Fall 2006
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25 December 2006
Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!
21 December 2006
Happy Winter Solstice! Also, I have a bunch of updates about the studies I had during the past week, but I don't have the time right now. I'll just say that it's all good news so far and I don't have anything serious like epilepsy or patent foramen ovale. And tomorrow me and John drive up to Mars, Pennsylvania (tee-hee, Mars) to spend Xmas with his parents, and one week later we fly to Puerto Rico to spend New Year's and Three Kings Day with my parents. Off to pack I go!
12 December 2006: 10pm
I had my appointment with my new neurologist this morning, after having slept barely 3 hours last night. The experience with this new doctor was remarkably different than with the other neurologist -- this time things went great! He actually read through my migraine history thing that I wrote (7 pages so far), and as he read he was underlining stuff and asking me questions and taking notes. After a quick physical exam, he told me that the first thing is that I need to have some studies done to determine if what I have is migraine or something more serious. He ordered me an MRI (which I will do this Friday), an electroencephalogram (which I will do on Tuesday of next week), transcranial doppler ultrasound (also next Tuesday), and an echocardiogram (tomorrow afternoon). What does an echocardiogram have to do with migraines, you may ask? Well, as it happens there is a condition called patent foramen ovale, which is a small hole in the heart. This can cause gas to get into the bloodstream, which makes bubbles, and bubbly blood messes up the brain causing seizures and migraines. So, I have to do an echocardiogram to determine if I have this. If I do, then I have to get surgery ( o.O !) to fix it, possibly getting rid of the migraines in the process. I really hope I don't have this though, because the thought of having heart surgery is quite scary... The doctor also gave me new medications: Lamictal as a preventive and Relpax as an abortive. He gave me samples of the medications instead of prescriptions, because he said that it's pointless to make me spend money on medications that may or may not be as effective as I need them to be. If these medications don't work, he'll switch me to a different set of medications. If the meds do work, then he'll write me prescriptions for them. And if after a while we can't find any combination of medications that works, then he's going to give me Botox injections (!!!) because apparently they've been proven to be effective as migraine treatment... So, in the next week I will have four studies done on me to find out what is wrong with my brain, and then next Wednesday I will see the doctor again to discuss the results from the studies and determine a treatment plan... Not long after I left the doctor's office, the sleep deprivation caught up with me and I went home and collapsed. Right now I'm still quite tired but not sleepy in the least bit, so I'm fearing another night of insomnia will happen again tonight (I hope not)... Today I took the first dose of the migraine preventive and tomorrow starts the round of studies, and all this will hopefully be the beginning of the end of my migraines... Wish me luck!
11 December 2006: 4am
I've been trying to sleep for four hours now but I can't fall asleep. So, I decided to take a look at my little migraine diary (basically a text file I've been keeping as a diary of all my migraines). I have an appointment with a new neurologist on Tuesday morning, so I decided to add a summary of migraine medications to the beginning of the file so that it's easily accessible when I see this new doctor. I'm quite happy that I made the appointment on Friday and won't have to wait for 2-3 months to see the doctor, like it happened with my other neurologist (who, by the way, still hasn't called me back about the near-death Verapamil experience, and it has been over a month already). Anyway, I was looking over my little migraine diary, and decided to add up the migraines I've had since I started writing down each day I had one. I was oddly surprised with the results. I mean, I know I've gotten tons and tons of migraines lately, but looking at the numbers makes it even more so, if you know what I mean. Ready? During September 2006 I had 16 migraines (53% of the month). In October 2006 I had 10 migraines (32% of the month). And in November 2006 I had 20 migraines (67% of the month). That's too many. Way too many. Insanely ridiculously way too many. I've basically spent half of the past three months with migraines (46 out of 91 days). This is not healthy. And so far I've had 4 migraines in December, and the month is only 11 days old... It's no wonder I had to postpone my thesis committee meeting! I haven't had enough migraine-free time! By the way, the new date for my committee meeting is 29 January 2007, so I'm hoping that by then the migraines will be under control and I will have enough lucid time to do some good research... And now I'll go back to trying to force myself to sleep. Sigh...
