I Love Diazepam :)

After a couple of wretched weeks with 3-4 hours of sleep almost every night, this one did the trick. Sleep. What a magic word. I used to hate drugs and didn’t take any for years, but, to my disappointment, some things you just cannot fix by sheer will. Enter the doctors and the drugs, and things start falling into place again. I don’t even feel the need to come to work at the ungodly hours I’ve used to. Now that’s probably an even bigger change 🙂

My grandparents used to take Diazepam when I was a kid. It was always on the end table among myriad other pills, so I came to associate it with old age. Maybe I’m getting old and decrepit too. LOL. In the process of doing that, though, I feel I’m back among the living, with my brain whole again and not roaming somewhere far away from me.

Nothing like a good night’s sleep!

Something More Uplifting

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Mental Illness and the U.S. Injustice System

I know I should be talking about more cheerful things, especially given the recent developments in my life, but I just saw this video and it broke my heart. After seeing it I closed the door to my office and cried, something I’ll probably continue to do intermittently throughout the day.

Explain to me, please, how is it possible that in a country so publicly religious otherwise, where presidential candidates have no chance of winning unless they talk about their faith (unheard of in Europe), people with severe mental illnesses are locked up in jails for even minor crimes, and not treated? Not only that, but they are kept in squalor, without the most basic conditions necessary to maintain some human dignity. Explain to me how Christian values of empathy, love, respect for life (otherwise touted everywhere) are compatible with this crass neglect of people in desperate need for help.

My New Nickname

I locked up my bike outside the office building yesterday (long story), to discover that the brake pads on my rear wheel were gone when I wanted to go home. Someone must have nicked them because I clearly remember them functioning when I had arrived. Oh well, I said, I’ll just go to my bike shop to have this fixed. Not that I needed an unexpected expense, but there’s no way I could ride like that. Or fix it myself.

While lingering around the counter, I saw a card announcing a Ladies’ Night Out, with bike experts that can answer any questions, test rides, food, etc. The repair man started telling me how these things usually go. He was surprised I hadn’t got an email about it, so he checked if there’s an email address for me in their system (which I thought there was, given how regularly I pop up in there). They did have one, except it was a mysterious address that I wasn’t aware I have and which must be my secret-identity email. You know, the one that the dark side of the U.S. government uses to transmit subliminal messages when they want to send me on a mission: catwoman5325.

So I spent some money but I had a good laugh.

On Email Overload, Again

As I was complaining here,  there’s not enough time in the day to clean my Inbox, which is constantly overflowing with 1,200+ emails. The theme seems to resurface periodically in the media, too, a sure sign that this is bothering quite a few people. Here’s a recent article from The New York Times, with suggestions for reaching email zen: “An Empty In-Box, or With Just a Few E-Mail Messages? Read On.” Maybe I’ll finally crack this tough nut some day…

Spring Is Here, at Last!

I woke up in the middle of the night, as usual, and noticed a lot more light was coming in the room. It had started to snow before I went to bed but I royally dismissed the forecast, thinking that this is Washington, D.C., the place where ultimate weather wussies live and where the forecast is always exaggerated. Two to four inches of snow? Ha! I don’t believe it.

So, as punishment for my disbelief, I had to wear the heavy winter jacket and the winter boots. Again…

And when I think that this is the day I was planning to start biking to work.