Sinus and Linus

So I went to the doctor this morning and it turns out I probably have a sinus infection. I told him that when I press the right side of my head, right next to my ear, my ear passage closes up. He looked up my nose with his magic light-wand-thingy and told me that there is definitely blockage. He gave me nasal spray and amoxicillin and a decongestant. So I came home with an armload of drugs. If I’m not better by the weekend, I’m supposed to get my sinuses x-rayed. I’ve always known that I needed to get my head examined. Thank you! I’ll be here all week.

This has been going on for a few months, actually. Every so often I wake up congested in the morning. And I got over a cold two weeks ago, only to wind up with a sore throat for the last two days. Fortunately the sore throat is gone.

But still, the past two evenings, I’ve come home from work, changed into sweatpants, crawled into bed and done lots of reading. I’ve been catching up on the New Yorker, I’ve been doing the Times crossword, I’ve been continuing to read The Power Broker. Good God! What an awesome book. I just passed the halfway point yesterday. Did you know that if Robert Moses had had his way, there would have been a Brooklyn-Battery Bridge intead of a Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and it would have seriously changed the view of lower Manhattan and ruined Battery Park? Did you know that if he’d had his way, there would now be an expressway running right through Greenwich Village? An expressway? There would be no Village today. There’d be a fucking expressway. What a fucker.

Tonight I watched part of the Charlie Brown Christmas special on TV. I’ve always felt a connection to the Peanuts gang. When I was a kid, I felt just like ol’ Chuck. Nothing ever seemed to go right for me. Then in elementary school we did the “book report” scene from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” I was 11 years old and I got cast as Linus. I got to recite Linus’s speech from memory.

In examining a work such as Peter Rabbit, it is important that the superficial characteristics of its deceptively simple plot should not be allowed to blind the reader to the more substantial fabric of its deeper motivations. In this report I plan to discuss the sociological implications of valiant (?) pressures so great as to drive an otherwise moral rabbit to perform acts of thievery which he consciously knew were against the law. I also hope to explore the personality of Mr. McGregor in his conflicting roles as farmer and humanitarian.

Yep, 11 years old. It’s on videotape.

In the middle of the special there was this Disney commercial in honor of Uncle Walt’s 100th birthday that made me teary.

Anyway, because I haven’t been feeling well, and because it would have cost me 45 bucks, I skipped tonight’s annual UVA alumni holiday party at the Yale Club. Oh well. There’ll be one next year. Oh, these holiday parties. I’m going to one this Saturday night (assuming I feel well) and I’m going to one next Saturday night. And then there’ll be a lame 20something holiday party at the next 20something meeting.

I went to the 20something party last year and had a pretty bad time. But my friend UrbanPlanner met his boyfriend there that night. Their relationship is now going on a year. A year! I’ve never dated someone for more than two months. Okay, there was sort of one for four months, but that was long distance and it wasn’t really official. That was with UrbanPlanner, come to think of it.

I went to the regular 20something meeting on Tuesday night and it sucked. The topic was “the holidays.” My discussion group’s facilitator was this irritating, affected, overly queeny guy with a high-pitched giggle whom I can’t stand, and the questions were totally boring and unenlightening. “Would you bring your boyfriend home for the holidays? What would be the sleeping arrangements? Do you usually visit your family or does your family visit you?”

Hello. I’ve never been in a serious relationships and I don’t celebrate Christmas.

Thank you! I’ll be here all week.