1 December 2006: 9pm
Oh wow. I mean... just... wow... Avatar... man... That season finale... Damn... I was yelling at the TV, *screaming* at the TV. Why Zuko, why??? Poor Aang! What's gonna happen now??? Such a sad and frustrating and infuriating ending. And yet so amazingly well written and possibly the best episode so far... The next step of the journey is sure to be hard on the protagonists, all of them. Damn... Just... wow. No words. Just... wow...
30 November 2006
Ever since Thanksgiving, my migraines have been following a peculiar pattern: two migraine days followed by a migraine-free day, then repeat. I had a migraine on Thursday, one on Friday, none on Saturday. Then again one on Sunday, and on Monday, then none on Tuesday. And then one again on Wednesday and one on Thursday (today). If the pattern holds, that means that tomorrow will be a migraine-free day. I sure hope this happens, because I have a meeting with Cole tomorrow afternoon to talk about my research, so if I don't have a migraine then I can get a lot of work done during the day before the meeting. And, you know, I'll actually be able to go to the meeting... Speaking of meetings, my thesis committee meeting has been officially postponed until possibly the last week of January. I really didn't want to do that, but it's necessary. There is no way in hell I would have been ready for a thesis meeting by next Friday, what with all the migraines I've had and all. So now I'm in the process of rescheduling, and I'm shooting for the end of January. I'm hoping that by then my migraines will be under control (cross fingers, knock on wood) and I'll have a lot more results to present... So yeah, tomorrow: migraine-free -- I hope so, for the sake of my research and research meeting, as well as for the fact that the Avatar season finale is tomorrow night and it's going to be super awesome, and if I'm all migrainy I won't enjoy it as much.
28 November 2006
I find it highly amusing when someone replies to the answer email I send them for their Ask an Astrophysicist question -- especially when they reply that my answer is wrong. Even more amusing is when some guy replies that my answer is "trite" because he studied quantum mechanics for his bachelor's degree. Gasp! Guess what? So did I! And then proceeds to explain to me exactly why my answer is wrong, while breaking a few laws of physics in his explanation... *roll eyes* ... Though to be fair, sometimes I get "Thank you" emails, which are very nice indeed. But yeah, the pompous "I am right and you are wrong, you ignorant scientist!" emails are amusing, if also a bit infuriating and frustrating.
25 November 2006: 11pm
I just got home from spending the past five days in Dallas, Texas, with John and his family. We went to John's uncle's house for Thanksgiving on Tuesday afternoon, and left today. It was a very nice and relaxing few days. I only had migraines on Thursday night (which lasted around 12 hours) and Friday afternoon (which lasted around 5 hours), which is a much better migraine situation than I've had in the past few weeks. I spent the migraine-free time playing videogames with John and his brother Fletcher, hanging around the house, playing with John's nieces who are just adorable, going shopping, eating turkey, and doing other such Thanksgivingy things. And tomorrow it's back to reality: doing chores, grocery shopping, and getting back to research. But right now: it's off to unpack!
