Mind Over Body (the bad version)

My mind and body don't get along very well. As a matter of fact, the mind often totally ignores signs the body sends. But the body gets revenge.

Example: Last night, G. invited a fellow new grad student and his girlfriend over for dinner. They just moved from the interior of Mexico and are having a hard time adjusting (the university bureaucracy alone has been a nightmare). Plus, we are all salivating for our paychecks at the end of the month, so they could use a big meal (besides their reported diet of beans and rice). I got out of my evening class, they got out of their evening seminar, so dinner got to a late start. By the time we sat down, I was already slightly headachy from hunger and being tired. Nonetheless, a glass of red wine sounded really nice along with the lasagna, so G. poured me a glass. Everything moving along quite nice, headache at a bearable level, so I have another half-glass. For postre, we had one of my top dessert favorites, brownies with thick fudgy icing. Couldn't help myself, ate two small squares, even though I was full. It was around 1130 when they left and I still had to shower before bed, which left only about 5 1/2 hours for sleep because an evil spirit took over my mind last spring and agreed to 8 am classes every day of the week.

In the span of three hours, I experienced 4 classic headache triggers: tired, then not getting enough sleep, red wine, and chocolate. Wait, I forgot to mention allergies and I'm on my period.*

I woke up with an unbelievable headache. My headaches waver between cluster headaches, hormone headaches (thanks birth control pills!!), sinus headaches, and migraines. I think this one might have been a combo of all the above. Drag myself out of bed late. Slap on make-up while eyes water uncontrollably and the side of head feels like it's being pushed in by a vise. G. takes pity on me and feeds and takes out Filo, while I try to slurp down cereal and keep from moaning pathetically. It did cross my mind that I could cancel the class, but I only get ONE DAY for sickness or whatever (thanks EPCC!!) and it's the second week of classes. I've lectured with a headache before--I'll admit, it's not pretty.

I manage to get to class, lecture for 45 minutes and make sense, and talk to a student afterwards. Then it hits me in the car: neausea. Luckily, I carry grocery bags in my car (thanks Mom!!), so no mess.* I make it home (across the city, 20 minutes, I must add) and stumble into bed for a couple of hours. My sure-fire headache cure is two Excedrin, a coke, and sleep.

So now that I can process thoughts and sit-up, I'm left wondering what happened. Well, I know what happened because this is not the first time mind/body decided to go on strike. This morning was the body reacting to what the mind thought were great ideas last night even though it knows very well awful, horrible things could happen. Bottom line: listen, listen, listen. Can't we all just get along?!

I'd like to blame society for teaching me that my body is an alien being to hate (i.e I'm so fat), modify (i.e. plastic surgery), and abuse (i.e. fast food). Sure, that's part of it. But I KNOW better.


*Too much information? Too bad.