My Aching Head

I may have mentioned that I caught a cold from precious Tyler. When I took Sloan home, I spent one night and slept in Tyler's room in the grandmother bed. Tyler has had the Corner Cottage cold since his childcare career started...viruses love those places. I knew when I was kissing on his snotty face and breathing in his sneezes where it would lead, but he is irresistible to me regardless of any messy or smelly concerns.
A week later, I thought I was having terrible allergies after a rain. Wrong. I was coming down with a good old fashioned head cold. My first reaction was to play through. I went to bridge, I went to mah jongg, I went to jury duty, I went to lunch with old friends. I took my Advil, filled my purse with tissues and pressed on.
Not very thoughtful of others, going around knowing that I'm basically forcing people to decide verdicts and eat a salad with Typhoid Mary. But heck I wasn't burning with fever or coughing. People probably didn't notice that I could only breathe through my mouth, that I constantly held a tissue. They for sure didn't know that my head felt like an over-inflated tire.
During the three hours before the Advil needed to be retaken, I actually didn't feel that bad. So, Friday evening I made plans with old friend Sharon to go to Spring to the Brookwood Community shop and buy plants. Saturday morning 9:30, it's a plan. Off we went and of course we had to park and walk. We dropped in the Wild Goose, Crossroads and the Painted Pig picking up silver bracelets, Sharon's Madagascar Vanilla tea and little candles that look like flames...must have items for sure. Then we headed to the Brookwood shop and that's where it hit me for the first time. A stroll in the heat and sun of a June morning in Texas will bring out the worst in you, whatever it might be. I was trying to choose some tall plants that attract butterflies and I felt like I might faint! I fully confessed to myself that I am sick.
But, after choosing my tree-formed lantana, I agreed that I would probably feel better if we had a bite of something at Ellen's and some peach tea. Wrong, again.
After lunch trying to get back to the car, pull around and load plants and drive home, was a herculean task. By this time it is afternoon and the only thing hotter than a Texas summer morning is the following afternoon.
The sad ending of the story is that I had to regret to a 65th birthday party and miss out on seeing a lot of people I hardly ever see. But there was no going on any longer.
I can't take a decongestant because of my blood pressure, so the pharmacist suggested steam and saline spray or a netti pot (not even if my head explodes!). I spent the rest of the evening watching baseball and old movies, my head hurts too badly to read. Crumby way to spend vacation days, but right now Mentholatum, Kleenex and Advil are my only friends. Excuse me now, I'm going to lie down for awhile.