What an odd weekend.

It began last Thursday, interestingly enough. On Thursday I had two migraine headaches within a few hours of one another, and this frustrated me very much. I hadn't had a migraine in months, so two in a row meant something was amiss. Although I used to get migraines all the time in high school, I had a prescription back in the day to prevent them and that worked. After college, I stopped taking the medication but the migraines did not return so I was convinced I had beaten them, and that whatever was to blame, be it dietary, behavioral, or random, was in the past. This was true for years, with only one or two in that time. And then last Thursday rolls around and I get knocked on my ass by two big ones in a row. I've had alot of migraines in my time, but the double migraine is always a day ruiner. So, I was not happy.

On Friday morning, I was still feeling pretty lousy, but I was glad they were over. However, I felt like another one could start at any second. There are little "tells" that I notice before one starts, and it seemed on Friday like these tells were teasing me. This was really lame, because I had a very important thing to do on Friday afternoon, and I didn't want a crappy paralytic episode keeping me out of it. Disappointed, I reached for my water bottle and started to twist the top off. At this point, I noticed that there were bits floating in the water. I immediately identified this as the drink mix (Propel) falling out of solution, so I shook the bottle to mix it back up and went to continue drinking. But at this very second, I had a House, MD-style epiphany and took a closer look at the bottle that had been with me every step of the way for the past three days.

At home, we have a number of reusable water bottles, and I usually carry one with me at all times, because I dehydrate pretty quickly and having water handy is very useful. I add the Propel to the water to make the plain tap water more palatable (trust me, of all the quirks I have, my aversion to unflavored water is a tame one.) and just go from there. Well, last week I bought a box of a flavor of Propel I did not intend to: lemon with added calcium. As soon as I mixed it up and tried it, I felt myself gagging. "This has an awful aftertaste!" I thought to myself--because it did. It tasted lemony and fresh but then suddenly kicked in with a rank chaser. I blamed the calcium additive and swore to avoid the added-calcium flavors in future purchases.

Compounding the situation was the fact that two of the water bottles that I frequently use are physically identical. I generally switch off every two or three days and stop refilling one bottle, put it in the dishwasher, and get a fresh bottle. It is my belief that at some point in the past week, I put my water bottle down next to the one that was identical. I intended to wash the one I had been using and refill the clean one. Instead, I believe I put the clean one in the sink and refilled the used one.

I say this because as I saw the water swirling in front of me in the bottle, I noticed the bits and flakes did not dissolve back into solution, and for the first time I noticed the tiny dots on the interior surface of the bottle. All the pieces of the puzzle came together in a slow motion mental moment. For three days, I had been upset that my water was tasting nasty because of the new Propel flavor, and I wasn't sure what had caused my migraines. Now I had the truth behind both mysteries sitting right in front of me: by using the same water bottle for a week straight, I had inadvertently been drinking water out a bottle that now had things growing in it. The little things had been making the water take absolutely nasty, not the new mix flavor, and in all likelihood it was the little toxic bastards that screwed my head up the preceding day.

And I had solved the mystery just in time to prevent it from ruining my very important Friday meeting. What was this most important of social events, in which I was angry I might not be able to fully participate? Well, it was the return of the Friday tradition of lore: Friday Fair Lakes football. Hurray! If I had to miss the return to the field because of a headache, I would have been emo all week long. But luckily, at nearly the last possible minute, I discovered that my own foolishness was to blame for this neurological flareup, and addressed the issue.

So how did the game go? Pretty well. There were about eight guys there, so they were decent sized teams, though the middle of the field, as always, got a little crowded during pass plays. I didn't have any touchdowns this week, nor many yards after my catches (due both to the crowded field and my own sluggishness to change directions at full "speed"), but it was just as much fun as I remembered it and with luck, the beginning of a new season. It was a crew of familiar-faced Friday football veterans, which made it all the more enjoyable. I'll ease off the alliteration for now. Shit is like a drug. (snort) Needless to say, I was sore on Friday night and Saturday morning.

When we weren't doing weekly weekend chores, I also slipped some Valkyria Chronicles in. I'm still enjoying it a whole lot, especially now that I have a second tank in my squad, as well as new advanced weapons because my soldiers' levels are getting higher. It helps that I am playing skirmish missions over and over again to build up experience points and money, basically playing to my love of "the grind." Yesterday I played for about two hours, and I played the same mission three times. I will play it another three times the next time I play. Believe me, it is a small price to pay to have the more advanced weapons and make the later missions more reasonable.

By the way, I bought a brand new water bottle lately to replace the nasty old one that I threw away. I mixed a fresh batch of that lemon with calcium Propel and took a drink. In reality, it is delicious.

Finally, after a disappointing game on Friday, let's finish this series tonight, Capitals.