I Squid You Not

So.  I had a dream.  I dreamt that I would spend every night on the shores of Toyama Bay until I saw the hotaruika no mirage - the firefly squid on the beach.  I booked a room at the Sky Hotel Namerikawa back in October or November to be sure that I was close enough to walk to the beach every night.  I was sure it was going to happen, because the new moon was on the first day of vacation, May 4, but I made plans to stay for several days, just in case.

Beautiful Toyama, on a not-too-beautiful day.

And if you’re paying attention, you may be noticing right now that I’ve been on vacation for several days already, and yet May 4 was not one of those days.  And if you have deduced from that fact that I fucked up and booked the wrong dates, you are correct.  What you may not have realized is that I didn’t figure this out until the Monday before the holiday.  And the holiday was an unprecedented 10 day vacation in Japan, thanks to the ascension of the new emperor.  Which meant that, basically, I was screwed.  I found two options that weren’t fully booked - one in Uozu, close to the shore, but looking sketchy as hell.  The other was by Toyama station (ie, inland), and was going to set me back $500.  Have I complained to you about my salary?  So, yes, things were looking quite bleak for me.  And then I wondered what my options would be if I tried Couchsurfing.

Now, for those of you who aren’t savvy, Couchsurfing is the predecessor of AirBnB.  The idea is that travelers host one another freely, paying it forward to the next couchsurfer who comes to their town.  It’s a good model if you like people and adventures.  Since I only like one of those things, I’d never tried it, but desperate times called for desperate measures.  And that is how I came to be staying with a young college student and her family here in Toyama.

Back to the squid: so my idea was that I was going to go out all night watching for them.  That was my plan until I got to my hostess with the mostest’s home Saturday night.  After a full day of wandering Kanazawa, following an overnight bus from Shinjuku, following a day of teaching, and THAT following two nights short on sleep.  Basically I decided I couldn’t do it.  Not that night.  But even the next day was cold.  Also, I’m not staying anywhere close to the shore.  Google maps estimates that it’d take me an hour to walk there, and Google seems to think I’m a faster walker than I am.

Well, I decided I could find a solution for that.  If I had a bike, it would be manageable.  I found out that Toyama has a bike sharing system, CycloCity.  I signed up for a weeklong account, and went to the station to get started.  It was super easy.  Problem solved!  Or so I thought.  Turns out that the system works only if the bikes keep circulating.  In order to avoid tourists who use the same bike for hours at a time, potentially leaving it unattended to get stolen, the first half-hour is free, the next half-hour is 100 yen, and each hour after that is 500 yen.  So riding around all night wasn’t going to work, either, as there were no bike racks near the beach.

It worked okay for getting me to the Inari shrine I needed to finish my photography project, at least.  Although even that I didn’t accomplish in the free half hour.  I mean, it takes time for the photos I was shooting.

I’ve been trying to convince myself since then, convince myself that it’ll be worth it to spend at least two hours on my feet, but honestly there’s no guarantee that even if I do that the damn things will make their appearance.  If it was as easy as “go to the beach, see squid,” I think I could muster up the enthusiasm.  I think if I had a travel buddy with me to keep me going (or that I’d at least be too ashamed to wuss out on), I’d be able to suck it up.  But.  Well.  That is not the case.  So I haven’t gone to shore.  I haven’t seen the firefly squid.

Instead, I’ve seen Avengers: Endgame.  It was awesome.  It didn’t involve me standing on my feet for several hours (although I was holding my pee for at least one).  Afterwards I got a nice wagyu burger from Shogun Burger.  See, maybe I don’t get to see the squid this year, but that’s okay because I really do like Toyama.  It’s a nice chill town with good food and places nearby to explore.  And I’m going to go explore some of them now.  So I’ll catch you on the flip side.

Amsterdamned.

One of the things I love the most about the Netherlands is its strong bicycle culture.  I've lived in a country where people ride bikes (ahem, China), but it's more by necessity than choice, and you can tell that although people ride bikes the practice is not revered by the fact that EVERYONE violates the sanctity of the bike lane...pedestrians, motorcycles, and even somewhat cars.

That is not the case in the Netherlands.  Bicycles outnumber cars by about a million to one (rough approximation), people stay the hell out of the bike lane (except tourists and they're hardly people)...hell, there are even special bike traffic lights.  Cycling is respected here.

