A Cautionary Tale... in 2014

I should know better with how my luck runs. I really should.

Robbie got to play hookie from school on Wednesday. My dad had to make a trip to Canton to file their taxes and wouldn't be back in town in time to pick him up from school. No ride from school = no school. He was happy with the news, but due to being a little shit at school Monday and Tuesday, he was grounded from the computer, video games and Netflix. Being a little shit consisted of not listening, running when he shouldn't have and cutting holes in his pants and two of his shirts.

When Rosie picked me up for work Tuesday morning, I told her I was excited to sleep in the next morning. She asked, "Are you playing hookie, too?" My dumbass replied, "I wish. But no. I'm going to work."

The Fate's heard the "I wish." Lachesis devised a scheme and weaved it into my thread.

Around 3pm Tuesday, I looked up from my computer to answer a question and saw flashes of blue and red lights. My early warning of an oncoming migraine. It was staved off with Advil Migraine and a coworker working over my hands, but I went home with the pressure in my head that you have for a day after a migraine.

At 6am, sharp pain in my head woke me. At 8:30am, squinting through watery eyes and blurring vision, it took me five minutes to find Rocky's number in my phone to call him, five more minutes to find workforce's number to call Susan and ten minutes to type out a one short line text to James M, which I then copied to James G.

Until that moment, I never realized how painful calling into work could be.

Not too long after that, Robbie was up. I asked him to keep the noise down as I had a headache. Wrong thing to say. For the next hour, every game that could possibly make noise came out, quiet toys were suddenly noisy and I discovered how high pitched and whiney sounding The Wizard of Oz really is. He was being loud enough to even have my dad, who was asleep in the recliner, griping at him. While I know it wasn't completely me, I'm pretty sure I was the only one who felt like they were being stabbed repeatedly in the left eye with an ice pick. Actually, I think the ice pick would have hurt less and the resulting lobotomy would have left me in a blissfully unaware state.

Then Robbie asked the million dollar question.

"Mama, can I play on the 'puter?"

Remember, per my decree from the night before he was grounded from the computer. He knew it, too.

A stronger woman would have said no and stuck to her guns. But when the self preservation instinct kicks in, you find yourself doing things you shouldn't

What did I say?

"Yes! Yes! For the love of god, YES! Just keep quiet!"

And he did. He kept the volume down, didn't hoot or hollar like he normally does while playing his games and was very well behaved. He even picked up his toys before turning the computer on and was even quiet about that. I was finally able to curl up and die for a couple of hours.

I'm pretty sure I got hookwinked on that whole thing.

Three days later, I still have pressure in my head and the pain comes and goes. Right now, it's above my right eye. While I usually get a migraine once allergy season kicks up, it's odd for it to last this long. Then again, all of the allergen counts are extremely high and the barometric pressure is also higher than normal.

What annoys me more than anything else is the fact I went almost five months without calling into work. Streak down the drain.

This is what I get for saying, "I wish."