“Dude, you look like hell.”
That’s what one coworker said to me this morning, and he’s totally right (actually, I think I look even worse now since its evening time). I look, feel, and even move like Dan Ackroyd’s character in Trading Places. You know, when he’s all drunk and surly and, while dressed as Santa, tries to eat that hunk of ham which he had just stolen.
But yeah, the last few days have been absolute hell. I’ve been taking the meds as prescribed by my doctor for my infected sinus since Monday, but it really doesn’t seem to be working at all. My head has been constantly stuffed up, and either I have super violent sneezes or hacking cough attacks, which has also prevented me from getting any sleep. For the past four days I’ve seriously only gotten about 3 hours collectively; at most I can only get 20 or 30 minutes of rest at a time until the next coughing fit.
Work isn’t helping things much; next Monday is the big end of year portfolio night, so I’ve had to move tons of computer and furniture all over the place, and since they really need me, I can’t take any time off even to convalesce. Plus they’re re-painting the walls throughout my department, so in addition to all the pollen out there, the air quality couldn’t be worse. But it did! Yesterday a student who was setting up an installation decided to spray paint her work with black spray-paint, the totally toxic variety, and indoors, in a room with zero ventilation, which upset everyone including security and the such, and guess who had to help carry it outside while the fumes were still thick in the air?
Before if I blew my nose too much it would start to bleed, but today I also coughed up some blood, so I decided to call my doctor and tell him that whatever medicine wasn’t working, so he decided to change my prescription. And to help me out, my boss also passed along a Claritin pill, the non-over the counter the type, which is the strong enough to down a horse dosage, though I’m holding off since I don’t like to mix medicine (BTW, I also love how everyone has spare extra strength Claritin pills just lying around, “just in case” for a friend or colleague). Though what I do plan on doing is right after work tomorrow, since its Friday, is to get some vodka and cranberry juice and drink so much that I pass out (I guess I should maybe consult my pharmacist and see if its safe to mix alcohol with the new meds). And if I’m still not better by Saturday, then its a trip to the emergency room for me (I’ll be going to a Jersey hospital… fuck going to the emergency room in Manhattan).
Last night I looked so bad that during dinner MK suggested that we skip movie night and head straight home, but I insisted we go. Why? Because of Millennium, which Jeff has been showing for the past few weeks, and I’m like the only real vocal fan of the show out of the group (Ric totally hates it, and even suggested that instead of Lance Hendriksen that they should have gotten… get this… Bill Murray). Last night was one of the first key “mythology” episodes from the series, plus we saw highlights from the second season opener (including the introduction of the computer hacker character who sorta shits all over the X-Files’ Lone Gunmen if you ask me). I simply cannot wait till we get to the last episode of the second season, which I still strongly feel is one of most craziest things ever shown on network television.
The feature was Deathtrap, the Michael Cain/Christopher Reeve/Sidney Lumet classic, which everyone loved of course (though its hardly a surprise given that the movie night crowd consists of assorted writers, stage actors, and film geeks). It was a nice 180 from last week’s selection which was Downfall, that most recent final days of Hitler flick from Germany two years ago. It was amazing, and pretty intense (so much so that I decided to abstain from making tasteless Jewish jokes the following week). And the actor playing Hitler was simply brilliant, and he even managed to top Ben Kenobi as my fave Hitler depiction. And we didn’t watch South Park, nor an episode of Action (that cancelled Fox show from a few years back about Jay Mohr as some scumbag Hollywood producer that we’ve also been watching), though I did manage to talk about how last Friday night this scatter-brained high society woman asked for directions to a theater in Chinatown, for the Tribeca Film Fest last Friday, and how she got all pissed when she couldn’t understand that we were in the part of the city where all the streets are no longer numbers, nor is it a grid, so she stormed off cursing at me. BTW, the entire fest is really fucking obnoxious if only because of the crowd it brings out, hence why I don’t even bother. That and $12 per movie is a bit outrageous.
On a totally different note, I’ve been meaning to mention for a while now that MK & I will be appearing at SPACE in Columbus, Ohio, which takes place next weekend. MK will have copies of Pale Fire and other stuff on-hand, and I’ll be selling my Unlucky mini’s of course. Anyway, last night MK brought to my attention that I won’t be the only Matt Hawkins at the show. The thing is, I’ve been well aware of the “other” Matt Hawkins (who worked for Top Cow or something) for some time now, especially since its led to confusion at certain comic shows I’ve attended. It’s the reason why I’m listed as Matthew E. Hawkins on the cover of Unlucky. But not too long ago I discovered that there’s a third Matt Hawkins who’s a cartoonist. And the crazy thing is that I stumbled across him when I tried finding out if MadHawkins.com was taken, since that’s what I used to call myself on AOL a few years back. Man, I really should have taken it when I had the chance…. Well this other Matt Hawkins, who, and no offense to him, hardly seems at all angry, will be SPACE as well. Interesting…
Anyway, back to me being sick and all that jazz; since I haven’t been able to get any rest, my mind is absolute mush and I’m really behind on a few projects, which is what’s really making me so damn cranky and stressed. My inability to get my shit together is so bad that I can’t even keep my head straight when checking out game related news, which not suprisingly has been blowing up left and right since E3 happens next week. And that’s another thing… as the show approaches, more and more people have been asking if I’m going, and each time I have to put on a sad face and say no, then explain that I wasn’t able to convince anyone to foot the bill for flying me out there. Though it’s hardly surprising since I’m all the way out here in NYC while the show takes place literally in the backyard of some of my editors. But it’s killing me more so this year than in the past since we all know that this year’s show is going to be fucking INSANE, with the Wii making its official debut, as well as the PS3, and the next slew of DS games and the such. though what really annoys me is when certain folks complain about how much of a hassle the show will be for them, with their inane “Aw geeze, its going to be too big this year… there’s going to be too many things to see and play, and….” blah, blah, blah. That’s like bitching about how there’s going to be too many hot chicks at the orgy. Whatever, shut the fuck up.
Though I did find out more about Grasshoper’s new game, which looks pretty neat thus far.
Plus, I also heard this morning that the original Star Wars trilogy is finally coming to DVD, devoid of all the special edition nonsense (so Han will finally shoot first, end of story). And I gotta say, I’m very happy with this news and will most definitely be picking it up.
There were other things I wanted to mention, I think, but again, my brain is mush…. I think I’m going to try and get some sleep again.
