Allergies suck

I remember when I was younger, I would spend more than 90% of the time outside.  If I wasn't in school or sleeping, I was outside.  I used to camp a lot, so even sleeping was an outdoor activity.  In the past few years though, I have suddenly become wildly allergic to the outdoors.  I sneeze, sniffle, cough and tear every time I mow the lawn or spend more than 5 hours in the woods.  WTF?!  Is it because I have since spent 8 years in the deep south, only to return as an office worker who has a weakened immunity to allergens?  

This past weekend we went up to the winery we frequent and know the owners in Warwick, NY.  After about 6 hours of hanging out in the sun, my eyes had the all-too-familiar sensation of an allergy attack.  Within a few short minutes, they were burning and I could barely see.  I did the usual stuff: splashed water on my face, in my eyes, dunked my head underwater, etc.  By that night BOTH of my eyes were red and puffy.  (Oh, didn't I mention? I have already been taking Zyrtec for almost 3 days at this point).  The next morning, I can barely open my eyes, they are almost completely crusted over, and I look like I have been crying for 18 hours straight.  

So I go to the pharmacy for some eye drops to alleviate the itching that makes me want to scour away my eyeballs with a cheese grater.  I found two bottles, one is ClearEyes, and the other is Visene.  Both of them claim to reduce itching from allergy symptoms but have different active ingredients.  So I wait in line to talk to the pharmacist to get her opinion on which is a better product.  (That is why they are there, isn't it?)  I tell her my tale of woe, and this is the summation of the conversation:

Me: Hello, I have had an allergy attack and now my eyes are itchy.  I want to use eye drops to help the itching stop.  Can you tell me which of these two products are better?

Her: Lets see... They are both basically the same.

Me: Yes, but they have different active ingredients.  One is Tetra-something or other, and the other has Hydrocortiza something.  What is the difference in the active ingredients?

Her: Well, one has glycerin which is also an ingredient used for lubrication.  But they will both help.

***  She is blankly staring at me ***

Me: But if they both do the same thing, why aren't the ingredients the same?

Her: I don't see the difference between them.

I realized that if I don't leave, my head will implode from her lack of pharmaceutical knowledge.  I thought I was being clever, by asking a trained professional on the chemical differences between similar products.  The end result? Stupidity that makes me angry.  Now I am angry AND my eyes still itch.  I know they both would have worked, but the question was "why are they different".  The answer I got was "I don't know why you think they are different".  

That really annoys me.  I expect people who are doing their jobs to, well, DO THEIR JOBS!  If you have a job, and you are even slightly trained, you should know more about it than someone who isn't, right?!?  If I had a nickel for every time this makes me mad....

Sometimes, life gets in the way.

Someone once said to me, you have to plan for the unexpected.  Not necessarily because of things that happen to you, but because "life gets in the way".  I thought this was a true, but odd statement.  I filed it away, to be returned to later.  After pondering it, I find myself using it, not as an excuse, but as a valid reason for the fact that life doesn't always follow schedules.  

In a busy adult life, there are many things that we are involved in, and they aren't all respectful of the schedules we create.  Sometimes, important stuff has to be put to the side to handle life's little emergencies.  Basically, "life gets in the way".  A friend of mine has been trying to schedule time with me for almost 2 weeks now, and every time I look at my calendar, it is filled up.

Another observation is that people aren't always "happy" about success.  Success to most people is a limited idea that can only be described in terms of a lack of misery, or in terms of a familiar feeling of wealth and showmanship.  A friend of mine and I often go out for drinks, and we will causally observe the crowd.  Sometimes, in a bar full of suits, we will pretend that we are like the other people.  We will make up random financial statements like "Er, Oh, How did you do on the market merger of the IPO stock offering?" At which point we will both throw our heads back and mock laugh "yuk yuk yuk".  The point of the anecdote?  I guess it is that happiness should be defined by the limitless possibilities of our existence, by experiencing new things, and having fun doing it.  I am often saddened by the inability for people to experience things outside of their comfort zone, to really let down their guard, and to look at something new as a child might.  This being the case, people find levels of mediocrity in their world, and when something changes for the better, they label it "success", and they are slightly happy about it. It is unfortunate that people don't honestly experience happiness and contentment thought the human experience.

