Earache, My Eye

For the past two days, I've had an earache.

This is not a first, by any means. I've had earaches before, usually as a side effect of having a cold or the flu. This time, though, I don't have a cold or the flu--aside from an occasional sniffle (which can happen at any given moment during the long, cold Chicago winter), I feel fine.

In fact, I felt fine until Sunday night, when I went to bed at 10:30--and didn't actually fall asleep until sometime after two.

When I got up Monday morning, awakening from a lovely dream in which I actually went on a date and kissed the lady in question goodnight (something that can happen to me only in a dream), the right side of my head felt like somebody had slugged me with a baseball bat.

I seriously thought about calling in sick, but even to my ear (pun intended), that sounded silly. (Yes, I talk to myself frequently--why do you ask?). I mean, calling in sick...with an earache? I took more sick days last year than I had in a long time. (Granted, I had the days to take, having rolled several days of vacation over from the previous year, but still...) This year has been and will be different in lots of ways--this is but one.

So I went to work anyway and rode it out. Wasn't pleasant. Wasn't fun. But I made it through, had a soup-and-sandwich dinner and went to bed way early--just after eight o'clock.

This morning? My head doesn't feel quite like it's been whacked with a Louisville Slugger. It's more like somebody stuck a pencil in my ear and broke it off.

Progress is progress.