happy chanukah!

my girlfriend left a small teddy bear bearing the words "happy chanukah" on its chest on my pillow before she left for a business trip. it is also wearing a pride necklace with the words "i love you."

what a nice ending for another crappy day.

see, i went to the doctor this morning (after being unable to sleep due to a persistent cough) and was told i had an affliction generally associated with the season in which chanukah falls. i have bronchitis. yes, in the middle of the summer. and i'm in the two week period between health insurance coverage. and i live in a polluted metropolitan area, so finding clean air is a problem. this blows!!!

despite not having insurance coverage, i dragged myself to the doctor, because i became desperate last night and took three times the recommended dosage of robitussin. i haven't been able to sleep in a week due to the incessant coughing. as all of you former precocious teenagers know, the ingredient in robitussin is a psychedelic. i ended up having nightmares of multicolored spiders that expanded and deflated randomly.

i woke up and thought to myself, screw it. this isn't worth saving $250.

i am currently sitting next to an air filter and a humidifier in my bedroom. i have closed my window. with the window open, my hands get sticky within an hour or two as a result of the dust and pollutants so prevalent in the atmosphere. the new york city area is pretty gross, actually. i don't know why we haven't all died of asphyxiation or air poisoning. we live and work in small, poorly ventilated boxes in a megapolis that spews ungodly amounts of waste, car exhaust, and general detritus into the environment every second. i am going to create my own pocket of fresh air, dammit. i am going to filter every square foot of air in this 15 by 12 by 9 foot box until it is clean enough for the bubble boy to inhabit.

at least i got hydrocodone (which is a close relative of vicodin and contains codeine).