Converting to Mac! F*** Vista!

So far, with every degree, I purchase a laptop.  While that might seem excessive, what I have found is that by the time I am done with a degree, the laptop I purchased is at least 2 years old, and has been worn out like a two dollar whore at a bachelor party.  I end up using the laptop so extensively that given two years of extensive use (at least 2 hours per day of heavy use, and very few days off), it needs to be retired.  It would be OK in the beginning, but I am sure in the middle of some project, it would fail.  It would roll over and die and leave me with none of my data, all of my work lost and I would still need to buy a new one.

So the laptop I am retiring has Vista on it.  For obvious reasons, I hate it.  It was a "Vista compatible" laptop, that had a one way upgrade path.  Toshiba provided the Vista Upgrade CD, which included the drivers, etc.  The original software, drivers, etc for XP were "on the hard drive", so the Vista upgrade completely wiped them out, including the partition they came in on.  To make a long story short, Toshiba can no longer support the installation of XP, and will not provide an XP restore disk, or any of the drivers.  The laptop is now, and forever will be, a Vista piece of shit.

Having had about 9 months of terrible experiences with Vista, I have come to hate it for all that it is.  It is big, slow, has a terrible interface, hard to use, incompatible with everything, and is by far, the worst operating system I have ever used (and that DOES include OS2/Warp).

So my decision was to go with something more "tried and tested".  Since an XP laptop can not be purchased any longer (without sacrifice that is), and since most of my doctoral work will be word processing anyway, I figured I would give a Mac a try.  

I am now writing this on my new Mac book.  It is strange, and the interface is "odd, but easy".  I am sure many of my blog entries to come will revolve around this new machine, but for now... It works.  Everything works.  It works like it should.  It is the fastest machine I have ever used, with the longest battery life (4+ hours, but is closer to 6),  and the best screen.  The built in web cam, mic and easy to use trace pad (has nice intuitive scrolling features and multi-touch) makes this quite an impressive machine.

I may not be a Mac convert yet, but I can definitely see why people are so devoted. Everything is "easier".  I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far, it has all of the features of any Windows XP machine I have used, with none of the hassle.  (I use WinXP as a reference, because the only OS that is fair to compare to Vista is Windows Millennium).  

More Success

My interview for admissions to the Pace Doctoral program went well yesterday, and I was informed that I am the newest student to the D.P.S program at Pace University!

I can't believe this is actually happening. When I first mentioned going for my PhD, it was a humorous comment that followed the question of "what will I do when I finish my B.S degree". I remember, right after "Maybe I will go on to get my PhD!" came out of my mouth, I was a bit confused. It was a funny joke, especially to me, but in the back of my mind, I filed away the idea that I really could. There began this struggle for me to strive for it, or to just go about like it would never happen.

Here I am 3 years after I made that comment, enrolled in a doctoral program. It still seems surreal. But I made it this far, and now there is no turning back.

Wish me luck!

Umbrellas or event canopies?

Sometimes it rains. This has been the way things have been for 13 billion years. In recent times, humankind has conquered the terrible rain with an invention called the Umbrella.

The umbrella should be a device used to keep oneself dry. When it rains in Manhattan, everyone sports their umbrellas. If you are not fortunate enough to have an umbrella with you, you can usually survive by ducking under the vast array of other umbrellas that form a faux-canopy over most of the streets of NYC.

I have seen, and had to avoid, the people who have HUGE umbrellas. What are these people thinking? Literally, an umbrella with a 10' diameter is too much for a 105lb person. You could keep you, your entire extended family, and all of their worldly possessions dry under one of these mammoth sized umbrella. I have seen event canopies that were smaller. I was walking behind one the other day (it could have been a person under it, I don't know, but it took up the entire 45th street sidewalk), and the umbrella was forcing everyone off the sidewalk.

