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March 1, 2006
Tchotchkes and Tetanus
I am unnaturally obsessed with the "bric-a-brac" section at thrift stores. I am also obsessed with terms "bric-a-brac" and its yiddish sister " tchotchke." Also an obession? Toss pillows. Because I cannot yet afford beautifully designed furniture, I must do what I can with accessories. It's a rough life. And hence, the toss pillow fixation. It can work wonders when most of your belongings come from three sources: old roommates, the street, and Ikea. I have a feeling though that combining these two obsessions is just asking for bed bugs, or worse.
But I confess, the other day at Goodwill, I went for the (potentially) deadly combo. I bought a toss pillow. It is brown and chic, covered in cute-as-a-button bamboo buttons, and it's from Target (a little secret: Target gives left-over stuff to Goodwill, price-tags intact and all!) and, well, it really pulls the brown theme of the bedroom together!
The first thing a first time visitor to the aparment asks when walking inside is most always an incredulous "Did you paint these walls yourselves?" The answer is no. We're too lazy for that. Have you seen our ceilings? They're very high (yes, I'm bragging). I mean, Rafe may be tall, but I'm only 5' 2"--that's two inches away from being a dwarf. But really, the walls have grown on us. The dining room is a vivacious hue of red, the living room a cheerful shade of green. Not bad at all. The bedroom, however, is a deep poo brown. Ok, to be fair, the shade is not a true poo- it's more...tootsie roll. The previous renters must have been a bit lazy too, though, because they only painted around the furniture. When we tried to move some large cabinets that came with place to a different spot in the room, we discovered that before they were brown, the walls were a none too serene Pepto pink. So here we are stuck with brown because we are even lazier.
In other news (hey, it's been a slow day) I got a shot last night at the doctors. For tetanus. Now my arm hurts and I can only fear that worse is internally occurring. As the doctor injected me, I sat there reading a dated-looking info sheet, on it a picture of a little girl skipping and a list of facts and warnings about the vaccine:
One possible, though rare, problem is deep, aching pain and muscle wasting in upper arm(s). This starts 2 days to 4 weeks after the shot, and may last many months.
May last manymonths? How many months is many? Muscle wasting?Oh my God. All my efforts at the gym were for naught. I've been getting buff and now all that muscle could just waste away! Actually, I'm still scared of the weight machines. I guess since I'm not really getting buff, I suppose there's not much to waste away should that occur. Anyhow.
I still have many more vaccines to get, including Typhoid and Hepatitis, and I'm going to start taking malaria pills. I'm not a big fan of vaccines-- a lot of them just seem unnecessary and over precautious-- especially considering the side effects. Am I a hypochondriach? Some would say...yes. I was anonymously sent this article yesterday via the New York Times:
Doctors Take Note: Even the Whiners Sometimes Get Sick
Because my computer at work is from 1994, I can't read the New York Times online (it automatically freezes everything) but I trust that this article says something along the lines of... pay attention to hypochondriacs, they're usually on to something! Right?
Posted by debbie at March 1, 2006 12:54 PM