Saturday, November 10, 2007

More stuck songs and a confession

The last couple of days, I've had these really annoying sappy love songs from the 70's or 80's going through my head. It's as if a drawer in my mind labelled "Songs I Couldn't Stand Even When I was Heartbroken and Thinking in Cliches" popped open and all these songs scattered around my brain. One of the songs is by some forgotten artist or band, and the refrain, "I need you now, more than I can say, I need you now..." is going through my head incessantly. Picture some tenor/borderline whiner with the prerequisite strings and orchestral stuff in the background. Yesterday it was some song by the group "Air Supply," and I mercifully can't remember how that one went. Although it did remind me of a comedian who commented, "If you get beat up at an Air Supply concert, you probably deserve it."

Anyway, I was in the shower today and inexplicably, Beethoven's Fifth started going through my head. Not the original version. The horrid, disco version from the 1970's that probably had poor Ludwig rolling over in his grave.

Which brings me to the eternal question once again: Why the heck do people get songs stuck in their heads? Since I am now working with a neuropsychologist, maybe I'll ask her about this. Maybe I'll get an answer. Maybe I'll get a prescription. But it can't hurt to ask.

Anyway, I also have a confession: Sometimes, when I am driving (preferably in the dark) and that Celine Dion song from The Titanic comes on the radio, I like to sing along with it at the top of my lungs. Not that I particularly like the song, but it's fun to sing along with.

There, I've confessed. I feel much better now.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Advice Martha Stewart Forgot to Give

1. If you are about 5'3" tall, and weigh around 130 pounds, and you decide that you really, really hate the old oak bookcase that has been serving as an entertainment center in your living room, you might want to plan ahead before moving it into the basement.

Specifically, you may want to take into consideration that a) the bookcase weighs twice as much as you do, and b) there is a turn at the end of your basement stairs, and there is no way that a bookcase that size will make the turn without being dismantled. If you fail to heed these precautions, don't be surprised if you are stuck with a bookcase stuck halfway down your basement stairs until your ever-patient father can rescue you with a variety of saws and a sledgehammer.

2. If a friend gives you a really good bottle of wine, and you have a glass, then you have another glass (repeat as needed), it might not be the best time for you to decide, "I think I'll paint the trim in my meditation room."

At least I got most of the paint cleaned up, but the bookcase is still wedged in the stairwell.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Another, erm...stimulating topic

Some of my (two or three) readers know that I finally managed to get transferred out of the ICU where I was working, and now I am working in a clinic, where the staff members are much, much nicer, and everyone seems relatively normal. Of course I still have my share of eccentric patients, but I wouldn't know what do do if I didn't.

Anyone who has been to a doctor's office probably knows that the office is inundated with drug reps, trying to get the docs to prescribe their meds, and often bringing samples. They often bring food, too, so my grocery bills have gone down significantly since I started working at this clinic. Anyway...

The staff received a warning from our boss that area clinics were being robbed for their drugs, and we were not to take samples of certain medications from the drug reps. Now, the reader may be thinking that our clinic stocks OxyContin, Vicodin, or other types of narcotics, but no. We neither stock controlled medications, nor are the thieves after these drugs. The thieves, apparently, have been stealing what in the medical community are known as phosphodiesterase inhibitors.

Cialis, Viagra, and Levitra are apparently the latest favorite drugs to steal. Yep, those drugs with the cute commercials of older men and women getting romantic, or men talking about their "ED." For anyone who has been living under a rock for the last couple of years, "ED" stands for erectile dysfunction. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, you're probably too young to be reading my blog.

So of course my warped mind had a field day with this information. I figured that the suspects would probably be easy to spot, depending on when they took the drugs. I also wondered how a thief that stole drugs for impotence would fare in jail. How do you explain to your big, burly cellmates that you were stealing a drug for those who, erm, can't, ummm, perform properly?? I don't think the "I was doing it for a friend" excuse would work either.

Of course, I couldn't help but think of the courtroom drama that could be made out of this. "The defendant rigidly maintains his innocence," "the prosecutor was impotent during the closing arguments," well, use your imagination. I wonder if I should email the CSI people.

I have to admit, though, that as I worked late yesterday, and was the only one left in the office, I began to wonder about crazed, impotent men trying to break down the front door to our clinic to steal the Levitra. I figure if you have come to a point in your life in which you feel the urge (ahem) to steal drugs for impotence, you are probably 1. desperate, 2. crazy or 3. both. In any case, I would not want to be caught alone in the clinic with someone like that.

So if for some reason my boss stumbles onto this blog, I apologize for not turning all the lights off. I couldn't find the last light switch, and I started thinking about how I was alone in the clinic, or was I?....You can take the higher electric bill out of my next paycheck.