New Glasses

Too hipster?

Nicholas Francisco | Missing

A friend of mine works this guy. Please email/spread this throughout the NW.

Brief

Just wanted to pop in and say that we are having one of the best weekends we have had in a long time. Recap later maybe? Melissa is being reborn now that she is no longer a teacher. HIGH FIVE!

If you must spy, check the videos on top of page, and also my flickr stream on the right for some clues...

Aces

So besides the Chantix fiasco, this week has been incredible.

Melissa scored a job with OHSU in the VGTI organization. She walked in for her interview on the west campus and was greeted by two dogs in the office! Is that not a sign? She had a lengthy interview and then was called back 10 minutes later asking her to come back to fill out paperwork. They offered her the job.

Again she is changing careers/getting the hell out of teaching. We had expected her to take a huge cut in pay as she would be sort of entry level office assistance. But this is not the case with her offer. It is pretty darn close to what she is/was making as a teach. She is very excited about the position and the work. She will be assisting the researchers in submitting their papers to medical/research journals. The other time will be arranging travel for researchers and doing hospitality for guest researchers. I could go on and on about how amazing it all worked out this week. Her school found a replacement for her, she can use transit, we both now have pretty rad retirement, blah blah blah. But the single most important thing here is:

MELISSA WON'T HAVE TO BABYSIT TEENAGERS ANYMORE!!!!!!

I can already see the change in her. The stress is being peeled away. The hatred for having to wake up in the morning and drudge off to work is almost gone. 1 more week, and Melissa is a free/new woman.

I can't tell you how proud I am of her. She deserves this opportunity. All the stress and let downs of this job search has paid off. We are going to party it up this weekend!!

/gloating

Chantix

I took Chantix for about 1.5 weeks until yesterday. Chantix is a quit smoking medication. Before I tell the tale, please note that I am not in any way being overly dramatic for the purpose of a better story. What I say here is the truth. It should also be noted that results may vary by individual.

Researching the drug, it sounded like a miracle. At least one person I know at work had been taking it and successfully quit smoking. Chantix works two-fold. First it blocks the reception of Nicotine in the brain, thus preventing the release of dopamine when you smoke. Secondly it fights the withdrawal by slowly releasing a smaller amount of dopamine into the system. I am not a doctor, but that is how I understand it to work.

The first few days of taking the meds are a ramp up in dosage. During the first 7-8 days they say to smoke as normal, then quit on the 7th or 8th day. As the dosage increased, I began to have anxious and worried episodes that were unexplainable in reality. This was listed as a minor side effect, so I figured it was worth the trade off. Then Monday happened.

I didn't drink any more on Super Bowl Sunday than I normally would. I ate food that everyone else had. I woke up Monday morning as a different person. I felt like a complete zombie. I had slept 8-9 hours the night before, so it was not sleep at issue. I couldn't focus my brain or my eyes very well. I was running late, and missed the downtown streetcar that morning. Next one arrives in 15 minutes. Somehow my brain said it makes more sense to walk to work from here. That is 2 and a half miles. I felt no pain as I power walked the whole way. I couldn't tell if I was just feeling really fit, or if something was wrong. I kept thinking, just a little more coffee and I will feel myself.

The morning dragged on around me. I was starting to get pretty frightened at what was going on. People asked. All I could say is, "I am not sure". I felt like throwing up all morning. I decided by 10:00am that I needed to go home. I came home to depressive episodes. Hatred for the world, slight suicidal thought flashes, and bouts of crying. This was not me. There was no explanation for these feelings.

So Brian, what does this have to do with Chantix?

http://treatmentonline.com/treatments.php?id=710

Just read a handful of the comments on that huge list of comments. I started to worry more, but was glad to find a reason for the feelings. A friend sends me this link:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gi8frQ5vc6CUUcILlRxZ5NB3-OqwD8UHPDP01

I am not taking this pill anymore. I don't care if I start smoking again.

Again, this pill has worked miracles for some. My experience may be in the minority, but I wish I had found these warnings and testimonies earlier. Some may claim, "that was just withdrawal you were experiencing." Well, I still had 2-3 ciggarettes in the evenings. Which is something I have done in the past when trying to quit cold-turkey. I NEVER felt like this before.