Warning: This post is icky. Read it at your own risk.
I woke up a little nauseous on Wednesday morning, but didn't think much of it. I attributed it to watching too much of "The Walking Dead" (we blew through Seasons 1 and 2 in about five days. P.S. If you're looking for a diet plan, I highly recommend watching this show at night with someone. I was so completely fascinated that I couldn't stop watching, yet so grossed out that I never once thought about ice cream/late-night snacks - genius, right?). There were also plenty of other nausea-creating stresses on the horizon: I had to team-teach a lecture with another TA - Claire - that day, I had to prepare and teach two discussion sections on Friday, I had a ten-page paper due on Friday that I had barely started, so you know, the usual.
Anyway, I did what I usually do in such circumstances - told myself to get over it, got up, made a satisfying breakfast to get me all the way from 8:30 to 2:30 when I would get home and eat lunch before going back for my late-night film class, ate said breakfast, and speed-walked to my class. I felt a little bit queasy when I was climbing up the stairs, but Walking Dead, stress, papers, blah blah blah, and I kept going. I was feeling pretty good when I got to class and even better after I set up our PowerPoint and figured out the computer podium and lights. Then class started. The first fifteen minutes were fine, mostly because Claire was talking and I was sitting on the stool taking deep breaths behind her. As I got ready for my turn, I could feel my stomach twisting a little every time I moved, but things really got bad when I started to get an extremely uncomfortable, disoriented, lightheaded feeling in - where else? - my head. I fought it for about ten minutes, but this dizzy headache feeling kept growing until I realized that I was going to pass out. I was in denial at first - You're supposed to be TEACHING in a minute, for crying out loud! This CANNOT be happening! Man up, Ruth! - but with every passing minute it became more and more obvious that my body didn't give a hoot about my nerves or where I was or what I had to do. Claire was talking, and I had my notes already spread out on the podium, but I decided finally that I had to leave. Fortunately, there was yet another TA - Shaina - sitting in the audience whom I was friends with, and I decided to go to her, ask her to come outside in the hall with me, and tell her there that she would need to tell Claire I was sick and they would have to read my notes and show the slides without me.
Unfortunately, by the time I made the decision to go, my body was pretty much running on autopilot. As soon as I got up and started making my way up the aisle towards Shaina, things that I took for granted started shutting down at an unbelievably rapid pace. I had my eyes open, but I couldn't see. My legs were moving, but I couldn't find my balance. My hearing got really fuzzy, and at one point I lost it completely. I ended up groping for points of reference and eventually stumbled into a wall, where I stayed until my head cleared enough for me to see Shaina's face. I managed to get her to realize that I needed her to go out with me into the hall. When we got there, we sat down to talk, but my stomach and head were both churning so furiously that I could barely get out the words "So, I'm not feeling too good" before my body made a split-second decision and I had a distinct moment of clarity wherein I knew I was going to throw up. Three heaving explosions later and my nice breakfast of turkey, eggs, and orange juice was all over the floor.
I immediately felt better - the fuzzy hearing vanished, my head cleared, my balance was back and I had control over my body again. I even felt like waltzing back into the classroom as if nothing had happened and picking up the lecture. However, I had to wait in the hall for Shaina to come back with the janitor and with paper towels and tissues (somehow she got the cutest little red tissues with pictures of sheep on them - I was so reluctant to use them) to wipe my shoes, pants, and the floor. After a few minutes of making sure I was "done," I went back in, drank from my trusty water bottle (I had considered finding a water fountain, but we were in a very inconveniently located classroom), finished the lecture (Claire had already done about 1/5 of it for me), and then went home since I was still feeling lightheaded and drained.
When I got home, I was overcome by ravenous, incredible thirst. I drank all the water I had in the refrigerator and still couldn't get enough. It didn't seem as if I had drunk any water at all. My lips were extremely dry. I kept drinking. Not long after, heavy-duty diarrhea set in - we're talking four pairs of underwear ruined within a matter of hours. For the rest of the day I alternated between bed and toilet, eating nothing (the thought of food was revolting) and drinking only water. I felt incredibly tired and weak and still very drymouthed, though I was slightly wary of water in large amounts since I knew whatever I drank would evacuate itself out of my system about five-ten minutes after it went in. Any thoughts I had of going to my late-night film class completely vanished around this point (I would be lucky to sit through the credits, let alone a two-hour film). When Matthew got home, he brought me a minipack of Gatorade drinks. They didn't help much with the diarrhea but did help greatly with my lightheadedness and also with something Matthew called electrolytes but which I called tasty yummyness and feeling like a human again.
