The Power of Suggestion

I am way too susceptible to the power of suggestion. I was feeling very sickly yesterday, and became absolutely convinced it was because my diet did not include enough electrolytes.

It did not matter that I had barely heard of electrolytes before that day's biology lecture. Nor did it matter how much I told myself it was probably because I'd forgotten to eat lunch. Dr. Zarcaro had said that people had serious problems when they don't include electrolytes in their diet, and that must be my affliction.

It got so bad that I actually went into the convenience store, when I stopped to buy gas, in order to buy some gatorade. I carefully read the ingredients and confirmed that Gatorade does indeed include electrolytes, although there was no specific mention of potassium, which was what my strange brain had decided was the problem. But I made do with the electrolytes that were there, and went back to the car.

I felt fine as soon as we had dinner. I think it was the fact that I skipped lunch.

On the way home it was dark, and I kept thinking about this blurb I heard on the radio about how you should only drive in the fast lane when you can see the tail lights of the car in front of you in that lane. Drunk drivers who get on the highway going the wrong direction almost always stay in what they think is the slow lane, but which is really the fast lane in the opposite direction.

I had all kinds of visions of swerves and near misses, but not so many as the visions of body casts, and a blog entitled "Dictating Skills" or something, which would start: "No, I did not take over a small island and subject its inhabitants to my whims. Instead, I am lying in the hospital, dictating this blog to my mother [which I realize now was a silly thing to think, since Mama can't type very fast, and it would be mean to ask her to take dictation]."

The power of suggestion, where I am concerned, is scarily like a command of suggestion. Please nobody leave a comment about how new studies show that shaving one's head results in lower cholesterol.