I can't remember from whom I stole the phrase, "I have a headache that could kill a small farm animal", but yesterday I definitely had that headache. Not a migraine of the light-sensitive, hurling variety, but just a throbbing, pressure-filled bundle of joy. It started on Tuesday after dinner, instigated a terrible bitchiness in my Tuesday evening disposition, and continued to intensify in my sleep in the middle of the night, during which I woke several times worried about how terrible my headache was becoming. Small farm animal. I'm so not kidding.

B woke me up yesterday morning with a kiss-- he said hopefully that he wanted to get to me early to beat the onset of the bitchiness. Enormously sweet gesture-- I just wish it had been possible. When I lived alone between the ages of 19 and 32 and possessed my very own unshared retreat, I thought I didn't "get" PMS. Once B and I moved in together into this very small hovel, I realized very quickly that PMS is like an echo, a phenomenon that requires a very solid (and almost always incredibly innocent) sounding board upon which to make itself heard. And usually what comes floating back is something akin to "...her casual attitude about this whole process makes me want to knife her..." which I found myself saying to B on the telephone yesterday, about a person that I've never even met. Honestly, in the battle of B versus the bitchiness yesterday morning, B really never even had a fighting chance.

Which made it that much sweeter when he defiantly walked through the door after work last night with a bouquet of pink and white lilies (which are just now beginning to open on my windowsill as I post this entry), a french baguette, and a block of cheese. There were tears of joy which instantaneously melted away all of my potential bitchiness. I mean, c'mon people-- Emmenthaler Swiss CHEESE! If that doesn't say the truest of loves, I don't know what does.

Thank you for persevering, B. All of the small farm animals thank you, too.

Way too many donuts this weekend in Ohio meant that I had to create the following new iPod playlist for the gym:

1. "Breathe", Telepopmusik, Genetic World
2. "Vai Vai", Thunderball, The Outernational Sound
3. "Mayan Pilot", Splashdown, Redshift EP
4. "Comfortably Numb", Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters
5. "Let's Get Retarded", Black Eyed Peas, Elephunk
6. "My Heart Won't Break [Minty Cut Mix]", Club 8, The Friend I Once Had
7. "When I Grow Up", Garbage, Version 2.0
8. "The Girl From Ipanema", Pizzicato Five, Lounge-a-Palooza
9. "Before Today", Everything But the Girl, Walking Wounded