Richard Brook

I started taking Zyrtech yesterday because my allergies have got so bad that it gets to the point that I actually can't see from how badly my eyes would water. Ten tiny little milligrams of it.

It says 'may cause drowsiness,' which okay. Things do that. I took the tablet around 9am, and made it til about 3pm before it I was damn near falling asleep at my keyboard. So I figured I'd go take a bath and maybe try to wake up a bit, since that does actually tend to help.

The next thing I know, it's 2am and I'm in bed. I think Ryan put me there, because I don't remember going there under my own steam. Or maybe I did and just don't remember.

The point is, holy fuck.


Now I'm starting to get a bit stuffed up again, but I can't take another tablet until around 9am. Because it says on the label. And I can definitely see why.

Recently, our apartment building was bought out. When we moved in, it was extremely low-rent (which had been the appeal of moving here in the first place). It's the sort of apartment building that's really common in this area of town, in that it started off life, long ago, as a hotel, and had been later converted to a more full-time living space. I've lived in buildings like this before, and while they don't always work properly, there's a certain sort of odd charm to them.

The new management isn't going to change the fact that this building used to be a hotel, but they do seem to be trying to change the fact that it doesn't always work. They've just finished up a massive landscaping project outside, redoing a lot of the masonry bits in the car park and replacing the dirt with grass (fake grass, granted. This is Las Vegas, after all. But it's very nice-looking fake grass, and was probably very expensive). After that, they started fixing up the corridors outside. They've fixed all the busted lights, have been patching up the ceiling bits, and are supposedly about to start working on fixing the floors, since they act like they're about to crumble away into oblivion.

Now they're working on renovating every single unit in the building. Intelligently, they're starting with the units that are currently empty, and will eventually move on to the units that are occupied. Don't ask me how they plan on doing that. I have no idea. But I've poked my head into some of the units that they're currently working on. All new kitchen appliances, new cabinets, new flooring throughout, new AC units, and fresh paint on the walls. This is shaping up to be an expensive damn project, and it leaves me wondering where they're going next.

But THIS IS A GOOD THING. And I have to keep telling myself this.

Anyone who's known me for a while probably knows that I'm jumpy, nervous, panicky, and generally hate anything that moves or makes noise suddenly. I have got builders right above me, and have for the last week. Before that, they were in the unit next door. Any time I hear any sort of noise, now, I want to jump out of my skin. For reasons I can't properly explain, I'm starting to feel rather frightened to just be sitting here in my own front room. All the pounding and rattling going on has rattled something loose in my brain, or something. Someone knocked on my door yesterday, and I nearly had a heart attack.


And people wonder why I don't drink caffeine.