January 7
Stir Crazy!




Listening to: See the list below

Reading: Soft Focus Jayne Ann Krentz

Weather: 40, partly cloudy

Trivia: Do people with arthritis suffer more joint pain in damp weather?

The correct answer to this question is yes, and no. Some arthritis sufferers claim they feel better in dry, warm conditions, and report that their joints ache when it's about to rain or while it's raining. Others report the exact opposite, while others report varying degrees somewhere in between. One of the problems is that there are two major kinds of arthritis: inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis or gout, and osteoarthritis or "rheumatism," which is also described as wear-and-tear arthritis and is less inflammatory. The general consensus is that weather doesn't really seem to affect inflammatory arthritis. With other types of arthritis, however, there have been studies in which patients kept diaries and researchers tallied their ratings of how bad they felt on a given day against reports of local temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. Different studies came to different conclusions, with no single study being large enough, well designed enough, with homogeneous populations, or running long enough to come to any real conclusions. There did seem to be a general consensus that changes in barometric pressure, rather than the weather itself, may be a cause of discomfort. But there are many, many different cause for arthritis and the main determinant for how bad any single person feels on any given day is probably the nature and course of the disease itself. So don't plan that move to Florida just yet.

Cool word:callous (KAL-uss) - Unfeeling or insensitive; hardened emotionally. "Patrick discovered that he had become an utterly callous boss after having gone through three rounds of downsizing with his current company."

callus (KAL-us) - A hardened patch of skin. "Having a tendency to run around unshod whenever possible, Kathy had developed a thick callus on either of her feet, making her habitual barefootedness easier for her to maintain."



So I stayed home again today. I still felt lousy when I got up, but by about noon I was starting to rally. I was also going stir crazy. I had started those stamping projects and discovered that I needed (ok, wanted) some more paint pens. I’m really into this acetate stuff. I also wanted some embellishing supplies for the things I was making from the Ultra thick.

Then there was the music issue.

As I wrote to Michael, I am feeling musically restless. I just can't find any music to listen to that makes me calm or happy, which is a pretty sad statement to make. I need something new and interesting and have no idea what it might be. It's unusual to not have my Broadway stuff or the Beatles make me feel better, but they're boring me. Nothing is any good today.

All of these factors meant….I HAD to go out!



I hopped in the shower, did a cursory styling of my hair, threw on disreputable clothes and went to the craft store. Without makeup and with bags and circles under my eyes that are about two feet deep. I still look downright awful.

I got my pens, glitter glue, and more UTEE in black. I can happily stamp for a while. I also got an acrylic box to put these pens in so they’ll stop rolling all over the place.

I have serious storage and organization issues that need to be dealt with. But they can’t be dealt with until I’m willing to throw out some of the things I’ve accumulated over the years. Especially the two thousand romance paperbacks that I’ll never read.

But that’s another story and something I can’t face yet.



Of course the entire time I was out I was glancing around furtively making sure that there was no one who might know me in the vicinity. Teachers who are sick should not be out in public during the school day!

Fortunately I didn’t see a soul.



I then decided that I had to find new music to listen to.

Keep in mind that I already own over a thousand CDs.

So I wandered through best buy and picked up a rather eclectic selection of new CDs. I bought four: "The Only OTHER Broadway CD You’ll Ever Need", which is a nice smattering of Broadway tunes; "Pavarotti and Friends for Guatemala and Kosovo" – Pavarotti sings with Joe Cocker, Gloria Estafan, Lionel Ritchie and others (I got it because he sings "No Matter What" {my obsession song} with Boyzone; The Cranberries- "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We" (I liked them on the "You’ve Got Mail" Soundtrack); and Harry Connick Jr. "Come By Me".

I put them all on the CD player. Along with the Ally McBeal, and put the player on shuffle. So now I have things to listen to and each new song is a surprise.



This is going to sound wimpy, but I was exhausted when I got home. Everything in me ached and just wanted to lie down and go to sleep. It’s the strangest feeling.

I fought the urge, though and did some more stamping and surfing.

I also finally hung the prints I had bought when I was in New York City in October. It involved rearranging the pictures that were already on that wall, and seemed like a daunting task, but it wasn’t so bad. I think there may be too many pictures on that wall now, but it’s my New York theme and I want to keep them all together.



Dee called and talked me into going to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. In that I hadn’t had a real meal all week and it was just down the road a stretch I agreed. I actually ate healthy food, like a salad, baked potato and chicken.

I need to go grocery shopping.

But that requires more energy than I possess.

She is going to the all day rehearsal/coaching session tomorrow. No way am I even going to attempt it. I know I can’t sing because all I do is cough, and I also know that there is no way I can stand on risers from ten till four.

And I hate the coach they’re bringing in. She’s nasty.



I got an e-mail from my principal telling me that my adult ed course is going to run, so that starts next Tuesday. Glad I’ve already taught it once, I don’t have to think too much about what I’m going to do. I do need to get all the papers run off though.

That makes my leave of absence from the chorus absolutely necessary.

No turning back now.

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Horoscope: ARIES

Make sure you talk a good game at work as well as performing your tasks well, since if you do not let people know what you can do then how are they going to find out your capabilities? Also carrying out your tasks of course is necessary but do take some time out to let everyone know about your successes if you crack a problem. Steady perseverance is your key to building up your assets and your most precious possession, your reputation.