For the next few days, I survived on water and Gatorade, sometimes not even wanting either but forcing myself to drink to try to ward off dehydration, headaches, and weakness. On Thursday, after staying home from volleyball (good call) and from another class I TA for (probably a good call but I still feel sad about missing it), I felt well enough to eat a can of soup for dinner, my first substantial meal since Tuesday night. I paid for my folly later with a very perilous evening of stomach twistings and turnings, near throw-ups, disgusting burps, and sicky poop. Despite this sore tribulation that was Thursday night, I felt well enough on Friday to go to school (though I decreed it a casual Friday by skipping one class, not going to work, and doing the bare minimum in my discussion sections (to their great rejoicing)), but I didn't eat anything but water and Gatorade all day and let Matthew do the laundry while I stayed at home. I was astonished at how few of my students in my Friday discussion sections realized that I had even left or been slightly "off" during the Wednesday lecture, and one of the students even made my day by telling me that he thought I did the best job of all the TAs. AWWW. In fairness, the credit (if there be any) probably goes to Hogarth for being more interesting to talk to about than Swift or Moliere, but I was still ridiculously pleased/flattered/touched/intoxicated.
Around 7 pm on Friday evening I acquired a sudden ravenous craving for Chinese food, which Matthew was sweet and awesome enough to oblige. I ate about 1/3 of what he brought home - this was probably the happiest moment of my week, incidentally - and then had to force myself to stop - though my brain wanted to continue - before my stomach laid down a law irrevocably decreed in biology that if I kept eating I was going to regret it for the rest of my miserable, short, sad life. Consequently, the night was again perilous, but not quite as bad as Thursday. On Saturday morning, I was hoping that my appetite for Chinese food would resurface but my stomach vetoed this delicious temptation for the entire day, and eventually I had to satisfy myself with water, Gatorade, some applesauce, and, at the end of the day when I was likeliest to be hungry, a small bowl of ice cream and banana.
Things are feeling much better today - Sunday - both head and stomach-wise, and I expect I will be back to pretty much full capacity by Monday. Good thing, too, since my professor moved our ten-page paper to Monday (not because of my illness or the lack of preparation from our class, but because his father passed away and he had to leave town) and I was able to use the past two days (Wednesday and Thursday were both completely unproductive due to commitments with the bed/potty) to get a lot more work done. God works in mysterious ways.
And as for the cause of all this trouble? Stale, crunchy, three-week old French bread that Matthew brought home once upon a time to go with our perfectly fine-by-itself dinner of corn chowder (I took two bites on Tuesday night to determine whether or not it was worth keeping and concluded it wasn't). I always knew bread was out to get me.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
January 2013 Media Inventory
So here's what I watched and read in January!
Movies:
The Dark Knight Rises: I don't remember much, to be honest. I think I liked it. Anne Hathaway was surprisingly decent as Catwoman, though I really wasn't impressed with my normally wonderful Tom Hardy playing Bane. After the Joker, I guess any villain seems a little... eh. But really I just like snuggling with Matthew and making superhero jokes.
Hidalgo: Oldie and a goodie. Lots of horsies!
Looper: Intriguing idea, pretty compelling story, awesome cast, but the surprise twist ending seemed a little bit too simple for me. Left me wishing there had been something more.
Inception: More Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy doing what I like to watch them do.
Edward Scissorhands: This was Matthew's first time seeing this, after I insisted. Now he can truly call himself a fan of Johnny Depp.
The Mark of Zorro: The SECOND time I've seen this Douglas Fairbanks silent classic. It's actually pretty hilarious. The stunts are superfreakinfantastic.
Mantrap: Interesting enough silent film. Probably too long. I got pretty irritated with the main flirty lady who cheated on every man she fell in love with. In the words of Grandpa Joe, what she needs is a good kick in the pants.
Snow White and the Huntsman: It took us SO long to see this, and sadly it wasn't really worth the wait. I like Snow White from Once Upon a Time better, and I make fun of her ALL THE TIME, so that should give you a pretty good idea of my feelings about Kristen Stewart playing the purest, divinest, most beautiful, innocent fairytale character ever. By the way, the biggest thing I knew about it from the media was that K. S. had slept with the director, so every time the characters talked about how good and pure her character was, it took great effort not to make the phhhhhhhhhhhhhhht sound and roll my eyes.
Bernie: Fantastic film with a lovely dark twist of humor and delightfully exaggerated presentation of Texan hospitality/reality. I loved all the characters, even the simpering and babyish Jack Black, and got quite a few of the songs stuck in my head.
Drums Along the Mohawk: I felt like I was watching the entire Little House on the Prairie saga if it were set in colonial times. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing. It was long and tedious at some points, but generally interesting and enjoyable, especially the feministy parts. Henry Fonda in a ponytail and evil British guys with eyepatches are also not to be dismissed so easily.
