Hubris.co.nz

Tuesday June 25th

Just before midnight, that thing in my head snapped again, and the entire left side of my head started to throb and pulsate and ache ache ache. The pain was incredible, I hadn’t felt its like except for on Saturday and Sunday nights as well. I couldn’t take it anymore. I sat up in bed and cried for about fifteen minutes wondering how badly it would scare my mother if I’d rung her at that hour. My head was really freaking me out, and I needed it to stop. It’s kinda terrifying to feel like a blood vessel has burst in your brain. Bopha was fast asleep with two exams the next day, and Clay wasn’t home, so I ended up canvassing opinions via txt, until someone agreed with me that yes, maybe I should go to the hospital since I’d been in pain for three days and it wasn’t getting any better – in fact, it was getting worse (and I know I don’t say enough good things about you sometimes, so thank you, I’m so glad to know you’re always there for me when I’m having a crisis, and you know I’m always there for you too, if you need me). I woke Bops because I had no money for a taxi, and she offered to come with me, but I said she shouldn’t, because I knew we’d end up waiting hours and hours, and because I was crying and in pain to the point where I could hardly talk, and because of her exams. I managed to scrape together $5 in coins, which was just enough.

I felt so fucking stupid, telling hte guy at the counter that I had “a headache” because it sounds so goddam prissy and lame, but he was very nice and told me that three days was an extreme length of time, and he called me sweetheart in a really nice way. He took me to a room in the ER and left me there for ages, which I understand cos I know they have to prioritize. I held my head in my hands and felt nauseous, and listened to the staff calling for diazaphan for the guy in the room next to me who was having fits. That made me feel kind of like a fraud, but there is only so much pain and misery a girl can take. It was a fucking hard call to make though, having to take enough responsibility for myself to seek treatment. Meh. Eventually a nice nurse called Jayne came along and took me to another room, and gave me a wristband with my name and phone number on it, and told me to get undressed and put on one of those funny hospital gowns. I’d be expecting them to just shine a light in my eyes and tell me I was pathetic and wasting their time, so I was like “umm, you have the right piece of paper right? I’m here with a headache?” and she laughed at me. Once I’d changed, she told me to lie down on a half propped up bed, took my blood pressure and pulse, turned out the lights and said the doctor would be in to see me soon. I think it must have taken about an hour for him to get to me, in which time I just cried like the big sooky girl I am, because it hurt, and because I was lonely and because I just wanted my mum. I really wished that there was someone who I could have called to go with me, that I wouldn’t have felt bad about asking, and so I decided that I need to have kids as soon as possible cos I figure by the time they’re 15, they can drive me and also, they’ll be completely obligated to me and everything, so I won’t need to feel guilty, and they’ll be matyred to me. And yeah, I know that when my darling friends read this, they’ll all be like “you could have called me” but how do you call someone at 12am and say “hi, I have a headache, can you please get up and come to the hospital and wait a couple of hours with me?” It just doesn’t work like that. Still, Auckland Hospital is a scary horrible place to be alone in. It was miserable and I considered putting my clothes back on and running away, except that it wouldn’t have been running, it would have been a very slow, very painful crawl, and I would still be worried about what exactly was going on inside my skull.

Eventually the doctor came and examined me and asked me all the same questions that the nurse had asked me. He said that everything seemed fine, but that I had done the right thing to come in, and he told me that I didn’t have meningitis, which hadn’t even crossed my mind. He said that although I had no history of them, it might just be a particularly violent migraine, and said he would work through levels of pain relief with me, from basics, to heavier, to hooking me up to a drip and keeping me in overnight if need be. This meant sending in a nurse with panadol and voltarin and a glass of milk which she ordered me to drink to counteract the nasty stomach munchingness of voltarin, and leaving me for half an hour “to get some sleep”. Righto. I started tripping out, and could feel the pain in my head breaking free and floating loose, and then working its way into a little knot by my eye. What the fuck is it with hospitals and their fucking panadol? It’s like the time when I got hit by a car and they gave me panadol, only this time i wasn’t drunk and abusive, and I wasn’t inflicting hours of waiting torture on James and Maree. Anyways, finally my doctor came back to re-evaluate me. He said he was happy to keep me in overnight, but he thought that I’d probably sleep better at home and that was what would probably do the best for me, as long as he gave me some more pain relief before I went. Knowing that I had an exam in six and a half hours time, I agreed with him, so he dosed me up on straight codeine, wrote me out a script for some more, ordered me to see my GP as soon as possible for follow-up and gave me a piece’o paper detailing my tragic story.

