So, last Wednesday I had a seizure, a fall-on-the-ground twitching seizure, about a block away from my house. Since then, I've been trying to call my neurologist to tell him, because I'm switching medications and a seizure is a pretty good indication that something is not working, but he's not picking up. Nobody's picking up - no secretary, no voicemail service, nothing.
I'm worried that this new medication is making me lose my mind.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Travel (trāv'əl) - Guatemala
As both of you know, I recently came back from a month-long trip through Central America. I visited Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua (blech), Costa Rica, and Panama. Let's start with Guatemala.
Guatemala: Grow Free and Fertile
First stop in Guatemala was Guatemala City, but we'll ignore that, partly because I was there for less than 24 hours and partly because all Latin American capital cities are completely skippable. My next stop was Flores, which is on an island the size of, I don't know, the East Village. It could be smaller. It's basically just a jumping-off point for getting to Tikal, which is about an hour away by bus.
Tikal is an ancient Mayan city that's about four times the size of Flores. Half of it is hidden under mounds of dirt, so if you ever get billions of dollars, I suggest funding an excavation, cause the stuff that has been dug up is awesome. Tikal is where the ewok island (ewok planet? ewok village?) from "Star Wars" was set, if that means anything to you, which I doubt. There are all these giant temples that you're allowed to climb, but I'd recommend just climbing like two, because the stairs are steep and scary and probably like fifty temple-climbers a year fall to their deaths. Plus, the day after I went to Tikal, my thighs were killing me. The stairs are very steep and narrow - perfect for tiny Mayan feet, I guess, but shitty for huge New York feet.
Anyway. Other stuff to do in Flores: swim around Lake Petén Itzá. The water is really warm and clear and beautiful and I spent hours floating around, doing nothing. Caveat: the lake is filled with tiny, sardine-like fish and they will swarm around you. I also had a good time shopping in Flores.
While I was in Flores, I stayed at this hostel called Youth Hostel Los Amigos. I don't remember much about it. The pros were that it was cheap, the cafe had good food, and it looked like something out of "Swiss Family Robinson" - all the wooden ladders and vines hanging around and all that. The cons were that it was loud, hot, and buggy, but that's just an unavoidable part of hostel living.
The next place we stayed was Finca Tatin, a hostel about 45 minutes from Rio Dulce. This is a good place to stay if you want a relaxing stay in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, in the middle of nowhere. There are no shops, no restaurants, no neighbors close by, and you can only get there by motorboat. It's made up of a couple buildings on poles in the middle of a muddy swamp, right next to a lake where you can go swimming whenever you want. You can go swimming at midnight; they won't stop you. There's a rope swing and a sauna, so if you want to do the sauna-lake-sauna-lake thing, that's available. You can rent kayaks, if that's your thing. It's basically a place to get away from It All. If you wanted, I suppose you could go to Rio Dulce. I have two memories of Rio Dulce: pantsless toddlers and the stench of rotting meat. But you can go if you want.
We also spent a night in Livingston. Livingston is right on the beach; you can see Belize across the water. And it's gorgeous. It actually looks like a movie set. But you can't swim in the ocean there; it's covered with dead fish. If you want to go swimming, you have to go to Los Siete Altares, which are seven hot springs. They are fantastic. Very buggy, though. The whole town is pretty buggy. All of Guatemala is pretty buggy. Bring some strong bug repellant.
Anyway, that's Guatemala for you. Stay tuned for the rest of Central America!
Guatemala: Grow Free and Fertile
First stop in Guatemala was Guatemala City, but we'll ignore that, partly because I was there for less than 24 hours and partly because all Latin American capital cities are completely skippable. My next stop was Flores, which is on an island the size of, I don't know, the East Village. It could be smaller. It's basically just a jumping-off point for getting to Tikal, which is about an hour away by bus.
Tikal is an ancient Mayan city that's about four times the size of Flores. Half of it is hidden under mounds of dirt, so if you ever get billions of dollars, I suggest funding an excavation, cause the stuff that has been dug up is awesome. Tikal is where the ewok island (ewok planet? ewok village?) from "Star Wars" was set, if that means anything to you, which I doubt. There are all these giant temples that you're allowed to climb, but I'd recommend just climbing like two, because the stairs are steep and scary and probably like fifty temple-climbers a year fall to their deaths. Plus, the day after I went to Tikal, my thighs were killing me. The stairs are very steep and narrow - perfect for tiny Mayan feet, I guess, but shitty for huge New York feet.
