Is Ecstasy the Opposite of Apoplexy?

I have a problem today. See, my assignment is to write a nice little post about the word of the week, which is apoplexy and I was ready to do that...except now I'm in the farthest mood from apoplexy you can reach...because my science fiction romance ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE was named one of the 2014 SFR Galaxy Award winners and I Am Happy. Not apoplectic. Not even close to that state!

Well, ok, having squeed and wooted and THRILLED by my book receiving a nod from my peers, I'll write my originally intended post. (Have I rendered you apoplectic yet? Hope not!)

In search of inspiration, being the Seventh Whore of the Week, I found few to no quotes, even Shakespeare only used the word four times (five if maybe we count a mention of "apoplex'd" in Hamlet)....no convenient LOLcats or Dogedogs in the throes of apoplexy...googled ovarian apoplexy, which scared me to death by the way, just contemplating the concept....dealt with the dryer repairman...locked myself out of the condo complex, which still didn't rendered me apoplex'd (just annoyed)...

I believe I was in the throes of apoplexy once, however, and will share that incident with you. Normally, I'm a pretty even tempered, optimistic, pleasant person to work with. A real team player. If I disagree with you in a meeting, it'll be calm and civilized....we may have more discussion later but I won't be in your face, rude, arrogant, slam my notebook shut and walk out of the meeting...all the while wondering WHY am I acting so unlike myself??? Yup, that happened to me one day. My team members chased after me in great concern, the person who had been presenting fairly bland charts was brand new to our fine institution and of course was now re-thinking their decision to take our job offer, I'm sure...

Blood pressure. Turns out that I inherited my paternal side's tendency to high blood pressure and unbeknownst to me, mine had now wandered into the "you're about to have a stroke territory". So some tiny kernel of  factoid the poor presenter had said kind of annoyed me and on any other day I'd have made a note and discussed it with them privately but wowza, under the fire of compressed, surging blood in the veins, I became Frank the Harvester from Pixar's "Cars". Or maybe Galadriel under the momentary influence of the One Ring. (Ooh, I like that imagery....let me savor that for a moment...)

I went to the doctor the next day, because along with the whole "upset all out of proportion" thing, I also felt

dizzy and ill...and found out it was time to start taking that little high blood pressure pill at bedtime. Darn ancestors anyway!

So that was my moment of apoplexy. Not fun. I apologized to the person but they were never comfortable with me in meetings ever again...and nowadays if I start to be bothered by something more than I should be, I take it as a sign of the blood pressure going out of control. I try to find a quiet place and meditate for a few minutes, which does reliably bring the b/p back down. Whew.

(Pets the shiny SFR Galaxy Award jpeg)