January 3, 2018

 Today was slightly terrible and it started around 4:30AM this morning. This is when I woke up with an incredible headache. At one point I was verging on nausea and thought I was going to throw up. It reminded me of a kidney stone, but in my head obviously, not my kidney. A sharp pain that wouldn't go away no matter what I did. At one point I managed to drift off long enough have a short dream but in that dream I had the exact same painful headache, which eventually woke me up again. And then, when I was about to drift off to sleep again, I got a massive leg cramp. I just couldn't win. At most I got five non-consecutive hours of sleep.

And the headache never went away. I took some sinus stuff when I got up but it only took a little bit of the edge off. It's still noticeable and when I bend down, sneeze, or cough, it feels like my brain is trying to escape directly through my skull. It's uncomfortable.

On the first half of my journey to work I was in the vicinity of a real dick. He kept speeding up and getting really close to the car in front of him but wouldn't change lanes to go around them. And when he did change lanes, it felt dangerously fast, much like his accelerations. It seemed unnecessary. With the advent of self-driving cars, I think all cars should have a timeout feature. If your car detects that you are driving like a dick (too fast/slow, tailgating, unsafe maneuvers, general dickery), it should be able to take over, pull safely to the side of the road, and park itself for five minutes. Maybe give you some time to reconsider your behavior.

The temperature outside today was in the twenties but there was a decent breeze. On my walk to the library it took a decent amount of effort to breathe. Every time the breeze hit me it felt like my body was actively fighting my efforts, as if it didn't want the cold air entering my body. It was a bit disconcerting.

In general, it was a very long day at work. Thankfully, I got to spend the first two hours upstairs. The headache and lack of sleep left me feeling exhausted and in pain, and my headache was still at the point where the sound of my own voice caused discomfort. So it was nice not having to be on desk and run the risk of talking. I spent that time reading news articles, finishing the book kit list and uploading that to the website, and listening to mellow guitar music at a volume that was just loud enough to drown out the voices of the people working upstairs. And most impressively, I didn't fall asleep. It was a struggle.

Before lunch I had a walkthrough and then I read the local paper and other news articles. When I got back from lunch I was on desk for two hours. I spent the majority of that time watching usability videos for our website. I also talked to my coworkers and helped the occasional patron.

I then had another walkthrough, after which I finished watching the one hundred recordings for December. After watching one hundred videos in a very short period of time, I got to the point when I was overhearing people talking, missing something that was said, and wanting to rewind the conversation. The same thing happened when I first experienced DVRs. There has to be a name for this phenomenon.

I had another walkthrough following that and then updated our website traffic stats for last month. Then I went upstairs because we had four people working and only three seats. And I wanted to zone out a little. I read a few news articles and then tried to figure out how to edit the tech training page so I could put the upcoming classes on it. I couldn't figure it out. I emailed one of the IT people so hopefully they can help me out. At one point the custodian went through and emptied trash but not in our cubicle, and he obviously didn't realize anyone else was up there, because when he was done he turned the lights off. I was okay with it because it was actually better for my head.

After work I picked up Chipotle and headed to my Mom's house for dinner. It has been a really long time since I've had Chipotle and I missed it. Qdoba has more options but their rice isn't as good, which is a big part of my meal, and the amount of chips they give out isn't enough to compensate. Unfortunately, their parking situation is, so once the students come back and parking is nuts again at Chipotle, I'll probably go back to Qdoba.

After dinner we watched a bunch of YouTube videos because it has been awhile. Then I took down my Mom's Christmas tree and my sister brought up the fish tank that she got my Mom for Christmas. Later this week they're going to go get a Beta.

My friend from library school sent me a Christmas card that he had illustrated himself with a picture of Santa riding a reindeer backward while holding a star on the end of a fishing pole. It is really good. This is the same guy that drew the dwarf librarian. He is ridiculously talented and I need to write a children's book so he can illustrate it. Also, my sister gave me the Christmas gift that she made for me but has been waiting for it to dry. It has a duck and below that it says “eat for free at Subway” because Mitch Hedberg will always be my favorite comedian.

I got home around 9:30PM and it is now two hours later. I got sidetracked a little bit. I haven't been attempting to write this for that amount of time, but that doesn't change how late it is. So I'm going to record my audio journal now and then go to bed. I did run on the elliptical today because my current physical state, but I am hoping I feel better tomorrow.