I’m having just a really hard time. A password-protected post is probably forthcoming. I just wanted to, you know, be a dramaqueen and draw attention to my Troubles.

I haven’t posted about all the terrible things happening in Haiti. Mainly because I don’t feel that anything I say would be adequate to convey the absolute heartbreak and terror that I feel when I think about the situation happening there since the earthquake. I keep typing sentences, reading them, and thinking “This isn’t enough. I’m not saying it right”. Deleting. Starting over again. It’s not working, so what you get is this.

I will say, if you can, please donate something. Our school immediately took money from the Winter Carnival fund and sent several hundred dollars to the Red Cross. It doesn’t have to be much. Rob and I aren’t rich – we can’t afford hundreds of dollars. But we sent all that we could. Even a dollar. My students took up a collection during homeroom on Tuesday and raised $30. Change from their lunch money. It doesn’t seem like much but it adds up. People need antibiotics. They don’t have them. They are dying from infections that could be prevented with a course of penicillin. I just took a course of antibiotics that cost $5 for 10 days’ worth. That $30 my class raised – medicine for 6 people. Solar powered flashlights. Clothing. Blankets. WATER. How many of us can imagine not being able to have clean drinking water, because it just isn’t there?

Canadians: I know you saw the concerts last night and already know it, but the federal government has promised to match every dollar donated via Canada For Haiti and any other official organizations. I’ve seen people mentioning on Twitter/Facebook etc. that we Canadians have given three times as much per capita as the US has -$67 million overall in a nation of 33 million. It’s true, and it’s wonderful, but that doesn’t mean we’ve given enough. Haiti was a pretty terrible place for most of its residents before all this started and it wasn’t something we saw covered by our media, but of course when a tragedy of this proportion happens a spotlight shines for a few weeks. Sometimes months. It’s going to take more than a few months to help these people. I’m hopeful that we won’t forget the people of Haiti when the media coverage fades, as it no doubt will.

Now, speaking of media… I’m want to share with you my favourite moment from last night’s Canada For Haiti concert.
K’naan was born in Mogadishu in 1978. He and his family lived through the horror of the civil war that began in Somalia in 1991. They moved to Canada, and he started learning English, some through hip hop albums. He began rapping, and is now an extremely successful hip-hop/Afropop artist. This song is amazing.

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Rob’s out right now writing a test for something, and I’m super nervous. So to take my mind off things I’ve been checking out insurance advertising to see if there is anything we could get that would be better than what we have (like, say, something that would actually cover any small part of any of the prescriptions/treatments we’ve been through this year).

At the same time, I’m watching the end of Josie and the Pussycats. Who knew they made that into a movie? Who knew anyone would want to make that into a movie? Phew, nevermind, it’s over.

Rob gave me a $50 gift card to Coles for Christmas. He knows me well. I finally got the chance to use it yesterday. And let me just say, holy crap, books are expensive. Two books (one hardback, one softcover) came to $48.26. Anyway. I purchased the latest Jennifer Weiner book (I’m addicted), and the novel Push, by Sapphire. Oh my God. I sat down, started reading Push, started sobbing, and continued crying for the next three hours until I finished it. It’s the book that the movie “Precious” is based on (I haven’t seen Precious yet. I know it’s won a bunch of awards but our theatre is busy showing us Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakuel) and it is amazing.

Of course, I sobbed this morning when I watched last night’s Ugly Betty, so your mileage may vary.

I’ve been sick (well, incredibly dizzy which makes me incredibly nauseous) for over a week now. But I have a ton of stuff to do at work this week, and the weekend’s looking pretty full of work, too, what with reports being due and such, so I’m not going to be getting much rest even if I do feel better by then. I’m thinking it’s probably wrong to plan a sick day a week in advance? Because the first day I can see on my schedule that I can “afford” to take off is next Monday.
By then, I will probably be all better and not need the day.

I don’t want to become a weirdo who just blogs complaints but I am going to blog some complaints:

1) I have been dizzy as anything all weekend.

2) The dizziness has caused me to not get any work done all weekend, when I really did need to.

3) I found out some pretty horrible news on Friday.

4) Last year we had 17 storm days. This year we haven’t had any. And I could really use one right about now.

5) BLEEEEEAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

6) Okay that’s all.