19 November 2006
Feliz Cumpleaños, Glorieli! And Happy Birthday to my beloved John, who turned 3^3 today. He's soooo old now: 27, damn, that's 90% of the way to 30 ;-)
16 November 2006
A few random thoughts, because I'm sleepy and trying to stay awake... I want a new neurologist. This guy hasn't called me back yet about the horrendous side-effects that I got from that medication two weeks ago, and Axert hasn't been doing diddly squat to get rid of the oh-so-frequent migraines that I get. Maxalt (which I can't take anymore, at least for a while) may have a few not-so-great side-effects, but dangit, at least it makes the migraines go away eventually... The website to change health insurance benefits is frickin slow. Took between 1 and 2 minutes for each new page to load after clicking on "Continue". But I changed my health insurance. Whoo-hoo! Now I have to wait until January for the new one to become effective... Oh yeah, the Democrats won control of Congress last week and I forgot to mention it. Must have forgotten about it in the migraine haze. Yay Democrats! Now let's hope they don't go bad any time soon... The Wii comes out on Sunday (which also happens to be John's 27th birthday). Even though there are many stores around here that will sell it, I might not be able to get one because I didn't pre-order one. And besides, I won't have any time to play videogames anyway until after the thesis committee meeting... Something in my office just to my left, I believe the thermostat, keeps hissing every 10 minutes or so, and it's somewhat annoying... There's three weeks left until the thesis committee meeting and I haven't been able to do as much work as I want to because of the stupid migraines, to the point that Cole is considering asking for a postponement... There's a commercial for some store, I think The Gap but can't remember very well, where they have this snow-covered winter style place, and there's a woman dressed in a way that I can only describe as "Jedi", even though it's not supposed to be. Am I weird? Or just a nerd? Maybe both... It rained like hell today, and it was really windy, and when I went to get lunch at the cafeteria a gust of wind pushed me to the side. The rain stopped about 10 minutes ago... There's a new episode of Avatar tomorrow that promises to be amazing. And after that there's a two-week wait until the season finale. This show is quite addictive... I had a 36-hour migraine during the last two days. Two Axerts didn't make it go away... I slept 5 hours last night, 4 hours the night before, and it's 5pm now and I'm frickin sleepy. I think I'll go home, take a nap, and then do some work again later tonight...
13 November 2006
I just added a new story to my Funny Stories page: Despistá. It's all about how absent-minded I can be sometimes, particularly on three occasions in the last week. Go read it and have a laugh at my expense.
4 November 2006
Feliz Cumpleaños, Vanessa!
1 November 2006
Ok, no more Verapamil for me. I took the pill for the first time last night, and within two hours of taking it I was insanely dizzy, could barely feel my arms and legs, had a cold sweat, my mouth was dry and felt like I had sand in it, and then I started having problems breathing. It was *really* scary, because I was lying in bed not able to even sit up because I was limp all over, breathing shallow as if I was hyperventillating, covered by blankets and sweating but freezing as if it was 10 degrees in the room, and my tongue felt fat and was somewhat blocking my throat so it made it harder to breathe. I was *this close* to calling 911 but I couldn't pick up the phone. Somehow I managed to fall asleep sometime between 2 and 3am, and then I woke up at 5am feeling very thirsty but not able to walk to the kitchen to drink water. I fell back asleep some time after that and then I woke up at 8am with a really painful migraine on the left side of my head. I didn't know if I was able to take Maxalt because of having taken the Verapamil last night, and the Axert was still kidnapped in the pharmacy due to the health insurance prior-aproval crap... I called my neurologist and explained to the secretary what had happened. She made a note of it and said that she'd give it to the doctor and then call me back later (btw, right now it is 10pm and I haven't heard back from her... hopefully tomorrow), but of course she told me to not take Verapamil again. As if I hadn't thought of that already, geez. It felt like I was going to die, of course I'm not taking it anymore! Then she told me to call the pharmacy and ask if there is any kind of interaction between Maxalt and Verapamil. I called the pharmacy and asked, and the pharmacist told me that there are no interactions so I was allowed to take Maxalt to make the migraine go away. And she also told me that the Axert had been aproved already, which was a pleasant surprise and I'll pick it up tomorrow. So I took a Maxalt and tried to sleep again. The migraine went away some time in the afternoon, not entirely sure what time though. And I've been woozy/dizzy ever since... I guess now the doctor will give me a different medication for preventing migraines, perhaps that 'old-style' antidepressant he mentioned. But I am certainly going to stay away from blood-pressure medications. The one small dose of Verapamil I took last night certainly lowered my blood pressure beyond an acceptable level, which is why it felt like I was about to die... This is so frustrating, seriously. I just want the migraines to go away, or at least to be under control. But I don't want to feel like I'm about to die in order to prevent the migraines from happening! *sigh* :-(