Of course, I’d used up all my coins on the taxi to get to the hospital, and in my zonked state, I decided that it would be a good idea to walk home. When I left the hospital I thought the moon was half full – by the time I got over the Grafton Bridge, it was full, and I was by the graveyard and I kept seeing things and I couldn’t feel my legs anymore because of the 60mg of codeine. Things were a little odd, to say the least. The sky was really clear, and all the branches were ghostly, and I was doped off my tits, and yeah, fun times. At least my headache had subsided to a dull roar though. It was 3am by that stage, and then I woke up at 4am when the drugs wore off and my head was screaming again and my chest cavity felt like my ribs were all imploding. Odd.

So of course, there was extreme lack of sleep, and residual dopiness from the codeine, and the headache was back as soon as I got up this morning, so I had to take more nurofen plus. I would have been bouncing off the walls if I wasn’t reduced to sliding along the floor. In my exam, it took me fifteen minutes to be able to focus enough to copy down the question to the top of my page, and that really really fucked me off. I did an appalling job, and I’m really upset, because I could have done so much better. I know my LTSA topic inside out, and I’d done well on going through the other stuff too, ducking in between major migraineness, but I was so vague and blurry and doped just to try and get rid of the fucking pain. I went to fill out compassionate consideration forms straight after, but they’ll only allow me a “pass” which I think I might just get anyways, not an actual indication of the good mark that I could have got if it wasn’t for all this bullshit.

After the exam, I went to pick up my prescription – more codeine and voltarin, lovely. Everyone from my Persuasive Class was meeting at The Playhouse for lunch and drinking so I went along, spaced out and only able to drink coke. But the girl I dislike more than anyone kept screeching in my ear, and I was fading fast after the quick pickup of pills, so I went home, told Clay that I couldn’t talk because I wasn’t coherant, and slept for four hours. When I got up, there were concerned phonecalls from Maz and a bigass gorgeous lovely bunch of flowers from KateH, stark contrast to being alone and miserable in a hospital bed. They also came over really briefly, and Kate told me she’d deliberatly asked for Serene, Calming flowers. Awww. I’m looking forward to my party on Saturday, especially since I’ve had to forsake alcohol today and BradC and Clay are currently drinking Soju in honour of Korea/Germany. I’m also foresaking hte soccer as well, because I just can’t handle. I’m so fragile and fucked, and if I move my head, it hurts. Arrgh. At least I get to go home to my mum next Wednesday.

Monday June 24th

Can we have a Moment of Silence for the Evening Post please? I used to fucking write for them!

Last night the evil fucking hell migraine/burst bloodvessel/head about to explode feeling jumped up on me very very quickly again, and freaked me out because I was close to feeling like I was going to die, clutching an icepack to my head and a wet cloth to my eyes, and feeling like I wanted to throw up from the intensity of it all. It came back caused by a little strain, so at least I know what brings it on, but not why it happens. It’s extraordinary how painful it is, and how sudden and crazy and stuff. If I still get it in two days time, I am going to have to go to a doctor.

When I woke up this morning (after horribly vivid and disturbing dreams about having sex with one of the doctors on Shortland Street, made all the more disturbing by a possible undercurrent and also he was a premature ejaculator) the headache was back, not in the same magnitude, but still pulsating and not at all appeased by caffeine and panadol. That’s the circumstances that I sat my Communication Strategy exam in, head swimming nauseous circles, so I don’t really have high hopes, but I only needed 16/50 to pass the paper, so I’m sure I did okay really.

Back at home I was still feeling sore and sick, so after chamomile tea, so Bops and I went for a drive to a pharmacy to get me some real painkillers. Ahhh, blessed nurofen plus! 400mg of ibupofen and 25.6mg of codeiene later, I was feeling better – not 100%, but definately better. Bops threatened to confiscate the drugs off me and only dole them out as I really need them. She has a fear of painkillers, I believe. Meanwhile, I worked out over lunch that every single boy that I have fallen for in the past five years has had a fondness for codeine at some stage or another. Coincidence or criteria? You decide.

