Today, I had acupuncture. The number of slight physical and mental niggles seem to be accumulating, and so I am on a bit of a healthy mind, healthy body kick. Brought on, no doubt, by this endless fidgeting about turning 38. It’s all right. I don’t mind if you’re sick of me bleating on about it. I won’t take it personally.
It is the first time I have ever tried acupuncture. I remember my mother had acupuncture to try to help her in efforts to stop smoking. Having walked around today in the afterglow of the needle application and reflecting on my mother’s reactions as well as her general personality traits, I think she grew a little addicted to the euphoria of pressing that needle in her ear. I have to go outside and giggle she would say. If this were a private dinner party and I were surrounded by close friends or family I would now deliver most amusing anecdotes about my mother and her smoking. You would laugh and so would I. And later on I would repeat them to my father and he would laugh. And at some point, I would lie in bed and cry. This is becoming unecessarily revealing. Should unnecessarily have a double n?
I was slightly freaked out at the thought of the needles, but that was unfounded anxiety. And then, I got to lie quietly with an eye pillow over my eyes, a soft sheet over my skin and think meditative thoughts. It was quiet.
The practitioner was most excellent. I did not quite burst into tears when she was taking my history (which is what normally happens when I get behind a closed door and someone says ‘so…how are you’ even if, until that moment, I have been fine), but it would have worked out okay if I had.
It was an unusual experience, but one which I intend to repeat. Next week.
Oh, and last night I went to see Maeve Higgins.