I planned to rent a bike, like, every day I was in Amsterdam.  That did not happen.  For starters, my first few days my hotel was outside of the fray, and then I was taking an IB workshop, and then...yes, I know the saying about excuses and assholes.  I'm also kind of...how should I say it?...fat.  Apart from teaching my ass off (unfortunately, not literally), I haven't gotten a lot of exercise this year, in spite of starting it well and being put to shame by Engrish, who has been known to run in blizzards with six centimeters of snow caked on her body.  So I spent the first week here walking past bikes and cyclists and rental shops without taking part.

To be honest, it was a little intimidating.  For so many people to ride bikes, and everything work in such an orderly way, there must be a ton of rules, and the more rules there are, the likelier I am to unwittingly break them.  Also, I'm not the most coordinated person, and I was imagining that a 17-bike pile-up would not be a pretty sight.  I did NOT want to be THAT tourist, the one who threw a wrench in the works and made the whole system go to hell.  In the end, my bike envy won over my fear and I went to Green Budget Bikes to see about renting one for Wednesday.

It seems like renting a bike should be pretty straightforward, and in theory it is.  You go in, leave your passport as collateral, and ride off on whichever bike they give you.  The problem was that I'd left my passport in my room.  On the top floor of the Hotel de Westertoren.  There are 37 stairs in the pictured flight alone (up to "reception") and another 35 more total in the next two stairways up to my room.  I was not going back up for my passport.  So I asked if I could leave a driver's license instead.  Yes, was the answer, with a 100 euro deposit.  Okay, I thought, I can live with that.  Better than climbing up all 500 stairs (especially since the steps are narrow so I have to go down in reverse, because I have a reasonable amount of fear when it comes to stairways).  Then I came to the clincher - I wanted a bike with a basket or a little rack on the front, so that I could keep my eye on my backpack and not have to wear it.  The problem was they only had one that wasn't a kid's bike, and it was 3 euro more.

I asked myself over and over in the following hour what was the big deal?  Why didn't I just say, "Sure, I can live with that."  3 bloody euro for an hour of my life?  No problem.  Instead, for some reason I said I'd go look elsewhere.  After all, I'd walked past about two dozen bike rental shops over the last several days.  Surely somewhere else had what I was looking for at a better price!  It's a buyers' market, after all.  Well, I'm an idiot.  Not because I was wrong...because I could not, for the life of me, find even a single other bike shop that morning.  So I stomped and fumed and kicked myself in the ass a little, and ended up back at Green Budget Bikes again, asking (very politely), if it was fine with them, could I still please rent that very lovely bike with the rack on the front?

So finally, around 11 o'clock, I got on my way for real.  At one point early on in the bike rental dance, the lady I was talking to asked if I wanted foot brakes or hand brakes, which were 3 euro more.  I thought foot brakes were fine, and it turned out that the bike I ended up with had foot brakes, so I guess it's good that that's what I'd wanted.  My first ever bike, back in the dim years of my childhood, had been equipped with foot brakes, after all.  In fact, there is a story about the time I missed a day of third grade because I forgot where the brakes on my brand-new Street Machine were...and I went flying off the end of the dirt road to land in the field.  Since then, as it turns out, I have gotten used to hand brakes, and it took me a few tries to figure out why it was hard to stop by dragging my feet.  Huh.  Go figure.  Luckily, I was able to get through the day without a complimentary story about the time I hurt myself because I forgot the brakes were on the pedals, but it was close a couple of times.

Anyways, I pedaled along Singel Canal, then followed the tram tracks over to the museum square.  I knew I wanted to spend a good long time cycling, but there were a couple of things on my agenda that day as well, starting with a visit to the MOCO (modern/contemporary) museum, which had Banksy and Warhol on exhibit.  After that, I biked over near Rembrandt Square (yes, that is a complete sculptural arrangement of all the figures in "The Night Watch"), to check out a burrito shop I'd been eyeing every time I passed it on the tram.  It's called The Salsa Shop, and it's kind of a Chipotle knock-off, but I didn't care for it - the barbacoa was a little too chunky and chewy, and the flavor was too sweet.  I preferred the California Burrito Company just in and up from my hotel.