31 October 2006
Well, yesterday I finally went to the neurologist. After a very weird physical exam in which the doctor tested my reflexes (how many fingers, follow the pen, walk on tippy-toes, stand on one leg, does this feel cold, stick out your tongue, etc), he determined that my brain most likely is not injured in any way because my reflexes are fine. Therefore, he rules out MRIs or any other kind of brain scan, because nothing will show up in them. My brain is just "misbehaving". So we're gonna go with a combination of preventive and abortive medications. He will not give me Topamax, given that I already took it and although it was very effective at preventing the migraines, I experienced all sorts of nasty and serious side-effects. He instead prescribed me a low dose of Verapamil, which is a blood-pressure medication. It has few if any side-effects, but since it's a blood-pressure medication it might lower my blood pressure to the point of making me dizzy or faint. If that happens, then we're switching to an "old-style" anti-depressant (not Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft or any of those) which might make me sleepy and gain weight (speaking of, I now weigh 113 pounds, which puts me right smack in the middle of the healthy BMI scale [∼21] -- which means I've gained on average around 20 pounds in the last year and a half). As for the abortive medication, he's taking me off Maxalt and putting me on Axert, which should be as effective as the Maxalt in getting rid of the migraine but without making me drowsy for hours. And of course, my health insurance is giving me grief because it's requiring prior aproval for Axert as it did with Maxalt. Gah, I can't wait to change health insurances (November!). So, I'll be on Verapamil and Axert unless they don't work well -- in which case the doctor will switch me to different medications. The point is that there are various options that can be tried, and he'll try everything that's necessary until we find something that works on preventing and treating my migraines. Hopefully the new medications will work fine, since in about five weeks (December 8th) I have my first official doctoral thesis committee meeting, and I need to get a *LOT* of work done before then... Oh yeah, and today was Halloween and I put on black clothes and black makeup, thus becoming Goth for a day, hehe. And I also got my Appa plushy today, which I had ordered from Kings Dominion a few days ago. My new Appa plushy is all soft and huggable (look at the pictures this guy took of his Appa -- doesn't Appa look just huggable? and mine looks just like that one). Yay, Appa! By the way, Avatar: The Last Airbender is the best pseudo-anime action/fantasy cartoon ever. I just got into it a few weeks ago and it's just awesome. Ergo, I got an Appa plushy. And I love it. I'll go hug it now...
26 October 2006
Happy Birthday, Justin!
6 October 2006
Dear Mr DMV Guy: First of all, there is no middle name anywhere in my name. The last name is "Alicea-Munoz", the whole thing. Yes, believe me, I should know what my name is, dontcha think? And neither part of the last name is a maiden name. Oh, and I'm not caucasian, I'm Puerto Rican but just really pale... Also, I'm an astronomer, not an astrologer. Astronomy is a science; astrology is not. Astronomers are the ones who measure stuff about stars and planets; astrologers make it up as they go along. Yes, yes they make it up as they go along. Really... No, I did not have anything to do with Pluto being taken out of the planet club... No sir, you are wrong: Pluto is actually smaller than the Moon, and it has no atmosphere. It's not the only one either, since Mercury also has no atmosphere. Mercury? Yes, it's a planet. The closest to the Sun. No, the one that has the 'rover thing' is Mars. Yes, Mars has an atmosphere... I really have nothing to do with NASA missions getting delayed a lot. I'm just a grad student working at NASA; I'm not in charge of any missions to Pluto. Do I even look old enough to be in charge of something like that? I didn't think so. And actually, it's not NASA's fault either. This is what happens when the government cuts science funding millions of dollars at a time... Oh, you're gonna stop asking inane questions now and get back to processing my car registration? Good... [Dang, I shoulda said I'm an astrophysicist instead of an astronomer, and maybe I would have saved myself from all the astrology/Pluto/NASA nonsense].
