Betrayal of the Brain and Revisiting Lebowski

I didn’t get to 50,000 words during National Novel Writing Month this year. I have lots of excuses, but it’s mostly my brain’s fault. I am typically betrayed by my brain in one of three ways. First is the migraine headache. My headaches can put me out of action for a couple of days, and I had two doozies in November.

The second form of betrayal is obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is when my brain decides that, rather than write, I should be looking up every punk band of the 1980s who might have recorded a cover of Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” and/or “Rio.” Sometimes, my brain also decides to watch The Big Lebowski until 1 AM. If you’ve never suffered from OCD, it can be difficult to explain. Just imagine that your brain is engaged in one gear and refuses to shift to another.

The third form of betrayal is not technically the brain’s fault. It occurs whenever I get sick and my many prescription medications are supplemented by over-the-counter cold medicines. This inevitably creates a brain haze that prevents any sort of clear thinking. In the past month, I’ve taken Axert, Imitrex, Zoloft, Tylenol, Tylenol Cold, Vicodin, Prilosec, riboflavin, magnesium, Cold-Eeze, Alpha CF, Promethazine, Nyquil, Vicks VapoRub, Pepto Bismol, and Rolaids. I still have the cold, but I can now cut through steel with powerful rays that I emit from my eyeballs.

By the way, I have tried the injectable version of Imitrex for headaches. This comes in an injection “pen” with a spring-loaded needle. The injection is typically given in the thigh. I’m not sure how it well it works long-term, but in the short-term, you forget about your headache to focus on the new, searing pain in your thigh.

During my obsession with The Big Lebowski, I came to revisit an earlier blog entry in which I listed O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Fargo as the two best Coen brothers films. Someone questioned me on it at the time, and I have to question myself now. Lebowski is pretty darned good and gets better with each viewing. How about if I just call them the top three and leave it at that?