After lunch I booked it over to Buikdanswinkel, where I had a belly dance lesson that afternoon.  I found Shaheen listed on Oriental Dancer (although she turned out to be listed on Shira, as well - I just like the format on Oriental Dancer a little better because it has photos).  I gave it a good hour, even if I am out of practice - I really liked Shaheen's choreography and she was really encouraging.  And then I got back on the bike...  I can't say that the bike robbed me of my virtue, because you may be assuming too much by thinking I have any in the first place, but it was not pleasant.  I had not ridden too far, but I've been out of the saddle a loooong time.  As in, I'm not sure I've been on a bike since Bagan.  Which is sad because I actually own a bike, but since its tires went mysteriously flat two years ago I haven't actually cared enough to deal with it.  Hopefully that will change since I bought some kickass saddlebags at the VanGogh museum that I'd been lusting after since I first saw a bike whiz past with them.  If not, maybe when I land that dream job in Japan, which also has a definite cycling culture.

Anyways, despite my legs and other parts whining at me, I got back on my bike and rode around some more, partly because cycling around Amsterdam, over the canals and along sun-dappled tree-lined streets was fun, partly because I'd paid for 24 hours and I was going to make my 12 euros count...but mostly because I was quite a ways from the shop.  I ended up on a street that I knew would lead me into Chinatown, and figured it would be interesting to see it again (since it wasn't pissing rain this time), but when I got there, I actually didn't care.  I'd accidentally wandered into the red light district, which was fine on that account - the hookers aren't that provocative and I don't really mind the smell of pot smoke, it's preferable to tobacco (at least when I'm on the street - in my home I'd better not smell any smoke unless the place is on fire).  The problem was all.  The.  Bloody.  Tourists.  Even if they hadn't been idiots, there were just too many of them to fit on the sidewalks, so the streets were clogged with them.  I had to actually get off my bike and walk it around, and that was more annoying and exhausting than anything.  So I ended up taking the bike back.  Because you know what's better than cycling over canals and along sun-dappled streets?  Not wanting to smack people who desperately deserve it.

Sunday Rider

On one hand, I'm a little bit ashamed to admit that I've only taken my bike out three times since I bought it - taking it to church and back on Sundays.  On the other hand, considering everything else that I have going on, I'm glad that I've done that much.

Last summer I watched the first three seasons of The Walking Dead.  It made for a couple of very stressful weeks, and I began to wonder if this was good for my sanity when, on one of my walks to the store, I saw three Mongolian men shuffling up the sidewalk in clothes that looked a little worn and dirty, because it made my heart skip a beat and I had to review the difference between reality and fantasy.

Today on my ride to church I decided that if there ever IS a zombie apocalypse, a bike is the perfect form of transportation.  You don't need electricity or any sort of fossil fuel to operate it, and it's pretty quiet.  It is faster than a shuffling zombie horde, and although it offers you no protection if you are surrounded, you can swing a sword a lot more easily from a bike seat than inside a car.  Since tire patches and bike pumps will be one of the farthest things from anyone's mind when they are looting stores, you shouldn't have to worry about running out, and other than your tires, a bike will never break down unless you do, and if you break down, you've got bigger problems than transportation.  And if the zombie apocalypse ever happens, I hope it happens before I leave Mongolia, because you'd be hard pressed to find someplace as sparsely populated as here.  Once you got outside of UB, you'd have a lot of open grassland, through which you'd be able to see them coming a long way off.  And it makes me wonder what would happen to a walker in -30C weather?  Would it slow them down???

Now I just need to see about those archery lessons...

On my way home I decided I needed lunch.  Last Sunday I was tempted to stop for shashlik (skewers of freshly grilled meat) when I passed the park at the bottom of Zaisan.  This Sunday I gave in to temptation.  I've only been through there once - every other time I've climbed Zaisan I've gone up the back and taken a shortcut down the side.  I knew they had shashlik, but I had no idea it was a veritable meat lovers' paradise.  The smell alone could drive a carnivore crazy.  I chased my meat with a fat Ghirardelli brownie from Good Price's bake case (hey, in for a penny, in for a pound!)  It might not be the most exciting weekend on record, but with the reconnaissance I did for my ceramics lesson yesterday, it was pretty productive, and satisfying.

Like Riding a Bicycle...

Of all the things I miss about Shanghai (and contrary to my general attitude about my two years there, I do miss a few things about it), it turns out that the one I miss the most is the nice, flat-as-a-pancake, topography.

