give me back my life

it's not every day that i complain verbally.

here, in words, that's another story entirely.

but on the job, i'm steady and hardworking as a mule.

but i woke up with a crick in my neck this morning and it didn't bother me 'till i got to work.

something about moving boxes and lifting gallons of milk.

at one point, i had to call my young co-worker to retrieve our impossibly heavy (and as i found out last time i needed it, bouyant), first aid kit. which is deep in a cave like cabinet buried under all kinds of heavy crap (just what you need to be doing when the first aid kit is required, digging through a cave of a cabinet).

give me some pain killer.

i said.

she got me aspirin. i would have taken anything. i was just glad to get something.

my arm hung heavily at my side and my neck was kind of tilted in that sort of safety zone. and of course, i had customers.

a line of them, three, i think.

they just had to wait. i took a lifetime to make the drinks, then even longer ringing shit up. but my co-worker was on break and i could manage it, i just wasn't zipping around.

no way i could. so, since i never know what to do for myself in time of need, i called around, my husband was awol and my sister, too. fortunately i caught a cousin getting a manicure, who told me to massage it with some eucalyptus oil. and i hadn't even thought of that (which is why i call the troops when i'm aching. i have no idea how to help myself).

so i get this topical stuff that really is just to distract you from the pain, and start rubbing away on my neck. first the small tight spot, then most of the way around and i'm walking around smelling like grandma or a cough drop, i can't decide which.

but all ends well, we got out of there as fast as possible so i can go to bed. and hopefully, not wake up with a crick in my neck tomorrow.

my one co-worker of african descent said to tap my head on the pillow three times and say,

give me back my life in my neck.

but i must do this before i speak to anyone. as soon as i wake up. i'll try anything once.

sleep come and welcome.