Some of you said it would be impossible. But as of March 12th, 2007 a google search of

Mike D

returns this website as the number 1 choice. Thanks to Shaun McQuaid for pointing this out to me.

ROCK.

I went to see The 300 yesterday.

I loved it.

Nicole has provided us with a play by play of her 36 hours sans sleep. Enjoy!

So I’ve been having some weird health issues and my doctor decided he wanted me to have an EEG done. I figured no big deal… all I have to do is lay on a hospital bed with some wires attached to my head. As long as I didn’t have to shave patches of hair out of my head (as much as my boyfriend wanted them to because he thought it would be hilarious), I’d be OK with it. That was until the hospital sent me instructions that I could only get 4 hours of sleep the 48 hours before the exam and I wasn’t allowed to shower or consume any sort of stimulants or depressants.

Major bummer.

I quickly realized I wouldn’t be able to make 48 hours. One of my symptoms of my mystery illness is fatigue. So I went online to research EEG’s and discovered that most hospitals require you don’t go to sleep for just one night. I figured I could manage that and followed the Internet instructions instead. They were mostly worried I wouldn’t fall asleep after all, and believe me, I knew I would.

So the day before the exam, 7pm, I was falling asleep already. My boyfriend and I were driving up from D.C. from a mini road trip, and seeing my impending doom, he decided to stay with me that night to keep me up by throwing things at me. Weapon of choice: a pillow. It worked to a degree. I also kept my activity to a minimum to try to conserve energy.

At 10pm I was a lost soul. I wasn’t even making complete sentences. I was regretting the shortened nights of sleep the days before due to the road trip but then realized I had one saving grace: 4 hours of “oops I fell asleep” time. I went to bed for 3 hours and started the stay awake game again. I really was bad at this game. Stupid Stupid EEG.

2 movies and several smacks with a pillow later, it was 7am. Just 3 tortuous hours more until sweet sweet sleep. Then I fell asleep. Luckily little brothers came running down the stairs at that moment to get ready for school. My parents and brothers kept me awake so my boyfriend could get some shut eye before he drove me to the hospital.

By 10am we had arrived. Me being a grumpy walking zombie. My boyfriend Sam barely able to tolerate me yelling at him for his horrible parking job even though it really was quite good. The hospital staff show us to the waiting room and it wasn’t long before the nurse came in and called my name. What does she say to me? That she’s terribly tired from not getting her full 8 hours of sleep that night and that she hadn’t had her coffee yet that day. I was ready to punch her in the nose. But it got better. She then asked why I was so tired because this EEG after all did not require that I was sleep deprived.

!!!!!

I think I shed a tear or two at that point. The nurse proceeded to shine bright strobe lights in my face and make me hyperventilate for some reason.

Lesson of the day: EEG’s suck.

Friday afternoon I left work at about 3pm with Shaun L. to head to Boston for my sister’s performance with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP). We picked up Erich, Nicole, and my mom along the way. BMOP is described as “one of a handful of professional orchestras in the United States dedicated exclusively to performing and recording music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.*”

This particular concert focused on works written by French Composers.

The concert as a whole was pretty incredible. It turns out that modern orchestra music is awesome. The first piece, a world premier by Betsy Jolas entitled Jour B, was dark, aggressive, and at a few points, actually frightening. It was a little tough to get into the music, but once I got into it I got very into it. There were three points in the first piece where the orchestra members actually shouted out and it startled the heck out of me. It was wild.

My sister was featured in a piece written by Pascal Dusapin called Galim, written in 1998. It was rather incredible. Prior to the concert she had mentioned being nervous because it was a very difficult piece. Once she started playing I understood. It was furiously fast, sporadic, and energetic.

Alicia, in gown, prepares to amaze all with her flutitude.

The third piece was another piece by Dusapin, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the others.

The final piece was a monster that lasted for about 35 minutes or so. The orchestra was positioned so that the instruments were spread out across the stage. The composer had written the piece taking into consideration the instrument’s location. For example, there was one trumpet on the far left, another on the far right. The left trumpet would start softly and crescendo. The right trumpet would then match the note and volume and then fade. The end result was a feeling that the sound had whipped across the stage from the left to the right. Stunning.

One part of the piece had three percussionists going wild on wooden blocks. It was extremely exciting.

Post concert we met Alicia in the lobby before heading back. Here are a few pictures to conclude this review.

Alicia and her fiance Dwane!

Sister and Brother!

*BMOP website