Headache Cures

Today I had a headache.
I tend to get horrible headaches; mind crunching, teeth scraping, agonizing migraines. I blame my mom. They come in different ways; it can be a dull ache, sharp pain, steady throb, intense pressure. It’s hard to describe the pain besides excruciating. Noise doesn’t bother me (unless it’s a sudden interruption of quiet) but light is like driving a javelin through my eye sockets. Especially when I’m driving at night, riding in a car with a headache is nauseous enough but headlights are unbearable. Try shining 4100 lumens of raw light power* in your eyes and slamming your head against concrete.

However, I have some tried and true cures to MY headaches
1. Caffeine (tea, coffee, soda, my favorite is a frappe because it has the ice element)
2. Ice cream (any flavor (coffee bonus) any form: cone, cup, milk shake)
3. Chocolate (any flavor any form (coffee ice cream with chocolate syrup))
4. Food (sometimes when I don’t eat I get headaches)
5. Drugs
6. Shower/ bath (hot or cold, mix of both p.s this is my dad’s cure all :P)
7. Running (if it’s a dull ache and I can run through the pain it usually goes away by the end)
8. Ice pack to the head (usually while laying on the couch)
9. Distractions (reading, movie, friends, funny YouTube videos, something that makes me smile)
If all else fails SLEEP! Cures it every time, and I mean real sleep not a bogus 30-minute nap, usually curled up in a ball with a cold compression attached to my head and my brain screaming out in misery, cursing my existence. In addition, don’t expect me to make sense, my speech becomes even more muddled and incomprehensible. I can listen to conversations but don’t expect me to participate, also I tend to forget and lose things. Basically if I have a headache, I get extremely discombobulated.

*This is the world’s brightest flashlight; it can melt plastic, burn paper, cook eggs, and toast marshmallows just so you know

Conundrum

I don’t know what to do with my life. My contract is up in May / June and I’m undecided as to whether I want to apply for another year or not. Usually my decisions are based on somebody else deciding for me, or bubble gumming it (or train#9). This being one of the bigger life decisions I’ve decided to ask you reader(s) to carefully review my pro & cons list and add your perspective.

Camfel
Pros
- A paying job
- Free rent & food & insurance
- I get to travel
- Varity
- No set schedule
- Easy, somewhat boring life
- I like setting up
- Random days off
- Meeting new people
- No real worries or deadlines
- I’d have another year to work on my ‘camfel’ goals
- Most hotels usually have a fitness room (not that I always use it)
Cons
- I miss my friends
- I can’t have a ‘real’ life
- I miss belonging to a church
- I miss real food.
- I’m tired of living out of van/suit case.
- I don’t want to HAVE to drive.
- I could end up with a crappy partner
- I could end up in LA again
- It’s another year away from my psych stuff
- Not paying to do laundry

Not Camfel
pros
- I can have a life (sort of)
- Friends
- Family
- I’d be able to find a more scheduled job … hopefully
- I could find a psych related job
- I could possibly find a higher paying job
- I’d be able to cook and bake real food
- pets
- church family
- run the lane
cons
- Back to job hunting
- I have to pay for gas/insurance/food
- No guarantee that I can find a job
- I’d have to decide where to live
- I could end up merchandizing again
- having an even worse job
- Back to crappy internet


Do you have anything that to add that will help me decide? Based on numbers alone it looks like another year with Camfel…

Sun Seeker

I love the heat of the sun. I should rephrase. I don’t like being swallowed up in an overwhelmingly sticky heat and blistering sun, but I like being warmed by it. When I lived in New York the house always seemed to trap the cool air inside so on Saturday mornings, in-between cartoons, I would drag my little pink quilt outside and lay on the warmed cellar door, just soaking up the warmth of the sun. In the afternoons I would have a picnic on the front (or back) lawn, occasionally lugging my stuffed animals with me. Or I would read on the porch roof.

Even when we moved to the hot sticky summers of Virginia I sought out the sun. I would sit in the pool reading a book in order to soak up the rays and stay cool. In the spring, fall, or evenings I would lay on the trampoline or grass and take a nap. Or if it was too hot or too cold to be outside I would perch myself in the window with a book or homework. When I lived in Farmville my bed was right next to the window and I’d lay with my face in the sun either to read or nap. Needless to say I was usually sun burnt and frequently found new freckles.

This is what I was thinking about in the car today as I drifted into unconsciousness. Periodically I would wake up and readjust as we went around a curve or when the sun sunk behind a cloud. And I realized - Oh noz I’m a cat.

Through Painted Deserts

“In the Mojave, we felt as though we were traveling through the desert in an oven. Joshua Tree National Park was on our left for miles, and I kept thinking about Bono and the boys, hiking up the hills in black and white. We moved out of the desert and turned north into the Sierra Nevada. I confess California has taken me by surprise. Not having been here, all I knew of the state was Los Angeles, the Lakers and Hollywood, and smog and surfers. But there are mountains here, an impressive range, and the brown of the desert gives way to green, rolling green hills fed by creeks running over boulders, splashing down through pastures where sheep graze. The Sierra Nevada has towering peaks that would give the Rockies a run. We slope slowly through meadows, the mountains in the distance, the deserts behind us. Mike had told me about the mountains in California, but I never imagined them to be so majestic.” ~ Donald Miller Through Painted Deserts

I wish I could write my adventures like this. Through Painted Deserts is a written portrayal of Don and Paul’s journey from Texas to Oregon. Miller is an awesome writer. He has the ability to almost ramble on for pages about nothing in particular and yet manages to talk about so much. I love the paragraph above; it’s what I wish I could write. Instead I come up with intense insights like “California is soo pretty. And it’s different from the east coast and once you get away from LA I actually like it a lot.” – yeah I defiantly need to hone my writing ‘skills’ more. But I wanted to share this snippet with you because it describes my feelings exactly – at least for one of our trips to a school in the middle of nowhere. Except for the heat – we mostly had air conditioning – except when we were overheating. As much as I complained about California I didn’t hate it. I loved spending everyday with Rosita and the background was beautiful. I just can’t get over being stuck in HOURS of traffic every day.