I bought this wig today:

(in approximately this colour)

It’s from eBay, so it’s going to be awhile before I get it but I’m looking forward to seeing it. It was less than $70, but it’s human hair (I’m pretty sure not anywhere near remy hair, but it should be fun for a bit)

Now if only I could get rid of the adult acne I could look forward to wearing it and looking alright.

Of course the wig is marketed toward Women of Colour (and I have about as much colour as a sheet of onion paper) so I’m a little worried that the lace will be the wrong shade for me, but I think there might be a way to fix that with makeup or whatever.

We got cable on Thursday and my gosh, the things I’ve been missing. There’s a show where people spend the whole hour writing their resumes and then at the end of the show they get a job (or at least an interview).

There are shows about people who don’t know how to clean their houses.

My favourite though was this show the other night where guys barbecued stuff. Yeah. That was the entire show. They barbecued stuff. Then other guys ate the stuff they barbecued. Then someone won. For barbecuing.

I might not be giving this show the props it deserves. I mean it had comedy (a guy holding up a slab of pork ribs and yelling “WILMA!”) and drama (“I forgot to sauce my pork. I FORGOT TO SAUCE MY PORK! Oh God, my pork.”).

Now, that’s good television.

I’m going to set down the tale of my prescription runaround.

My visit with the doctor basically took about 4 minutes. “I have an ear infection.” “Has any white matter been coming out?” “No, but the ear infection is just starting.” “How do you know you have an ear infection then if nothing is coming out?” “I’ve had these my entire life, like, every other month. I know what it feels like when they’re starting.” “It looks like your eardrum is bulging. Ear infections are caused by a blockage in the eustachian tube. Eustachian tube gets blocked when you have the common cold. The common cold makes your eustachian tube swell and then block. You need to take Claritin, and avoid catching so many colds.” “Uh, okay.”
Then he wrote a prescription for Bactrim and left the room.

I went downstairs to the pharmacy, and dropped off my prescription. They told me it should take about fifteen minutes, so I got a shopping cart and went and picked up some things (we needed bread and milk, and I wanted tomatoes). When I came back 15 minutes later, after I waited behind a man who was very confused about his cholesterol medication, the pharmacist took me aside. “Louise, the phone number you gave us, 3XX-XXXX isn’t the proper one.” “Huh?” “The phone number we have for you here is 8XX-XXXX. And your address is Blahdiblah Blah Villagetown Blah.”

“That was my address and phone number when I lived with my parents, but I moved from there four years ago. The phone number I gave you, and the address, are where I’ve lived since then. I’ve used them here for the past four years.”

She typed a little more into the computer, and then said “Oh! I see. We have two listings for you here. Just give me ten minutes to merge the two listings and then we’ll give you your prescription”.

Off I went to wander about the store again. This time I didn’t get any groceries, but I did hang around in the magazine/book section for a bit.

When I got back, the pharmacist looked at me apologetically. “Our computers are down… the guy is here fixing them now”.

All in all, what usually takes 15 minutes, 20 at most, took about an hour and a half.

But if you’re ever looking for tzatziki in the Superstore, I can point you to it right away. I’ve got that place memorized.
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If I ever had one, I should have nary a dark eye circle now.

I mentioned that I have an ear infection, and that I went in to the walk-in clinic to get some antibiotics. What I hadn’t mentioned is that for the first time in my 30-year history of ear infections every second month, I have never gotten dizzy from it. Except this time. By the end of the day, I’m nauseous from the vertigo and I end up teaching my last class of the day sitting down (which isn’t normal – usually I’m prowling through the classroom). Today I was having a meeting at lunchtime with my homeroom trying thinking up ways to raise money to send to the Red Cross for relief in Haiti, and I had to close my eyes to try and stop the room from spinning. It was crazy.

Yesterday when I got home from work I made it as far as 5h30 before I had to lay on the sofa. Rob went out to check the mail at some point before 6h30 and by the time he got back I was asleep. He sent me up to bed at around 10h, and I slept until 5h45 this morning. Well-rested, what?

I’ve been mostly okay today, a little, but less, dizzy. And it’s the weekend now so I can loll about. I think that by the time my 10 days of antibiotics are done, I’ll be fine. And I just have to think of the dizziness as a midway ride. It’s better than the Tilt-a-Whirl. A neverending, maniacal Tilt-a-Whirl.