Headaches

At one point in my life, I used to have terrible migraines.

For those of you who haven't had them, you may think of a migraine as a rather nasty headache. Which is a bit like saying the way Bush has run the war in Iraq has had a couple of unforeseen snags.

When I first got them as a teenager, we had no idea what they were. I would wake up and part of my vision would simply be gone, and a couple of hours later, it would feel as if the pressure and pain behind my eye was so bad that it would explode out of my head. Any light or sound would cause it to get worse, and I would spend the day in my windowless bedroom, trying hard to sleep through it. As I got older, we discovered what it was, but had no idea what caused it. It got worse (if you can believe it) and would be accompanied with nausea.

They came upon me almost randomly, and I remember through my last year of college and first few years on my own, they would come in clusters of three or four times a month, and then not happen for a couple of months. I was on HEAVY pain meds that I would take when one came on, and while it would lessen the pain, I would still have to be hidden away in a dark room with no sound until it went away. Then, for the next couple of days, I would feel weak, and vaguely sick until the whole feeling passed.

I feared them.

The first sign of the "halo effect" (which is when your vision gets a bit wonky), I would slam pain meds and do everything I could to get home and into bed, because I knew if I didn't, I'd have to suffer the worst pain I had ever felt.

Then, about 1998, I figured out it was mostly a food allergy, and it was brought on by runny cheese. I still miss ricotta and cottage cheese, but I'd give up just about anything never to have another migraine again.

I quit having them soon afterwards, and a year or so later no longer needed the pain meds. Luckily, someone else found a good use for them.

I had the Halo Effect back when I was working a 36 hour shift at the group home (because we didn't have enough staff, and the CEO said I HAD to cover all of the empty shifts), and I freaked out. Thankfully, it was at about 3 AM, and I was able to just sit and let it pass. No pain, just the Halo Effect.

Tonight, the same thing happened.

I didn't panic, but just took a large dose of Tylenol (the dose that used to be my major pain meds, although I didn't have any codeine. And instead of going to the gym, I laid down ont he futon and waited for it to pass. I have a VERY mild headache, with a bit of pressure, but it's nothing like the crippling pain I used to have.

I'm taking it as a reminder that my life used to be MUCH worse, and every day, I'm moving forward a little bit.

Hooray for Hollywood!

The Bush Administration has asked the Supreme Court to review the voting for "Best Documentary" , and many believe they will rule that the actual winner of that award was: Barney's Holiday Extravaganza (2006), a documentary about President Bush's pet dog wandering around the White House, looking for someone who could explain to the President that he actually left Shinola on the Oval Office carpet.

Ghost Riders In The Movies

Ghost Rider gets a 3 out of 5...visually cool, and you get to see Nick Cage doing his best Elvis impersonation, but the plot didn't make a lick of sense. Still, Nick Cage on a motorcycle made out of fire, and Sam Elliot on a horse made out of fire make it a decent enough special effects movie. Plus, if you hate people who buy all of their clothes at Hot Topic, you get to see four of them beat up by a skeleton in black jeans and a leather jacket.

No blood, 8 beasts (including Peter Fonda as Satan), and Eva Mendez's cleavage making it so no one with any testosterone knows what color her hair is. Check it out for a buck.

Finally, a holiday I can get behind

Tomorrow is national pancake day, and all IHOPs are giving away a free short stack of pancakes from 7 pm to 10 pm.

I can't think of a day I'd rather celebrate, not even National Waffle Day, because we all know waffles are simply a syrup delivery system, and pancakes are the greatest food ever created. You can keep your Christmases, your Halloweens, your National Gorrila Suit days. Me, I'll be remembering my friend Jimmy from college waking up from a drunken stupor at 4 in the morning, running around the house screaming "PANCAKES!!! PANCAKE MODE!!!" until he woke everyone up, found the pancake make, and made enough pancakes for a church breakfast.

Random re-start

The Shinders I used to manage in the early 90's (where I got paid a massive executive wage of $7.25 an hour) is gone. I was going to buy some comic boxes on the way home today and they were completely gone. NO sign they were ever there.

I guess the Bloomington one has shut down as well.

3 of my co-workers are addicted to WoW, and say they play at least two hours a night. I am trying to figure out how to carve an hour a night for writing while still going to the gym and eating something not out of a bag. And yes, I am liking the job more every day. After being away from the cubicle world for about 6 years, I find it has some good things...good pay (my check for my first week was the same size as a check for two weeks working at the group home), discounts on movie tickets and other such stuff, co-workers who don't want to convert me to Limbaugh, Bush and Jesus (in that order), and I get to just do my job, not my job and cleaning toilets and the CEO's job and so on and so on.

I'm sure I'll chafe at the restrictions in a while, but for now it's nice to be around Just Normal People instead of juggling crisis after crisis. And I have yet to see a situation where I am trying to figure out how to wash vomit out of my hair before a board meeting, which is an improvement over my last job.

So this is the new Blogger?

Testing. If it works, look for new content tonight. If not, it doesn't matter because you can't read this.