Kicking the Habit with a Headache

Migraine Blues:

Cider vinegar didn’t touch it

The prescription made me ill

Now I’m sucking on a tootsie pop

And trying to get my fill

I’m not an alcoholic.  I like alcoholics a hell of a lot (especially those in recovery) but I’m not one.  I thought I might be one – I tried the 12 step program and loved it – but I’m not one.  I stopped going to meetings because I realized I’d be lying if I said “Hi, I’m Laura, I’m an alcoholic.”   I also stopped going when I started working full time.  I live in a beautiful place and I want some hours at home.  Come visit, you’ll see.

I am addicted to cigarettes though.  As far as I am concerned alcohol is a gateway drug to nicotine.  So there’s a reason to stay away from alcohol.  I picked up cigarettes again this summer – after publicly swearing never to smoke again.  I said to myself I’d stop when I finished my album.  Well my work (on the recording) is done, just waiting to have it mastered and printed.  I emptied the ashtray in my car this morning.  I will not buy anymore.  I’ve got some Tootsie Roll Pops to suck on. 

Cigarettes have a lovely connection for me to creativity.  Back in the early seventies, when I was in college, we were allowed to smoke – in class.  I took mostly studio art classes.  My favorite teacher, the late, great Robert D'Arista, used to inhale deeply on his cigarette as he critiqued our work.  This led me to taking my paintings out in the hall, and enjoying a cigarette as I decided how next to proceed with any given work.  I started going out of the recording studio with a cigarette over the summer after listening to any given track.  Same thing, all over again, but I’m sooo much older now.  I’ve reached the age Bob D’Arista died at of an aneurysm in 1987. That year I was busy as a young mother, newly separated from her artist husband.  I wasn’t thinking of anything but doing the best for me and my daughter.  I looked up Bob when I started a drawing class in Warwick last year.  I miss him.  He gave me a huge shot of much needed self confidence back in college.  He said, “Don’t worry what anyone thinks, I told you that you’re good – that’s all you need to know.”

Writing and reminiscing, my migraine seems to have finally subsided. 

And I can add recording artist to my list of qualifications.  There will be a CD release party soon at Tierney’s in Montclair, NJ and, by the way, I will be showing a few drawings at the Seligman Gallery in Sugarloaf, NY.