Pass?

Here is an email I sent out to some of my friends earlier today about last night...

Last night I went out to the Gillian Welch concert with my friend Katherine. We got there early and walked down the street to this great Indian restaurant and simply had a grand time. We were very, very full when we left. Got to the concert and staked out our little standing room in the middle of the room, about 6 "rows" from the front. The Orange Peel is a standing room only venue with bars along the side walls, like the 9:30 Club in DC only smaller. We grabbed small beers (one each) and slowly finished them over the hour before the show started. Gillian and David Rawlings came on stage, and it's another wonderful show by the duo. Standing that long is painful for me, but I'll endure it for the sake of a great live show, but last night my right shoulder and back were just KILLING me. I couldn't get comfortable. Then, about 5 songs in, it happened. It felt like these hot fingers were rising from my torso into my head, wrapping it's spindly fingers around my brain and taking all the blood from it. I got very, very hot and my vision blacked out. I grabbed Katherine's arm and said, "I'm having a reaction" but over the sound of the crowd she thought I said something about the music and just nodded and smiled. About ten seconds later, I collapsed, out cold.
I woke up to Katherine shaking me and calling my name and she helped me out of the middle of the crowd. I don't remember this. As we got to the edge of the crowd a young woman came up and said, "I'm a nurse. Are you diabetic?" I told her no, I'm hypoglycemic and she said to a staffer, "Get her juice!" They got me to a bar stool over on the edge of the crowd where I got myself a glass of water before passing out again. I couldn't stay conscious. At least this time I just passed out with my head on the bar. No more falling needed, thank you.
The nurse got me juice and within three gulps I was wide awake again. I was still really, really hot and sweaty all over and shaking and weak, but at least I was conscious again. Katherine was in awe how three gulps of juice could turn me around, but that's how we hyper-hypos are.
Needless to say, Katherine and I only stayed through the first set. I was still having trouble standing and didn't want to risk sticking around. We got back to Katherine and Andy's and decided it'd be good for me to simply stay there for the night and not attempt the 20 minute drive home.
So that was my holy $#@% night. It was humiliating to say the least, and I kept telling people, "I've only had one drink! I'm not drunk at all!" because people kept looking at me that way. I was sad to miss the show that I was so looking forward to, but I was also scared. I mean, it's not normal for one's body to do that.
I talked to my mom on my drive home today and she helped shine some light on it. Turns out I also have extremely low blood pressure (never knew this) and so that, coupled with the lack of protein in my dinner and high amount of carbs probably caused me to pass out. With the low blood pressure I need high amounts of oxygen, so being crammed into a room of people I can't breathe properly and my hypoglycemia needs high amounts of protein and simple sugars and what I had eaten had been lots of carbs and some complex sugars. All that with the fatigue of long work days and I was down for the count.
I took the day off of work to rest and try to get my body back in order. The last two times this has happened I ended up with concussions, so at least this time the only thing I hurt was my knees (from falling on them) and my pride.
Poor Katherine, she was such a good sport about it all. I felt so bad for her. I'm sure I scared her.

The moral of the story is if we're at an event and I suddenly grab your arm, it means something. Hold on to me and get me a chair and some juice and do it quickly. Hopefully this is the last time this happens, but I didn't know I felt bad until 20 seconds before I collapsed. Yup, I should wear a helmet everywhere I go.

One perc is that the juice that was given to me was actually stolen from Gillian Welch's personal stash. That was a sort of high point. I didn't get to see the rest of her show, but I did get her juice, dammit.

Hypoglycemia has to do with the regulation of insulin in the body; it's essentially the opposite of diabetes in that diabetics can't produce or absorb enough insulin and people like me produce or absorb too much. I have watched my diet in the past, but recently I've become more lax about it; I thought I was doing fine. Whoops.

Rural Kids and the Military-Industrial Complex

I went to a high school that, during my freshman year, had 800 students.
Total.
9th-12th grade.
Our school district was over an hour drive from one end to the other north to south; over 15 miles east to west. Some of my friends had school bus rides that were almost two hours long. Needless to say, it was rural. We had three stoplights in that entire area.
Since then it's gone through some horrific development and looks nothing like the place where I grew up, but that depresses me so we won't talk about that any more.
So 800 kids in Valley back then.
Somehow, six of those Valley kids have ended up in the Asheville area.
Six.
Unplanned.
I have seen six people from my one-stoplight hometown, seven hours away, since I moved here. One I met the first day of kindergarten, and here he is, in West Asheville, owning Harvest Records. What? We all must have exceptionally good taste in places to move.

