The Pain of Addiction

What I thought was a brain tumour turned out to be the pain of addiction.

Saturday morning I got up early (5:45am) to walk Rusty and get him settled before I had an 8am portrait session with a newly engaged couple. In a hurry to get to the site early I didn't have any coffee or juice, my two morning beverages. The shoot ran long and I had a couple of errands to run before heading to the local Honda dealership to purchase a new car so I missed breakfast, lunch and all of the hydrating opportunities in between.

Around mid afternoon I felt like I had a spike going through my temple so I took a couple of Tylenol with a big glass of water. No effect. Early evening I took two more Tylenol with two big glasses of water thinking I was dehydrated. No effect. I went to bed early on Saturday because of the pain and the fatigue of car-buying stress, and hoped that when I woke up Sunday morning I would feel rejuvenated and pain free. No dice. My head hurt just as badly.

Then the lightbulb went off. I had had no caffeine on Saturday and to be exact, I'd had no caffeine since Friday morning. So I ground the Ethiopian coffee beans we get from Aster's and started the coffeemaker posthaste. I quickly drank two mugs of coffee and within an hour I was fine.

Oh my gosh. I only drink coffee once a day which is a large mug in the morning. I don't drink soda or iced tea anymore. I may have a cup of green tea in the afternoon but I don't think I consume a sufficient quantity of caffeine to warrant such a reaction. How could my body respond to the lack of caffeine in such a cruel manner?

The lesson learned here is to set the coffeemaker timer the night before a morning photo shoot and bring the travel mug with me.

I love the Wii Fit Step Plus

I did this Step routine for an hour on Saturday and my legs and bum are very sore today. I love my Wii Fit!

RIP Tim Russert

Incredible. I can't believe the news that Tim Russert has died. I shared countless Sunday mornings with him and always enjoyed his presidential election coverage.

He never seemed to have an agenda and I think he was always fair with the guests on Meet the Press. He wasn't argumentative but in a civil manner he called people out when they contradicted themselves. He was the consummate professional.

Godspeed.

Whew

I picked up a Wii Fit Sunday morning and love it. I just spent 50 minutes hula hooping, doing a downhill slalom, heading soccer balls, and doing yoga poses. It's great fun.

It was no surprise that my balance wasn't great. My balance was shot to $hit about six years ago with my first bad MS relapse but hopefully it will improve with the Wii Fit's assistance.

The game seems pretty encouraging as you improve and does a good job of tracking your progress. Sam hurt his back over the weekend but I hope when he's feeling better that he'll enjoy this new toy also.

SATC the Movie

Hope and I saw SATC the Movie yesterday afternoon and it was delicious. It's been four years since we saw Carrie disappear into the NYC crowd answering a call from John, Mr. Big, and I was very excited about seeing another chapter in the lives of the SATC women.

The movie took us on a wonderful ride, filled with humour, sadness and love. I laughed out loud at so many lines and scenes, especially when Carrie exclaimed that Charlotte had Poughkeepsied herself. I got a little choked up when Steve made his confession to Miranda, when Big left Carrie at the library, and when Charlotte explained her reasons for stopping running.

The friendships seemed more grown up. Samantha seemed more maternal, taking care of her girls, and I think she had the best lines of the film. All of the women seemed more settled down, as 40-somethings trying to find themselves again after finding love. For Miranda it was still a hang up about living in Brooklyn, telling Steve that she changed herself for him. For Samantha it was the focus of her life changing to Smith Jarod over the previous five years, as she told someone that she said Smith's name over fifty time a day compared to uttering her own name just a few times.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film for so many reasons. The clothes, shoes and bags were great and the city of New York was beautiful as always. I was disappointed to see so little of Harry but as it was the movie was over 2 hours long so maybe there are a few Harry scenes on the cutting room floor.

I must also comment on how strange it was to see so many women, in groups, at the theater. Sam & I had brunch at The Steeping Room earlier in the day and there was a group of 15 women there taking tea before they headed to the theater. I can't recall another event that's given women an opportunity for a day, afternoon or night out like this. Very cool.

A Lovely Weekend

We met friends for dinner at Flip Happy Crepes last night for dinner. Sam & I had been there a couple of times before and we knew that they can get quite busy so I suggested we get there just as they opened, at 6pm, in order to find a good table.

As we were leaving the house to meet our friends I thought I'd made a big mistake in choosing our dinner time because it was still in 90s and the air was heavy. It was quite warm for the first 45 minutes or so that we were there but we were chatting with our friends, enjoying some beer and wine. Then as the sun started to disappear it turned into a lovely evening. A cool breeze started to blow and the huge pecan tree we were sitting beneath offered protection from the weakening sun's heat. That seemed to spark our appetites and we hurried over to the groovy Airstream trailer to place our crepe orders. Mmmh, they were absolutely delectable.

I take Rusty for his morning walk around 6am while it's still cool. As he's getting older I think he's less tolerant of the heat as he really slows down when we're playing in the heat. As we were walking around our neighborhood this morning a lovely strong cool breeze met us face on and it was glorious. All of the trees' leaves started to flutter and the scent of honeysuckle clusters floated through the air.

I tried to really take it in because it'll be stifling hot very soon and cool, delicious smelling breezes will be a distant memory.