Tonight I took one of my interns to see Fiddler on the Roof with Harvey Fierstein as Tevye. This is the same tour that was in Toronto over Christmas and that will be back in Toronto in June. I think it would be better served on the larger stage in Toronto as the one it played on here was oh, 10 feet too small in width (they looked a little squished up there!).

One of my theatre programming peeps' husbands works for the production company for the show so he arranged comps for me which was lovely. My one intern is a musical theatre nerd so it was fun to take her and have a break from fellow fellows. I had however forgotten how depressing this story is. Even though Harvey's Tevye is pretty cheerful and forgiving, it is still a relentlessly depressing tale. (go see it in Toronto though, it's good!)

This weekend is the last full on work weekend of the program. Friday night I'm helping out theatre programming with a cabaret show and Sunday is our Spring Gala (it's been months since we've had a gala!) so there is a brunch then a reception then a dinner then a show and then a reception. I've taken Monday off to compensate. Liza Minnelli is hosting the show so that should be....something anyway.

I know I'm really behind on things but....Keith Cole is running for Mayor??? I might actually vote for him. I mean at least it'd be entertaining and he is very organized. In a fashion. Still very odd....

Okay, two things you probably shouldn't do while recovering from a weird vertigo inducing virus:

• attend a concert in a really loud, smallish venue
• go to the Air and Space Museum

Yeah, I did both those things.

Last night I had tickets to see Los Campesinos! - a Welsh band playing at the 930 club which is at U and 9th. I'd never been to the 930 Club and it's one of "the" places to see live music here so when I'd heard the band was coming it seemed like a good time to see the space too (and only 7 blocks from my place!). I'd had the tickets for a few weeks and wanted to try and still go if I could. Anyway, seeing as this is DC, they only played for about an hour and 15 minutes and it was all over by 10:30 so it wasn't a super late night. It was a pretty awesome concert, very high energy and eclectic. The club has two levels so we went to the balcony so I could sit down and still see everything and not feel jossled around. I actually felt okay for the most part but having the option to sit helped, psychologically anyway. It was a pretty young crowd and on the floor at one point there were two people body surfing - which I just found odd since it really isn't that sort of music. Another reason to be happy to be in the balcony. I'm not sure if that's a DC crowd thing since my friends seemed to find it normal. Maybe that is how the young'uns here express their joy! Anyway, better them then me.

I went, very briefly, to the newer, larger Air and Space Museum out by Dulles airport on Monday afternoon. No, I shouldn't have gone but it was the only opportunity to go and I'd heard it was very different from the one on the Mall. It is wise to have to keep looking up at big planes when one is having trouble staying upright? No! but there were lots of places to sit, which I did, a lot, and it was neat to see. And free, so staying only for an hour or so didn't matter. I took some pictures which I'll upload when I am less tired!

That is all on my adventures in spinland. A bit woozy today, and tired, but not spinny, so that's progress.

Finally, I feel I've turned the corner. Today, I was just very tired, but only noticeably spinny when I got over-tired walking home and occasionally on a staircase. So perhaps the worst is behind me.

Many thanks to all for the helpful viewing suggestions. All very entertaining and often educational!

I'll update more later - though really, I've spent most of the last five days laying in or on my bed watching Hulu or sleeping. Not riveting.

Still spinny. Have now watched all of Hulu and have resorted to bad back episodes of Gossip Girl. This is a new low. Blah.

I picked up the prescription I was given on Wednesday today - it basically is to help you sleep, which I had trouble with last night. This is something they give to people with motion sickness and vertigo. Warning on the label: May Cause Dizziness. Very helpful.

I stayed home today. Well, more accurately, I went to work and turned around and came home again. Too dizzy to be of any use. I mean I'm fine if I don't move my head. :-) Since my computer wasn't working yesterday (some sort of bug in the anti-virus upgrade apparently, knocked out half our computers) and I didn't trust it would be up and running again today, no point in sitting there. I'm hoping I'm improved tomorrow since we have a department lunch at Farmers and Fishers to celebrate the end of the festival. I'm not good at being unwell, it doesn't suit me.

Anyway, Tuesday's NEA meeting was pretty interesting. We met with the five department directors (but not Rocco the chair). While the NEA is really not a very effective organization, at least it seems they are aware of that and are trying to make positive policy changes to respond to the community. They are still handcuffed by the Maplethorpe (spelling?) issues from the 80s (ooh pictures of naked people! scandal!) and so still will not fund individual artists. They will also not fund any operational or overhead costs, so they will only fund an individual project by a company or organization with charitable status. This is pretty limiting. And yet of course, they want to fund cutting edge work. No wonder they only get 300 dance applications a year. Many of their current grants are also only at the $10,000 level. So your organization, large enough to be able to support its infrastructure through other means, is supposed to do all the work (and these grants are massive undertakings) for $10,000. This is one of the areas they are changing and are increasing their minimum grant amount. Anyway, it was an interesting meeting to be at as basically a fly on the wall and very glad to not immediately be affected by this organization.

Adventures in American Healthcare Part the Second

So I've had a bit of a cold. No big deal and usually what happens to me when I stop after being busy. But yesterday morning I woke up with incredible vertigo. I would not have gone in except that we had a meeting at the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) - more on that to follow- and I didn't want to miss out on it. I went and it seemed to get better over the course of the day. A bit worse again at night, but manageable. Well I woke up this morning and it was much, much worse. So again I went in to work (yes, yes, I know...) but left at 3 to go to a walk in clinic. Where I sat for 2 hours before seeing a nurse and then a physician assistant (so no actual doctor).

2 hours in the waiting room did not fill me with any positive feelings about the system here. I mean this was a clinic, so I wouldn't expect high calibre service from a similar place in Canada, but the reception's first question was always "do you have your insurance card?" not "what are your symptoms". I've got decent medical insurance here - 100% coverage and no "co-pays", the flat rate amount that most Americans have to pay regardless of what their appointment is for - usually it's around $20. But one guy whose insurance wasn't accepted at this particular clinic was given two options - pay $115 and not get a receipt or pay $150 and get a receipt that he could try and get reimbursed from his insurer. That hardly seems legal to me! I mean it seems like the sort of deal your mechanic would offer you if you paid in cash. It's essentially the same idea.

Anyway, the good news is that I don't have an ear infection and my blood pressure was perfect (which is amazing to me, but good to hear) however they have no idea what is causing it and I have to go back in a week if it persists. Basically the physician's assistant went from ear infection to brain tumor as my options! It seemed a tad drastic to me but there you go. I have prescription I can get filled if it continues that might help the symptoms a bit so I'll see how I feel in the morning...