As A Direct Result

2015-06-132015-06-13 Miss Poison Being Sick, Chronic Pain, Clients, Editing, Exhaustion, Fibromyalgia, Honesty, Idiots, June, Life, Migraines, Musings, Pain, Pieces Of Me, Poison In Lethal Doses, Saturday, Self-Care, Shopping, Work, Writing Chronic Pain, Clients, Cooking, Editing, Fibro Flares, Fibromyalgia Pain, Getting Shit Done, Heat, Life, Migraines, Musings, Pieces Of Me, Poison In Lethal Doses, Saturdays, Shopping, Twitter, Work, Writerstream, Writing

251214_538562782827767_988245146_n — It’s also an evil life-destroyer.

I’ve decided that today is going to be a work-free day.

I went to bed this morning sick as a dog. I suspect my brief time out yesterday affected me more severely than it ought to. Within a few hours of coming home, I got my fourth migraine of the week. I took a brief nap and I wasn’t entirely okay afterward, but now? UGH!

Sadly, with migraines, you often question whether you did something wrong, ate the wrong thing, etc. All I did was go out in tremendous heat for an hour and a half and come home. It wasn’t a lot of physical exertion, but my body says otherwise. I had a mild headache upon returning, but it wasn’t until I actually felt pain in my head that I took something for it. By 7:30, as my neighbors attempted to power wash something right near my bedroom window, I contemplated outright murder. My ears simply cannot bear the noise, and what are they up to at this precise moment? Yard work. At 9:23 a.m. On a Saturday. When it’s already 85 degrees and a heat advisory has been issued for the entire area, AGAIN. Schools actually closed early yesterday, if they opened at all, because it was over 100 degrees with the humidity and people were experiencing breathing problems. But hey, dumb & dumbest need to make noise on a yard that requires no work at all this week. This is where I would like to point out that I refrained from putting #TheyNeedToBeShot. I’m not a violent person…just don’t make noise when I’m sick or on any day ending in a y.

As a direct result of this migraine/heat/stomach agony, I’m trying to decompress this morning. I’d rather be asleep, but I desperately need to hit the grocery store. Not a fun task, I do not look forward to this, but I am going to try going once it cools down. There’s no point in making myself any sicker by attempting to do it early on in the day. Everyone and their grandmother will be there to capitalize on the digital coupon extravaganza, which has already turned into an epic fail because 9/4’s of the coupons don’t come off at the end of each order, which means customer service is inundated with questions as to why they didn’t work and precisely “Where are my savings? Are you going to give me my money back?” Actually, the store is set up to make sure you actually loaded the coupons on to your savings card in the first place. If you didn’t use the physical coupons that were also provided for the week, chances are you didn’t get the savings on those four items. I clipped all of my mine last night and will print up a few others later on. I’ve saved nearly $1000 this year alone in coupons at one store. That is a small accomplishment, but it feels good every single time I look at my receipt.

I’ve completed all of my work this week (though I am seemingly still loosely on the consulting job), except for the manuscript, which I will devote more daily time to next week in my attempt to complete it. I’m not looking forward to that, I’m simply tired of seeing it and knowing that it’s not complete. I do NOT relish the line of questioning that will come with the delivery, but since I stated in the contract how much time I will spend on answering questions before charging again for my time, I hope that will make the client aware that I mean business. It’s in black and white, how hard is it to follow guidelines?

Before I forget, I want to thank Writerstream for featuring my work this week, and I’d also like to give a huge shout out to the dozen or so new Twitter followers in the last 12 hours alone. (Special thanks to Lillian for encouraging me to join Twitter. Hugs sweet pea!) I never knew I’d grow to love it so much. To the friend that reads my Tweets and isn’t afraid to joke with me and laugh, I appreciate it. (You know who you are, doll!)

If you need me, I’ll be here for the next few hours. Drinking coconut water. Praying that it helps. If it doesn’t, I’m seriously considering an ER visit because this level of pain is out of control.

Have a great weekend everyone! And please, stay out of the heat and wear sunscreen.

It’s Back

2015-06-01 Miss Poison June, Musings, Poison In Lethal Doses, Summer, Writing Heat, June, Musings, Poison In Lethal Doses, Summer, Writing

June. It’s like most four letter words for me. Thanks to global warming, it’s only a precursor to the heat that will undoubtedly blast my little portion of the world. This past weekend the heat and humidity were so thick in the air it was like being slapped the second I opened the door to go to the car. Summer, in my life, is synonymous with the word “hibernation”. When heat, humidity, and the sun make you deathly ill, it’s wise to take precautions.

When I do have to be outdoors, sunscreen and cool/cold water are two of the most important factors next to going from one air-conditioned place to another. I also keep a travel size tube of sunscreen with me in case I need to reapply. I’m pretty sure it is now expired, so I will be replacing it with a fresh one ASAP.

Heat causes me to slowly lose my mind. During a very severe, storm-related power outage last July, I got sick. The first thing that slipped was my ability to think straight. I was able to lay in my bed silently, but the second someone called my cell phone, every word was slurred. It was as if my tongue weighed 20 pounds, I sounded completely psychotic, even to myself. Unfortunately, my brain and my mouth couldn’t do anything about it because I was severely dehydrated after just an hour or so.

Luckily, someone brought me a lantern flashlight with extra batteries, a small battery operated fan, also with extra batteries (which I still use to this day during weather related outages or if it’s too cold outside to truly reduce the heat, but I still need air around my head. It has an attached adjustable stand, but I usually just prop it up against a pillow. There’s something about the cool air that helps me fall asleep.), and, because they were unable to find coconut water, which is an absolute miracle worker when I’m dehydrated or recovering from a migraine, two bottles of Gatorade. This was during a an outage where even stores were knocked out power-wise, except for Walgreens. Certain areas were hit pretty hard. I started feeling slightly more normal after half a bottle of Gatorade, but I was pretty incoherent beforehand. I know I’m dehydrated when it tastes like the best thing on earth. And yes, it does alarm me that I dehydrate so quickly. For someone who drinks an absolute ton of water, I should be able to float around the world on that alone, but I’ve learned to adapt.

It’s truly the start of June and already I am inundated with thunder, lightning, and both serious and not so serious levels of rainfall. None of that bothers me, but every once in a while, a storm can scare the crap out of you. Much like the astrological sign for most of this month, the weather certainly matches the Gemini tone, temperament, and overall attitude.

Most people spend all Winter looking forward to the sun and the warmth. Me, I’m looking forward to Fall. The second it’s crisp and stays that way for a few months, it’s my time of year. 🙂 So for those of you enjoying this, I’m counting the days down ’til it’s over.