Anyway. Other stuff to do in Flores: swim around Lake Petén Itzá. The water is really warm and clear and beautiful and I spent hours floating around, doing nothing. Caveat: the lake is filled with tiny, sardine-like fish and they will swarm around you. I also had a good time shopping in Flores.
While I was in Flores, I stayed at this hostel called Youth Hostel Los Amigos. I don't remember much about it. The pros were that it was cheap, the cafe had good food, and it looked like something out of "Swiss Family Robinson" - all the wooden ladders and vines hanging around and all that. The cons were that it was loud, hot, and buggy, but that's just an unavoidable part of hostel living.
The next place we stayed was Finca Tatin, a hostel about 45 minutes from Rio Dulce. This is a good place to stay if you want a relaxing stay in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, in the middle of nowhere. There are no shops, no restaurants, no neighbors close by, and you can only get there by motorboat. It's made up of a couple buildings on poles in the middle of a muddy swamp, right next to a lake where you can go swimming whenever you want. You can go swimming at midnight; they won't stop you. There's a rope swing and a sauna, so if you want to do the sauna-lake-sauna-lake thing, that's available. You can rent kayaks, if that's your thing. It's basically a place to get away from It All. If you wanted, I suppose you could go to Rio Dulce. I have two memories of Rio Dulce: pantsless toddlers and the stench of rotting meat. But you can go if you want.
We also spent a night in Livingston. Livingston is right on the beach; you can see Belize across the water. And it's gorgeous. It actually looks like a movie set. But you can't swim in the ocean there; it's covered with dead fish. If you want to go swimming, you have to go to Los Siete Altares, which are seven hot springs. They are fantastic. Very buggy, though. The whole town is pretty buggy. All of Guatemala is pretty buggy. Bring some strong bug repellant.
Anyway, that's Guatemala for you. Stay tuned for the rest of Central America!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Fuck it, I'm sexist
Everything is sort of falling apart; I don't know if I care.
I've been thinking about sexism a lot lately, and the conclusion I've come to is this: everyone is sexist, and they need to own it. We all need to say, We are sexist, because it'll force us to realize that sometimes, when we make generalizations about women or men (but mostly women, por supuesto), they're just our retarded biases. People are always saying things like, "Well, I'm not sexist, but women are biologically programmed to be caretakers/can't control their emotions/just aren't funny/are all bisexual and want to be watched doing it with other women/have too much power." (Racists are the same way: "I'm not racist, but black people just aren't smart/Asian women are all after white guys' money/Jews control the media.") If they admit they're sexist, take out the, "Well, I'm not sexist, but..." part, they may realize, hey, I'm making ridiculous, unfounded statements, and even though I sometimes think these things, I have to take a step back and analyze why I think this way.
I've been thinking about sexism a lot lately, and the conclusion I've come to is this: everyone is sexist, and they need to own it. We all need to say, We are sexist, because it'll force us to realize that sometimes, when we make generalizations about women or men (but mostly women, por supuesto), they're just our retarded biases. People are always saying things like, "Well, I'm not sexist, but women are biologically programmed to be caretakers/can't control their emotions/just aren't funny/are all bisexual and want to be watched doing it with other women/have too much power." (Racists are the same way: "I'm not racist, but black people just aren't smart/Asian women are all after white guys' money/Jews control the media.") If they admit they're sexist, take out the, "Well, I'm not sexist, but..." part, they may realize, hey, I'm making ridiculous, unfounded statements, and even though I sometimes think these things, I have to take a step back and analyze why I think this way.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Fake it til you make it?
