Hello, I’m Jette, and this is my headache.
This particular headache has been lurking at the base of my sinuses for several days now. It comes and goes, but it never entirely disappears. Even when I don’t have an full-blown headache, I can feel the potential for one right between my eyes.
Perhaps I should name it and cultivate it as a pet.
But no. I am trying to destroy this here headache with various drugs, and relaxation techniques, and ice packs pressed firmly to my head late at night when I am unable to sleep because I feel like someone wedged a couple of bricks in my skull. Allergy meds, migraine meds, pain relief meds. Hot showers. Soothing forehead massages from my kind and tolerant boyfriend.
This headache isn’t going anywhere. It’s found a comfy little home chez Jette.
It feeds on light. Sunlight, the overhead lights at my house, light from the TV screen, and most importantly, light from the computer monitor. If I could stay away from the computer for a day or so, I might be able to kill the little bugger. But when you work as a tech writer, you can find only a limited number of things to do that do not involve a computer monitor.
At least this is probably the impetus I needed to go find the woman who supplies us with computers and equipment and ask if she can find me a better monitor. The summer interns are about to descend and use every spare monitor in sight but maybe she can find something better than the one I have now.
I also need to call the neurologist’s office and make an appointment to have biofeedback sessions, which she recommended at last week’s visit, but I had to wait to see if the sessions would be covered by health insurance. (The answer appears to be “sort of.” At this point I don’t care, if it can kill headaches like this one.)
We have an offsite meeting all afternoon away from the computers and perhaps that will help a little. But I’ll have to wear my glasses and those push on my nose a bit and that won’t help at all.
I am fully aware that the headache is also feeding off stress. Why would I have any stress this week?
I have no idea.
My boyfriend’s mom is coming to visit this weekend and she is staying with us. I know from his description that we will have a good time and I will like her and that she is very laid-back and will not subject the house or my personality to the white-glove test. That isn’t stopping me from trying to clean the house in a futile attempt to fool his mom into thinking that I’m not a dirty slob. I still have to finish attacking the bathroom.
Next weekend, my family is coming to visit: my mom and dad, my sister, and my niece. They are not staying with us. They have a hotel. The universe is merciful. But you know they’ll visit the house for this and that. We’ll probably cook dinner one night on the new grill. (It’s just one of those teeny charcoal grills, but my boyfriend cooks food wonderfully on it.) And I am sure they will want to see how the house looks now that my boyfriend is living there too.
Plus, my dad is bringing us a chair he made for the back patio. The Beau likes to sit on the patio and work on his laptop, and finding a good chair for that was difficult. My dad is making one in the same style as the bench he made for the front of the house, and I’m looking forward to seeing the result.
I have several pieces of furniture my dad made or restored in the house, and I don’t want him to think I am unappreciative. So before he comes to visit, I have to rub them all down with lemon oil (indoors) or linseed oil (outdoors) so they’ll look nice and well-cared for. I don’t mind this a bit. It’s one of the few household tasks I genuinely enjoy, particularly when I use the lemon oil because it smells so nice. But I have to find time to do that in the next week.
Having different generations of family members all visiting at once means we have to find things to do that they all will enjoy and that’s a challenge. Especially on Memorial Day weekend when everything will be so crowded. I know they will want to go to the outlet mall one day, and my sister might want to take her daughter to Barton Springs, but I have no idea what else to do with them.
It’s also difficult to determine which restaurants are suitable for a three-year-old but also will be comfortable and quiet enough for my parents.
We don’t really know what to do with my boyfriend’s mom, either, because she’ll be visiting during UT graduation weekend. So we have to avoid that area of town, and we don’t want to make long day trips because in case you haven’t noticed, gas is damn expensive right now. So that’s something else to worry about. (Actually I have delegated that particular worry to my boyfriend.)
My job has been more stressful than usual lately for one reason and another.
I’m not working out nearly as often as I should. And the less said about the healthfulness of my diet, the better, although it’s actually not bad compared to, say, a year ago. Still, I fear the day when someone asks me when the baby is due. That will be the day I pull money out of my savings account to hire a personal trainer.
I have at least five movie reviews/summaries I want to write for this site so I will remember something about these movies later on. I saw one of the movies a month ago, that’s how behind I am. And when I say “five” I am actually counting the Kill Bill movies as a single review. (I saw both. I thought the first one was much more entertaining. This has been a review.)
I need to paint my toenails. I don’t want my boyfriend’s mom to see my yucky unpainted toenails. What on earth would she think? When the hell can I paint my toenails? The polish and polish remover smells are only going to make my headache worse.
On the plus side … while writing this, my headache went away. I wonder if there’s not a message there. Sadly, it’s not a message I can heed right now, and thinking about it will only make me frustrated and, yeah, exacerbate my headache.
Perhaps I could name it Spot. Or Sherman. Or Satanica Pandemonium. I’ll ask it which it would prefer, when it returns.
Go see Mean Girls. Don’t let your expectations get too high. If possible eat ice cream during or after the movie. This has been a prescription.
I totally relate to the headache problem. I used to take Imitrex, until that stopped working. Hope yours gets better soon!
(And I would nag you about the movie reviews, except, you know, pot / kettle.)
Put a good dark glare-screen on your monitor. That’s what made a lot of my headaches go away. Family visits…now, that there’s no hope for. Maybe you could get your boyfriend’s mom to rub down the frniture with lemon oil? And for heaven’s sake, spring for a professional pedicure.
Perhaps the Beau can paint your toenails. It’s a nice way to spend time together (and you could paint his when you’re sure the headache is gone — yes, I actually know two manly men who get pedicures and actually have them painted with a color).
Oh yeah, my mom-in-law pulled off her shoes to show off her red toenails, and then my son pulled off his shoes to show off HIS red toenails … his girlfriend had painted them.