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AWOL pill

Catastrophe! This evening I was taking my last dose of Pirfenidone/placebo before logging on one last time and going to bed, and horror of horrors, I dropped one of the precious pills on the floor. It was like dropping a nugget of gold, and then not being able to find it.

I crawled around on my kitchen floor, which is the size of a postage stamp, for a good twenty minutes trying to find it. I even tried to move the fridge and the stove slightly (with no success) to see if it rolled under them. Not only did I not find the pill, but I discovered that the floor I only so proudly mopped yesterday is filthy! So much for the Swiffer Wet Jet mop! I guess it’s back to a sponge on my hands and knees. Not only is the floor small, but I can find the dirt better that way.

And, just as I was closing a book I was working on, I happened to switch on the TV and found that one of my favorite movies of all time, REDS, was on. I couldn’t help but watch part of it as I haven’t seen it in years. I really must find a copy even if only for the sake of nostalgia.

It’s a long movie about a couple, Jack and Louise, who are political activists, very left of center, around the time of World War I. They end up going to Russia to cover the Bolshevik Revolution, but end up getting swept up in it themselves.

I loved the movie. When I was in high school I attended a Department of Defense Dependent School in northern Germany. It was the time of the Cold War and our mission was to repel a northern attack from the Russians, should it ever come.

Some people rebel in high school by smoking weed, or having sex – but not me! The most rebellious thing I could come up with (that wouldn’t get my mom in too much trouble as the school system’s behavior specialist) was to study the Communist Manifesto and Hegel cover to cover, hang a picture of Karl Marx in my locker, and make a somewhat pathetic attempt at learning Russian (something I never actually achieved.) I was fascinated with the overthrow of the Czar, the intervening years and the Bolshevik Revolution. I had a book called The History of the Soviet Union that I studied thoroughly, even writing questions and making notes in the margins. Oh how I miss those days of being a student (high school or college) when you can read something in a devouring kind of way, chew it up and spit it out again. These days I’m just so busy trying to survive, I never seem to have the time to read much of anything anymore for strictly pleasure – let alone study it.

Today our issue of the magazine FINALLY went to press, well mostly to press – and the rest of the week shouldn’t be too bad. But, stupid me had to go and find a way to stress myself out.

Thinking of my lack of funds for Christmas presents, I took on a freelance story for the Kansas City Business Journal about changes in tax regulations for companies that make money transfers overseas. Can we say yawn??? And this project being taken on by a girl who takes her taxes to H&R Block because just looking at my own spreadsheet gives me hives. What was I thinking???

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