SAYING GOODBYE TO VACATION

You want to know what sucks?  What sucks is having a couple of extra days of vacation and being plagued by a stabbing headache.  Another cluster headache. That's what sucks.

Sunday evening is when I usually meet friends (and sometimes family) to play trivia at a restaurant/bar.  The food is passable, but the company is unmatchable.  We have fun, we laugh, and sometimes we even know the answers. I would think that after a long break and a lull in company, I would be completely rested and ready for trivia this week.  After all, it has been a few weeks since we've been to trivia, what with all the holiday hubbub going on.

But I wake up on Sunday morning without the headache.  I am almost scared to stand up and feel the familiar ache shooting out of one eye and one ear.  My headache has been playing ping pong inside my head for days, careening from one side of my skull to the other.  Just yesterday I planned out how to survive the MRI I would certainly need to determine the cause of this hideous pain only to face Sunday ... sssshhhhh ... without it.

I take it easy on Sunday, staying completely inside, not once braving the elements, and monitoring everything I eat and drink in case I trigger another headache.  I sort through computer files, pay some bills, and watch a lot of marginal television -- HGTV, a couple of movies, an episode of Farscape, and will maybe even stay up for the premier of Downton Abbey's fourth season.

Or, maybe not.  Maybe I'll go to bed early and get ready for the inevitable: A return to the mundane routine of work when I have to set the alarm for 5:15, teach, attend meetings, and get back into the grind again.

Man.  That totally sucks. But it sucks a lot less than a cluster headache, and for that I feel very lucky, indeed.