The rest of the afternoon has been mostly about studying Persuasive Communication, ie watching my video again (I still look ugly, but not as bad as I originally thought), and trying to decide on a secondary topic to persue. I was supposed to do Rowena’s seminar but a) I never saw it and b) I only just discovered today that the notes she emailed me didn’t actually convert to documents. So instead, I’m doing Communicator Style, as presented by Lauren. Of course, once I see the exam question, I might very well change my mind.

Sleeping pills didn’t help me last night due to the massive intensive pains, but hopefully they will help tonight since they are coupled with the lovely nurofen. So we shall see.

Sunday June 23rd

Did you notice and appreciate that while I wrote a drunken entry that really didn’t say anything, it was at least legible and non-abusive? I must be getting better.

Yesterday a huge throbbing evil migraine sent me to bed around 9pm cos I was covering my ears and moaning every time Bopha talked. She woke me up later when Leo came over with panadol. Dammit, I wish I had a boyfriend to bring me drugs. The panadol didn’t do much, but the sleeping did. When I got up today, I still had a headache, but two large cups of coffee made it go away. I’m chowing down on herbal sleeping pills now cos I have a 9am exam tomorrow that I’m basically fucked over – I have no idea as to its nature or content or anything, so there wasn’t a huge point to the study that I did. But I will get an A anyways, I figure, because I like Joseph. So there.

The only other thing really of note today is that my breasts have grown since i started taking the pill. I hope they don’t keep growing – I was quite happy with the size they were before (although it would have been nice if they weren’t lopsided). Now I feel buxom (as opposed to just fat). I’m also worried that I’m going to enter a period of hugging people and smothering them in my bossoms. I guess that’s not such a bad way to die, all things considered. Sorry, I know i’m talking garbage, I’m sure you’re well used to it by now.

Okay, the pills are making my body melt into my chair and the floor now, so I should no doubt sign off and crawl into bed. One exam tomorrow, one exam Tuesday and then I’m freeeeee. Actually I have no idea how long my holidays are for. Hmmm. Did I just entirely sleep through the past six months? Possibly.

Oh, also, Tom sent me a tub of Arousal Gel for my birthday. The blurb on the packet says “Cool and Tingly, Refreshing Flavored Body Arousal Gel For Any Erogenous Zone”. I wasn’t aware that I was having problems getting aroused, but anyways, in the name of science and all that, I can tell you that it’s just like rubbing menthol chapstick on your nipples – ie, not very exciting at all. Although of course, it’s spearmint flavoured. And the weird thing is that I didn’t think that it was at all weird that he should send me such a gift. I think everyone needs friends like that, even if people don’t get it.

Thursday June 20th

Happy Birthday Daddy! I’ve fucked up everyone’s birthdays lately – it was Shirley’s on the 15th, not Andee’s. Andee’s was yesterday, not o’s. And o’s is tomorrow. Happy birthday o!

This morning I dragged myself out of bed and the house into the most miserable weather ever (three sleeping pills (relax, they’re just herbal) had actually allowed me to get a decent night’s sleep beforehand) to go down to tech and sit my Intergrated Marketing Communications exam. I decided last night that I’m going to get an A on it. I wrote about telemarketing, databases, heirachy of effects and the implications of new media in 2010 on IMC. I kick ass.

After that, back home in the horrible weather for a few quick puffs on a spliff with Bops and Emma and then it was off to Newmarket for my half hour massage. Ahhh bliss. I just wish that the guy hadn’t had coins in his pocket that kept jangling. I also wish that I wasn’t so tense and that I didn’t feel the need to fight back when someone is pushing me. At least I’m more comfortable about strangers touching me. Oh shut up.

Home again to laze around, completely relaxed except for Bopha scaring me. I had a lovely nap and mooched around doing sweet fuck all, except for baking a birthday cake for Emma. Her birthday was on Tuesday, but we were slack so we’re gonna celebrate it tomorrow along with Brazil/England. Come watch the soccer with us. (Oh also, Mazzy/Kate; yes Emma HAS moved out, don’t get worked up! We just like hanging out with her, okay? Good!)

Blah blah blah blah. I want the other half of my massage now please. I was afraid that I’d end up gurgling on the table but luckily I didn’t.

