Oh What a Night!

 The symptoms of schizophrenia are generally divided into three categories -- Positive, Negative, and Cognitive:

• Positive Symptoms, or "psychotic" symptoms, include delusions and hallucinations because the patient has lost touch with reality in certain important ways. "Positive" refers to having overt symptoms that should not be there. Delusions cause individuals to believe that people are reading their thoughts or plotting against them, that others are secretly monitoring and threatening them, or that they can control other people's minds. Hallucinations cause people to hear or see things that are not present.
• Negative Symptoms include emotional flatness or lack of expression, an inability to start and follow through with activities, speech that is brief and devoid of content, and a lack of pleasure or interest in life. "Negative" does not refer to a person's attitude but to a lack of certain characteristics that should be there.
• Cognitive Symptoms pertain to thinking processes. For example, people may have difficulty with prioritizing tasks, certain kinds of memory functions, and organizing their thoughts. A common problem associated with schizophrenia is the lack of insight into the condition itself. This is not a willful denial but rather a part of the mental illness itself. Such a lack of understanding, of course, poses many challenges for loved ones seeking better care for the person with schizophrenia.*

Boy, I'll tell you what! It's nights like these that make me dislike what little self-control I have that makes me want to stick to blogging every single day.  I just got out of the shower and it's 2:30am.  I had a pretty decent day, then went to a special promo event in Denver where I drank a lot of tequila and danced my ass off.  My feet hurt like a bitch because my awesome shoes are apparently just too awesome, and I'm beyond exhausted.  I had SO MUCH FUN.  I wish I knew what sets this night apart from any other night I've gone out dancing and drinking (it might be the free cover, free drinks and free food) (but it might also be the great people), but I had a blast.  Normally I'm very self-conscious about dancing, but tonight I just let that go.  Sometimes, you just have to move to the music, you know?  Most of my outdoor coed soccer team was there, and it was just so great to get to see them all outside of the seriousness and sobriety of Sunday morning (and occasional afternoon) soccer.  On the ride home, Jen and I just decided that they're all a group of plain ol' good people.  I was able to get Jonas and Jamie in, too, and it was so good to see them again.  Jonas even got his face painted (pictures to follow)!  

I'm tired and euphoric, so I'm going to hit the sack right away.  Work is in 7.5 hours, and then the plan is to cook and bake some comfort food and commence vegging.

Oh, and before I forget.  I took Jen and Rob home, and we had some semi-serious discussions about the state of affairs of my life.  They both read my blog, which is freaking awesome, and I really like to get feedback from them, and so that's part of what we talked about in the car on the way home.  I'm always pleasantly surprised when I find out that people care about me, or when I find out that they care more than I thought they did.  It looks like Jen and Rob care about me a lot, and that feels really good.  They are two people that I really love very much, they're not without their flaws, but they accept me and love me despite mine and I really can't ask for more. <3

*"NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness | Mental Illnesses." NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness - Mental Health Support, Education and Advocacy. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. <http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=54&ContentID=23036>.