Not like this, not like this.

Today started out well, got worse, but ended as a pretty good day. It began at 5:30 when I got up and had a shower. I've got out of the habit of early morning showers recently, but I'm going to try to get back into it, because it's a great way to start the day. I ate breakfast and Fin made coffee. Sharon arrived before the coffee was ready, but I grabbed a travel mug and we were off.
However, I accidentally took a bunch of books that Fin needed today in with me, and so I felt kind of stupid, and I can never write good code when I'm feeling stupid. I tried to concentrate and failed for most of the morning. Once I went out for chocolate but decided when I'd reached the shop I didn't want any, then went to McD's and decided when I got there I didn't want that either. In the end I went to Subway and had a very filling sandwich, which was a good investment because it made me feel a lot better, and distracted me from moping around. Then it was time for a small adventure.
I have a skin disease called psoriasis: if you look up "psoriasis" in Wikipedia, my picture falls out. It's hereditary, non-contagious, and lasts until you die; it causes the skin to regrow much faster than normal and to form silvery scales which itch like crazy. If you scratch them, however, they bleed very easily and almost painlessly, which tends to ruin clothes. The disease can also cause arthritis, but thankfully I have been spared that so far.
My dermatologist told me that I should look into regular exposure to UVB light (which is light whose wavelength falls between 315 and 280 nm). So today I went to a tanning place along my walk into work, right in the heart of the gaybourhood, and asked them whether they could help me. The clerk told me that zie knew what I was talking about because zie has eczema, and asked whether I wanted to stand up and lie down, and how long for. I said I didn't know, because I'd never done this before, and zie said, well, try lying down and only for four minutes to make sure you don't burn. I signed a waiver of liability and was told to go to room six.
Room six was a little room along the corridor containing a great thing full of glass and bulbs, like a coffin or an iron maiden. A counter on the wall was counting down from three minutes. I locked the door, undressed, climbed into the coffin, and closed my eyes tightly. When the clock reached zero, the lights inside the coffin flicked on, and air began to blow all over me. I lay there and began to count off four minutes, and then realised that I should just wait until the lights went out. I felt a little like a bag of microwave popcorn, and wondered whether these things would be improved with a turntable.
After four minutes, the lights went out again, I got dressed, and went out to find that there was nobody there. So I took a copy of the rates leaflet and went back to work; I think I might go there more often and see whether it helps my psoriasis over the medium term.
I also phoned the dermatologist to ask about the chemist... they always call them pharmacists in this country. I'm supposed to be rubbing one kind of cream in in the morning and one at night; they'd been giving me only tinsy little tubes that ran out in a couple of days, and then telling me they couldn't give me more for a fortnight. I asked the dermatologist a few weeks ago, and he wrote a prescription for larger doses, but it still wasn't enough.
The doctor's receptionist phoned me back and said that the chemist was giving me as much as the doctor had written the prescription for. How was I rubbing it in? was I putting lots on every day? how come one tube was only lasting two days? It was a few minutes before I got across the fact that there aren't that many parts of my body that don't have psoriasis on them; I think zie thought it was only a few spots. Zie said zie'd talk to the doctor and maybe get a larger prescription tomorrow. If not, I'll just work on one area at a time and see whether I can clear it up bit by bit.
I did lots of good work in the afternoon. We now have a working copy of tinderbox which runs tests and everything. On the CVS checkin tables, I added little icons next to everyone's name, and then jabbered people over the course of the afternoon and asked them what animal they'd like to be. I think it's a little feature that makes everyone a bit happier; I might also add it to bugzilla if I get spare time over the weekend or something.
On the train home I worked on metacity patch review.