Tuesday June 4th
So today I handed in my final assessment for Communication Strategy – that’s my last piece’o work due in before exams (June 20/24/25) so now I have some time to tackle a multitude of special secret projects that I have on the boil. Of course, tackling them would be a whole lot easier if I had a week of little to no computer work to give my wrist a good rest, so let’s try and do that, shall I? Excellent. About my essay – I handed it in without even reading it, I was that disgruntled. But it’s gone now, not worth worrying about. Apparently I only have to take two papers next semester, cos I can credit so many from my BCs, but I’m gonna take three anyways. Originally I was taking four, but I can’t do Campaigns – an advertising paper – because its lecture clashes with Corporate Communication.

You know how I’m a grad dip and in my year, we didn’t like the grad dips a lot of the time? Well, I think I get on pretty well with the BCs students, but there are some grad dips who just rub me so the wrong way, and it’s people like them who give people like me a bad name. I feel so old when I find myself saying “well, back in my year…”. Actually, I feel so old right now full stop<!– shagging sweet young things will do that to a girl, i guess! –>. I had a very amusing phone conversation with Anji tonight, and it appears that we’ve swapped age-tastes. My average age of men I scored was 28 (although admittedly both the astronaut and the microbiologist pushed that way up) and hers was 23, despite the fact that I’m 21 and she’s 29, but now it seems that we’re righting ourselves. Also, I’m going to be 22 in less than two weeks, so you should buy me things. But anyways, where was I before I went off on that tangent? Something about being at tech, and being dumb and taken by surprise and only managing to say a “hey, how are you?” and ending up being either a) the pathetic kind of person that I strive to avoid to be or b)the bitchy kinda person that I fight my natural inclination to be<!– I feel TERRIBLE now, I didn’t mean to snub him or anything, but I didn’t expect to see him so soon after. And I’ve been giving him an awful lot of headspace as well, which is vaguely interesting –>.  Oh well.  Justin laughed at me lots – “so it wasn’t a big deal then? had a long weekend did you?” I don’t gossip <!– much –> about the attributes of boys that I respect to their friends, thank you very much, Justin. But if we did, between me and that other young lady who will remain nameless, but she knows who she is, we’d have quite a thick dossier.

Bopha wouldn’t come out for a drink with me this afternoon after I handed in my essay (apparently 3pm is too early) so we settled on going to Roasted Addiquition instead. Nice food, but kinda expensive. We didn’t watch soccer today! Well, 20 minutes of the Japan-Belgium game, but that was all, and boy, that was a relief. Like, I do like soccer, but after three games yesterday (although I really only watched Brazil/Turkey because it was SO GOOD) and a couple of games the day before… I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have kicked Ben III out until after the World Cup, because Bopha is scarily addicted. We yell a lot. Also, occasionally she has taken to muttering “I want to cut off your limbs” to me, and she’s constantly jumping on me. It’s amusing.

That’s about it all, really. Boring day, I know, but thank god I got that assignment in and now I can concentrate on other stuff. Oh yeah, I was really really really hankering to go to Pluto tonight, but I couldn’t find anyone that I know well enough to be completely comfortable around to go with, and my mind was too mushy to go with someone I didn’t really know. So I just listened to the cd twice in a row instead. Fuck it’s an excellent cd, I appreciate it so much better now. And KatieH gave me a Pluto tshirt too. This is going to have to cause me to rethink my whole band tshirt philosophy (ie – I don’t wear them). But I guess the thing is now I’m actually a grownup and not a little punk kid trying her darndest to be alternative. If someone gave me a spice girls tshirt and it fit properly, I’d wear it now. Plus this Pluto tshirt is a bonds shirt, and therefore I have more than Brad, so I gotta wear it.

Yesterday I was woken out of a nightmare by JeremE calling to see if I wanted to have lunch with him <!– yeah duh! –> but today’s dreams were just about weird Japanese supermarkets rather than flat-out nightmares, so that was good.

Ben pissed me off totally totally by borrowing my car “for fifteen minutes” when I told him multiple times that I needed to go out before three and so he wasn’t to go have adventures. Luckily I was clever enough to delay my work appointment by half an hour, because he got back at 3 exactly. Ooooh I was angry. He claimed he’d only been to work and to Oporto and to the petrol station but then when I got in the car I realised that he must have been hotboxing it. Grrrr. No more car access for him. But anyways, I made it to my 3.30pm meeting anyways and got my briefing. I’m going to need to talk to Maz about it,this whole doing PR work for free for charity.

