Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Archives for October 2005

The multi-day headache

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I very, very rarely get headaches. I rarely know where the Advil even is. When I do get a headache, it’s a migraine, complete with flashing lights warning me what’s on the way.

Monday night, during dinner, I didn’t get the lights. Instead, my scalp suddenly felt as though it were being drawn backward into a tight topknot. “I think I’m getting a migraine,” I told Darin, and I quickly put all the dishes in the dishwasher before running upstairs to the bedroom. Darin got the kids ready for bed while I tried to get the room as dark as I could (including closing the bathroom door, because the night light was too bright). I slept 9 hours.

It’s Wednesday afternoon and I still have this headache. I’ve taken more Advil in the past two days than I have in the past year. I can’t stay in a darkened room, though: I have to do things like drive kidlets to the Kindergarten fieldtrip at the pumpkin patch. (Field trips. Permission notes. Good thing I went to get that master’s, huh?)

I don’t think I’m dying of anything or have a brain tumor. (For one thing: no nerve endings in the brain.) I’m not stressed out about anything. My diet has changed little. I did start lifting weights again last week, but I am religious about breathing out on the exertion phase of the exercise (because if you hold your breath or inhale, you’re just asking for problems). I don’t know where this headache is coming from, but I sure as hell wish it would go away.

Offred, meet Ofbill

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Via Suburban Guerilla, yet the latest in a very long line of ever-scarier stories:

Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana, including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do become pregnant “by means other than sexual intercourse.”

According to a draft of the recommended change in state law, every woman in Indiana seeking to become a mother through assisted reproduction therapy such as in vitro fertilization, sperm donation, and egg donation, must first file for a “petition for parentage” in their local county probate court.

Only women who are married will be considered for the “gestational certificate” that must be presented to any doctor who facilitates the pregnancy. Further, the “gestational certificate” will only be given to married couples that successfully complete the same screening process currently required by law of adoptive parents.

In ten years, ye shall know them by the answer to, “Who the fuck did you vote for? You know, back when we still had elections?”

NaNoWriMo 2005

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I’m going to do National Novel Writing Month again this year. Finding the time to produce 50,000 words in 30 days was a total pain in the ass last year, especially through Thanksgiving, but doing NaNo completely changed what I’d been doing up until that point. Since we’d moved back to Silicon Valley I’d basically not written at all, spending an insane amount of my free time doing things like World of Warcraft for free, while it was beta. Well, I did NaNo, and WoW went commercial. I haven’t played WoW since, and quite frankly, I haven’t missed it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I’m a little disappointed that I haven’t finished the rewrite of last year’s NaNo novel, which I’d been aiming for. Finish the 2004 novel, get started on the 2005. I think there’s still a lot of good stuff in the 2004, but I’ve allowed it to become a nine-headed Hydra. A small, annoying voice inside of me is wants to find an outside voice to tell me how to handle the problems I’ve run into, but one of the things I’m insisting on to myself is that I stop doing that. You know, be your own expert. I’ve tended to be one of those people who’s going to learn any moment now how to write a novel/write a screenplay/etc., but what I’ve learned (over and over and over again) is that while you can learn some aspects, the best teacher is just sitting down and doing it. In my case, a couple of times.

Anyhow, I’ve prepared for NaNo by putting my little progress bar in the right-hand column there. It’ll be at 0 until November 1.