12:05 a.m. | 2004-04-25 Where�s Waldo? I Mean, Like, Where Is He Right Now? Do You Know? See, I�ve been busy pondering questions like that. Not really, but I might as well be. Mostly, I�ve been super tired, overworked and under appreciated. Okay, I�ve been tired and overworked. I�m not sure if I mentioned it or not � things being all crazy lately � but somewhere along the line, my breathing med stopped being a prescription medication and became an over the counter drug. That�s good and bad news. Mostly not so good. See, normally, a month�s supply is mailed to me for a total price of five bucks. The only thing I have to do is call in a refill. It�s all automated and bullshit, so it�s quite convenient. However, the draw back to any prescription medication is that, if you go out of town or whatever, you can�t just buy it anywhere. Plus, I can only get a month�s worth at a time. Both of those factors are irritating, but only slightly. It�s easy to work around those types of limitations. Now, however, I have to actually go purchase this drug. It happens to be the most innocuous drug that I take yet it�s also one of the active ingredients in cough syrup. Cough syrups, in general, are not so innocuous as they contain other ingredients. The drug I take is one isolated ingredient that doesn�t do anything other than clear up my excess (ahem) phlegm. Cough syrups are quite a popular drug, as I�ve come to find out, due to the other chemicals and such that are contained within it. Due to happenstance (more exactly, my job), I�ve come to learn about� well, all sort of cough syrup abuse that I wasn�t aware of. I also learned about the different chemical substances contained in such potions. That served me well today when I went out and about to purchase my breathing meds. I stopped at the pharmacy to ask if the store carried my breathing med. They do. However, the person � perhaps a pharmacist, not really sure � indicated that the particular drug I was asking about was the generic form of a very popular cough syrup. It�s very popular because it�s widely abused. With a really bad result. Unless you�re into that kind of thing. Then, more power to you. I just want to breathe. Fortunately, I knew exactly what to look for because, had I purchased the cough syrup and ingested the same number of milligrams of my med, I would now be dead three times over after experiencing a really, really harrowing �trip�. If you will. I�m very, very grateful that I knew exactly what I was after, but I�m really not so happy about the fact that a month�s supply � that I have to go retrieve from the store, rather than my mailbox � costs thirty bucks. Yet, thirty bucks a month to continue breathing is a small price to pay. And, learning all this chemistry shit is really starting to pay off. However, I really wish people � youngsters in particular � wouldn�t fuck around with this stuff. It�s seriously dangerous. But, my words don�t mean much, even to me. Hell, the prescription drugs I take are dangerous so whatever. Sorry, I fell off the track there. I�m just glad I knew exactly what I was looking for and I found it. Well, and I�m still breathing. That�s always a good thing. To me anyway. In other news, I�ve gone to brunch the last couple of weekends but I went to different places. Since I live Downtown, people often ask me to check out local places before they drive in from the �Burbs to frequent them. I sometimes go along with such requests. So, I haven�t seen BostonBoston for a couple of weeks. But, I did today. It was good to be back at my regular brunch place. And, BostonBoston seemed very happy, and somewhat relieved, when I walked in. I think he thought he�d lost a regular customer. BostonBoston doesn�t know his own power. Really. I mean, please� how could I stop being a regular customer when BostonBoston is my waiter? That would require a power that�s beyond my grasp. Within minutes, I was sitting in front of a salad, with blue cheese on the side, and ice tea, of course. Not much later, he served me the rest of my meal. And, strangely, at one point, I was the only patron in the restaurant. Okay, strange if you think �brunch� doesn�t occur until 3:00pm. Like it did today. I�m thinking this brunch thing � as a memorial activity to honor my dead father � has turned into more of a generational tradition. I do believe that my grandfather had the same habit as my father did. Since I don�t have children myself, I might have to introduce one of my nephews to Saturday brunches. Or perhaps, I could convince one of my readers to carry the torch forward. It�s really not that difficult when BostonBoston is involved. Trust me, it�s not difficult at all. your thoughts? seed flower