headache

I woke up with a headache this morning.

Actually, I dreamt I had a headache, and woke up, still with a headache.

I wonder if it's because it got cold-for-real last night and my head got cold or if I've got West Nile from a mosquito bite or if I've got a brain aneurysm that's about to go. I should probably take some ibuprofin or something.

When I was in 6th grade, a kid dropped dead one day during P.E. He collapsed just as we had gotten back to the gym from a lap outside, and I remember the coaches trying smelling salts (I thought it was "sauce" for the longest time), and then, I imagine, with a look of distress, running off to call an ambulance. I think this was before 911. We later learned it was a brain aneurysm, or something like that. A blood vessel exploded and that was it. No one could have known, and nothing (at least at the time) could have been done about it. I remember the girls in the class crying a lot that week and after. And there was a memorial page dedicated to him in the yearbook. (Yes, my elementary school had a yearbook.) [Thinking back, I note that this was materially different from the kid in my high school class that got himself killed driving (drunk, presumably) into a tree. They built a memorial for him that I think is still at the school. (a strange piece of abstract art made up of steel beams and smooth balancing stones) But that's neither here nor there.]

In my dream last night, the kid who died of the brain aneurysm was still alive. I remember looking at the yearbook page and thinking that it must have been his twin brother who had died, or maybe the guy I saw was actually the twin. And I had a headache.

And I still have a headache, and maybe I should take some ibuprofin or something. And I hope I don't drop dead. But you know, when it's your time, it's your time. And I guess you don't have a whole lotta say in the matter.

UPDATE: Nope, not dead. Felt better after taking some vitamin-I and going for a run during lunch.