jwgh | Jun. 9th, 2006

Knowing that I was going to be doing a lot this evening -- in particular, that I would be playing a three-hour show with Chris Monti at Nick-a-Nees -- I got some heavy duty cold medicine. This generic-brand cold medicine has:

Active Ingredients (in each softgel)
Acetaminophen 250 mg (pain reliever/fever reducer)
Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide 10 mg (cough suppressant)
Gualfenesin 100 mg (expectorant)
Pseudoephedrine HCl 30 mg (nasal decongestant)

This last stuff the government would really prefer that you not buy, I believe because it can be used to make crystal meth. It also acts as a stimulant on its own, so between that and a steady stream of Diet Coke I wasn't really in any danger of falling asleep -- but I also definitely had that 'the only reason I'm awake is because I'm chock full of chemicals' feeling.

You're supposed to take two capsules every four hours, so I took mine a little after 4:30 pm and just before 9 pm.

I found in both cases that at right around the third hour the pseudoephedrine started to wear off and I got jittery and emotional. This made for an interesting third set.

My voice was very weird and I could hit some really stupidly low notes. If I am in this situation again I will try to take advantage of this in the set lists.

Will I go to work tomorrow? The jury is out. Right now I am not feeling so much sick as jittery and very tired. I will set my alarm and see how things look in the morning.