* * * * * * * * * *
Tonight I met up with my friends Katherine and Andy over at Nate's house (yup, all Valley grads) for an evening of great conversation, sushi, homebrewed beer and a documentary on the US military-industrial complex to cap it all off. Like ya do.
"Why We Fight" was depressing in all its cold facts with no solution, but a good watch nonetheless. Eisenhower: I never gave you enough credit. You knew your shit. Sorry for the dis.
And then I come home to find a new "The Pinky Show" episode waiting for me on Nuclear Bombs, which was also very good and highly recommended. If you've never seen any episodes of "The Pinky Show" I'd say it's worth your time. She does a great job of educating without pretense or preachiness. It's clear she learns the material along with the viewer, and her passion for the subject is infectious.

So now I'm fairly convinced the world is going to hell in a military-industrial handbasket of nuclear death. Or something fluffy and happy like that.

This morning I made something like 10 dozen pancakes. How's that for happy and fluffy?
Actually it was a fairly sweaty endeavor and quite an arm workout. My forearms hurt.

The $50 Question

Oh Liz...you had to post that comment didn't you.
This is what I got from just scrolling through the iPod and thinking for a little bit. It's by no means comprehensive, but all of it is worth a listen. There is some jazz, some old classics, some unexpected (read the 2Pac/Elton John duet, by way of Eminem production) and a lot inbetween. I didn't get genre specific but I can if you want me to...you know how I love to make lists...

Stuff to get with an extra $50 iTunes card that's just sitting around:

• The Shins whole album “Wincing the Night Away”
• Much Farther to Go—Rosie Thomas feat. Denison Whitmer and Sufjan Stevens
• The Mating Game—BitterSweet
• Paper Moon—Erin McKeown
• It Doesn't Matter To the Sun—Rosie Thomas
• Ghetto Gospel—2Pac feat. Elton John
• Hollywood—Jay-Z feat. Beyonce
• Canned Heat—Jamiroquai
• Wagon Wheel—OCMS
• Come Sail Away—Styx
• Attagirl—Bettie Serveert
• Ohio—Damien Jurardo
• London Calling—The Clash
• Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)--Kenny Rodgers and First Edition
• Lola—The Kinks
• A Thousand Tiny Pieces—Be Good Tanyas
• Today Has Been Okay—Emiliana Torrini
• I Hate Everyone—Get Set Go
• 's Wonderful—Ella Fitzgerald
• They it's Spring—Blossom Dearie
• Something's Gotta Give—Ella Fitzgerald
• Beyond the Sea—Bobby Darin
• Kiss To Build a Dream On—Louis Armstrong
• I Won't Dance—Blossom Dearie
• You Know I'm No Good—Amy Winehouse
• Everyday—Buddy Holly
• Cat Power's whole album “The Covers Record”
• Decemberist's whole album “The Crane Wife”
• Marry Me—Dolly Parton (actually the whole “Little Sparrow” album)
• Cheek to Cheek—Frank Sinatra
• Wrecking Ball—Gillian Welch
• One Monkey—Gillian Welch
• Roly Poly—The Little Willies
• Dance Me to the End of Love--Madeline Peyroux
• Fraud in the 80's—Mates of State
• Sitting on the Dock of the Bay—Otis Redding
• You Send Me—Sam Cooke
• World Spins Madly On—The Weepies

Choices, choices, choices

How can I have over 3,000 songs on my iPod and be sick of most of them?

Over 3,000 songs and I scroll it thinking there is nothing to listen to.

Right now I'm on a big band/jazz kick, as well as a classic rock kick. Can't figure this one out. The big band started with Erin McKeown's new album "Sing You Sinners" (specifically the song "Paper Moon". Highly recommeded purchase) as it is mostly a covers record of old standards that is just wonderful and then moved back onto the foundational Ella, Etta, Billie and Sarah Vaughn.
And then there's the classic rock thing, what with the Pink Floyd and Tom Petty and all.

Maybe it's just even that stuff that I love is starting to sound the same, sound stale, sound like I've heard it before. I haven't had any new "wow" music lately.

Patty Griffin's new album came out today. Haven't gotten it yet but I will.

Going to see Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the Orange Peel on Monday night. She's a great show--quiet, subdued, emotional, wonderful.

Neither

From www.gapingvoid.com. It is a good representation of what's been stewing in my head lately.