ow, my nose!

[verbminx]

The air in the building I work in is so, so dry. I think it's because it's a skyscraper - big for around here, average for places like NYC - and the air is recycled a lot. Given that I spend most of my time in the catering kitchen, with a couple of industrial coffee makers and a dishwasher, I'm also usually a little overheated. But I was still surprised yesterday to have a little bit of a nosebleed (just when I needed to blow my nose, not a flowing nosebleed or anything). Lasted pretty much all day, too. I combated this with what I called a low-tech humidifier - made a cup of mint herbal tea, put it to my mouth and cupped my hand around the outer edge of the cup and my nose, so that I could inhale the steam. It helped a little. But my nose is still bleeding, on and off. I thought it was just me until my friend Katy was in the kitchen getting tea, and sneezed, and got specks of blood all over her hands: she'd had the same problem all day.

I have gotten around to taking some pictures at work, but I won't post them until this job ends. They are all high views of Columbus and some local buildings, including Leveque Tower (which has an amazing top) and the Statehouse. I took some from one of the conference rooms while I was setting it up, some from a tiny break room that's just off my work area and has recliners and medication and stuff in it, and some from the lunchroom on an upper floor, which has floor-to-ceiling windows on three walls and a good view of the Scioto River.

Tom left a while ago to go to Panel - we're either going to stay in and watch movies tonight, or go see House of Flying Daggers, I think. I still want to see Phantom of the Opera, sadly... it was a childhood fixation of mine which I am well over. Fifteen years ago I would already have seen it at least three or four times. Now... eh. I've heard it's pretty bad (from critics in general), but pretty much everyone on Pander who saw it loved it. Mostly I've been marvelling at how Emmy Rossum (who plays Christine) looks tremendously like the woman I've been trying to write a novel about (see my intensefragilty icon), and helps me put together an idea of what she must actually have looked like. At any rate, someday I will write a post about the aforementioned childhood fixation, and everyone can be very amused with me, and we'll call it a day. I was a really weird kid. :)

(and today, I'm a really crampy woman.)

Comments

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

Unless you're in one place all the time, a humidifier at work probably isn't practical, but I can't live without having one at home. when I worked in a dry office, I'd get the same type of nosebleeds, and setting up a humidifier in my office and the bedroom worked wonders.

Also helpful - Hydrasense. This is a bottle of pressurized de-salinated seawater that you shoot up your nose. It's mostly used for allergies, to clear the sinuses and such, but it's also prescribed to help moisturize the sinuses and nasal cavity lining. You can buy it OTC at any pharmacy. Keeps my winter nosebleeds to a minimum.

[mipplet.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem with dry air at work. It drives my contact lenses crazy.

[aranel.livejournal.com]

Oh! that reminds me. I was browsing in the Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names (sadly out of print) in the reference section of the library. You probably know this already, but the dictionary said that Venetia is likely a Latinization of Gwyneth, and mentioned Sir Kenelm Digby's wife as a notable bearer of it and possible contributor to its popularity.

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! That's a good tip. The Latinization of "Guinevere" (related, tangentially in meaning only, to Gwyneth, which I think is a modernization of Gwynedd, the region of Wales) is Guanhumara, so you can see why that would never have occurred to me for "Venetia".

Incidentally, one of the books I have - and I have just about all of them published in English - says that she was named Venetia because she was born on St Venetia's Day (Dec 19th, IIRC - not "St Venetia's Day" as the item I'm recalling, but VSD's DOB - 19 Dec 1600). If not 12/19, then another date in December. Some books give her middle name as Anastasia, and I don't recall why. I have not had the opportunity to look up any info on a "St Venetia" - and now I will see if there is any relation to a St Gwyneth or Gwynedd, either.

The Stanley and Digby families have had Venetias (and Kenelms) in them ever since, and I think it was a popular Edwardian name for women. However, nowadays, at least in the US, it seems to mostly be popular for African-American women born in the 1960s (if my google photo searches are any indication). And the pseudonym that KGD chose for her in his memoirs, Stelliana, is a popular name for younger women in Greece.

And Emmy Rossum really does look helpfully like her. Anne Hathaway a bit, too. But I'm still using pics of Lena Headey for descriptive inspiration for the character based on her. Tom also made me an 11x14 color copy of Van Dyck's portrait of Venetia as Prudence.