The Ox-Bow Incident: Torturous buildup to a climactic and powerful ending. This film still bothers me.
Pitch Perfect: Fun film. fun music, fun characters, fun, fun, fun (I feel like I've made my point).
My Darling Clementine: I should probably mention at this point that I'm taking a western film class, so that's why half the films on here will be westerns. There will probably also be a lot of Henry Fonda. I had seen this film before, and it's pretty good, though the stupidity of certain brothers does amaze me. The best part was probably humming "My Darling Clementine" in the HFAC bathroom when everyone else was inevitably humming songs from "Phantom of the Opera."
Harvey Girls: What a silly little excuse for a western this was! Yet, try as I might to dislike it, it was too fun and colorful and weirdly sweet and cheesy to really hate. I was even entranced and charmed once or twice by the whimsical musical numbers and Judy Garland's pistol-waving skills.
Liberal Arts: Probably not as great of a film as I thought it was, but I can't help myself. The title was LIBERAL ARTS, for crying out loud. Of course I loved it. Ah, academics. You are so funny.
Stars in My Crown: My favorite movie from our western film class so far. I don't think I've cared about the characters and story of a film so deeply and emotionally since To Kill a Mockingbird. Also has a song that will stick in your head for forever, so be warned.
The Gunfighter: This one is just waiting to be turned into a liberal commercial for gun control. I was really angry and annoyed at how it began and how it ended. And yeah, at the middle too. It felt good when the marshal (who was pretty much the only likable character) finally delivered a well-deserved punch to a certain individual, yet it wasn't enough to assuage my anger and frustration.
Othello: Great cast, great play, great film. I'm seeing this play live the next time I get a chance.
Theater:
Phantom of the Opera: Ah, the theah-tuh! I had a lot of fun watching this with Matthew. Great songs, orchestra, dancing, set design (loved how the chandelier actually swung out over the audience!), acting (Raoul particularly wowed me, though that isn't extremely difficult to do since I have come to expect mediocrity from his character), makeup (they went with the pink fleshy Two-Face skeleton look for the Phantom's scars, and it worked pretty well, at least for us in the third row), dancing (actually, the dancing was a little meh because I'm a former ballerina and can spot the sloppy bits), and a fantastic spectacle (especially loved the tall guy on stilts during the Masquerade number and how they made great use of wires for the Phantom to fly around and mystify everybody with his sudden appearances and disappearances). My biggest complaint was probably that Christine wasn't as loud or powerful a singer as I wanted, but you can't have it all. Anyway, she hit the right notes and looked and acted the part well.
Books:
Unwind: Stands up to a second read-through. I had forgotten just how much I liked this one! Lev is sort of annoying, though.
UnWholly: Did its job in totally psyching me up for the third one. Lev is still a little bit irritating, but all the other characters are developing really nicely.
Othello: Great play - I read it while watching the Kenneth Branagh film version (which I just now remembered watching and posted up there with the films), and it's a pretty fascinating one to puzzle over. I'm definitely Team Iago for the evilest Shakespeare villain competition.
And Then There Were None: Delightful, short, but intense Agatha Christie mystery that has some surprisingly western elements in it (of course, killing Indians is a dead giveaway). The ending is so devious and twisted - I quite enjoyed it.
The Slave Community: I didn't quite finish this one, but read over 3/4, so I'm counting it anyway. The author argued that slaves exercised a great more agency and control over their personalities, communities, cultures, families, and lifestyles than most people have assumed from the Sambo stereotype, and for the most part, I agreed. I'm auditing a class on Southern history this semester and this was one of the books. I tell myself that someday I'm really going to study all this stuff for real, but in the meantime, I learn what I can.
Movies:
The Dark Knight Rises: I don't remember much, to be honest. I think I liked it. Anne Hathaway was surprisingly decent as Catwoman, though I really wasn't impressed with my normally wonderful Tom Hardy playing Bane. After the Joker, I guess any villain seems a little... eh. But really I just like snuggling with Matthew and making superhero jokes.
Hidalgo: Oldie and a goodie. Lots of horsies!
Looper: Intriguing idea, pretty compelling story, awesome cast, but the surprise twist ending seemed a little bit too simple for me. Left me wishing there had been something more.
Inception: More Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy doing what I like to watch them do.
Edward Scissorhands: This was Matthew's first time seeing this, after I insisted. Now he can truly call himself a fan of Johnny Depp.
The Mark of Zorro: The SECOND time I've seen this Douglas Fairbanks silent classic. It's actually pretty hilarious. The stunts are superfreakinfantastic.
Mantrap: Interesting enough silent film. Probably too long. I got pretty irritated with the main flirty lady who cheated on every man she fell in love with. In the words of Grandpa Joe, what she needs is a good kick in the pants.
