Earthly Vibrations and Cold

I have had a cold since last Monday and am no doubt driving my coworkers crazy with the hacking and moaning. (We have Personal Time Off instead of sick days and vacation days, so there is very little incentive for one to lie in bed sick, though I do if I’m really miserable. The less one stays home sick, the more one can go on vacation.)

On Friday night, I went to see my lovely new acupuncturist, who told me many entertaining stories, and then I went home and balanced my checkbook and did my monthly money-related stuff (like counting it to see how much there is).

The rumbling I’ve been complaining about is now absolutely non-stop at home, but it doesn’t keep me awake at all anymore. There is road work happening on Valencia St., a block away, and Tom suggested that maybe the vibration is caused by cars bumping over the multitudinous steel plates, but I looked out the window at the cars going by and there didn’t seem to be a correlation. Tom cannot perceive this vibration at all, but believes that I perceive it (whew).

Until recently, if I went up to his place, which is right above mine, I couldn’t feel/hear it, but now I can. At this point, the bottoms of my feet kind of tickle. The other day, I realized I can feel something similar at work. Therefore I conclude that it’s just some machine under whichever building I’m in: the furnace or hot water heater or something.

I went to see my long-suffering mental health professional today. I slept through our appointment four weeks ago—I call it the $80 nap—and canceled the one two weeks ago, so I started by saying, “We’ve had a refreshing break.” I told her all about the ski trip and about the rumbling, which I could feel in her office, too, though not quite the same thing as at work or at home.

She couldn’t sense it at all, while it seemed glaringly obvious to me. Can’t you feel that? She mentioned that some Native Americans could listen to the earth and tell when something was off. (Maybe I’m developing a similar sense, though I can tell you something is off just by reading the newspaper.) She also said it would be interesting to see if I perceive it when I’m in a large park. If I’m ever in a large park again, I’ll check it out.

The one thing I haven’t mastered yet about this vibration thing is if someone really is playing their stereo and then they turn it down and later turn it off. Somewhere along the line it segues into being just the rumbling, without my realizing it. Friday night, I was under the impression that a neighbor’s stereo was on late into the night, and stayed up until three a.m. puttering around and waiting for it to stop. The next day I realized it had probably stopped long before I went to sleep and I just couldn’t tell. (I think this whole thing has to do with 15 or so years of paying-attention meditation. Who knows what else is out there yet to be perceived?)

Both Saturday and Sunday were absolutely gorgeous days. I sprang out of bed at 11 on Saturday (by rights, I should have slept until noon since I was up until three) and went to Rainbow and then did some cooking. I chopped veggies and baked tofu and cooked rice. In the evening, Tom and I saw Where the Truth Lies, with Kevin Bacon, which I had missed in the theater and wanted to see. It was good. I love Kevin Bacon. Not to be missed: The Woodsman.

On Sunday I did more cooking: split pea soup, and butter cookies with lemon frosting. I’m using up the rest of my animal food (which in the case of milk chocolate is probably going to take about a year), so I made the cookies with half butter and half fake butter (Earth Balance, which is incredible stuff—it’s probably got as much fat and saturated fat as real butter, which is great: that’s what you want in cookies; if you want something more virtuous, with less fat, try Spectrum Spread, which is fine on toast but probably wouldn’t make very good cookies). I also used 2/3 real egg and 1/3 egg replacer. The cookies were actually even better than they usually are, which is saying something. I’ll be interested to see how they are with only fake butter and eggs.

I was vegan in the past for some years, but toward the end began to feel shaky and weird. I ate rice and beans and veggies three times a day, under the watchful eye of Lisa M., my coworker at the time, who had inspired me to give up this, that and the other. One day she was exhorting me to abandon an unhealthy relationship. “But what will I do for fun?” I asked, as I’d already given up cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, sugar, etc. Lisa M. released a well-timed burst of life-affirming flatulence and answered: “Honor your bodily processes.”

Because I had eventually felt woozy eating rice and beans and veggies, I was worried about getting enough protein; this evidently often concerns new vegans. John Robbins says in Diet for a New America that if you’re getting enough calories, you’re getting enough protein, though he goes on to say that there are a few ways you can manage to become protein-deficient, like if you eat a lot of empty calories (fat, sugar). He mentions this almost in passing, as if he can’t believe anyone actually does this. Well, I do it all the time, so must keep an eye on that. Earlier this week I counted up the protein grams in what I’d eaten that day and, sure enough, it was more than 60 grams.

I spoke to Lisa M. a couple of days ago. “You know everything about snot,” I began. “Tell me one thing.” In the course of the conversation, she discovered that I was not using her seven-part protocol for colds and sent it to me again. I started doing some of it and immediately felt much better. Next time I’ll do it as soon as I start to have a sore throat.

(The protocol involves steaming one’s sinuses over chopped fresh ginger boiled in water, drinking water with ascorbic acid powder in it, megadoses of vitamin A for a few days, Source Naturals brand Wellness Formula, gargling with hot salt water, zinc lozenges, and bathing in hydrogen peroxide. You can mix and match.)