4 October 2006
Awesome. I just met this year's winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, John Mather. And I took a picture with him. Cool :-)
3 October 2006
It seems that the fates have smiled on me. My Maxalt prescription was FINALLY released. I have 9 migraine pills now. Finally.
2 October 2006
As you may or may not know (from either talking to me recently, or reading about it here), I've been getting way too many migraines recently. It's something that's disrupting my life and I won't shut up about it. Last week I missed four days of work because of waking up with migraines (well, technically three, since one of the migraines started while I was at work already, but I had to sleep for a few hours at work and then leave early, so it pretty much counts as another missed day of work). I made an appointment with a neurologist god-knows how long ago, and there's still 28 days left until the appointment. I went to a doctor here to get a prescription for Maxalt, the medication that I take when I get migraines, because I had ran out of this pill. This was three weeks ago. When I went to a pharmacy to fill the prescription I was informed that my new health insurance (grrr, piece of crap, mumble mumble) requires prior approval for this particular medication. The pharmacist said the process would take two or three days. I had to buy five pill out-of-pocket (which was over $100) because I simply cannot be without these pills considering how frequently I've been getting the migraines. This was three weeks ago, right before going to Lake Tahoe with John. When I came back from my trip I went to the pharmacy to get the rest of my medication, and they said that they hadn't heard back from my doctor. I called my doctor, and the secretary said that she'd submitted the approval request, but she hadn't heard from the health insurance company yet. Then she asked me for my insurance ID number. Odd, since if she submitted the request she should have that number somewhere on my record. Very well then... Time passed. I kept calling my doctor and asking the secretary if my prescription had been approved yet. Every single time she said she hadn't heard anything from the health insurance. I called the health insurance, and they told me that the doctor had been calling the wrong number, because they have this whole entire different phone number for doctor's offices to call to request approvals for medications -- a phone number that is nowhere to be found on my insurance card. I called the doctor again and told the secretary about this magic hidden phone number that she was supposed to call and she said she'd get right on it... More time passed... I had only five pills that I was stretching out as far as I could, only taking a pill when a migraine was "very severe", which is quite hard to figure out since every single migraine is, by definition, severe... Then come the events of the past week. I had a migraine on Tuesday. That day I got a call from the doctor's office. The secretary told me that she'd heard from my insurance company and they had processed the approval of the Maxalt, so I could pick up the rest of my prescription any time now. Great, I thought, but I can't go because I have a migraine. I'll go tomorrow... On Wednesday I got a migraine while in Goddard. Could not go to the pharmacy. That day I took the last Maxalt I had left. I thought that it's lucky that the prescription had finally been approved, since I just took the last pill. On Thursday I woke up with a migraine, so I was not able to go to the pharmacy. Same thing happened on Friday. On Saturday I woke up migraine-free, and spent the entire day basking in the glow of a pain-free existence. I picked up John at the airport Saturday night. He arrived but his suitcase didn't. We waited for it all day Sunday (it finally got here late on Sunday night). Sunday night I started getting a migraine, and began to mentally kick myself for not going to the pharmacy on Saturday to pick up the prescription. The migraine lasted all through the night and today (Monday) I woke up still with the migraine. Luckily John was here and he drove me to the pharmacy. There I found out that they didn't have the health insurance's approval yet. Odd, since I was told that it was approved by the doctor's secretary... The pharmacist begins to make calls: to the doctor, to the insurance company, back to the doctor, etc. As it turns out, the doctor (or her secretary, I'm not sure) requested approval FOR THE WRONG MEDICATION, and therefore I still can't get my migraine pills. At this point I am so unfrickingbelievably pissed off that I started crying. Crying out of pure anger does not help a migraine go away. Fortunately, the pharmacist was kind enough to give me one pill and take note of it in the prescription, so that the pain I'd been in for about 12 hours already didn't control my life for too many more hours. I took the pill and the pain started going away about 6 hours later. After this I called the doctor's office. Turns out the secretary had NOT started the process to change the approval to the correct medication yet, even though she