what a day...

question for taylor... is it bad to mix herbal remedies with modern western medicine? will either be less effective because of the presence of the other?

contemplating this as i drug myself up at the coffee bar...

"warning, do not operate heavy machinery..."

that was my away message this morning. as it turns out, i opted for just being miserable instead of being drugged and miserable. that was a good thing... because i acted as if i were drugged anyway. i kept giving people the wrong change, i felt slightly lightheaded, and moved sluggishly. the clincher was the coffeepot incident. our pots are hand pumped, so pushing down on the top of it pumps air into the container enough that the pressure pushes the coffee up the pipe and out of the container. (capillary action? are you proud of me james?) the pipe is removed in order to refill the coffee pot. except in cases when the barista is acting like she's high on benadryl and puts the coffee pot under the brewer without removing the pipe. in those cases, the brewer drips a tiny bit of coffee into the pipe, where some of it reaches the inside of the pot. the rest of it covers the countertop, drips into the ice bin, underneath the flavored syrups and cups, and into the lipton tea box.

occasionally the brewer does this all by itself, in which case we imagine that management does it to make sure we're thoroughly cleaning the counters. today though, the brewing machine had help.

not only that, but something weird happened with helene today. this could be just me hallucinating from all the congestion in my head, or it could be her being possessed by a demon. i swear, i heard her speaking, and then i heard her voice saying something else at exactly the same time. are the vocal chords capable of that? i'm not sure.

anyway, i'm home now, and feeling a little nauseous. i'm gonna go lie down.