Sadly I’m back to having breathing problems which leads to me having sleeping problems. I often can’t breathe through my nose which leads to sleep apnea. I wake up unrested. When it is at its worst I will weak up in the night and feel like I’m being smothered. It always takes me a second to realize I can open my mouth and breath. To prevent this I use Breathe-Right strips. Of late they have not been sufficient. It happened last night even with them on. I buy them online where they are half the price as in a store. The problem is that I can’t get the ones that work best, large, extra-strength, tan ones. You might think that color shouldn’t matter but the clear ones are made of a different material and come off during the night. Last night after waking up and feeling smothered I put an extra-strength clear strip on in addition to the medium tan one I applied when I went to sleep. That opened up the nasal passages enough for me to breathe. I wonder if there is something I can do to address the problem. A CPAP machine will prevent the apnea but I still won’t be able to breath through my nose.
I’m leading with this as it affected my weekend. On Saturday I planned on going to the New York Times Travel Show to see Villa Palagonia. That’s Allison Scola’s band and she also runs Experience Sicily, Tours of Sicily and Customized Sicily Travel ~~~ Let’s experience Sicily together ~~~; thus the appearance at the Travel Show. They played after 3 o’clock and I still couldn’t get myself out of the house in time to see them. After getting out of bed I fell right back to sleep in my chair. They played again on Sunday, at 1:45 and I forced myself to fight the fatigue and get out of the house in time to see them. I managed it with ten minutes to spare. It didn’t help that the 7 train wasn’t running, that takes you right to the Jacob Javits Convention Center. I had to walk from 8th Avenue.
When I got the stage they were already setting up. I took a seat down front, Allison saw me, and said, “Did you see Elisa and Jon?” I hadn’t. They were sitting directly behind me and there was a seat open so I joined them. As much as I love hearing live music, I love it even more when I can sit with friends. As I’m still blind I didn’t realize that Allison was playing with Fake Joe, not her husband, Joe Ravo, till Elisa or John pointed it out. Joe had another gig. Fake Joe has a name but he’s still Fake Joe. Sorry Fake Joe.
I’m not a big fan of the Travel Show, but I am a big fan of Villa Palagonia. They have not been playing much of late and I needed my fix. I also like to have the opportunity to take videos of them, they are very visual. My phone’s camera kept crashing and I lost all but one 25 second clip of the last song. I was racing out of the house to get there on time and forgot my real camera. I’ve learned my lesson. When my phone’s camera crashes, just reboot the phone; otherwise it keeps crashing. Anyone with any suggestions for a permanent solution?
A fun thing with the Travel Show and Little Italy gigs, Allison sings more in Italian/Sicilian than she does in other shows. It’s the only time I get to hear some of the songs that way. A regular feature of VP shows is Allison coming into the audience and doing the Tarantella with people. She asked me to join her and of course I did. Elisa took a video, if I pay her enough maybe she won’t show it. Here’s a tip, when a performer puts you on the spot, enjoy the spotlight, don’t try to get out of it. I understand the anxiety it creates, Anxiety is my life, but no matter how badly you do everyone will cheer and be supportive.
After the show Jon and Elisa had to run and Allison was swamped with people visiting her booth. As they are potential customers I don’t want to interfere so I do what I always do at the travel show. I went in search of free food. Elisa told me that they had my favorite, make-your-own s’mores. Yes with exotic food from around the world, that’s my food of choice. I was brave and tried this Japanese egg and cabbage dish. I hate cabbage but I thought perhaps the egg and sauces would cover its taste. It didn’t.
Last year I discovered some great music their but no such luck this time. I saw a troupe of Irish Dancers and went to the European Stage to catch them and discovered that I saw them coming off the stage. They had just finished.. I went back to Experience Sicily after checking everything out and waited until Allison had a minute to talk. I didn’t want to take more her time than that. If you book a tour with Experience Sicily I’ll be absolved for taking up her time when she was working. You’ll owe me as you’ll have a boutique tour of Sicily. I came up with a slogan for them in the caption of the picture and video I took, “Bringing Sicily to the World and the World to Sicily.”
I went from the Convention Center to Stop & Shop. I used the bag they gave me for groceries, and then I headed home. I hadn’t had time to blog in the morning so I sat down to do that. I immediately fell asleep. I told you that this was affecting my life. This is why I blogged so late last night and even today I’m late. I have to go to the pharmacy to pick up meds, I might break down and pay full-price for Breathe-Right strips. I can’t afford them but I can’t afford to not sleep either. Maybe I can get a prescription for them so I won’t have to pay? More motivation for me to get a primary care physician. I have a GI, a psychiatrist, an ophthalmologist, and a rheumatologist but no primary care physician.
Wise Madness 