Interesting medical experimentation

 The mornings have been the worst. I've slept and the drugs have had 6-8 hours to wear off. But last night  I did some reading on the synergistic effects of Tylenol and caffeine. The big ol' bars of Tylenol 500s I got at the hospital are probably that big because there's 100mg of caffeine in them too. The Tylenol 500s I got from Walgreens are bitty things. Easier to swallow I guess, but I'm guessing they're missing the caffeine. 

I got onto this line of thinking because I noticed I felt better after having my breakfast of a good spoon and a half of that good old Israeli product, Elite instant coffee, mixed with a bit of vanilla extract into water and heavy cream and ice. It can't be the calories, I thought. 

So today I got up to take my pills which I'd set out last night, the last big Tylenol bar and a half a blood pressure pill, and chased it with a spoonful of the instant coffee, which helped chase the pills down too. And 45 minutes later or so, I feel OK enough to be up typing this. 

I don't want to take caffeine in the evening, but for these mornings I think I'm onto something. Dr. Carter is in! Wait'll I get with Valley Medical I guess, to see about my general health and the blood pressure thing and I tell them I'd been having side effects from the blood pressure medication so I'm cutting the pills in half. 2.5mg instead of 5mg. 

The way I see my future right now is to complete my conversion and: 

(1) End up staying here. Repeatedly on Reddit I've seen the question, Which old-age homes are not hellish? And the answer is always: The Jewish ones. 

(2) Move back to Hawaii to be a bit of a 2nd class citizen because of my skin color or lack thereof, but at least I'll be able to say I went to high school Here and worked Here and Here and Here, and grew up fishing Here, etc. And I'll have what Jewish community is there as my "tribe". 

(3) The big banana. Retire in Israel. 

Now let's say I wanted to retire in New Orleans, which I certainly don't. But let's say I wanted to. I'd already determined that there's basically one streetcar that would take me everywhere I need to go from markets to the VA and the Social Security office. It's pretty great for those who don't have a car and can keep a bike running. New me, I'd probably have a blog and use something like "Tee Spring" to print up shirts I'd ling to on said blog. 

After all say my stated goal was to attain fame, perhaps by playing guitar and singing about my preferred mule and other New Orleans things. I'd have T-shirts, stickers, maybe go on Reddit and do an AMA (Ask Me Anything) because frankly, millions in the US dream of running off to a place like New Orleans and living off of their guitar and vocals about draft animals and other New Orleans things. 

So I'm typing away on this thing and I realize the first of a very important set of classes is this Tuesday evening. "The Talk" with the rabbi is the next day, Wednesday. It had been last Wednesday, when I figured I'd get a chance to ask where to show up for my first class. But now I had no idea where to report to, the office at the temple is closed on Mondays, and I could not guarantee someone who knows what's up would be there on Tuesday. 

I was pretty sure the first meeting would be at my home temple but was not certain. I had no idea why I wasn't emailed some instructions. But I knew today was a bat mitzvah, and thus the rabbi would be there. It was about 10:15 in the morning and the thing would start at 10:30. Time to crash that bat mitzvah. 

I got dressed and rode over to the temple, and went in and sat in the last row and joined in the singing. It was pretty long, but it was great. I sat there thinking, This is 180 degrees opposite the mainstream culture here. The gal who it was, who's probably destined to become a cantor at least, read from the Torah with cantillation, gave a speech about her personal world view, was complimented and lauded on her promise and the good things she's done, and encouraged to do more through her whole life. 

I'm not even sure I *had* a 13th birthday. There wasn't even much concern on anyone else's part whether I had enough to eat or not. 

When the service was over it was out to the courtyard for kiddush and ha motzi, and I ran into one of my favorite people, Phil Hankin. I was able to ask him about at least where to be for the first class, and he got right on his phone and dug up the syllabus and emailed it to me. Salt of the Earth, that guy. 

I got to talk to Rabbi a bit and told him Phil Hankin had "saved my life" and he said that if I miss any classes, he'll work with me to make up those classes. 

Then were was the oneg and it was great. Bagels with cream cheese and lox and tomatoes and cucumber slices and red onion and capers, plus other goodies like mushrooms with cheese baked inside, and some tuna salad, and a knish. Something else that was the same basic pastry and potato combination at the knish, but the knish was amazing. 

I sat with a couple other people to eat, and eventually Philip showed up. It turns out he's going to sing at Carnegie Hall in New York. He's really involved with theater stuff. Now I know why he's so careful with his money. He saves it so he can go do things like that. That's really great that he's able to do things like that. 

I left the temple into a clear, and cold, day. I rode over to Whole Foods to lock the bike, and walked over to Diridon Station to get on the light rail to the Convention Center bus stop, then took the #23 bus to Santana Row to pick up something I'd ordered from Best Buy. Since Best Buy is based in Minnesota, this had caused my card to be deactivated, but the company had called me - during the service no less - and I'd re-activated my card. 

I picked up the thing then walked to Big-5 and bought a pair of gloves that might be good for cold weather, since I'm not sure if I still have my Thinsulate ones or what kind of condition they're in. 

Then I took the bus further down, to Guitar Center where I bought a mandolin strap and the repair guys gave me one of those buttons used on the bottom of a guitar to hold a strap. They have banjo ukes but they're the Goodtime clear plastic ones, which are not really my preference. I think one of the Kala ones sold at Ukulele Source would be my choice.

Then it was back on the bus which I rode downtown and stopped in at the Starbucks for some water to swallow some pills, which they gave me but I put a $1 in the tip box anyway. Downtown is so dead but the Starbucks was doing fine.

Then walked to the bus stop on Santa Clara and got on a #522 bus to the SAP Center which is about 3 minutes' walk back to Whole Foods. I got a big bag of popcorn because I felt like it, and rode home. I had popcorn and some of the zero alcohol Japanese "beer" I'd wasted money on at Nijiya yesterday. Eh, it's wet and fizzy.