Cookie Walk '07 or Send Me Drugs!

today i woke up with a ginormous headache. this sucked because i don't like pain. i mean, i like to cause psychological and emotional pain, but i'm not a big fan of physical pain. wait, i guess i like to cause that, too. but i don't like to be on the receiving end of any of the aforementioned pains.

so, i woke up reeling with this headache. i stumbled blindly (i suppose i coulda put on my glasses, but meh) into the kitchen where we keep our drugs for such occasions. normally, i don't like to self-medicate, but normally, i am not in any pain, so it would be dumb to take pain relievers.

anyway, i went to get my precious drugs, and i realized that i was down to my final two Tylenol. i was crushed! what do i do? do i take them both at once? do i take one and hope that it gets me through this time so that i have one left for next time? it was horrible, i tell you. horrible!



why do drugs have to be so expensive? i just want to feel good all of the time, or at least feel close enough to homeostasis to pretend that i'm healthy. is that so much to ask? i mean, i realize that the point of analgesics is to mask the pain, and really, that's all that i want.

i just took one. i may need that other little guy before the next time i get to the pharmacy. but it was a rough decision. and, unfortunately, it only did a half-assed job of making me feel groovy. (you know that simon and garfunkel song? feelin' groovy? my dad is thoroughly convinced that this song has nothing to do with drugs. i think that's cute, especially since he's the one who sends my sibs and me a seasonal email outlining which drugs we should take for every occasion.) so, i spent my morning with a dull pain in my head.

maybe it's a tumor.

luckily, there are other ways to self-medicate. this is where cookie walk '07 comes in. i know, you're thinking, erin, that sounds fascinating! is this some sort of do-gooder fundraising event to help small children and puppies spay and neuter adults for the greater good? take all of my money! i say nay(although feel free to send me money....). actually, cookie walk '07 is pretty much how it sounds. shifty-eye scher peer-pressured me into going. i was going to stay here and work day and night until everything got done and i found a cure for AIDS. but debbie was all:





debbie: erin, stop doing work and come eat sugar.

erin: debbie, while i value spending time with you and the others, i simply must get things done. i thank you kindly for extending this invitation to me. sadly, i will have to decline.

debbie: don't be a jerk! you don't have to work. there are five interns in our department. schlepp your workload onto them.

erin: why, debbie, i could never do that! our interns are people, too, and i respect them too much to give them my crappy, mind-numbing, menial tasks, even if there are a ludicrously high number of them and they seem to sit in the basement and have tea parties all day.

debbie: if you don't come i'll break your arms and hurt your loved ones.

erin: NNNNNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! okay, i'll go! anything to protect my loved ones.

debbie: we'll meet at 12:15 PM

now, i must admit that, although i was working very hard, the idea of a sugar rush made my cheeks flush. my headache never completely subsided, and this seemed like the perfect way to distract from it. (sure, i could drink water, but where's the fun in that? plus, it's bad for the environment to drink water and good for the environment to eat cookies.)

so, we walked what turned out to be forty miles to get to levain bakery all the way on the other side of the park. it was far. and i was cold because i didn't wear my coat (because i'm five and didn't feel like it). all of this would have made the delicious, delicious chocolate brioche TOTALLY worth it, had it not started pelting liquid ice (yes, i know what i wrote. it's poetic, dammit!) on us when we started back to the office. we were forced to wait for the bus, and by the time i got back to my desk, i had gone over my hour allotment for lunch. so, i may get fired.

on second thought, the baked good was worth it, as it did manage to take away my headache for a solid hour. of course, it did replace said headache with a stomach ache, as i ate too much too fast. but isn't that what all of those new drugs are about, anyway? taking away pain and replacing it with some other terrible ailment?

all in all, methinks i did the right thing.