knew about it since the morning. She again asked me for my health insurance ID number. She called me back around 6pm and said that the approval for the correct medication had gone through and that in about two hours the prescription should be ready. Great, I thought... John and I went back to the pharmacy at 8:30pm, and as it turns out (of course, because I have the worst health insurance in the world and the most incompetent doctor-secretary team in the universe), the Maxalts had not been approved yet. Uh-huh. Still no approval. AAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! ... *deep breath* ... Now the only thing I can do is just sit and pray to the gods of migraines that I be spared of one tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after, and every day after that until I can finally get the fricking approval for the fricking medication that I fricking need... Needless to say, I am never again going to this doctor. And as soon as the open season begins (November!!!), I am changing my health insurance to something else... And no, I haven't seen the neurologist yet. Appointment is still for October 30... I can't help but think that if migraines were a fatal condition, I would have been dead three weeks ago, when they first denied me the medication I so badly need to control them...
27 September 2006
Feliz Cumpleaños, Angélica!
25 September 2006
My first shift for Ask an Astrophysicist begins today! Yippee!
23 September 2006
Happy Autumnal Equinox!
18 September 2006: afternoon
Managed to fall asleep by 5am. Woke up around 9:30. So sleepy now...
18 September 2006: 3am
It's 3am on Sunday night/Monday morning. I had a migraine on Thursday that lasted until Friday afternoon. On Saturday I woke up with another migraine. Sunday was migraine-free. The three days with migraines completely messed up my sleeping schedule (due to sleeping during most of the migrainy time) to the point that right now I cannot even pretend to fall asleep. I went to bed an hour ago, and here I am, not even the slightest bit sleepy. I was planning on going to the DMV on Monday morning and getting there early, before they open, so that I could get the whole drivers license and car registration thing done quickly -- but this would require me to wake up three hours from now. I thought that I could maybe get by on four hours of sleep and then go to bed early at night, but right now I don't think I'll even get three hours of sleep if I still intend on waking up at 6am. Ergo, no DMV for me on Monday morning. I just hope I can at least go to sleep before 5am so that I can sleep until 9am (and hopefully wake up without a migraine), and get to work relatively 'early'... I know I've said this before, but seriously, these migraines are driving me crazy. They're happening obscenely frequently and sometimes lasting days on end. They're annoyingly painful, they paralyze my life, imprison me in my apartment for days, mess up my sleeping habits (even more than they already are), and make me miss work and fall behind on research. I would have had so much progress on my research by now if it wasn't for the stupid migraines I've been having twice per week or more for the past three months or so. I feel guilty for not being able to be as productive as I want to be/could be, and completely helpless because I can't seem to be able to do anything about it. The preventive medication I was on stopped having any effect on the migraines months ago, so I stopped taking it. The abortive medication (the one that treats migraine attacks when they are happening), although effective, most of the time takes too long to kick in, making me drowsy in the meantime -- and when taken too frequently, it gives me rebound migraines (because obviously it's not intended to be taken daily). And this particular medication is also ridiculously expensive... And I still have to wait until October 30 to see a neurologist. I would really like to know why I am getting so many migraines. Why me, why now? I've been unfortunate enough to have migraines pretty much all my life, but they haven't been this disruptive since I was in fourth grade (when I would actually faint from the pain). And it's frustrating, because even though people are sympathetic (or at least try to be), they could not possibly understand how crippling these migraines are, how they are not just 'really bad headaches', unless they too suffer from migraines. I can't help but be paranoid that people think I'm exaggerating, or that I'm just a hypochondriac, or something along those lines. Or worse -- that I'm faking it. I hate having these migraines, I hate having to miss work because I wake up with one, I hate falling behind on research because the severe head pain precludes me from concentrating or sometimes even opening my eyes and looking at the computer screen. There is no possible way that I could be actively pursuing the migraines, nor that I enjoy them in any way. I just want them to go away. I just want to be normal again... And right now, all I want is to be able to go to sleep ... *sigh* ... I think I'll go take a warm shower to see if that helps somehow...
