Post Papa…
I’ve kind of struggled today mentally – sort of a worry wart with a nervous tic thrown in for good measure. My busy tomorrow at the movies is casting a dark shadow or pall upon me – just the sheer act of getting mom to Auburn in that wickedly wild traffic will have me tired as soon as the movie starts. Then we travel across town, fighting traffic, to get to Chic-fil-a which only compounds the situation. I’ll make it, though. I always seem to pull through situations such as these with aplomb lately. Two years ago sans therapy and it would have been a different story all together. Guess what? Yep, you gu...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 4, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
No Eggs at Home? Let’s Improvise…
I was standing in front of my fridge surveying the empty landscape of hunger when I decided to head for the Waffle House early this morning. I was out of eggs and I was having cravings for a hot ham and cheese omelet. I had to rush this morning in that we had torrential rain on the way. I hurriedly ate, tipped my waitress, and headed home before the storm could hit. It started to pour rain just as I was unlocking my front door. I let out a sigh of good luck and relief. Another grocery store visit is tonight at 9pm. I told my father that he didn’t have to go with me anymore. I felt confident...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 3, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
The Welcoming Committee…
I talk to Maggie like she understands me. I also talk to myself as well so I guess that means I am certifiable. I was just telling Maggie she needs to come in from the cold. Temperatures dropped like a rock after that cold front moved through after midnight. Maggie was waiting on me to return from my soda run. The Road More Traveled… I just came from my parent’s house after getting my cigs and sodas. Mom seemed sort of out of it as I walked down their steps to get some beefaroni from the basement. “Do you want me to take you to the Salon at 1pm?” I asked my mother delicately. She gets a permanent today...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 3, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Escaping Kroger in One Piece…
$124 dollars is what I spent buying groceries tonight. My father gave me the evil eye as the price tallied higher and higher. Maggie’s dog food alone was $16. I’ve had an unquenchable thirst this week despite getting six cokes a day. I got lots of Milo’s sweet tea, two cartons of grapefruit juice, a gallon of milk, and my usual two quarts of Promised Land’s midnight chocolate milk. Mom called me once I got settled in and all my groceries were put away. “Check on some movies at the Cinema and we will go see one if it is good,” mom told me. I looked online at Carmike’s offerings for this weekend and none...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 3, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
One of my Favorite Helen Meals…
Fried pork chops, mac and cheese, colored butterbeans, and Brussels's sprouts. I am gong to ask my father if we can have this next Friday. Substitute the pork chops with meatloaf and I am in heaven, but that would be asking too much of Helen. (Source: The 4th Avenue Blues)
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 2, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Hate to See Y’all Go!
Charlie and my father have just left my house to deliver more food to other members of the family. I am tired of chicken strips so I was overjoyed to get a burger from Burger King again this week. The only bad part of the meal was that a Burger King employee got Charlie unsweetened teas for all our drinks. The drinks tasted vile – like drinking bilge water. I hated to pour $2 bucks down the drain, but I certainly wouldn’t drink it so that was the end of that. (Source: The 4th Avenue Blues)
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 2, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Maggie’s My Therapist From Now On…
(Source: The 4th Avenue Blues)
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 2, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Happy Meet Charlie! Charlie Meet Happy!
Maggie woke me up about six this morning in the pitch black of dark headed for an outside potty break. I didn’t wake again for several more hours. My internal clock was saying Charlie was coming so I got up and got dressed in some warm clothes as Maggie got on the back of the couch to be the look out. Exactly at 9:15am, Charlie came pulling up in front of my house with breakfast. Needless to say, those two sausage and egg biscuits were engulfed in five minutes or less. I especially relished the jumbo soda. I then scrambled Maggie three eggs plain so she wouldn’t feel left out after I had eaten. I actu...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 2, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Modesto Meet Modesty…
“Are my Cokes on the back porch?” I asked my father this early afternoon. I did good today and called his cellphone as the landline will get my mother up and out of the bed. That makes for a very unhappy Papa when I disturb the peace and quiet of Casa de Johnny. “I will put them right out,” my father replied, sounding in good spirits. I drove over and walked up the stairs to the porch to get my sodas, My father had forgotten to put my cigarettes in the sack. I timidly knocked on the back door and my father answered in his underwear! “Geez Dad!” I decreed laughing as he smiled. “Put on some ...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 2, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Comment Reply…
Anonymous said... I am surprised you like Stevens as his songs have a prominent religious theme.The line at the end of this song, "and in my best behaviour I am really just like him," Is harking back to the foundational belief that all men are sinful and none of them are worthy in God's eyes. So even though Sufjan probably hasn't ever murdered anyone or committed any act that heinous in human terms, the state of his soul (before coming to Christ) was no better than John Wayne Gacy's. Andrew replied… Oh, I love the artistry and pomp and circumstance of religion though I remain a secular humanist. I’ve ...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 1, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Oh, Woe is Me…
My favorite motherboard manufacturer, Abit, got out of the motherboard fabrication business. I dearly miss their quirky, but fast and feature packed motherboards. Lately, I have been buying ASUS motherboards because of their reputation within the industry. My P9X79 Deluxe motherboard has been nothing, but trouble, though. I just booted up my gaming computer and it is saying I have 14 Gb of RAM installed and not the whole 16 Gb. I was having similar problems with this board until I sent it in for repair a few months ago. There is no rest for the weary computer technician it seems. Pizza the Hu...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 1, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Destination Andrew…
<-------My backyard’s first daffodil of the season. It was my father’s Saturday to work. With great hope, he will arrive to administer my medications around 2pm. After it soaks in for about an hour, I will get really really drowsy and will probably take a two to three hour nap. Mom finally answered the phone this morning after it rang numerous times. I kindly asked for her to put my Helen to-go plates and my sodas on the back porch. She sounded three sheets to the wind. “Don’t forget my cigarettes as well,” I meekly told my mother as we were getting off the phone. I should’ve just driven over and...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 1, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Comment Replies…
PipeTobacco said... Hello Sir:I have been away a bit so I apologize for that. In one of your posts a few days ago, you commented on Helen smoking again. It seems she has gone back to the habit? I ask mainly because I am considering an attempt at giving up my pipe for Lent. I am not sure if I am up for the challenge or not, but I have been thinking about it. Andrew replies… Pipe, I have missed you dearly! Where have you been? I hope this finds you well. Yes, Helen is smoking again and I almost feel responsible. She was borrowing two or three cigarettes a day from me and then she graduated to buying a ...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 1, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Look What Papa Just Brought!
It took some friendly and mild coercion from your meek and mild mannered neighborhood Andrew, but Papa ran by Little Caesar's and got me a pizza on his way home from the pharmacy. The bad part of this situation is that I just took my daily psych meds and need to wait an hour before I eat – the time it takes for them to saturate my bloodstream. The smell of that large pepperoni pizza is permeating the air in the house and making me twice as hungry. It’s got Maggie in quite a stir as well. (Source: The 4th Avenue Blues)
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 1, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Arrested Development…
My father and I were talking on the phone tonight about how people with addictions and mental illnesses seem to stop growing up emotionally when these two afflictions first begin to occur in their lives. “Your mother is like a small child and I have to treat her that way,” my father told me. “It has been that way ever since her schizophrenia flared up years ago.” I cringed when he first said it, but it was true. Mom had late onset schizophrenia which is pretty rare. Mine started in my early twenties which is more normal. The stress of life and teaching completely exacerbated my mother’s mental illness. She...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - March 1, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
