Playing Hooky

Task 8, February 16 to February 23

It's a normal day at work. I have a ringing sensation in my ears. My left eye is twitching. And then there's this pain in my lower back. Every part of my body is rebelling but it is the non-stop ringing in my ears that is driving me crazy.

I close the door to my office and google "non-stop ringing in your ear" and I read this: Tinnitus is the medical term for "hearing" noises in your ears. It occurs when there is no outside source of the sounds. Tinnitus is often called "ringing in the ears." It may also sound like blowing, roaring, buzzing, hissing, humming, whistling, or sizzling.

Great.

I go a little deeper. Evidently, tinnitus can be exacerbated by (drumroll) stress, too much caffeine, and alcohol.

I work in television. I swim in stress. I drink coffee like I have stock in Starbucks, and I imbibe. Mainly beer, and not IPA beer, because

I don't care to talk about beer like it's wine. Occasionally I drink hard alcohol, and I've been known to drink both in the same evening,

though my wife takes umbrage when I do, because the last time I mixed alcohols I peed in our closet, which she did not find amusing. Nor

did I, frankly, because I peed on my dress shoes.

The eye twitch went away after a few minutes, and the pain in my lower back evaporated when I got in the car to go home. I always feel a lot

better when I'm in my car driving home. The tinnitus? It eased up as well, but only after I got home and watched three episodes of Beating Bobby Flay. How does that help tinnitus? I don't know, but it does.

I need a break.

I decided to play hooky. Ditch work. My wife calls it "taking a personal health day", which shows up on our credit card statement as $74 at Bliss Nails, but I prefer to call it playing hooky.

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I left a voicemail for my boss. I said I had food poisoning which she will totally buy because she doesn't eat fast food and likes to tell me that I'm killing myself when I bring in my Shake Shack hotdog and fries.

The next morning I lay in bed while my wife dressed for work. She left without comment but did shake her head distainfully. I left the house at 10am, went to the mall cinema and say Argylle (not bad), then poked around a store that sells army/navy stuff, which I love but my wife hates, then had a Fat Burger, and lolled around the promenade, people-watching, and then the coup d'grace: I went back home, got my guitar and sat out in the back yard and sang Ed Sheeran's "Perfect" at the top of my lungs.

TASK:

Play hooky. Write about your day. And let me know how it goes. Oldpeoplethisweek@gmail.com