Sleeping in the fridge.

Regular readers (you delightful souls (everyone says so)) will know that I am being treated for terrible back pain with the SNRI antidepressant Cymbalta (duloxetine), which miraculously made the terrible pain go away. Of course, my back may be healing as well, but as I have not had an MRI since February, my current status has not been assessed.

But you regular readers also know I am obsessed with having a clean refrigerator. Not that I always keep it clean, but I often sit around and think about keeping it clean, which strangely does not automatically make it so.

Further, this cleanliness has been difficult, since my back started up last summer and continued until the winter crisis. No one else in the house is interested in doing the job, except the dogs, but they can just lick the inside and only about halfway up.

So yesterday I rolled up the ol' sleeves -- metaphorically; I was in short sleeves already, which would have hurt -- and got in there and got to it. I had picked up tips from expert Schar Ward, and from Mrs. Key fave Melissa Maker, but it looks like I have pretty much been doing a good and efficient job already. And, a couple of hours later, done!

It looks good. Plus, we set a new record for fewest condiments that had to get thrown away with four. It would have been two, the ones that expired, but the onion relish and the maple chipotle BBQ sauce were pretty bad and I finally gave up on finding a use for them.

How did I get motivated? It was that or work. I have a book sitting here that I'm supposed to edit, and it's not long or dull or bad, but it is focused on a subject that irritates me. So I told myself if I was not going to use my time to make money, I would have to use it to clean. Generally I am a creature motivated by fear, so sometimes I have to make deals to set priorities.

The problem is, as I mentioned before, the duloxetine makes me drowsy quite a bit -- two-naps-a-day type drowsy. I can usually fight off a nap with coffee, but following the fridge job I wanted two things very much: 1) a parade and 2) a second nap. And not in that order. Further, I often wake in the night and have trouble getting back to sleep.

I'll be talking with the doc later in the month to see if I should consider coming off the pills. Today I have exactly two things I need to do beyond my usual duties, neither of them difficult, but the idea of doing them makes me want to sleep now. I hope I can make it to the sofhkghjk