Monday, November 5, 2018, 2:10 p.m.
I so needed this today. So much stress, peaking with the Daylight Saving Time change yesterday. And with finally going online to Harborside and not finding any suitable tinctures that are affordable. To top it off, at 2:30 a.m. I had what was my fifth migraine since last November. So I ordered a refill of sumatriptan.
My computers changed time automatically, but my smartphone and fitness trackers did not. It took me two hours to find how to manually set them and how to sync my Garmin and Fitbit with my phone.
I could see it was going to take me the rest of the day (using up all and more of the “extra” hour I got) to manually set the remaining six clocks in the house. I started with the alarm clock by my bed which only advances numbers. So I had to go 23 numbers ahead on the hour and 56 numbers ahead on the minutes. The next clock that I took down from the wall to reset pulled the nail/hook out of the wall and I couldn’t find it. Leaving that one for Linda! The one in the kitchen I had to stand on a chair to reach (and it’s NOT going back up there, believe me!) and it has been stopped for 2 years so I had to clean the kitchen grease off before looking for a battery and setting it. Now I needed a nap before attacking the remaining clocks!
If I could turn back time (more than 1 hr.), knowing everything I know now, I would go back to November-December 2015. That’s the last time all was right with my world. *sigh*
On the time-changing day, when everyone else is joking about how their dogs and cats and kids don’t know it’s a hour too early for their supper, my poor Emily and Linda both are sick and do not want to eat. Anything. At any time. I think I’ll just go to bed early and read and cry.
But I got up early, turned on the coffee, and got a shower. Linda was feeling better so I fixed fried eggs and cheese, but Emily didn’t eat any. Only Nutri-Cal and water which Linda forced into her with a large dropper.
The assistant who called my name was a white girl. She took me into a different treatment room than the usual one, and the massage chair was already in place. I mentioned that, and she said, “Yes, Mr. Simon brought that in for you.” She scheduled my next appointment, confirming that this one was No. 7.
Paul Simon was pleasant, seemingly more than usual, but maybe that was just because I was feeling so bad. To his “How are you?” I said I was more stressed than usual. He asked if there was anything in particular. “No,” I mumbled, “just life, I guess. And the time change!”
“Yes!” he agreed. “My mom used to tell me it had something to do with milking cows!” He reminded me there was a measure (proposition) on the California ballot about voting to keep Daylight Saving Time year round if the federal regulations changed to permit states to determine whether or not they keep the time changing. I sighed. If only!
“No board meeting this time?” Now of course a lot of information was in my chart, but not the board meeting. I was amazed that he remembered that from a whole month ago!
“Not until January!” I answered. But I told him about the migraine, because I knew he would put needles in for that, too.
I got into place on the massage chair and he put in the needles and put the bell on the arm rest between my hands. The music was playing softly, kind of a mix between Eastern and Western music. Paul turned on the heat lamp and turned off the room lights before he left.
I begin mindful breathing, trying very intentionally to relax my shoulders. It took a few minutes. As always, it was hard to not think about all I had to do when I got home: proofing a Kinship e-newsletter, creating a Church 1.0 email newsletter, and filling in a sample ballot for the elections tomorrow. Then cleaning the kitchen and dishes. But I thought about each one and then let it go. Although my eyes were closed, I knew the scene outside the window was of a sunny late autumn landscape of rolling hills and trees.
Paul came in at what is usually about the halfway point, asks “Doing okay?” and I mumble “Just fine.” Then he came in again at what I thought was the end and asked, “How much longer do you want to stay?”
“As long as you’ll let me!” was my answer, so he left and gave me an extra ten minutes! I made sure to thank him profusely for that! I definitely felt much better as I made my way back down the hall and around the corner to the exit to the waiting room.
