Today was very domestic. The house is sparkling. The cat is asleep. The space heater is radiating. The tea kettle is cooing. And now I need to get outfitted and face the elements on my bike, because I am going to see Midlake with Greg, Genevieve, et. al.

I think I may finally see a naturopath for my odd buzzing headaches, which are coming on almost every day now. The headaches aren't like your typical migraine, with the aura and the sensitivity to light and sound and the overall life-shattering misery. It feels more like a bear gently squeezing my head with its claw, thumbs on my temples. Fucking with me. They are ignorable to an extent, but so annoying. Please, float off to someone else's head! Just for a few days. Klonopin helps to an extent, but is a highly addictive benzodiazepine. I don't have an addictive "personality" per se, so it probably wouldn't ever be a problem, but I have a phobia of pills, and whenever I resort to taking one, I feel defeated, like the meds "won." I also think all pills, with the exception of a good multi-vitamin and Chinese herbs, are poison. Becky had to baby-talk me into taking a sliver of Klonopin for the first time, and I am grateful.

My therapist is so utterly amazing, a gentle Lou Reed dopplegänger who drives a motorcycle to work, and I really want to continue seeing him, regardless of whether or not I am on medication. He is a psychotherapist, an M.D., and a mindfulness meditation instructor, and we have a bi-weekly ritual where we sit on the floor together, with pillows perched on top of his DSM-IV manuals, and he guides me, seamlessly, through what meditation is supposed to feel like, forming an entire lingual system centered around breath. But it wouldn't hurt to have a rendezvous with homeopathy, too, which is even more poetic:

Heaviness in the head, especially in the occiput. Each day drawing headache, as if the head would burst. Stitching, buzzing headache. Beating headache in the vertex, coldness; a cold spot in the head.

From the Materia Medica.

Thank you, Google Books. Stitching. That is exactly how I would phrase it.

I need to be serious about eliminating gluten for at least six weeks, too, like my acupuncturist told me to. I've been cheating too often. This week I'm going to go to Anzen, the little Asian market down the street, and stock up on all of my favorites, since Asian food is the kindest when it comes to a gluten-free diet (miso, tofu, tempeh, rice noodles, soybeans...I can live off of those).

It would probably help if I didn't drink coffee all day and night.

Ok, end of boring, health-related post. Time to bike to the Doug Fir in the cold.

~A.