Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Someday We'll Be Together

1. Have you ever left a relationship but knew that eventually you'd get back together? Yes. I was wrong, of course. Not to leave, but to think the story could had had any other ending, or another chapter.

2. Are there things that you hate to buy? Items that you either hate to spend perfectly good money on or hate to spend the time it takes to buy them? Light bulbs! To the idiots out there who believe "freedom of choice" refers not to a woman's reproductive rights but to their home lights -- WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? Do you enjoy spending money on and then having to replace incandescent bulbs? Yeah, that's a courageous, worthwhile way to take a stand against The Man! (Ah, thank you. I feel better.)

3. What is your favorite cartoon show and why? Mr. Peabody. It was a segment on the absolutely brilliant Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. I loved that Mr. Peabody was the smartest one around, a dog who patiently explained everything to us. He even introduced himself each time we saw him ("Peabody here."). Then he and and his boy, Sherman, would get into the WABAC -- the coolest, safest time machine ever!

4. Are you anywhere close to doing what you wanted to do as a kid? Yes. When I was a kid, I used to trace pictures out of my Golden Books and write my own stories to accompany them. Now I write my little narratives and art directors must find pictures to accompany them from the world of stock photography.

5. Now that you're in the "real world," is your current job now really what you want to do for a living? If not, what would you ultimately like to do? Yes, I still like my job. But if I could start over -- or, even better, just appropriate someone else's career without doing the hard work -- I'd be historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

6. A local university has asked you to teach a class about the one thing you know the most about. What would you be teaching and what would the name of the course be? "I Believe in Yesterday," a study of 1960s and that decade's continuing impact.

7. Commercials ... they can make us laugh or can annoy the heck out of us. Tell us about your favorite commercial and/or a commercial you simply loathe. I really don't like this Tums commercial. It's creepy and scary.



And I love the Mayhem/Allstate spots. Haven't seen one in a while. I hope Allstate hasn't dropped him!



8. Tell us about your favorite comedy movie of all time. "You fucked up. You trusted us!" Yes, Animal House. I have seen it dozens of times, can recite passages along with the screen, and still love it. You could say Tim Matheson had me at, "Eric Stratton, Pledge Chairman. Damn glad to meet you."

9. Tell us about your favorite black and white movie of all time. My Man Godfrey. It's a screwball comedy from 1936 and in addition to making me laugh (very hard at times -- Carole Lombard was a charmer) it also packs a timeless message about how we should treat one another. Quick! Go add it to your Netflix queue. You can always thank me later.

Exhausted!

Friday was a busy day for me post-op, but not busy by real-life standards, and it left me feeling so freaking weary that I'm worried. I'm scheduled to return to work in 9 days. At this stage in my recovery, I wonder if it's normal be so drained simply by --

1) Eating lunch and strolling in the park with my friend Ed
2) Taking the bus for a sit-down with my insurance agent

That wasn't taxing. It's not like I plowed the back 40. And yet I went to bed at 8:00 for a 4-hour nap.

Work is very top of mind for me today since my boss called to (1) check on me and (2) let me know that I got my first raise in more than 3 years. 5%! Yea! I'm eager to hurry back and start earning it.

I see the doctor again (and hopefully for the last time for a while) on Monday. I must be sure to report this to him. While I'm eager to return to the office, I didn't go through all this agita to just to have a relapse!

Pain meds and comfort TV

I have been discussing this at length with friends -- friends who don't know one another, btw -- and have discovered a connection between being on pain medication and mindless television viewing.

Here's the scenario: You wake up suddenly because prescription pain medication has just worn off. Ow, OW, OW! You're very awake and very uncomfortable right now, but your goal is to become very drowsy and very comfortable as soon as possible.

Reading is out of the question. Pain killers mess with my vision and besides, the goal is to (as the Lads once sang) "turn off your mind, relax and float downstream." You don't want anything to really engage you, just distract you. So you turn on the TV.

If you're me, you go to the Comcast OnDemand menu and find Friends. The length (just 22 mins., since there are no commercials OnDemand) and the content (very, very familiar) make it perfect. I know I'm free to doze off before the end because I know how Joey's hernia/insurance dilemma is resolved and what ultimately happens between Monica and Richard because I think I've seen every episode twice.

My cousin Rosemary gravitated to M*A*S*H. She distracted herself from the pain not with the plots but by trying to see how many jokes, puns and sight gags she could remember from previous viewings.

If you're my friend Kathleen, you go black and white. There's a local station here that specializes in just that between midnight and dawn. She took whatever was on, but her favorite was The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. She doesn't know why, actually. The premise is hopelessly dated and she can't remember any of the plots. But it's comforting, and it lulls her.

My friend John found that, after his foot surgery, his pain was worst in the afternoon. The discomfort literally exhausted him and he'd long to nap when the meds kicked in. So for him, the comfort show of choice was always Judge Judy. The cases were just interesting enough to take his mind off his ouchies, but since the resolution was always a foregone conclusion, he didn't feel he missed anything if he dozed off before the top of the hour.

TV as Therapy -- there's a medical journal study here, I tell 'ya!