Monte Report - Mid-November 2006

As I pursue a pattern of briefer but more frequent posts, I promise this will be quick.

Though I've experienced some roller-coastering in the past few weeks, I've been stable for the past ten days -- it seems as though perhaps the latest "adjunct" medication (Abilify) is kicking in. I'm still faced with daily challenges, but they aren't knocking me down so easily, and I'm able to move on to whatever's next without much trouble. Coming up soon is the Holiday Party at work, traditionally one of my biggest challenges of the year. But this year I'm actually planning to attend (in fact, my psychiatrist practically insisted that I do), and the more I prepare myself to go, the more I'm looking forward to it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Lastly, I must brag that I finally saw my FIVE HUNDREDTH "lifer" on my recent trip to Arizona: a Greater Pewee, a bird that I'd heard before but which had managed to elude visual detection up til now. I was quite pleased to hit that milestone, to say the least: as you can see from the map, their range in the U.S. is rather limited, and such birds are always a treat to find.

(Painting of Greater Pewee copyrighted by Marco Pineda; used with permission.)