A couple months back I wrote about my ambition to be an elf when I grow up.  I haven't been a total slacker when it comes to this goal, although the progress is slow going, partly because my feet suck.  Seriously.  My feet are awful, and they have been since I let a friend talk me into a run - sheesh, almost four years ago.  I've tried giving them a break, I've tried working through it, I've taken Celebrex, but I have yet to fix the problem.  Undoubtedly this means I need to work harder, but I hate doctors, so I've sorta been at an impasse.  Well, lately they've been getting worse and worse, and I've found myself empathizing with Socrates' chronic body problems - different body parts, but no less frustrating.  I could continue this monologue about the lead up to yesterday afternoon, but let's jump to the chase: in order to get exercise and still stay off my feet, I dropped a cool mil on a bike.

I haven't biked much since leaving Shanghai.  It's cold a lot - A LOT - of the year, and when I interviewed with the principal before I came here, she didn't seem to think it was very safe.  Well, after a year and a half, I've decided if I can bike in the bloody Emirates and freaking Shanghai, I can handle the Mongol hordes.  So I walked to the Trek shop, found a bike I like, balked at the price a little, and eventually rode away on the beauty pictured above.  It doesn't have a basket, or a light, or a bell, although it does have a kickstand, since I realized it was missing one before I left the shop.  I might be able to remedy the first two while I'm in Shanghai in two weeks, but I think I'll be better off getting an airhorn - nobody's going to hear a bell here, since everyone either drives or has their music in their ears.

(Speaking of music in my ears...)

I hadn't biked that far when I realized how out of shape I really am, but I didn't let it stop me from biking into town and having a bite of lunch.  I was dying by the time I made it home - my back was aching and my tailbone was bruised.  Later that night when I got out of bed my knees were protesting too - it's strange to think that maybe I'm getting old!?!  But they were good sorts of pains, and they served to convince me that - along with a multitude of other things on my plate this spring - I am going to make this happen.  Try to forgive me if there are a lot of posts about biking in Mongolia coming up.

Cycling Shanghai

Due to a lack of funding*, I am spending my first vacation in a VERY long time in my own apartment. This is fine. I have lots of things I need to do. Hell, I joined the gym for this specific reason. Of course, the gym won't reopen for another day or two, due to the holidays, and I can't find the motivation to work on things like my illustrations or unit planners, so instead I've been reading Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses series and watching Glee, and once a day going out for a bike ride. Shanghai is a little bit soulless - what can you expect from a city built on the opium trade? But it does have its moments. These are a few of the ones I've found while I've been tearing up the streets on my bike the last few days...


The thing I've really loved about biking all over the city is the fact that you get a much wider-angle view of it. Riding the subway you see nothing. Riding in a taxi everything goes by much quicker. But down on the ground, pedaling, you see everything as it goes by. You realize how huge and high those elevated roads are. I still haven't begun to feel for Shanghai what I felt in Seoul, but on the other hand, I never could have cycled across Seoul. Hell, don't know if I even WOULD have. It's a much bigger city and with Namsan being smack dab in the middle it's harder to navigate, and much less bicycle friendly. Some people thought I was crazy for getting a bike here, but I stand by my assertion that it's a pretty great place to ride.


Just when I thought I had left the last year of my life behind, I pedal down Yishan Lu, cross under the middle ring road, and get smacked in the face with THIS. RAK Ceramics was the parent company of RAKESS, and thus the sponsor of my UAE visa. It brought chills to see it again...and not the nice kind.


So, today I finally got to visit Jing'An Temple. The smell of incense wafting out the gate literally stopped me in my tracks. I can't really explain why, but I love Buddhist temples. There's the smell of the incense, and the architecture, and that feeling of being somewhere so completely foreign. I find them incredibly peaceful. And Jing'An is a pretty good one.


And finally...red underpants, hanging out to dry over the sidewalk. Found this little gem in the French Concession. But there is a reason WHY there are so many pairs of red underwear - apparently wearing red knickers is some kind of good luck at Chinese new year. APPARENTLY they have the power to scare tigers and an evil monster called Nian Shou. I say, any excuse for red underwear is a good excuse.


