And So On, And So On

With the withdrawal of my Seroquel has come a period of mild depression. Fortunately, this will not last for more than the next two weeks, at which point the protocol will begin and the Ketamine will take over. The only thing of note I accomplished today was doing the shopping for the unit at the grocery store and acquiring the ingredients necessary to fix our weekly Friday meal. Still, that was at least something. I found out shortly upon my return that EEGs will not be performed during the protocol due to a scheduling conflict. Too many people and not enough beds, apparently. Still, they will perform a PET scan after each one, which is a full brain computer profile that tends to reveal more than any other procedure yet developed.

I wish to write more, but my concentration and focus is not sufficient enough. I have a page and a half of a short story I have been sitting on for nearly a month, but my compulsion to finish it simply isn't there. In times like this, back home, I would increase my coffee consumption by 400%, but Lithium has a weird way of neutralizing a caffeine buzz or at least rendering it to something quite mild. In my wilder years, I smoked copious amounts of pot to produce the same effect, but would inevitably toke my way into a state of severe depression by the end. Apparently five consecutive days of THC infusion + my brain = depressive episode. It's one of the many reasons I no longer partake.

My cold is almost completely gone, though antibiotics have managed to upset my colon somewhat. Within the next two days I'll be totally rid of it. I've gone back to my exercise routine, and am now incorporating an elliptical along with the stationary bike. However, the elliptical (meant to simulate cross-country skiing) puts all of my body weight upon my right leg and in particular my right knee, making me afraid somehow that I'm going to tear a ligament if I keep at it. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong somehow, and one of the more blatantly lesbian recreational therapists will be around tomorrow morning to show me how to properly do it.

In an outing with The Norah yesterday I traveled out to what was advertised as "Washington, DC's, Best Record Store", a bold claim made by the employee of a nearby used book store we went to immediately before. It was a decent little indie store, though I have to say I've seen much better in my travels. The evolution of the music industry and recording music is rather telling--effective last month the store will reduce its CD catalog to niche releases and new albums alone. Most of the remainder of the catalog will be vinyl, since that accounts for most of its sales. As much as I enjoy LPs, they aren't especially durable and vinyl greatly restricts the portability of music. One must play them in one set location with a minimum of jostling. For example, one certainly couldn't take a vinyl album to listen to on the metro or in the car.

I've resisted getting a decent record player because LPs are normally ten dollars more than CDs, they quickly give out, forcing you to buy a replacement, and needles frequently break as well, requiring even more additional expense. While I understand the merits of the format---since nothing does quite sound as warm and engaging as a LP, their resurgence over the past several years is a bit of a fad (albeit a lasting fad) and most fads aren't rooted in sense. Who knows where the industry is headed---since file downloading has become so omnipresent that many people like me rarely buy albums anymore.