I promise that I shall never trust in the old advice, “Oh thank goodness it’s raining, I don’t need to take my allergy pills today!” Especially when it rains for 2 or 3 days straight. Even shutting out the outside world didn’t help and it caught up with me last night. So today’s been a sleep in late and be domestic kinda day. Only a few errands (mainly to get allergy meds) and I’ve been home doing a bit of tidying between a lot of sitting down.

I have little entertainment to share except this recent gem from The Onion: Historic ‘Blockbuster’ Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past. My TiVo can download video podcasts, which is about the only way I’ll watch them since most web video just bores me. I never bought into the whole “small screen” entertainment, no matter how cute the podcaster might be. Keep an eye on the news ticker for some fun headlines as well.

Funny… but also very true. I love the Kathy character, “Two times a week I travel 6 miles to rent and return videos.” And the fond memories of going to the store and finding out that the video you wanted was already being rented. But what I most remember about Blockbuster stores is that you could easily gauge how queer the surrounding neighborhood was by how many copies of each gay and lesbian movies they had and whether or not there was a specific section just for those films.

I’m fairly sure that the recent hot spell is to blame for my sickness. It’s pretty much headache, dizziness and nausea, and it started right around when we hit the mid-60s. Not that it would normally have any effect on me, but living on a high floor in a building where people only have the ability for hot air from their fans, I think my body just wasn’t ready for it. I opened the windows before going to bed, but I’ve gotten used to only hearing the muffled street noises from below in the middle of the night and wasn’t in the mood for the full orchestra. So sleeping in a sauna, as I’ve mentioned before, isn’t too much fun. Though it is giving me the strangest dreams!

Monday evening, I dreamt that I was staying in a rowhouse on a Main Street of some sort, kinda like Old Town Alexandria, and that I was going to a concert with my ex, and a couple that are friends of a friend. Basically three people that I would never choose to attend any kind of event with without some form of people buffers in place. I don’t know who we were going to see, but every step of our trip was halted by some form of roadblock or another. Lost tickets, metro delays, unavailability of cabs and traffic. I don’t think I need a dream book to explain that one, still odd that any of these people would play a prominent role in my dreams. Of course I woke up feeling really sweaty and gross, not that I blame the dream, but I’m sure it was reflecting my discomfort.

Last night was the really weird dream. Kept shifting around a lot. I remember that I was Storm riding with Jubilee in a jeep around the X-Men’s Australian Outback base. This was odd since they weren’t aware of Jubilee’s presence. Then I was on a cruise ship with my vacation-mate trying to get me to go to the buffet with him while the maître d’ was trying to sell me steaks, like 200 of them! Then I was at some kind of county fair, just visiting mind you. I’d told a woman that I was going to college for medical technology and she asked me to examine her. I ignored her and quickly walked to a booth that had, of all things, a present-wrapping competition. Participants were given paper and a box and had to match various display models as closely as possible.

My computer woke me up around 3 because it was trying to reboot after applying updates and was unable to, filling the room with bright light, so I turned that off and went back to sleep. At some point between my iPhone going off and my alarm clock ringing, I caught myself talking in my sleep. I’m not exactly sure how this worked, but there was a distinct part of me talking and another listening… I don’t really get it except that I never (rarely?) talk in my sleep so it was kinda odd. The delirium that accompanies illness is oh so much fun!

On a completely different note… Button-down collars? Are these out yet for business attire, because they really should be. I mean with suits and ties, not a more casual look. I am a big fan of a man in a suit (they look so hot) but when I see the nice tie with a button-down collar, it makes me cringe! I know collar stays can be a pain. You always end up with an odd number and I’m constantly sending shirts to be cleaned without removing the stays first, but they just have a sharper look. What do y’all think about this?

It’s going to be a gorgeous day outside and I wake up sick as a dog. This isn’t even one of those “made myself sick” because I was planning to call out sick today. I was looking forward to the mild temps on the way into the office and maybe doing a little running around after work today. Bah!

However… first week of the year and it’s going to be 74 degrees today? That’s gotta be from the devil. I can’t imagine what the flora and fauna are going to do when Spring actually shows up.

Wow, I got nothing. This is definitely going to be one of those “stuff happened” entries as just about all that’s gone on today was I had too much coffee (for which I had good service again) this morning and started to feel a little nauseous. I know believe I now know my limits when it comes to the bean.

Last night I did something that’s been unheard of for months: I watched Netflix movies!

I really enjoyed “Dr. Strange,” another in the Marvel animated family. The story was a little bit scattered and it was hard to tell if they were trying to portray “Ultimate Dr. Strange” or the Earth-616 version or a mix of the two. The familiar origin story was handled very well, but the resolution seemed to be over really quickly. It’s ripe for a sequel, as all of the movie-toons have been, I just hope when they come out with one that it’s better than the Avengers one. On the DVD extras they also had a preview for “Avengers Reborn” which looks like a version of Young Avengers mixed with the Saturday morning version of Legion of Super Heroes. I don’t really understand why people feel that for a product to appeal to kids, it has to contain kids as the protagonists no matter how far-fetched the premise might be.

I also watched “Maxed Out” which didn’t hold my attention as well as similar movies have. I think that maybe the problem its covering is such an obvious one that is shared by so many people that there was hardly a reason to film a movie from the perspective they did. It wasn’t like watching “Sicko” or “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, and it didn’t feel as educational, it was kinda boring. But I think most people’s awareness of the credit industry, the pitfalls and the loopholes are pretty high right now. If I’d seen this movie about 15 years ago, it would have had much more of an impact.

So I’m finally rotating the queue again, I also sent in my video games from GameFly. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of this, especially as the WGA strike looms. However I’m conflicted on that, on the one hand networks are producing more and more “un-scripted” programming, but on the other side of that is anything that might make people watch less TV a bad thing?

I think I finally understand the concept of “me time”. I could really use some of that right now. I feel worn down, run ragged, what have you. I’m stressed, tired, sick, stiff & achy, zoned out, and really wishing the world would just stop for a while and let me off.

I don’t really mind being the nice guy, but sometimes it really drags you down. I was happy to help a friend take care of stuff while he was in the hospital, I had no problem heading down south to see my brother, but time spent doing for others takes away from time for me and it does add up. My apartment has been totally untouched for the past week or two because all I seem to have time for is to go home, eat (poorly) and sleep before getting up for work the next day. And I actually had a chore schedule set to do some de-cluttering this past week.

It also means that I am feeling terrible guilt when I have to cancel on things because I really need to take care of myself. Some people are more than understanding of this and I have no problem telling them the truth when I’ll be unable to do something. With others, it’s just easier to come up with half-full truths (not lies or half-truths, just not the whole truth) because maybe the straight dope will be really hard to swallow. Some people cannot see that there is sometimes a very complex (and sometimes not so much) middle ground between “it’s all about me” and “it’s all about you”. Promise me you will take a moment to think about my perspective before you react, because you better believe that I have already done the same. Hopefully that’s advice that doesn’t really need to be said, but… maybe not.

I’m just tired, I need a nice couple of rest days or a vacation and I really can’t even afford to take them.

On an unrelated note, given the number of electronic messages and postings I’m seeing floating around that can’t believe the latest antics of nearly anyone spotted in an entertainment headline or similar — there’s a simple phrase that might help some people out: ignore it. Seriously, there are far more important things that deserve your attention and awareness, so stop getting distracted and annoyed by who’s doing whom, entering/leaving rehab, spotted by paparazzi, trying to raise hits on YouTube, etc. and who’s talking about it ad infinitum — just ignore it.