Russian music and burning fingers, among others.

Saturday was Patrick's Tacoma Symphony concert, and it was really good. The soloist who performed on the chaconne from The Red Violin was excellent, and they began with Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, which is one of my favorites. It always makes my scalp prickle hearing the first few bars, brrrr! I wish classical music groups would do more stuff that has that kind of effect on their audience. Maybe if they did, fewer of them would go bankrupt. Or if they lowered the prices...

We made esquites and carnitas for dinner last night, while my sister made chocolate chip cookies. When I was getting the serrano peppers ready for the esquites, I made the serious mistake of using my fingers instead of a knife to get the seeds out. After about an hour, my fingers were BURNING! I tried sucking some of the burny stuff off, and that just made my mouth burn as well. Patrick looked up how to get rid of it, and while he did that I soaked my fingers in some milk to make it stop temporarily. We tried one of the remedies, putting olive oil on my fingers to solubilize the capsaicin and then washing it off, which brought the burning down a lot but didn't entirely rid me of it. My fingers are still a bit hot today! I learned my lesson.

It was absolutely pouring on the way into work today. Fortunately there weren't any accidents. We saw quite a few on the way down to Tacoma on Saturday, though. It was pouring then, too, and there was even a car in a ditch. I'm glad we made it safely! I'm also glad I wasn't the one driving. I get nervous enough driving in bad weather when I know where I'm going, and I've only been to the Pantages in Tacoma a few times in recent years, always far enough apart from the last visit that I've completely forgotten how to find it. Patrick saves the day. I should just get a t-shirt that says that...

I'm still having jaw pain and swelling when I eat, and it's either the same or slightly worse. I called the clinic back and left a message on the resident/fellow voicemail. Hopefully they get back to me soon. Obviously the antibiotics did not work (and this is why you shouldn't treat something until you know what it is you are treating), so we have to try something else. I'd rather they ordered an MRI than a CT scan, since it seems foolhardy to irradiate the site of a prior tumor... At any rate, I see them next week.

The prazosin might be having a good effect on my dreams. I haven't had any bad nightmares. I HAVE had plenty of anxiety, so if it's meant to fix that from day to day as well, it will have to be at a higher dose. Faced with even the smallest of stressors, my levels still skyrocket. I'll discuss this with the doctor when I see him next (Nov 1).

I got some black fingernail polish yesterday for my costume (called Fade to Black by Deborah Lippmann), and it works great. You have to put on a couple layers, but it isn't weirdly off-black or streaky, both of which are customary problems I've observed with black polish. This is pleasantly shiny and opaque. Black as a nail color looks surprisingly classy, I must say.