I’m on firm instructions from my doctor not to go mountain climbing.

Not that I planned to, mind you.  But let me tell you, getting so dizzy you don’t know up from down while laying down in the bathtub is peculiarly intense and definitely scary.  And oddly psychedelic, though totally lacking in good stuff like rainbow colors or whimsical hallucinations.

Now, if I’d known I had an ear infection, I’d have stayed upright to wash my hair last night, but usually swishing it in the nice, hot, water feels really good, and helps get the tension out of my neck.  Sigh.

In the meantime, until the nice antibiotics and decongestants take effect, I get to walk around very carefully, consciously staring at any nice, well-behaved vertical line that’s available (buildings, streetlights, walls, windows, doorways--but not doors--and emphatically NOT trucks, which, after all, might choose to move…I have noticed that lawyers opening and closing file drawers aren’t helpful either.) 

Anyway, as I was saying, instead of thinking about interesting things like world building or plots, music or art, as I walk from place to place, I’m focusing on the most boring, well-behaved vertical lines I can find, so I can make sure my body stays aligned with them, in a safe relationship to gravity, while my inner ears lie to me.

It’s…interesting.

I’m on firm instructions from my doctor not to go mountain climbing.

Not that I planned to, mind you.  But let me tell you, getting so dizzy you don’t know up from down while laying down in the bathtub is peculiarly intense and definitely scary.  And oddly psychedelic, though totally lacking in good stuff like rainbow colors or whimsical hallucinations.

Now, if I’d known I had an ear infection, I’d have stayed upright to wash my hair last night, but usually swishing it in the nice, hot, water feels really good, and helps get the tension out of my neck.  Sigh.

In the meantime, until the nice antibiotics and decongestants take effect, I get to walk around very carefully, consciously staring at any nice, well-behaved vertical line that’s available (buildings, streetlights, walls, windows, doorways--but not doors--and emphatically NOT trucks, which, after all, might choose to move…I have noticed that lawyers opening and closing file drawers aren’t helpful either.) 

Anyway, as I was saying, instead of thinking about interesting things like world building or plots, music or art, as I walk from place to place, I’m focusing on the most boring, well-behaved vertical lines I can find, so I can make sure my body stays aligned with them, in a safe relationship to gravity, while my inner ears lie to me.

It’s…interesting.