May (Please Don’t Say the Rest)

Ah, the month of May. The first week is so full of awful, ridiculous puns that I can’t stand to expose myself to any of them. And it was all the better reason for me to nix social media for the month and as a result, I’m blogging my thoughts.

I mean, this isn’t the same thing, is it? When blogging began, it was just blogging. Totally different if you ask me. Eh. Anyway, I’ll most likely be back to Facestagram in June. Sure, I’ll miss out on a lot but my brain needed a break and so did my mental health. More on that later.

But let’s start with my April. Well, mid-March because that’s when I broke a tooth and couldn’t get an appointment with my dentist until April 5 because he’s a popular dude. I tolerated the pain for that entire time and couldn’t wait to get it fixed.

Until April 4 came around and I started to feel pretty sick. I woke up sounding like Harvey Fierstein and had a cough, sore throat, and runny nose. I couldn’t see the dentist in this condition so I cancelled my appointment and instead went to urgent care. It was there that, after observation and chest x-rays, I was diagnosed with acute bronchitis and was just steps away from pneumonia. I got a shot where it counts and a battery of drugs to take over the next week. It took a while but I eventually came around, even if my exercising took a serious hit.

In the end, I only took one day off from work and just rested when I was done for the day, and only recently started getting around to my daily workouts.

As for the dentist, I finally got to see him on May 2 and oh, was it a fun visit. Actually it was two visits: one in the morning for the repair and another in the afternoon for a cleaning. While the tooth was filled as a temporary fix, he suggested that it be extracted down the road. I was definitely not expecting to hear that and opted to wait until later and my God if I have another tooth pulled, I’ll whistle when the wind blows.

I also have quite a few cavities that need to be drilled and filled, some of which will be taken care of in my visit next week. It’s only the beginning of what will be a lot of visits and properly explains why he drives a Tesla.

On the mental health side, last week I was in a serious funk and couldn’t get out. I’ve spoken about this in the past and hate when it happens, but I always seem to dig myself out. That’s when I realized that taking a break from social media would be a great idea as I recovered from this feeling of darkness and despair so as not to have my brain overstimulated or even influenced by anything or anyone. You’d be surprised how much of a grip it can have on you and ignoring it may mean missing out on a lot but if logging off helps you get better, do it.

I’m spending my time doing other things instead of voyeuristically scrolling through feed after feed after endless feed. I’m drawing on my iPad more, getting reacquainted with The Lord of the Rings books (which I have loved since I was a teenager), and simply catching up on sleep. They are all helping me get back to a place I’d rather be and I like it.

And finally, the diet. At the start of the year I made the decision to pretty much become vegetarian for health reasons so that I can bring my cholesterol numbers down. While I haven’t gotten blood work done to prove that the numbers have dropped, here’s what has: my weight. I was 225 lbs in January and I’m now at 212 lbs. That’s a total loss of 13 lbs for the year and I feel great and don’t miss eating meats of any kind.

Also, I’m down to size 36 jeans and can actually wear skinny jeans now without looking like I’m struggling to breathe. This was definitely the right move and would recommend it to anyone (provided they don’t have any special dietary requirements — always consult your doctor first).

So that’s been my life lately. A bit on the crazy side but it’s been far from boring.