Yay! Tomorrow is our first pet volunteer day. We're going to a senior day care center! We'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks Kelly and Rachel for migraine tips. I'm excited to try peppermint oil and acupuncture! But I'm hoping I don't get a migraine any time soon. I used to only get a couple bad ones a year, at most 2-3. And I've had 2 within 2 weeks. So I got worried. Couldn't quit coffee or chocolate, for sure.

This morning I woke up, rolled over, and looked down at the dog to see whether he was awake. He was in his bed with his eyes open waiting for me. For the life of me I can't sleep before 2 or 3 AM and then I can't get up before 11. It's horrible. I keep eating late at night too and that's so bad. I have to change my schedule. It's just hard being out of school and not having a real job.

So I got up and started sweeping the floor. There were tiny dust mice (smaller than dust bunnies, although I have once in my life seen dust BISON in a friend's apartment) in my room and in the hallway. When I crouched down to get all the debris into the dust pan, I saw tiny little semi-circular marks on the floor. They are shallow and tiny and many. Then I realized they were from the dog running back and forth to chase his ball down the hall!

I got the Christmas cards I ordered from Shutterfly! I'm so impressed with this company. It's so fast and easy. Sometimes I wonder what new technologies will spring up in the next generation. I have never used an iphone. I wonder if I will be behind. Like one of those people that has to get their kids to set technology up for them and show them how to use it.

Tonight I am making sausage, potato, kale soup. It's creamy. It has hominy. And it has a kick. I think I've posted the recipe before.

I love drinking my first cup of coffee of the day. It makes me feel wonderful about life. And then a half hour later things are back to normal.

Went to the doctor today to get migraine medication. Then I went to Rite Aide and found out they didn't have the generic one and that my medication cost $280! So back to the doctor tomorrow.

I can no longer have any of these as they may be triggers for my hellish aura-inducing, vomitous migraines. So, goodbye:
pickles
cured meats
red vinegar
yogurt
MSG
citrus
pork
ripened cheeses
sour cream
alcohol

I'm advised not to have chocolate, yeasty bread, peanut butter and avocados either, but I won't let them take everything from me!

From now on I have to be careful what I eat. Today I bought kale, tomatoes, avocado, organic grapes and carrots, zucchini. It's forcing me to eat fresher and healthier, which is good.

I dropped a book from the course texts this morning. I was going to use 3 anthologies but now I'm only using 2. Short Shorts edited by Howe and Howe has a good spread in terms of chronology. There's Tolstoy, Chekhov, Guy De Maupassant,Kafka, Joyce, D. H. Lawrence. There's also Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, Katherine Anne Porter, Isaac Babel, Mishima, Octavio Paz, and Marquez. So it has international breadth, too, and it doesn't go into the really contemporary flash. I think it's important to read the early stuff.

Then with Flash Fiction edited by Hazuka, Thomas, and Thomas, we plunge into modern flash fiction: Francine Prose, Dybek, Carver, Tim O'Brien, D. F. Wallace, Atwood, Updike, and lesser known names. And in the dropped book's stead, I'll make photocopies of work by Hempel, Lydia Davis, Mark Richard, Susan Minot and so on.

OK, just brainstorming out loud. My class is 15 big with only 2 men, which is interesting. I don't know what that means. But I think it will be a really fun class.

I've been getting terrible migraines lately. I had one on December 2nd and another yesterday. That's two in a week and I don't know what's setting them off. I usually only get one really bad one a year. I talked to my hairdresser about it today--we went through possible triggers: MSG, stress, not eating, bright lights, smoke. I think I've had some salty food this weekend in Miami and big weather changes. Also, there was cigarette smoke filtering into our apartment last night from downstairs to the point that I could smell it. I don't feel stressed, have been eating, haven't had much MSG so I have no idea. Maybe it's the laptop screen--but why now? Going to the doctor tomorrow for the migraines.

I hate that it gets so dark at 4:30PM. Depressing.

Have not been able to start writing/revising at all. I got a side job doing online tutoring through UMUC so I've been trying to get my forms filled, signed, and now I have to go to a notary service! Have not done any grocery shopping.

For dinner, I ate a leftover half sandwich and made my own salsa but it came out bad because the avocados were unripe. Boo. I should start going to the gym again but I don't like walking alone at night in B'more and I hate the escort shuttle because there's one guy driver that always wants me to sit in the front seat and I get the heebies even though nothing bad has ever happened.

Also, it seems like everyone is out of town. So quiet!

Quote of the day:
"Oh hell, it's just hair. It'll grow back!! Let's give it a dramatic angle!"
-my hairdresser talking to herself while chopping my hair off [have no frame of reference as to whether this looks great or not, but I know it doesn't look horrible...I hope!!]

Can't sleep and so I'm watching Dracula. The one with Winona Ryder and Keanu Reaves. I completely forgot that Keanu does a British accent in the movie. No, wait. I should say he does a "British" accent in the movie. It is hilarious. Stiff-necked, robo-movements and surfer dude speak with dropped /r/ sounds.

"No, sehh. Whot ah you implah-ing?" He speaks like that. So terrible!
I love how dramatic this film is. How other-worldly, foggy, gothic, and scary it is.

We've decided to feed Rocky more food. 1/3 cup more, in fact. Because he's so moody and irritable. M convinced me that it's the cumulative effect of the diet. All Rocky wants is to eat. It's his greatest pleasure in life. He was happier when he was a chubster. I want him to be healthy; I'm going to feed him more.

Earlier today I looked up apartments in San Diego. So expensive! It makes me a little worried about moving back. Also, I got an email from an old professor who told me not to move back!? That's a terrible thing to hear. He said that the economy is horrible for the next five years at least-- especially university jobs.

OK-so back to this movie. Falling in love with a vampire is ultimately loving the bad boy, right? I so am not into that. I guess I just like a man who is masculine and responsible. Vampires don't seem responsible because what responsibilities do they really have? What a reckless life. How are you going to take care of rent? By killing the landlord, I guess.

I am ready for Miami!