The Morning After

No, I wasn't out drinking. I wasn't on a giant capsized ship either. (I think you have to be fairly old to get that last reference.) I was, however, out shopping. All day yesterday. Shopped until there were no more stores open (well, it was Reno, so I could have found something all night long if I'd wanted but I meant there were no regular shops still open), till my eyes were cross-eyed and my feet were sore. With the price of gas these days, I wanted to get everything I needed to get done done on my two hundred mile round trip big city shopping trip in one run. So that was part of it.

The other part was eating my leftovers at 2 am because I suddenly realized I was hungry after having gone all day with nothing but snacks and coffee. I'm finally starting to get the connection - eating heavy late at night usually ends up being a bad thing. I was also dehyrdrated, so I drank a bunch of tea, but that wasn't the problem.

But mostly it was my age. Menopause, or peri-menopause, or whatever we're calling it these days but referring to the months, nay years, that lead up to the end of our fertility, has been relatively kind to me. More a collection of annoyances than anything. But every once in a while it throws a whammy my way. An anxiety attack. A case of midlife acne. The whole "guess when your period is gonna start or stop - yes, no, yes, maybe, no, almost, no, yes" followed by a crazed clown's evil laugh is probably the worse. Lately I've been having a lot of nightly hot flashes again after I thought they were a thing of the past. My body thermostat is pushed all the way to high and stuck there. I mean, sure, it saves on heating to be able to happily wear tank tops in November but my family shivers under blankets and gives me those Puss in Boots (aka Antonio Banderas) sad eyes in an effort to find a drop of pity in me to turn up the real thermostat, the one on the wall in our house. Hey, they'd probably be happy if I just shut the doors and windows.

I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been put through a commercial washer and dryer and climbed out bruised, hot, and exhausted. I ache all over. My bones and muscles are stiff and sore. In particular I think I have some arthritis in the middle of my back that's been acting up.
My head feels heavy and a headache is looming. My stomach isn't sure whether it wants to try food again any time soon. My sinuses are threatening to fill up. My skin feels like it's been sprayed with a fine layer of spray starch from night sweats. And no uninterupted sleep makes my thoughts feel wrapped in wool batting.

On top of all that, I'm probably fighting off that cold bug that Jeff was giving asylum for the last month or so.

UGH.

But a cup of coffee and a shower will probably help. Moving my muscles and warming them up. Maybe even pop an ibuprofen or two. This too shall pass.

If you want to hear more about the shopping spree, I posted about it in greater detail on Laume's Studio. It was hard work, but somebody has to do it. Snort. Okay, so it was also fun. But I really did do some necessary shopping as well. Hubby asked me to get him some black turtlenecks to wear under his uniform. Apparently they went out of style soon after the Beatnik era. Do you know how hard it is to find black turtlenecks!? I'll be back later, after that shower and unpacking, with photos either here or there.