Or Something Like It

The World Health Organization has reported that four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the US and other developed countries are mental disorders. By 2020, Major Depressive illness will be the leading cause of disability in the world for women and children.*

I'm annoyed by having to write today.  I'm tired and I have a headache and my chest and back hurt from coughing violently all day.  But I'll write what I can.

The first order of business is that "Rick" has requested that we here at Life, Among Other Things change his alias to something "cool" like "Fat Tony."  I have taken a vote and the staff has vetoed this.  We will however, be willing to change his name to something less dweeby, like Dane or Kale.  So henceforth, the uses of the names Kale or Dane will refer to this person.  We apologize for any future confusion this may cause.

Secondly, I must complain about my lungs.  They decided without my consent that they would not be joining me at my soccer game today.  However, they did not attempt to exit my body until well into the first half.  I find this to be in poor taste.  It was during said first half that they tried to escape by forcing themselves up out of my trachea, which simple mathematics will tell us that this is impossible.  You cannot force an object out of something smaller than the object (barring childbirth).  When my lungs discovered that they would not be able to leave through my trachea, they just decided to prevent the oxygen I was inhaling from entering my bloodstream.  This in turn made the conversion of glucose into ATP much more difficult, and so my muscles joined the demonstration by making movement very difficult.  And so, I was mostly useless to my teammates, much as the girls on the other team were to them (that's my way of saying that their girls SUCKED).

On a less complain-y note, today was another good day for me.  I got up around 10 and made myself a delicious breakfast of waffles with powdered sugar and whipped cream.  Yum!  Went to the game, embarrassed myself by playing sluggish and horribly, and went home.  I try to stick to a routine as much as I can on Sundays, so I try to take Phoenix to the dog park directly after my soccer games, so that's what we did.  I really like this dog park, it's HUGE and it's all open space where dogs can run around off-leash and play with each other.  I remembered to use the app on my phone that measures distance (not a pedometer), and it turns out that walking around the entire trail is about 3 miles total.  That's about what I had estimated, but now I know and I can go running there with P from time to time, too.  I love my pup so very much, he's so well-behaved.  He likes to run around with other dogs and sniff them and play with them, and I love when he gets to do it.  It makes my heart smile.  Anyway, I also like this park because you can see for miles and miles and miles and I never ever fail to appreciate being alone on that path in such a beautiful place.  

We got home and I had to run to Target to pick up a prescription, and I wandered around the Halloween section while I waited for it to be ready.  Boy, I wish I were rich so I could buy a bunch of decorations!  It is this year, my 26th year on the planet, that I have decided that I like Halloween.  Previous years, I tell everyone how much I hate it, but this year I've decided to love it.  I love the feeling of the change of the weather, and watching all the different things on TV about haunted places, haunted attractions, ghost stories, and movies.  I recently bought Hocus Pocus and The Frighteners, and I've watched each one like three times since the beginning of October.  I love the decorations - I want to set up a mini haunted house in my yard and front porch for trick-or-treaters this year.  I love that purple has become a big part of the Halloween color scheme and purple products suddenly become available everywhere.  I like Halloween parties (I loved the decor at a party I went to last year:

...and it makes me want to have a party of my own!  Although I sincerely believe that not many people would show up.  And so I have a new-found appreciation for Halloween.  I've been watching show after show about haunted attractions and haunted places.  I can't wait to watch what they air every year, the 101 Scariest Movie Moments on Bravo, plus whatever like 13 other scary movie moments special they've made in the time since then.  I don't know if I'll actually go out and do anything this year, or even dress up, but I know that from now on, I'll be planning out how to decorate for Halloween every year!!

So here I am, sitting at my computer with my laundry in piles for me to get going on tomorrow.  The bane of my existence.  I once paid my little sister to put it away for me.  It's too bad she doesn't live here anymore.

I'm off the lithium, and I'm titrating my Effexor down 37.5mg a week until I'm off it.  Since I've even been down by just 37.5mg, I feel more energetic and less lethargic.  I'm also at a point where I'm forcing myself to go do things I'm invited to do so that I can get out of the house as much as I can, little by little, and I know that that's helping.  I'm really hoping to get to the gym a few times this week, which will probably only occur if my lungs decide to start cooperating.  As it is right now, every time I cough, it feels a little like my head is going to pop off.  

Eventually, I'd really like to be energetic enough to be able to make a commitment to joining the Boulder Emergency Squad, but I think that's a ways down the road.  I'd like to be healthy enough someday in the next year to begin functioning at the level at which I know I'm more than capable of functioning.  Which is a weighty goal.

*"NAMI | About Mental Illness." NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness - Mental Health Support, Education and Advocacy. 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. <http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Inform_Yourself/About_Mental_Illness/About_Mental_Illness.htm>.