Life and Times of AlieMalie

Ahh, it’s that time of year again: migraine season. This is the third morning this week that I have woken up with a freaking headache, and not the kind where you can pop a couple of aspirin and be on your merry way in half an hour; the kind where any sort of light or noise sends daggers into that area of my head. I can’t wait to see what the electric bill is for this month since I’ve had to keep the thermostat at just above freezing – haha – this week since cold seems to help. I honestly don’t know what to do about these things.

My opthamologist and GP have spoken about a possible surgery that might help but anything that involves any sort of surgery around my eyes is a big NO GO for launch. I’ll deal with migraines for the rest of my life rather than have any chance that I’ll possibly go blind. A laser or scalpel or any sort of knife near my eyes? Over my dead body. So now they resort to drugs. I have two that I can alternate. One makes me feel like I’m totally drunk – nauseas, no balance, eyes are kinda loopy and I’d probably not pass a field sobriety test – and the other just doesn’t work nearly as well as it used to.

I know that the quick changes in barometric pressure don’t help since when there is a sharp change I usually get one of these monsters. Maybe I should move. I was looking at the weather today to see if there is any end in sight – probably not since they’ll last all through the “fall” and “winter” – but I didn’t see any relief. Well, kind of. There is migraine relief for the next ten days but the heat is still on: 34C/94F FOR THE NEXT TEN DAYS.

A friend of mine asked me what I was going to be for Halloween the other day since she’s having a party the weekend before the actual day. My usual answer when a kid asks me is that I’m going to be myself since that’s obviously scary enough though I usually end up dressed as a witch – all black with an awesome witch hat that I’ve had for years. It works – and yes, I see it coming already – being myself and being a witch are the same thing. haha.

Anyway, that’s all changing this year.

I was standing in the bathroom earlier this evening (I know you wanted to know that) admiring my beautimous self and playing with my hair and it hit me: ever since I was a little girl I’ve always wanted to be Pippi Longstocking – and I’m sure this is all TERRIBLY surprising to you, mwuahaha. The one year I actually had the costume I was too sick to go trick-or-treating; well, that was pretty much every Halloween – I can only remember going trick-or-treating once as a kid. Sucks, eh?

So this year I shall be Pippi. FINALLY my hair is long enough. Yay! I am sooo excited!

In my cognition class the other day we got to talking about amnesia and the different types out there. During the discussion, my professor remarked that research has shown that students towards the end of their semester/term/quarter or entire degree tend to show the same amount of retention capability as that of an amnesiac. Interesting, eh? Then it hit me: that’s my problem. I’m an amnesiac. Well, kind of, and only in relation to being able to remember my stuff for school. While I think I am learning my concepts in the classes – a big woohooo! for semantic memory – I cannot parrot the stuff back out just so on an exam because when it comes to crunch time I just draw a blank or I mangle the concept while trying to explain it in words while writing it down on the exam. It’s really rather embarrassing especially when I consider myself a word person. But anyway, I have diagnosed myself!

Right. Not really, but it works in this instance. No arguments!

I was also noticing this last night – me being so tired, both in terms of mentally tired because I’m feeling burned out with school and also because I just haven’t been getting enough sleep lately. Once I reach a certain point, which I cannot see coming but can feel shortly after, I have no real great ability to think well which translates into me not being able to speak well either. I’m not nearly as sharp or on point like I normally am. I have trouble thinking up things to say and my listening ability goes down the tubes. Very bothersome. I tried catching up on some sleep last night since I don’t have to be in class ’til 12:30PM today but waking up with a migraine is not conducive to getting a great night’s sleep.

Now I’m uber grumpy to boot.

Grr.

Hmm? It’s all nice and warm and cozy now …

And now I can say that I freaking hate all the HTML COLOUR CODES. Bleh.

But it looks nice, I think.

Congratulations are in order for Romania and Bulgaria for finally gaining acceptance into the European Union. January 1, 2007 is the official day. They were supposed to join the EU with the most recent block of ten countries who joined in 2004, but were forced to put off their accession ’til they were better able to comply with the requirements set out by the EU. Though they still need to have their accession treaty ratified by a few of the parliaments, that is expected in the coming months. Lots of hard work is ahead of them with regards to coming in line with what is expected of them in terms of their justice systems and economies, but I’m sure with the full support of the EU member countries behind them, they can do it.

Also, Hungary needs a swift kick in the ass. They have the highest inflation rate of any EU member country, including Romania and Bulgaria, at just over 10% even though they have supposedly been hard at work in bringing it down. Guys, it’s been almost three years since you were admitted and you’ve just gotten a one year extension to continue to try improve it. It’s hardly even budged, but this could possibly be attributed to someone by the name of Ferenc Gyurcsany – another political hottie – and his political party lying “morning, evening and night” about the state of economic affairs in the country.

But anyhoo, congrats to Romania and Bulgaria.