Headache!

There's a scene in the movie "12 Chairs" where Mel Brooks' character, suddenly screams out "headache!" Well, that was me today.

I recently found out that I have a blood condition called thrombocythemia, where my body produces too many platlets. It also produces too many migraines as well. I take baby aspirin everyday, and that literally cuts my migraines from daily (or twice daily), to once every 4 months.

Today, my migraine was a doozy. In fact, it didn't stop, so I had to climb into bed at 3:30 pm and lay there, eyes closed, until nearly 7:30 pm. Four hours lost to homework, children, husband and a bar mitzvah. I was devastated.

And scared. I thought my head would explode, and of course, thoughts turn to brain tumor. But I realize that there's another reason for my pain. Stress. Teaching 12th grade high school girls physiology is literally killing me. Or less dramatically, giving me headaches.

So I have two choices: either I de-stress myself or I quit. Food for thought. Which reminds me, the last time I ate was 8 hours ago and I'm starving! Feeling better already.

Eat-A-Thon

This past Shabbat, lunch was sponsored by a group of people in honor of a recent wedding. It's called a Sheva Brocha - a meal for the bride and groom. It was set up as a buffet. In other words, an "eat-a-thon."

For those of us not blessed with will power (this should actually be written in the first person), these events are a cause for alarm, and truly uncomfortable if you forget to wear an elastic shirt. There is literally food flying everywhere, and no one is concerned if you eat off their plate. In fact, in you don't, they'll move it from their plate and put it on yours.

Afterwards, I stumbled home, changed into something more comfortable (read: mu mu) and fell fast asleep. Remarkably, I stayed FULL until this morning. All this nutrition information doesn't seem to be making a notch in my brain or my belt.

Oh dear. Oy vey. Sigh.

More Subway Stories

My dear friend is Chinese-American, and when she told me that tomorrow begins the Year of the Rabbit, I knew that meant Chinese food to celebrate the new year. So off I went in the morning to pick us up a kosher Poo-Poo Platter, of which I believe there is no equivalent in real Chinese ethnic fare. At least my friend had never heard of it.

With the food securely placed in my backpack, I hit the underground, dragging my bike along. I sat down on a bench and prepared to wait the next few minutes for the train in quiet meditation. Then along comes a commuter, sits down right next to me and proceeds to take copious amounts of quarters from her pocket, all the while exclaiming joy with peels of laughter.

Frankly, I didn't want to turn around. Better I not know what's going on. I mean, maybe she robbed a bank and my knowing about would make me an accessory after the fact. But that wasn't it. My new found friend had gone to the right ticket dispensing machine to buy her day pass. Not only did she get the pass, but all her money back and then some.

The woman sitting on the other side of her asked if it was the dispenser closest to the wall. Yep, the newly rich woman replied. Ah-ha, the woman replied, the very dispenser that was stuck and wouldn't accept money a few minutes ago had given up it's load to one lucky lady.

It was like Vegas, only 30 feet underground. Buried treasure, I might add. Once again, all good.

A Little Bit of Heaven

A few months back I went to the eye doctor, who suggested I start wearing sunglasses. A purist, I always felt wearing sunglasses would ruin your eyes, not help them. But age, and the threat of cataracts, has changed that point of view.

I personally own three pairs of glasses - insurance against misplacing any one or two pairs. It's my back up. So when I went to my eye glass store to fill the prescription, I asked if it was possible to purchase a clip-on, in the hopes of avoiding another glass case in the purse. He convinced me the cost was the same, so I went ahead a bought a pair of sunglasses. Cost: $85.

Fate brought me to the 99-cent stores a few days back. I imagine there's a 99 in Heaven, that's how much fun it is. Everything is one dollar, and there are bargains galore. Including a pair of clip-ons that fit my regular glasses perfectly. For 99 cents.

My husband tried to make me feel better by saying the sunglasses are a higher quality. Still, the clip-on was what I wanted all along. Thank you G-d, for the clip-on. And thank you for sunglasses - another backup. It's all good.

When Anonymity Doesn't Happen

Earlier this week my son in yeshiva found a wallet laying on the ground outside his school. He picked it up, got back on his bike and rode home. It was around 9:30 pm, and he was hungry.

He handed me the wallet and said, "Mom, there's $500 in there." But I didn't notice the money, just all the credit cards. I looked for some way to get in touch with this person because having been in his shoes, I knew it was a matter of time before he cancelled everything. And what a pain that would be.

So we called his gym (not his anymore), one of his banks (card was put on hold), and then we googled him. Hello, right there, on the net, was his email address. I sent him a message. gave him our home phone, and told him his wallet had five bills still in it.

He called back within 15 minutes, and we passed off the wallet. All done. The next day, he wrote me a thank you email, to which I replied "thank you for the mitzvah. Play it forward."

Glad it was over and behind me. But it wasn't exactly behind me. Got a call yesterday from a friend in the community asking for my address. Then she told me the story. A young woman she and her husband have been trying to bring closer to Judaism called her in an excited state. Her trainer (guess who) just told her a miracle story - how a family of Jews had given him back his wallet intact. Then he asked her what a mitzvah was.

Way to go G-d. Bringing this young lady to Judaism just got a whole lot easier. As my oldest would say, "Rock on!"

When The Going Gets Stressful

Not that I want to complain, but I have a lot of things on my mind. Like, the first meeting of our Jewish Club on campus and my presentation before the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health group tomorrow.

So just before the Jewish Club meeting, (ultimately attended by the Rabbi, Victoria and me), I started choking so bad I thought I would faint. A few of my alfalfa sprouts lodged where they didn't belong and, being all alone, I couldn't leave the room before someone else showed up. Wouldn't you know it, I got a migraine.

Not surprisingly, getting a migraine sets me back somewhat, and I was truly out of it for the rest of the afternoon. Thank G-d I took the bus and left the driving to someone else. Got home, crawled into bed and fell asleep. Then the kids came home. Sleeping party over.

What did I learn from all this? I have wonderful friends. People who care and were worried about me. And my husband. He cares too.

Oy vey. What a day. A poet and I didn't know it. Oh yeah.

Dumping Spanish

Part of the stress in my life involves time - or lack thereof. Hello, it's incredibly time consuming to devise a master's proposal. I mean, duh. But truthfully, who knew?

So the goal is to make more time, and since I can't invent time, I will have to free up my schedule by dumping something else. So it's adios, espanol!

I guess I realized that this past week, which only increased the stress level I was feeling. Truly, I don't want to drop the class. I'm still fighting it. In the past, my friends had to convince me to do the right thing. They would walk me through all the scenarios and then help me come to conclusions.

But I'm bigger now (read: older) and I should be able to do that myself. Okay, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna drop this class.

I wish I could feel relieved. Oh well.