Sickness

Uggh. My stomach has been bad the past 24 hours. When I am not feeling well, the last thing I want to is think about evil conspiracies such as 9/11 -- it is too draining, really. Of course most news is depressing and thus hard to take when I'm sick. Even the blogs that I normally go to aren't very comforting.

What I did find very comforting was re-reading Tolkein's "The Hobbit". I guess I tend to read it every ten years or so, I read it first when I was 13, then in my twenties, then in my thirties, and now in my forties. Middle-earth is a nice place to escape to and Tolkein's English countryfolk familiar style of writing really makes the fantasy much more personal and believable.

Actually I couldn't even watch TV very well last night, the visuals made me sort of dizzy and then nauseous. Funny how seeing something moving fast can make you nauseous. I guess your brain thinks you are moving as well. I am also sensitive to certain smells and they make me nauseous. Then even after the smell is gone, the memory of the smell lingers on in my brain and can still make me nauseous.

The oddest thing about being sick is how your taste changes-- particularly toothpaste always takes on a strange taste when I am very sick. In fact, one way I can tell if I am getting really sick is if the toothpaste starts tasting weird. I don't know why this happens, it's curious -- there must be some cytokines circulating around that alter the tastebud neuro-transmission.