*if anyone out there wants to donate to the "Send Mutrux to yet another fabulous destination you're too lame to visit" fund, email me and I'll send you my paypal info :-D

Shanghai American

You've gotta understand something. For the last year, I've mostly associated with Brits. I'm not going to lie and say I haven't enjoyed it, because I have (mostly) - normally I can figure out what they're talking about and I quite like their dry sense of humor - but there are times when I've felt a little outnumbered, and even though I know what THEY are talking about, the reverse often proves not to be true (how can you not know what a cougar is? Or how to teabag?) A typical Friday-Thursday in RAK would be me, Socrates, our married friends, and the school drunk...who are ALL British, and actually all of whom have degrees in one science or another, so while they were nerding out on things like gravity I sometimes found myself wishing for someone who would understand why the joke about Toulouse-Lautrec and the prostitutes* was funny.

Oh, how the tables have turned! Last night was myself, Socrates, and two musicians from Minneapolis. It was nice to have someone laugh at my "your mom" jokes and to not have to translate. I could get used to this!

We went to see them play last week - they had a gig at one of the restaurants on Hongmei walking street. This is the "scene" in Hongqiao/Gubei, if indeed such a thing exists. You can get just about any kind of food on this street - Mexican, Indian, Thai, Japanese...not Korean, actually, but I've got enough of those on my street - and there are plenty of bars as well, many of which have life music. It's also a little artificial, as this is whitey central and you will bump into any foreigner in the area, if you wait long enough. Michael plays guitar and Joann plays cello and they both sing, so it was quite different from the electronic shit we suffered through (for all of ten minutes) the week before.

Before we went out last night I needed to make a run to the bank and Carrefour. The bank closes at five and I didn't want to waste money on a cab, so as soon as we were allowed to leave school I was off like a rocket. Uhh. A bicycle-powered rocket. In fact, I was in such a hurry that I ran over someone. Yep. Well, he wasn't at the crosswalk and he was crossing against the stoplights, so what did he expect? It could have been worse - I only hit him because he hesitated and I slowed down, so it was not enough to throw me from my bike or get more than his foot. If you're thinking that this did ANYTHING to the way I ride, the answer is no. I continued weaving in and out of the traffic like a drunken bat out of hell, and in fact, discovered that it is just as fast to pedal to the intersection of Yan'an and Hongmei roads...one of the families I teach left the school at the same time I did, and we kept passing each other, which the kids thought was pretty hilarious. I lost them at Hongmei.

Anyways, I made it to the bank, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a LOT of money left (possibly enough to afford that spontaneous trip to Beijing my partner in crime suggested last weekend), and went to Carrefour, where I wandered for a half-hour before I remembered what I wanted (as I was next in the checkout line...grr) - a mosquito plug-in. I am declaring mosquito jihad on the little bastards as they've kept me up twice this week. I always found it a little troubling when my Dark Lord and Master used to set them on fire while we sat on the smokers' deck at GDA talking, but after two months in Shanghai, I've learned. I am still trying to figure out what else to do to take the fight to them - for now, decorating the stairwell in the gym with their splattered bodies and getting a good night's sleep is enough. But I'll keep you updated.



*Q: What did Toulouse-Lautrec used to say to the prostitutes at the Moulin Rouge?
A: Got time for a short one? Get it?!?

Better City, Better Life

This is the motto for the 2010 World Expo here in Shanghai, and while I haven't been to the expo (yet), I've got to say that I already agree. The last few days have been orientation for the school and the PYP, not the most exciting stuff but necessary. You can't expect to be paid for living a fab life in a foreign country without doing some work. But - as our new principal pointed out - work hard, play hard...and I don't think that's going to be hard here.

Don't get me wrong. Hongqiao is not the most exciting place in the world to live, but on the other hand, it's not without its charms...and I'm not talking about the Korean sauna a block away from my school. We've got the zoo, for one, and a charming little town called Qibao not too far away. But more to the point, it is IN Shanghai. We can go out on the weekend and the taxi's only going to cost four bucks either way. I took the subway clear across town to church on Sunday, and it was less than a dollar. It's a proper city. I love it.

And if Hongqiao isn't in the thick of it, so what? Last night (a week after landing) I decided to go to Carrefour and buy my bike. I've been thinking about getting one since arriving and finally caved after seeing two of my new colleagues pedal off from school on theirs yesterday. It cost me just a little more than a hundred dollars - it's black, an Athena, made by Giant. Yes, for those of you who know my love for Greek mythology, the name was one of the reasons I chose the bike I did...I was actually planning to buy the red Giant next to it until I realized that it was called Athena. Now, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, which may prove ironic since riding a bike in China can be a bit dicey, but I guess we'll see. I've never been one to wear a helmet and if I start now I'll get laughed off the road by the Chinese.

