Auras

In spite of the upside down seasons, the first day of Christmas break landed the way it always does: with a long to-do list. All those tasks I had been saving up for when school was over and conferences finished and the calendar finally clear -- all those tasks needed to be done. And it would be great to get them done before Christmas.

My calendar was clear Thursday morning. Jonathan was out of school. We sat down together at the kitchen table and created a summer star chart, one for each of us, with the tasks we wanted to accomplish each day of the school break.

Star charts created, we both embarked on our first chores. My chore: to finish up a final report on a grant I left in the USA after moving to Australia. But as I started filling in the forms for the grant on my laptop, I noticed that the screen was too bright -- it was burning my retinas. Looking away, I realized it was not the screen burning the retinas, but some sort of weird triangular pattern on the backs of my eyeballs. And soon after that, my hand started feeling numb. That was enough chores for me. I told the family that I was too young to die, and went to bed.

Two hours later, I awoke with a massive migraine. That weird triangular eyeball pattern and the numbness was a migraine aura. My very first migraine aura. While I've experienced migraines for 25 years, I always skipped the fancy aura part before.

Anyway, in spite of the aura, the migraine wasn't my worst ever. But it did wipe out a whole day to finish chores before Christmas. Sigh. Today I'm going to try to finish that final report for the grant....