Doctor, Doctor!!

Soooooo... there are no doctors anywhere near my apartment. At least none that are useful. There are urologists and dermatologists and homeopaths (is that even the right word?), but no normal, everyday doctors. Which really sucks when you have a medical emergency that's not so bad that you have to go to the emergency room.

This morning I woke up around 8:30, prepared breakfast, and then sat down at my computer to read my e-mails like I do every morning. I began to feel a little confused and had difficulty comprehending what I was reading, but didn't really think much of it. It's morning, what else do I expect?

Then I started to get a pins-and-needles sensation in the tips of my fingers on my right hand. The feeling spread slowly but surely through my hand, and by the time it reached the middle of my forearm, I was freaking out. My roommate was a doll and started researching doctors online for me. By the time she was finished, the pins-and-needles had spread to my lips and (get this!) gums on the right side of my face. I tried calling these doctors (one number was no longer connected and the other doctor turned out to be a urologist) and then the pins-and-needles subsided, and I felt fine again.

Still shaken by what I had just experienced, I started developing a blind spot in my right eye. The same blind spot I had several years ago the first time I had a migraine with aura. So, with one eye covered (it's surprisingly hard to read when one eye is pretending it can see, but actually can't), I went to wikipedia and found this:

"The somatosensory aura of migraine may consist of digitolingual or cheiro-oral paresthesias, a feeling of pins-and-needles experienced in the hand and arm as well as in the nose-mouth area on the same side. The paresthesia may migrate up the arm and then extend to involve the face, lips and tongue."

I was at first overjoyed to know I wasn't dying. Unfortunately, it also meant that within an hour, I was going to be bedridden.

Thank goodness for Sumatriptans.

Lunar Eclipse.

All through high school, I was repeatedly told, "don't go out after dark alone!" But tonight was supposed to be a full lunar eclipse, and since I live in a big, bright city, I thought I'd head to the park at the end of my street. It's on a hill, and I thought I might be able to see the eclipse from the top. (I even told my roommate where I was going).

When I arrived at the park, a 20-something man was walking down the steps I was going up. I stopped to see if the stairs would suffice by using my Pocket Universe app on my ipod. There was unfortunately a building in the way, so I continued into the park. While I was checking the sky, the man had gone back up the stairs and was standing at the top minding his own business and just chilling, as it appeared. I was already suspicious because I'm paranoid and to be honest, I was already suspicious of him (as I am of everyone) the moment I first saw him.

I reached the top of the stairs and walked past him, and that's when I realized how very dark the park was. And how very empty. Before turning onto the path, I took a look behind me: and caught him looking over his shoulder at me. At that point I decided it was time to get out of the park. I turned right instead of my usual left because I knew another exit from the park through a construction site that wouldn't leave me too far from my bike. Halfway down the path, I looked behind me and saw the guy walking a short distance behind me, but just far enough away that he was slightly hidden by the curves in the path.

At this point I became aware of how loud my flip flops were, and decided I had no shame, and just high-tailed it out of there. He probably heard me running, but alone in that dark park in the middle of Berlin was just not the place to be this evening.

I'm very certain he was up to no good. What exactly "no good" was, I'm not sure. He might just have wanted to take my iPod from me. Maybe worse. I'm very glad I listened to my instincts and didn't have to find out.

So instead, I headed to a very bright, very busy bridge near my apartment and watched the sky from there. Unfortunately, the adventure in the park made me miss the beginning of the eclipse, so I don't know if the clouds were there right from the beginning or not. In any case, I waited an hour and a half on that bridge hoping the clouds would go away. They eventually did, but not until the total eclipse was over. The full moon was still half-covered in shadow in the brief moments I was able to glimpse it through a break in the clouds, but I didn't even get a clear view of that. Here's the best picture I was able to take:

At least it's better than the picture I took of a satellite dish on top of a nearby building that I mistook for the moon...