HAVE SOME COMMON SENSE! If your rain canopy is too big to fit though a standard doorway, if it has it's own weather system under it... or if you find that when you use it, people like me want to take an exacto knife to it, get a SMALLER umbrella. The kind used to shield HUMANS from the rain, not the kind used to stop rain from hitting the eastern hemisphere!

People with large umbrellas should be impaled.

Spinning, Day 2

Well, here's the report on the day 2 of spinning class.

It was easier. Significantly. The instructor was not as much of a maniac, and in fact, much much nicer. She helped me adjust the bike, and told me the secrets to class. The secret is when she yells "make it harder!" it is only a suggestion. I don't have to. I went as hard as I could manage in the class, sweating profusely, and on the verge of passing out/vomiting. My legs are not nearly as sore today (still having the ability to walk like a human), and I am feeling good.

I find the hardest part of dieting and exercising NOT to be the dieting and exercising, but the socializing. Socializing generally means eating and drinking. Those are the two hardest things to curb. Tonight I am going out with friends to the NINJA restaurant in NY. I know that means I need to spend an extra 45 minutes on the treadmill, because the food will be delicious.

I have not lost much in body weight, but I have lowered by body fat percentage by 3% in a week, and increased my muscle mass. Only 1 week so far, so lots more to report in the future.

My first spinning class

Yesterday I went to my first spinning class at the NYSC. Before I describe how it went, let me detail how much exercise I have done in the past 10 years...

Ok, now that you understand how in shape I am, [for those of you wondering if I left out the part about my past exercise, please note that nothing was entered and infer your own conclusions] I went to the gym at 5:30. I got changed, grabbed a towel and went up stairs to hit some weights before class. I worked out for a bit, and I walked on the treadmill for about 20 minutes. Then I headed down for class...

The people that do spinning classes are crazy. They are self-loathing, masochistic, insane people that have no sense of anything other than how to punish themselves.

I love it.

We warm up, and the instructor gives me the normal positions in a spinning class. I think "Only 3 positions? OK, easy to remember." We spin for a bit, standing, sitting, fast, slow. I am now dripping with sweat like a shaggy dog who just got a bath. I am sure people are worried about me. My face is purple, there are puddles forming below me. I am panting.

Finally, the instructor states to sit upright and stretch out the arms and shoulders. I look at the clock. 5 MINUTES HAVE PASSED!?!?!?! Are you kidding? I look around and no one else has broken a sweat. They are all size 00 girls some of which, this is their second back-to-back class. I am starting to get the dreaded feeling that I will not make it through the class.

With every 2 minutes, the instructor yells "reach down and increase the tension!". I am pretending to turn it. There is no way I can. I am now sweating from every pore in my body, and it stings in my eyes. I hate this class. I hate the instructor and I hate these stupid girls.

I look at the clock again. 15 MINUTES HAVE PASSED. The instructor is promising a 4 minute break coming up, after 3 more hill climbs, each one requiring more tension, more standing, and a lot more effort. Looking forward to the break, I put in the effort.

When I was thinking "break", I was imagining sitting somewhere, like a hammock, on a beach, coconut drink in hand, etc. Seriously, I didn't think it meant less tension and FASTER PEDDALING! What is wrong with these people?!?!

I made it through the class, with more effort that I have ever put in to anything since high school wrestling practice. I fought down the need to vomit in class 3 separate times, and I stumbled out of the room as the instructor was asking if people wanted to stay for an "abdominal workout". I fought down the urge to flip her the bird, but in a strange way, I liked it. I liked killing myself on the bike. They were achieving a WIN in a fictional race, while I was simply concerned with FINISHING.

I will go back. For now, maybe twice a week for spinning class. The rest of the week on the weights and the treadmill. Soon I will attempt the class 3 times a week, until I can achieve the class, and not simply pass it.