I should be nicer. I've come to this conclusion. Yet something holds me back - I'm not a nice person. Will I be a fake if I suddenly start acting nice? Or is that something everyone does? Is everyone just as mean as I am? The only reason I want to be nicer is because I want people to be nicer to me. I want to go out with a nice guy. Does everyone act nice just so people will be nice to them? Interpersonal relations are not my strong suit, so I'm honestly not sure.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Gerbil surprise
My brother got a gerbil - Harvey Charizard. Google tells me that Charizard is a Pokemon character. He's keeping it in my sister's room, where he sleeps when she's at college. She comes home for spring break on Thursday. We're keeping Harvey as a surprise.
I've decided that Chicago Dom is lame and I want nothing to do with him. He got really mad on Friday because I made a joke about death. He says death isn't funny. I don't get it. Hasn't he ever heard a dead baby joke? He also said it was disgusting that I wanted my grandmother to die, and it's like, she's 88, she's deeply unhappy, she can't move around, all her friends are dead, her husband is dead, and all she does is sit around watching CNN. I think at a certain point, you'd have to be crazy to want to keep living. When she was 100, my great-grandmother decided she'd had enough and stopped eating, and three or four days later, she was dead. That's not tragic, it's natural. She was basically immobile and she was kind of senile and I'm sure she was bored and all she could eat was mashed-up nursing home food. People aren't meant to live like that. I'm not saying that it would have been immoral or disgusting for her to keep living, or that people who are paralyzed have no reason to live. I'm just saying that I can understand why she wanted to die and if I could have, I wouldn't have done anything to stop her. She was 100. She lived a good long life.
To end on a happy note, I'd like to say that I love peeing. It just feels good. Poor syphilitics.
I've decided that Chicago Dom is lame and I want nothing to do with him. He got really mad on Friday because I made a joke about death. He says death isn't funny. I don't get it. Hasn't he ever heard a dead baby joke? He also said it was disgusting that I wanted my grandmother to die, and it's like, she's 88, she's deeply unhappy, she can't move around, all her friends are dead, her husband is dead, and all she does is sit around watching CNN. I think at a certain point, you'd have to be crazy to want to keep living. When she was 100, my great-grandmother decided she'd had enough and stopped eating, and three or four days later, she was dead. That's not tragic, it's natural. She was basically immobile and she was kind of senile and I'm sure she was bored and all she could eat was mashed-up nursing home food. People aren't meant to live like that. I'm not saying that it would have been immoral or disgusting for her to keep living, or that people who are paralyzed have no reason to live. I'm just saying that I can understand why she wanted to die and if I could have, I wouldn't have done anything to stop her. She was 100. She lived a good long life.
To end on a happy note, I'd like to say that I love peeing. It just feels good. Poor syphilitics.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The opposite of domination
So, as most of you know, I've been experimenting with BDSM. Exploring my submissive side. I spent last week in Chicago with a dom I met on the internet (yes, that's retarded, but I'm back in Brooklyn and I'm alive, so I guess it's all good), and I really like him and hopefully we're going to fall in love and get married... but I shouldn't jinx it. The point of this entry is the local dom, DomBro, that I have to get rid of now. He told me he loved me, which is retarded and kind of obnoxious, considering he doesn't know anything about me. I hope he's lying, because I definitely don't love him and if he meant what he said, I feel bad for him. I told him this would never work out and he was like, "But you said you loved me," and I was like, "Yes, because you told me to, you dumbass." I can't believe he's arguing with me. Who argues when you say you're not interested? What the hell? This is New York City; there's no shortage of freaks. So I sent him a list of all the things I didn't like about being with him and he said he would change all of those things. How is it domination if I can tell him to change things about himself? This is so frustrating. But I'm very hopeful about Chicago Dom, which of course means that he is going to break my heart.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The one and only reason high school is important
Some guy was talking about how this woman he'd slept with was really trashy because she drinks and smokes and swears, and it got me thinking. As far as I can tell, everyone in the world has trashy habits, everyone. I, for example, am a really annoying drunk and I swear a whole lot and I have terrible table manners. Some people eat fast food or let their thongs show or chew tobacco or accept money for sex or smoke crack in the bathroom at work - these are tiny habits that are usually considered kind of whatever, but in some people, they're trashy. I don't know. I think it has to do with grammar. I think you can do whatever you want and as long as you're saying, "He and I went downtown to find prostitutes," instead of, "Me and him went downtown to find prostitutes," you're in the clear.
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