None But Eagles

Some combination of a sugar crash, heat- and/or sun-stroke, and probable dehydration took me down last night. I am writing down the sequence of events that led to this so that I don’t do it again. I was alone in my office that afternoon, working on the kind of project where I keep meaning to leave my desk for a breather but never actually do because there’s always a bit more to do. A kind co-worker, who knows my work habits well, gave me a huge piece of cake left over from a potluck (a soft, yielding, expensive cake with delicate icing), without a fork, and I ate it with my fingers. After work, I waited for the bus some ten or fifteen minutes in the direct sunlight, reading a book, the sun beating down on the back of my head. I took the non-air-conditioned bus downtown. I stopped at the library to pick up a book (We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson), and then walked a little closer to home and found a park bench in the shade to sit on and read while waiting for Scott. We were going to go for some pints before a dinner of mussels and chorizo and bread at home. I shortly began to feel badly, shivering in spite of the heat, and I started to feel like beer was the last thing I should be drinking. By the time Scott arrived, I was figuring that I was sugar-crashing and should never eat cake ever again, so we went home and I drank some orange juice and ate some carbohydrates and put my head between my knees for a little while. That didn’t help so I drank a lot of water and ate some more and sat on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. Pretty soon I was sweating and shivering at the same time and aching in random places, so I put on a sweater and some socks. I kept myself preoccupied — mostly with not wanting to move and wondering what exactly brought this on and trying to figure out why these physical effects were so unpleasant to me and why I couldn’t just will them out of illness and into benignity — until dinner was ready, but by then I could barely eat, and I went to bed after drinking more water and bundling up. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I had stopped feeling feverish but had one of those headaches that remain a dull manageable throb as long as you stay still but crash around with lightning bolts and fireworks as soon as you move your head. Today, however, I have felt more or less normal except for the dull manageable throb and an aversion to sugar.

1. meghanagain liked this
2. kfan said: Are we sure it wasn’t food poisoning or something? Scary!
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5. popscratch posted this