Thursday, November 26, 2009

Impulse Control

I'm sitting at the Raleigh Durham Airport, waiting for my flight out to Cincinnati. I'm going to meet up with my parents and family up there for Thanksgiving (which is today). I've been rather twitchy lately it seems. My tics seem a bit stronger in trying to break to the surface. It's hard to find a pattern with these damn things, but I think I got it figured out now. I experience more tics when I'm upset about something that happened related to Tourette's. The more I think about the situation and how frustrated I am with both my TS and people's reactions to it, the more I twitch.

I often forget that TS is misunderstood even by friends. The of closest friends often say they forget I even have TS, or will mention they haven't noticed me tic even though I've totally been twitching, they're just so used to it they don't notice. It's the medium friends that I'm talking about; the ones you see on a regular basis (say, in class) but don't really hang out with much.

Now I'm known among friends for being the wacky, random, unpredictable one. That's a personality trait, not a product of TS. The other day in music theory class I was having a conversation with a friend, when I doodled something silly (a penis) on her paper. She got kinda pissed (understandably) and began to erase it. I said "my bad... you know me, no impulse control." She replied with something along the lines of "there you go, blaming your Tourette's." I was confused at first, but realized she was talking about the impulse control comment.

When I get upset I usually get quiet (which sucks) and that's what happened here. Impulse control implies some quick idea you get but keep from doing, or at least that's how I understand it. She made the connection of Tourette's, which is false. Is that what people think of Tourette's? Like the father in Front of the Class, is the thought that "Tourette's" means that these are little jokes, little things that could be controlled with concentration? I know that not everybody thinks that, but I've known this person for so long, could she really think that I want to shake my head, twitch my arms, and do all that stuff? Does she think I think it's funny? I don't know, I just don't get it. I guess I'll talk to her about it.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Rent

Today I saw the musical "Rent," performed by Company Carolina at Forest Theater at UNC. Members of the cast included my community director (boss) as Mark, a friend as Joanne, and a fellow RA as well as a Phi Mu Alpha brother in the ensemble. The production was amazing, and yours truly even began to tear up at a few places!! It was performed in an amphitheater - I was uncertain of the quality of the show when I heard the venue, but it ended up working very well. Sometimes the audio was a bit off; the band had a tendency to overpower the vocalists.

Earlier today was the last home football game of the season. We defeated Miami - I would tell you the score but quite frankly I'm there for the music not the football so I don't even remember! It was fun, and going to see Rent was a perfect way to end the day.

Shalom!