Man, oh, man do I suffer from J's migraines! There's not a damn thing I can do for her, aside from warming up the chamomile-lavender pillow & letting her sleep. I feel bad for feeling good, for not being able to help, for not being able to go out and do with her.
At least we were able to have some fun over the weekend before the dread migraine made its appearance. Friday night, we went out for Indian with B&L. So much talking, we almost didn't order. So much food, we almost couldn't fit it on the table. L gave us a copy of a book on feminist theology called The Power of Naming, as a "congratulations on having the same last name" gift. We ordered an appetizer sampler & some extra pappadams, naan and bhatura, chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, chicken rogan josh, chicken vindaloo, special tea, Kingfishers...needless to say, we were stuffed as we ventured out into the rain-soaked parking lot. Lightning flashed as L & I went to fetch the cars & then our waiting spouses.
We met back at their place, spent time poring over their bookcases, & then settled in to watch Eddie Izzard's riff on religious history...very funny stuff. B made us all mugs of rooiboos tea & brought out cookies (windmills, lemon coolers, hazelnut cookies). I was interested in the South African biscuits L brought back with her, but B had such disdain for them that I didn't even ask for one. I may pick some up next time I'm at Jungle Jim's.
In the morning, we awoke to cold wind and snow! Snow on April 23rd just seems downright unjust. But, snow we had, so we dealt with it. We had to go in to J's work for awhile. I worked on the cookbook while J put in her time. Afterward, we had bad Chinese food at Hunan East (which was once good, years ago), then poked around the craft store. We stopped by home & the church, where I showed J my latest bulletin boards. The grands were there making soup for coffee hour the next day & we volunteered to put it in the fridge after it had time to cool down.
Then, we hit Barnes & Noble for coffee and browsing. I could cheerfully have bought $600 worth of books, but limited myself to Holy Cow, which fits right in with reading Life of Pi, and 2 magazines, Bitch and Bust. Ran into some people I went to school with. It turns out they are living in the same town we are. Their kids are really cute & their son wants to be a chef. He found my job thrilling. I was hoping to get a piece of chocolate mousse cheesecake, but when I found J, her head was in her hands & she looked miserable. She had developed a migraine, so we went right home. I warmed her head wrap, tucked her in, & went, with no small amount of trepidation, to the church. Entering by the office, I forgot where the light switch was & had a moment of panic. Then, I remembered, flicked the lights on, & hurried to the elevator. My grands had left the kitchen light on, but there is nothing like being inside a dark church all by yourself at 11 at night. I am not normally afraid of the dark or of being alone, but my psyche was twanging this time. I was alarmed enough by my experience that the fluorescent brilliance of the grocery looked glorious to me! I picked up the salad dressing for the morning, along with a pint of Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie...nirvana in a tub.
Once home, I shared my treasure with a very interested wife before we went to sleep. Her comment on the ice cream: "Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" (We are hiding it from the children...she sneaked bites behind the freezer door yesterday after work). She still felt atrocious in the morning, so I donned my gold jacket, grabbed the salad & dressing, & went on to church. After I had helped enough with coffee hour clean-up, I returned home to find a very out-of-sorts (read "grumpy") wife still in bed. We went to visit her mother, a very unpleasant experience because it involved 3 hours in the car with a growling bear. Her mom was fine & when we got home, I made her eat some cheese & bread (Cabot chipotle cheddar, halloumi, and havarti...along with olive oil for bread-dipping). Her mood improved a tad & we managed to have dinner at The Bob without biting each other's heads off, even finding some laughter hiding where we least expected it. She still felt dreadful yesterday morning...and feels off-kilter today. I worry that the new migraine meds might be a bad idea.
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