February break.
Phew. Finally.
I seriously think schools get February break for two
reasons. One reason is to keep ski
resorts and airlines in business. The
other is to clear out some of the germs.
The kids are sick, the teachers are sick, everybody is
sick. I have had a throbbing headache
for six days now. It's a real blow to my
ego when people tell me how horrible I look, that my eyes look heavy, and ask
such things as, "What is wrong with you?"
I don't know what's wrong with me. Sinuses.
Menopause. Old age. Plague.
Maybe it's from the carbon monoxide I suck in every day, all day long,
at work from the massive construction vehicles right outside my classroom. The workmen are so close that I can open my
windows and grab them by the throat if I so choose. I figure that might startle them and probably
get me fired, though. One of the workers
looks just like Santa Claus, and I certainly don't want to get on Jolly Old St.
Nick's Shit List, that's for sure.
I have tried a lot of different things for this
headache: ibuprofen, acetaminophen, caffeine, chocolate, and pomegranate margaritas. I have tried getting extra sleep, drinking
more water, and keeping the students a little quieter. Nothing seems to be working.
The worst thing about these headaches is the vertigo. I cannot stand too quickly nor turn my head
too suddenly. Wearing my glasses makes
me dizzy; not wearing my glasses makes me dizzy. Being too warm gives me the spins; being too
cold gives me the spins. A couple of times
at work I have walked into things (taken a corner too short or simply lost my
balance and faltered slightly) because my equilibrium is slightly off. I am in a constant state of feeling like I
just stepped off the Tilt-A-Whirl at an amusement park.
People tell me this is going around. They also tell me I should be thankful it's
not the Noro-virus. I am hoping I'm
immune to that as I've had a couple of strains of it already. The last bout of the Noro-virus was enough to
peel paint off the walls. It ripped
through my house like a tornado, devastating anyone who caught it. The Noro-virus is the worst smelling flu of
all time, and I cannot even imagine being on a cruise ship when this hits, as
it has hit several cruise lines in the past few years.
Anyway, I finally hit the aspirin for my headache. I figure, "What the hey. Thins blood, right? Maybe I need to thin some of the blood
vessels that are throbbing in my brain."
This could be the placebo effect, but I am actually feeling now like I
just have a regular, old-fashioned, run of the mill headache and that I have
not suffered a brain bleed in my frontal lobe.
Thank goodness for good old aspirin!
So many things I want and need to do during my February
break. Now, though, at the top of my
list is only one thing: Get rid of this headache. When and if that happens, I really will be
saying, "Phew. Finally."
