You’re very funny, Mom.

October 27, 2003

My Mom made an observation about my comments regarding some of my decisions that I made when I was 18 that I thought would be appropriate to share with my readership:

“Duh.”

I hope that she wasn’t just referring to me, but to all 18 year olds. I’m sure if I had a window into any of your actions when you were 18, I’d probably get a pretty good laugh myself. Maybe it’s just something that comes with age, looking back on things you did or said years before, no matter how old you are. Or maybe at age 18 we’re all just a bunch of morons.

I took a walk today to stretch my knee out a bit, and naturally it hurt a little afterwards, so as I walked in I took a look for asprin in the house. I knew I didn’t have any in my bathroom cupboard–just Tylenol in there–so I checked my Mom’s medicine cabinet to see if she might have some lying around. Nope. Just asprin-free stuff and other non-asprin products. I called her since I knew she was out to see if she would stop by the store on the way home and pick me up a bottle, but she said that she was too tired and grimy to stop, but that she had some chewable children’s asprin in the kitchen.

Now, normally I’m all for adults being able to take stuff meant for children–after all, I take two Flintstones chewable vitamins just about every day (twice the dosage, but since I’m an adult…eh, it’s probably OK)–but these things were pretty bad. I’ve accidently chewed asprin in the past and regretted it ever since, but since these said on the BOTTLE that you were supposed to chew them…. Wow, it took me awhile to get the taste out of my mouth. Good thing the pills were so big and had such a small dose–81 mg–of actual asprin in them. I didn’t know how much asprin was in the pills I took at my Dad’s this past week, but I knew it HAD to be more than 81 mg. This evening my knee finally got so uncomfortable that I drove down to the local pharmacy and picked up a bottle of 325 mg pills. I take three of them, which means that in order to get the same dosage in my three pill regimine, I would have to chew 12 of those horrible chewable ones.

Oh yeah, and the chewable ones expired in November of 2000. Little thing. It actually didn’t surprise me all that much. My family is notorious for keeping medicine long after its expiration date, yet somehow it doesn’t phase us for the most part. My Mom had a bottle of Chloroseptic that was more than ten years old for awhile that I finally threw out when she wasn’t looking (and was the main reason for my aversion to the stuff for so long–it had gone bad, essentially), and my Dad has a bottle of Pepto Bismol that lost its Pep in about 1989. No luck there. Chewable asprin probably doesn’t go bad that quickly, but it didn’t do me much good.

I was talking with a friend of mine over IM earlier today, and when I stood up to close the curtains I got a killer head rush. It was then I realized that all I’d had to eat today was the small amount of chips left at the bottom of a bag I bought last week or so and a bowl of cereal before I left on my walk. Oops. My metabolism has gotten really strange since I stopped jogging, and so I’ll wake up and not be hungry in the morning anymore, and then for some reason not be hungry much in the afternoon, either. It’s a bit odd to go from burning probably 1000 calories or more in a day on exercise to maybe half that and not have your body react in some odd way. Mine seems to be that I’m not too hungry anymore–which the rest of my body doesn’t like, at least not my brain. I’ve had some head rushes in the past and in comparison this was a cake walk, but it was pretty dumb of me in the first place, especially after close to a five mile walk. One time when I was in Yosemite a head rush came over me in a hot shower for no reason, and the only thing that kept me upright was me holding on to the bar in the shower. Another time I got up out of bed in the middle of the night and then realized I was on the floor and I had a bump on my head. Apparently I’d gotten up, passed out, and hit my head on my TV, because the clock that sat on top of it had gotten knocked off somehow. That was an interesting sensation, to not know how long you’d been lying on the floor.

I had another job application done and ready to go out in the mail today, but for some reason the mail carrier didn’t take it with him. We got a mail delivery, but he didn’t take my outgoing letter. Aargh. I got up early, too, to make sure that I could get it done and out in the mailbox before the mail was delivered. I was all set to sit and watch ER while I filled out this latest application, but the dorks at TNT were airing yesterday’s rained out NASCAR race. D’oh! No TV while I worked then.

I may have a job interview this week, however, though not for a specific position. My Dad has worked with someone at his job who he’s though I might like working with, and last week he asked about me and asked to see my resume. I gave my Dad a copy with a few of his suggestions implemented on it, so I may meet with him and my Dad later this week over a beer or two. Mental note: it’s OK to drink beer during a job interview, but not TOO much. Two pints over a single “meal” period of time are my limit for driving, but I think that it may be my limit over a job “interview” as well. Hope that happens and goes well. After all, it’s not about what you know, but who you know.

I keep saying it, and I keep saying it: no more walking until my knee is healed more, but I keep doing it because my knee feels better. I need some sort of exercise beyond lifting weights, after all, but I gotta stop walking. Yeah, I’m an idiot.

Hey, if I can recognize that now, maybe it’ll save me some grief five years from now!

Do I look like a person who should take three-years-expired children’s chewable asprin?