU said that. All I said was that you seemed to be hiding some sort of secret that was causing you to be conflicted ... I realize now that it was merely your headache that was making you seem preoccupied. I should've known that, but I too was otherwise occupied ... with work, in my case.

I hope you feel better. I find that gallons of elderberry wine and a champagne enema usually cure a headache.

Mara said...

A champagne enema would seem to be attacking the wrong end, so to speak. And it wasn't you, I just realized that I'm not mysterious, that's all.

Benjamin said...

It's good that your day improved. What kind of conditioner do you use?

Sounds like On the Border is trying to compete with Chipotle to see who can come up with the biggest burrito.

Maybe someday you can be my editor. I'll be your prized author. Your Stephen King. Your JK Rowling. You'll correct my speeling and try to keep my eccentricities from ruining the business.

Bella said...

I'm with you in the sisterhood of the migraine. Unfortunatley, mine have been hitting me at work. My latest one was last week, and I barely made it to the bathroom in time to throw up...lost sight in my left eye, and by the time I made it home, it was tunnel vision. What made it even better? I had to call my closer to come in and cover my opening shift, and then I had to go in (heavily medicated mind you) and cover his closing shift because my lovely boss decided to give my other two employees the same week off! Bother and damn.

Mara said...

Wow, that's definitely worse than having one in the comfort and privacy of your own house.

And Ben, aren't you worried I'd be too mean? Did you not read the mean-Mara part of the editing story?