The Cheese Stands Alone

The doctor isn't sure what is wrong with me, it seems. It could have been a ruptured ovarian cyst, which I have had for several years, and sometimes within the second week of a woman's cycle they are known to burst and become very painful. But I'm barely on my first week's cycle. And I'm not bleeding. No fever, no nausea, everything else in working order. But I'm going in for an ultrasound next week for pretty much that whole zone down there and see what pops up. It's not as bad today as it was yesterday, although I had a bit of a freakout this afternoon when I lost my wallet and I was racing up and down the stairs, pacing around the bank trying to get my cards cancelled, and everything started hurting so bad and I was stressing so hard on top of it all I just sat in the car and cried, which I rarely do in situations like these but I think today on top of the pain I just couldn't get keep it together very well. Luckily Joe found my wallet, and all I ended up cancelling anyway was my debit card so there was no tremendous los and the day was saved, thanks to Jose Vlad. And I called out from work again, which I didn't really want to do but I knew I wasn't going to make it in under the conditions I was experiencing. I laid on the couch watching the Criterion edition of The Honeymoon Killers and amazingly it calmed me right back down again. I guess sometimes one needs to know that no matter how lousy your day can get, there is always somebody out there that you would never dream of trading places.

Speaking of movies, I finally bought a DVD replacement for my long-lost VHS to The Tingler.

William Castle's wacky suspense thriller about a centipede-like creature that grows on the human spine whenever we experience fear (that tingling sensation we feel down our backs) and the only way to kill it is to scream, or else it will choke us off at the base of the brain. When a deaf-mute woman dies from fright, the "tingler" escapes her body and wrecks havoc, even escaping into the movie theater audience. Castle was famous for his horror flick gimmicks -- he secretly placed "joy buzzers" in random seats in the theater to zap unsuspecting audience members to heighten their fears, getting people to scream or else "the Tingler will get you too!" I love this movie to pieces, and I'm quite pleased to be owning it again.

It's been a cruddy day. I think I'm going to go turn out all the lights and enjoy this again.