Author: thad

So the audition that I just managed to squeeze out with no dogs barking on it? The book quit accepting auditions sometime between the time I finished it and the time I went to submit it. (It was up less than a day, too -- I guess you can trust that anything with "zombie" in the title is going to be in demand.)

Rejection's part of the job, of course, but this is the first time I've hit the window where the role was cast after I recorded an audition and before I had a chance to send it in.

Ah well -- back at it tomorrow.

Stomach starts gurgling. Make quick PB&J. (For future reference: peanut butter makes for a quick meal but is probably not ideal for recording; mouth gets all sticky.)

Voice starts getting hoarse.

Home stretch. Then every damn-fool dog on the block starts blocking its damn-fool dog head off.

Fortunately, I was in the home stretch, because on the third or fourth take I managed to time it just right, in-between canine outbursts, and finish it with no barking on the track.

Still, would have liked to do one more quick track. But the dogs would not shut up. So I biked downtown and back -- and the fuckers were still barking when I got home. I think they barked for two hours straight. Never did figure out what the hell pissed them off. If anything.

Important thing was I got two auditions done. Not as many as I'd have liked, but tomorrow's another day, hopefully without interruptions.

I still love dogs. But man they sure do cramp my style some days.

I mentioned recently that I've got COBRA coverage sort-of worked out and took a trip to the pulmonologist last week so I could renew some prescriptions.

I went back on an inhaler, a nasal spray, and a pill that I'd gone off a couple of years ago.

The relief was immediate. What took a couple days was the reminder of why I'd gone off them.

Some combination of my meds makes me dizzy. It's a sort of constant, mild-to-moderate discomfort. It affects my balance and coordination; I bump into doorways. And it makes it hard for me to concentrate. I feel slow and sluggish -- like I'm, well, drugged.

I'm not sure if it's the inhaler, the spray, or both. (It's not the pill because I forgot to take it a couple times and still got the symptoms.) But the dizziness came back.

Today I cut the dosage of my inhaler by half. The dizziness still came, but it didn't seem to last as long. I managed to do 45 minutes on the elliptical machine, though it wasn't entirely comfortable. At least I've got handles to grip to steady myself -- don't know how I'd do on a bike right now.

So I'm not sure if cutting the dosage really helped with the dizziness or not. But my wheezing and coughing seem worse.

Would sure be nice if I could work it out so I don't have to choose between one kind of discomfort and another.

I'll experiment (experiment with drugs!) over the next few days -- try the dosage I've got right now for a couple days and see if there's any cumulative effect; if not, maybe try increasing the inhaler again while halving or stopping the spray. Because I sure do enjoy being able to breathe comfortably, but I'd like to be able to move and think coherently while breathing comfortably.

On the plus side, I got four auditions recorded before my stomach started gurgling too much for me to continue. That's a productive day. Next up: dinner.