3 weeks ago I gave up* Pepsi; which, if you know me at all is a minor miracle. It was getting a bit ridiculous, both in terms of dependency, and in terms of: did I really need that extra 1,000 calories a day? (I told you it was ridiculous) Since then, I’ve been eating better (though I wasn’t that bad to begin with), exercising more at all, and generally trying to get into ladeez-attracting shape.

I have also been getting horrible, unrelenting headaches.

Headaches are not uncommon for me anyway. One a day is not something foreign to me; and, in the first week, I assumed they were largely due to caffeine withdrawal. In the second week, I assumed they were due to the fact that I stare, unblinking and unmoving, at a computer screen all day. On this, the third week, I began to wonder if perhaps they were still caffeine related when, after 2 rounds of 2 Advils (meaning 4x the recommended dose of 1), I still had a pounding spike driving through just off-center of my left eye. For obvious, caffeinated reasons, Excedrin is usually my headache-drug of choice, but I have none on me, and Advil is what the office prefers.

And so I was weak, America, and fell off the wagon (on the wagon? who has a wagon anyway?).. and before literally 1/4 of the can was down my throat, my headache was magically, wonderfully gone. My energy was up, the sky was blue, the birds were singing. It was a beautiful thing; and, I wonder to myself, ‘Why am I doing this again?’

* Where "gave up" means: 'except for in Rum & Coke'... and emergencies