Of Headaches and Other Irritants

I've had a minor headache for a couple of days now. The pain ranges from hmm, it barely hurts at all, maybe... knock on wood to the point where I grasp my head in both hands, in a vain hope that this will make the brain return to a state of fitting in the skull. I'm able to function at work well enough (I don't have to be at the very top of my game to catch "sceince"*), but one of my coping mechanisms is lost to me on this sort of day.

*no, really, actual example

When there are conversations all around, three people in a work-conversation over here (to judge by words like project and layout and client), a group in a possibly-not-so-work-related conversation over there (to judge by the giggles, anyway), all projecting their voices as if I needed to know, I usually put in the headphones, but if my head hurts, that's not a good idea. Meaning that I sit there thinking both "ow" and "oh shut up would you" in more or less equal measures.

Yes, though the job isn't bad, and is in fact far preferable to the last one, the workplace is not perfect (shocking, I know). Irritants within a short stone's-throw include:

• The neighbor of frequent conference calls. She does have an office with a door, and she closes it, but the drone is still very audible.
  
• The neighbor with a chronic cough. I don't know if it's smoking, allergies, or what, but she coughs. And coughs. All. Day. Long. This is my sixth week here, so it's not just a cold. I remind myself that it has to bother her more than it bothers me, but some days I wonder if that's possible.
• A table with two printers and a fax machine, which between them run more often than not. And one of them sounds like a cell phone on mute, vibrating on a table. Mmrrrr-mmrrrr-mmrrrr!
• A room of (presumably) elevator-related machinery, humming in various tones, up and down. Possibly also to blame for the periodic vibrations, as though an elephant was jogging by. It's disconcerting to be holding up a piece of paper and watch it flutter on its own.

On the other hand, I do appreciate that it's not cold at my desk. It's nice not have to layer up for work and un-layer to go out, over and over.

Then back on that other other hand, I miss having a coffee set-up, as I had got into the habit of having a cocoa-made-with-coffee most mornings. It's not even the taste I miss, so much as the start-the-day ritual.

Ah well, everything is more annoying with a headache. It's not bad right now; maybe it's going away. Cross your fingers, would you please? And have a good one, yourself.