Silver linings, always with the silver linings

It’s been a topsy turvy kind of a week. Great days over the weekend through to my birthday followed by a couple of days that were more difficult for various reasons.

More good days ahead, of course, as I finish out my week of birthday celebrations.

I had lunch with one of my favorite men on Thursday, and for some reason the minute we walked back into work something about the lighting hit me the wrong way. I remember saying “doesn’t the light look pink?” and then I was hit with instant migraine aura.

For those of you with normal brains, what that means in my case is an arc of flashing zigzags across to top of my field of vision, a loss of peripheral vision, something sort of like pixels missing on a screen and I have trouble finding words. It also means I have about 30 minutes until a crushing headache unless I get some medication into me.

It makes reading and driving both bad options. Once the word loss kicks in, it makes talking interesting, too. I suspect it’s like a baby stroke. I suppose some people around me probably enjoy the quiet.

So I downed some medication with a cup of coffee and waited. Usually that is all I need to, but not this time. I had to take another dose of medication when the headache still tried to come on. That improved things to a point where I could see well enough to drive home. I could talk again, kind of. I had one more dose of the medication before the last of the headache died down, but I think between the headache, the medication and the emotional roller coaster I was in a perfect set up for a meltdown. So melt down I did.

Thank you to my sweet GingerBelle for trying to talk some sense into me when I was in no shape to be logical, and staying on the line with me until I was a human being again. Thanks to Paddy for knowing that being as matter of fact as possible is the best way to deal with someone who is temporarily insane. Thanks to all the other people who sent messages not even knowing that I was having a migraine induced meltdown.

If there is a silver lining in this, and there always is, it’s that my friends demonstrated yet again why they are the best people in the world. I say it all the time, I will keep on saying it because it will always be true: I am surrounded by people who totally kick ass.

People who take care of me. People who don’t let me get away with being a bitch to myself. People who love me and I love back. People who would brave sub-zero temperatures with me to make snow angels. People who play Mexican Train with me. People who get condos at Eagle Crest in the snow. People who share their favorite bar with me on Friday nights before Duck games. People who make me laugh. People who trust me enough to cry on my shoulder. People who bake me pies. People who let me and my crazy friends tailgate with them. People who bring Jell-O shots.

So at the end of the day, even though I feel a bit like an African elephant stepped on my skull I still am left feeling mostly grateful. No, it was not an Asian elephant. It was definitely an African elephant. With huge floppy ears.

The type of elephant isn’t the point.

The point is that even a headache the size of an African elephant has a silver lining. Just like everything else.

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