Oh look, and now I have nothing else to say. My fridge is full of food as are my cupboards though, because I am currently rich, since my parental allowance went through this week, as did my last week’o dole (although to be honest, I have yet to call them and ask them to stop it) AND Ben finally paid me bond, like, five months after he moved in. And so therefore I had enough money to go to the supermarket and vege store, as opposed to only ever having enough money for Mercury Plaza and cheap wine. In fact, I even went to Mercury Plaza today and bought only lemons, because I’d forgot them at the vege store and I realised on my way home that I needed them for my spinach soup. I can’t make spinach soup as good as KatieB, but I suspect that might be party to do with the fact that she puts cream in hers, wheras mine is the vegan version.

Also, I finally hung the big purple mosquito net I got for Xmas over my bed and it looks awesomely cool and vaguely haremy.

So my official title is “Communication Assistant” and I know how much I’m getting paid per week, and it’s quite nice – well, more than three times as much as my current income anyways, and yeah, it’s all quite exciting. I start next wednesday, and before then, I have a whole mountain of paper to read my way through. It’s slow progress, but by the end of February, y’all will be able to ask me ANYTHING about wastewater and I’ll be able to tell you. So that’s exciting.

Today there were chainsaws and sunshine and landlady’s sister, and as a consequence, there’s no nasty tree outside my window. Hurrah for that! And Brad mowed the lawn, which inspired me to do the lawns, and clean out the drain in the bathroom (some bitch sheds her long brown hair all over the place!) and put out about 12 bags of newspapers for the paperchase. House cleaning is good. Kate B ran off with my car for a couple’o hours cos it has a tow bar and hers doesn’t to put her stuff in storage. Jeremy hasn’t moved his stuff out of the lounge yet though.

Jeremy was watching The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson this afternoon, and I got teary. I conceed that I’m a headcase, yes. But Jim Henson DIED, okay? Have you ever seen muppets crying? It’s not a happy sight, I tell you! I made vegetable soup, and it was really nice.

Brad’s got part time work at More FM. Clay’s working at a media monitering place. We’re so Savvy. Of course, I have a PR job instead of a multimedia job, and that’s just fine with me. Clay rang on the way home today and asked if I wanted anything, so i said “summer ale”. We moved the lightest couch onto the deck out the front of the house, which we foolishly have neglected until today when the bushes had all been trimmed back and sat out there. I was hoping to do some dancing, but then Jan – Clay’s friend that we don’t like – showed up and her and Clay went off to get dvds and stuff from the supermomarket. I rang our friends and made sure they were invited to Thanksgiving Lunch. Hayley got all confused, cos I’ve never talked to her on the phone before, and straight away I was like “Hi, this is Joanna McLeod from Garland here; I’m just ringing to confirm your reservation for Sunday”. Well, I thought I was pretty funny anyways. Godboy Peter can’t come (we have a $500 that he’ll ADMIT to being Christian again before 2005) but pretty much everyone else is. I was stoked that Helen can make it. She sent me email yesterday that said “THis is so freaky deaky, trippy dippy. I just came into your website to try and find your email details, and there you leave me my own personal details to get in touch. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, how lovely. I’ve always wanted to be the person who gets their own message. ” which made me giggle for ages. And Andee sent me email today too so it’s been a good day, emailwise. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to email me anyways! I like email from people called Ernest.

I hope it’s as sunny tomorrow as it was today – I want to do lots and lots of washing and stuff. I’m trying to tidy the house and my room before I start work next week. I was going to clean my room today, but then I somehow got sidetracked into talking to Olivia about rockstars. Well, no ‘somehow’ about it – I talked to Olivia because she’s the bee’s knees. Jeremy mentioned later something about our dumbass oven and how it dropped open on him at a part one time, and I was like “do you feel kind of like you’ve always watched these pop stars on telly and now you’re meeting them finally? I mean, you always used to come to parties here, and now you live here”. He just laughed at me. I guess that’s the appropriate response. I laugh at me. Time goes by so fast.

“am I famous for just one thing?”