Snow White and the Huntsman: It took us SO long to see this, and sadly it wasn't really worth the wait. I like Snow White from Once Upon a Time better, and I make fun of her ALL THE TIME, so that should give you a pretty good idea of my feelings about Kristen Stewart playing the purest, divinest, most beautiful, innocent fairytale character ever. By the way, the biggest thing I knew about it from the media was that K. S. had slept with the director, so every time the characters talked about how good and pure her character was, it took great effort not to make the phhhhhhhhhhhhhhht sound and roll my eyes.
Bernie: Fantastic film with a lovely dark twist of humor and delightfully exaggerated presentation of Texan hospitality/reality. I loved all the characters, even the simpering and babyish Jack Black, and got quite a few of the songs stuck in my head.
Drums Along the Mohawk: I felt like I was watching the entire Little House on the Prairie saga if it were set in colonial times. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing. It was long and tedious at some points, but generally interesting and enjoyable, especially the feministy parts. Henry Fonda in a ponytail and evil British guys with eyepatches are also not to be dismissed so easily.
The Ox-Bow Incident: Torturous buildup to a climactic and powerful ending. This film still bothers me.
Pitch Perfect: Fun film. fun music, fun characters, fun, fun, fun (I feel like I've made my point).
My Darling Clementine: I should probably mention at this point that I'm taking a western film class, so that's why half the films on here will be westerns. There will probably also be a lot of Henry Fonda. I had seen this film before, and it's pretty good, though the stupidity of certain brothers does amaze me. The best part was probably humming "My Darling Clementine" in the HFAC bathroom when everyone else was inevitably humming songs from "Phantom of the Opera."
Harvey Girls: What a silly little excuse for a western this was! Yet, try as I might to dislike it, it was too fun and colorful and weirdly sweet and cheesy to really hate. I was even entranced and charmed once or twice by the whimsical musical numbers and Judy Garland's pistol-waving skills.
Liberal Arts: Probably not as great of a film as I thought it was, but I can't help myself. The title was LIBERAL ARTS, for crying out loud. Of course I loved it. Ah, academics. You are so funny.
Stars in My Crown: My favorite movie from our western film class so far. I don't think I've cared about the characters and story of a film so deeply and emotionally since To Kill a Mockingbird. Also has a song that will stick in your head for forever, so be warned.
The Gunfighter: This one is just waiting to be turned into a liberal commercial for gun control. I was really angry and annoyed at how it began and how it ended. And yeah, at the middle too. It felt good when the marshal (who was pretty much the only likable character) finally delivered a well-deserved punch to a certain individual, yet it wasn't enough to assuage my anger and frustration.
Othello: Great cast, great play, great film. I'm seeing this play live the next time I get a chance.
Theater:
Phantom of the Opera: Ah, the theah-tuh! I had a lot of fun watching this with Matthew. Great songs, orchestra, dancing, set design (loved how the chandelier actually swung out over the audience!), acting (Raoul particularly wowed me, though that isn't extremely difficult to do since I have come to expect mediocrity from his character), makeup (they went with the pink fleshy Two-Face skeleton look for the Phantom's scars, and it worked pretty well, at least for us in the third row), dancing (actually, the dancing was a little meh because I'm a former ballerina and can spot the sloppy bits), and a fantastic spectacle (especially loved the tall guy on stilts during the Masquerade number and how they made great use of wires for the Phantom to fly around and mystify everybody with his sudden appearances and disappearances). My biggest complaint was probably that Christine wasn't as loud or powerful a singer as I wanted, but you can't have it all. Anyway, she hit the right notes and looked and acted the part well.
Books:
Unwind: Stands up to a second read-through. I had forgotten just how much I liked this one! Lev is sort of annoying, though.
UnWholly: Did its job in totally psyching me up for the third one. Lev is still a little bit irritating, but all the other characters are developing really nicely.
Othello: Great play - I read it while watching the Kenneth Branagh film version (which I just now remembered watching and posted up there with the films), and it's a pretty fascinating one to puzzle over. I'm definitely Team Iago for the evilest Shakespeare villain competition.
And Then There Were None: Delightful, short, but intense Agatha Christie mystery that has some surprisingly western elements in it (of course, killing Indians is a dead giveaway). The ending is so devious and twisted - I quite enjoyed it.
The Slave Community: I didn't quite finish this one, but read over 3/4, so I'm counting it anyway. The author argued that slaves exercised a great more agency and control over their personalities, communities, cultures, families, and lifestyles than most people have assumed from the Sambo stereotype, and for the most part, I agreed. I'm auditing a class on Southern history this semester and this was one of the books. I tell myself that someday I'm really going to study all this stuff for real, but in the meantime, I learn what I can.
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