Okay, so back to the experience of buying my bike...when I got this impulse (shortly after receiving my reimbursement for my plane ticket, strangely enough) to drop a thousand kuai on an ongoing near-death experience (joking!), it was not, actually raining. By the time the taxi got to the Carrefour in Gubei, big fat drops of rain were falling. Hard. I sat down at Macca's and tried to wait it out with Jason Bourne (courtesy of my friend, the GlamWhore) while snarfing down fries and a coke (I've learned my lesson when it comes to the chicken sandwiches). It seemed to get lighter, finally, so I went up and picked out my bike and a bunch of accessories...helmets I may not do, but I'm not totally stupid: I got a basket, a light, and two locks, because I figured if I was the kind who steals bikes I'd go for the posh one with the gear shift and everything....which the very helpful sales clerk who spoke some English installed for me while I went upstairs to exchange my receipt for a fa piao invoice. Then, after I'd stalled as long as possible, I left Carrefour and rode out. Into a downpour. As it turns out, it is a LOT faster to cycle between Gubei and Hongqiao, but those raindrops are a lot more annoying when you're hitting them at 20 mph. And although you'd think once you were thoroughly drenched (after about 5 minutes, the way it was coming down) that it wouldn't matter if you got WETTER, trust me when I say that you still feel it. Not that it bothered me...I was having the time of my life. But I preferred it tonight when I didn't have to peel off my clothes and find a place for them to start dripping dry when I got back to the hotel. And it was my ride tonight when I came across the expo signs that proudly proclaimed, "Better City, Better Life." Hell, yeah, it is.

Another Day, Another Dirham

I'm trying to write this between tracing classes of Year One self portraits for tomorrow. Some dumbass scheduled five of her six classes for the same day, and forgot - on the first days of this week, when I was in PYP training - to do the teacher-intensive part (or ask Olga to)...so now I've got a Sharpie high and double vision. Oh, and I'm hobbling like an old lady down the hall, because apparently my back is not up to crouching over the table after biking into work and home again today.

Yeah, that. Came through the siege perilous unscathed. The hardest part of the whole experience was getting BACK on the bike at 4:00 and riding home. The next-hardest part was taking the bridge over the creek (Bronte, Wilmarie, if you're reading...does that sound familiar? Oh, that damned bridge on the way to Yuldong Park!) In fact, Socrates took pity on me when I suggested we take Khuzam Rd on the way home instead, although he insists I've got to conquer it (blerg). Actually, I took so long getting over it on the way in that he was nowhere to be seen when I got to the corniche...which was just as well with me, it meant I could slow down a bit on the final leg, and if - Heaven forbid - he had a hypo along the way and passed out, I was going to come across him shortly thereafter (at least, I think I would have...I cut away from the corniche to take the back roads after passing Safeer, and saw fresh tire tracks along the way), and I was prepared, too - stuck a pack of lifesavers in my backpack along with the five million OTHER things I somehow seemed to need today. Anyways, it worked out well, because I didn't have to do all the ass-kicking. I don't know how thrilled Socrates was to be leaving Sunrise at 6:45, but he walked out the door on time, I didn't have to drag him out of his apartment or anything (ahem, Bronte), and although there was really nothing in me that wanted to ride home this afternoon, especially following my club, I would have rather eaten glass than admitted I was considering taking a taxi tonight and the bike tomorrow.

And since I am fairly sure he's never going to read this, I feel safe admitting it here. No glass-eating necessary.

I mentioned my club, which is the "Middle Eastern" Dance (because belly dance has some negative connotations, remember?) club...can I just say how awesome it was? I have four girls - only three actually came today, but they were absolutely lovely - all enthusiastic and good learners and we just had a lot of fun! I had a headache for several hours before, and Casey gave me some panadol, but I wasn't really feeling up to it until I got into the activity room and started to talk to them and explain what we were going to do during our eight-week session. Then the headache magically disappeared (possibly due to drugs, but still...) Instead of making me more tired, I ended up energized and able to face the 30+ minute ride back to Sunrise. Can't wait for next week!