Monday night I slept like a fucking rock. It was called melatonin and about 3 hours of sleep in 36 hours. When I woke, I felt amazingly refreshed, so much so that I thought I'd fully recovered from the jet lag.

Jet lag is a temporary disorder that causes fatigue, insomnia, and other symptoms as a result of air travel across time zones.

My day was planned to be pretty calm-meetings have generally ground to a halt and, thanks to me going through a depression over recent events, I have been stunningly apathetic as well. I have over 1100 unread emails. I don't see that number going down any time soon. I did have to go to London, though-I had an appointment with my therapist comfortably set in the afternoon, so it was a calm commute. Angus was off to the head office in the late morning, and as I decided to go out and do a good deed, I got my coat on and went outside to scrape the windshield of the car that he would be driving. Which is where I saw that the car I would be driving to the station later that day had a tire as flat as my sister's chest.

Goodrich, BF The company started in 1896 has many firsts: First synthetic rubber tire, first tubeless tire, first American-made radial tire, the first space saver spare and the first "run flat" tire.

There was much swearing.

As neither of us had time yesterday or today to deal with said puncture, we carpooled up and I dropped him off at the station. Returning to the house, I showered, grabbed yet another cup of coffee, and then got ready. I dressed in my Statia-approved butt hugging jeans (pictures of said denim products to come), then I drove our one functioning car to the train station, where I hopped the train to London.

The first steam powered train was invented by Robert Stephenson.

And I played with my Nintendog the entire way. Once in London, I got on the tube and rode it forever to the suburb where my therapist is. I walked through the freezing cold neighborhood, iPod in action, and when I got to the house he shares with other therapists, I had to wait downstairs in the lounge as someone with issues was running over into my time.

I glanced at the bookshelf. It was full of crunchy hunchy love shit, like 'Men are From Mars', 'Anger-Control It, Beat It, Live With It', and 'Magical Acupuncture'. It was right about when I saw an entire shelf of Carlos Castenada that I wondered if I should get my tie dye and my peyote out. Carlos fucking Castenada! I was relieved by the fact that at least the therapists all shared one good trait-they had the entire series of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' on DVD. I wonder what that says about the therapists.

They also had the entire Stanley Kubrik collection on DVD, I think that says even more about them.

When my meeting kicked off, it was unfortunately floods of tears. I think I cried for the entire hour, as I was able to tell him about the One Person episode, which I hadn't been able him about since we had a two week lapse between appointments. It was a good visit, even though I was furious that I had made it a week without crying and here I was, a fucking basket case all over again.

450 million people worldwide are affected by mental, neurological or behavioral problems at any time. About 873,000 people die by suicide every year.

I head home and pre-cook us a dish of macaroni and cheese, which we would warm up after we had an event in the evening.

The Chinese are on record as having eaten pasta as early as 5000 BC.

When we returned home, we chowed down on the baked mac n cheese and then settled in for some TV time. I've been deliciously happy to see my boy again, despite him not liking the Care Bear Band-Aids (or the Little Nemo ones I also purchased!) When we went to bed his fingers ran up and down my neck, then his hands ran up and down my back, then other things were involved as we had the second round of loving in 12 hours (we'd missed each other, really.) I fell asleep curled up in his arms, happy as a bug.

There are roughly 21 words in Latin for the word 'love'.

-H.

PS-What? What's with the trivia bits, you ask? Oh yeah. I forgot to mention it! So after I dropped Angus off at the train station in the morning, my phone rang. My pajama'ed self debated not answering, but in the end I did hit the 'yes' button on the pink phone. It was a producer for the BBC. They called to tell me that they loved my application and had advanced me and 14 others to the final round of auditions for 'The Weakest Link'. My audition is next Wednesday, and will determine if I make it on the show or not.

All that useless trivia in my head will hopefully come in handy after all.

Fuck I'm scared.

Often referred to as your 'fight-or-flight' system, your sympathetic nervous system prepares your body for emergencies. It shunts your blood to your muscles and increases your blood pressure, heart rate and breathing rate, enabling you to cope with stressful situations.

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 09:51 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 932 words, total size 5 kb.

1 Holy cow! Weakest Link!!! Excellent. But won't that kinda blow your cover?

Posted by: Rob at January 25, 2006 11:30 AM (wZqoJ)

2 so exciting! if you are on the weakest link you must let us all know so we can see you! abs x

Posted by: abs at January 25, 2006 01:18 PM (7/LHf)

3 I love that show! When we were on our honeymoon, I made sure we were back in the room on time each evening so we could see it. That was back when it was on here in the States in prime time. Sad, I know.

Posted by: donna at January 25, 2006 01:25 PM (7ndSU)

4 Weakest Link? That is so fucking cool! You never cease to amaze me Helen. Good luck!

Posted by: Teresa at January 25, 2006 02:26 PM (zf0DB)

5 WOW, I am impressed! I hope you make it, and you should post a video on the blog so we can see your appearance!

Posted by: kenju at January 25, 2006 02:50 PM (2+7OT)

6 That's very cool, H. Congrats! Glad you are home safe and that you had a nice trip. Still a bit sorry you couldn't stop off in NYC on the way. Miss you!

Posted by: RP at January 25, 2006 03:18 PM (LlPKh)

7 .. the Weakest Link?.. you're one brave lady... good luck!...

Posted by: Eric at January 25, 2006 04:00 PM (r5XsL)

8 Any therapist who enjoys watching sprightly vampire slayers kick demon ass gets the thumbs up in my book. Congrats on The Weakest Link! I must say I enjoyed the tidbits of info in your blog entry as I am a trivia nut myself. Best of luck at the audition!

Posted by: Ornery at January 25, 2006 04:33 PM (2KXgQ)

9 Excellent! Good luck

Posted by: caltechgirl at January 25, 2006 06:19 PM (uI/79)

10 OMG OMG! I'm so excited for you! Oh, have fun with that, Helen! That's so great, enjoy! And I'm glad you got a chance to that other thing off your chest to your therapist. Love the fact they have "Buffy" on DVD to peruse through. *laughs*

Posted by: Amber at January 25, 2006 06:52 PM (zQE5D)

11 DUDE!! The Weakest Link?! Cool! Also, um, hello.

Posted by: Orodemniades at January 25, 2006 11:24 PM (Bd74n)

12 Oh my, you must tell us every little detail about the next round. Oh wait, you're Helen, of course you will.

Posted by: Marie at January 26, 2006 12:03 AM (0GUd3)

13 If you get on the Weakest Link, and let us know when you'll be on... we'll promise not to tell anyone.

Posted by: B. Durbin at January 27, 2006 03:29 AM (tie24)

Hide Comments | Add Comment