14 September 2006
Feliz Cumpleaños, Carlos!
13 September 2006
Feliz Cumpleaños, Javier!
13 September 2006
I'm back home now, after a wonderful weekend with John. I arrived at SFO on Friday night (after much airport hassle), then on Saturday afternoon we drove up to Lake Tahoe (of course, this was after we finally found my lost suitcase). On Sunday, the day of our anniversary, we took a long drive all around the lake (while taking lots of pictures) and into the nearby desert valleys in Nevada. Then at night we had dinner at Cafe Fiore, a cozy little Italian restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. After dinner (which was delicious), we went to a casino at the California-Nevada border, where I won $10 in the slot machines (it was my first time in a casino, by the way). Then on Monday we went to a spa and got therapeutic deep-tissue massages, which were very relaxing. We spent the rest of the afternoon on Monday playing Mario Kart on our Nintendo DS's, and then later in the night I got a migraine. At least the migraine didn't interfere with any weekend activities. Yesterday (Tuesday) I flew back, and now I'm home. And I already unpacked! Can you believe it? By the way, all the entries here dated Sept 8 to Sept 10 were uploaded today because the wireless internet at the resort we stayed was not very good, so I was offline all weekend long.
10 September 2006
Two years, the best of my life. Could only be better if there wasn't such a large distance between us. Fortunately, this will change soon enough. Happy two-year anniversary, sweetie. I love you.
9 September 2006
Did you see that little airport rant from yesterday, and wondered where I was going? Well, as it happens, tomorrow is mine and John's two-year anniversary, and since last year he came to visit me then this year I come visit him. But we're not in San Francisco -- we're in Lake Tahoe! It just so happens that John is participating in a workshop on computational methods that meets here in Tahoe this week, so I came along with him to enjoy our anniversary weekend in a ski resort (Granlibakken) that is currently snowless because it's September. Even though yesterday I had a horrible airport experience, I'm sure the rest of the weekend will be much, much better.
8 September 2006
BWI to LAX delayed. Land at LAX at 9:38pm PDT. Connecting flight to San Jose departs at 9:45pm PDT. F#ck. Airplane takes forever to taxi and park at the gate. Move through crowded plane aisle and wait at plane door for it to open. Emily's flight landed at gate 67, near the end of terminal 6. Emily needs to be at gate 81, at near the beginning of terminal 8 -- in less than five minutes. Double f#ck. Door opens and Emily runs like hell. Arrive to gate 81, out of breath, heart pounding, at 9:47pm PDT. Plane already left. Triple f#ck. Frustration. I ran all this way and ... leg cramp! Leg cramp! Leg cramp! Emily falls to the floor, flat on ass. People at gate say they can reroute me to San Francisco. Ok, fine, whatever. Flight is already boarding, departs in 15 minutes. What gate? 69. Right next to where I just came running from. Quatruple f#ck. Walk back, not quite running but still faster than normal. Arrive at gate 69. With no boarding pass. Information hasn't been received at this gate. Plane already boarded. Have to wait more... Finally allowed on plane. Door closes behind me. Heart, pounding, feels like heart attack about to happen. Head, throbbing, hurting. Sit in exit row. Chest hurts, vision blurred. Ow, pain. Can't feel legs... I hate airports... And my luggage? Missing. Of course...
3 September 2006
Happy third-year anniversary, Emily's Universe!
