The joys and wonders of being female.

Yeah, that's right.
Now it's MY turn to bitch about my monthly ordeals! Thank you Sonja for the inspiration!

Well, emotional symptoms were apparent this time. It's usually not until after I have all these crummy emotions that I start to wonder, "Am I PMSing?" And sometimes it's not until I start my period that I'm like, "Oh THAT'S why I've been so down lately!"

I did the nice thing and informed my boyfriend that my week was upon me. I tried my best not to act too irrationally or irritably, but sometimes I'll just do something not realize it until afterwards... I hate it when I do that. And he's been very forgiving and empathetic, which makes me happier, though I was exhibiting sluggish, overemotional, or indifferent (to things that usually make me happy) tendancies.

So all that's slowly draining away. But after the emotinal discomforts, here comes the physical discomforts...

I discovered I was at the starting point yesterday morning in the bathroom. Most, if not all girls reading this, will know that ritual. So it was a little trip back to my room to get a pad. I'm not a tampon girl. Never quite got the hang of it. I've seen more and more advertisement (not on TV, of course) for alternatives for tampons; that they aren't all that necessary. Maybe someday I'll convert, but I'm fine with pads for now.

I knew what was coming next. I planned to take some Aleve with me to breakfast to take before I started experiencing the glorious pains that come with this cycle. Got all ready, got my notepad, got my purse... forgot the Aleve. Good jorb, Rowan. Oh well, I figured I'd survive class long enough to take some during lunch. During class, I got a little bit of pain, but it wasn't too bad. As I was walking back to my dorm, it started to progressively get worse. Got back to my dorm, took some Aleve, then headed out to lunch. By the time I got in the cafeteria...
I found the table where Alan and a group of our friends were sitting. I didn't bother to try to sneak up on him from behind, like I usually do; I just went up to him, hugged him in greeting, then expressed my pain through, "uuuuuuuuughhhhhhhh..." Yes, it was that bad by then. Now from what I hear, I'm not as bad as some girls out there who look like they're having seizures when experiencing their pain. I don't do that. But I was in a very uncomfortable state... So the entire time I tried to shove some food down and held on to Alan's arm, hand, knee... whatever I could. He comforted me as best he could, for which I was grateful, but the pain refused to subside for one moment. And for extra fun, there was only one girl at the table--Kit. She offered me her female sympathy, which was nice to get. But throughout lunchtime, which was around half an hour to forty-five minutes, constant constant pain.

I headed back to my dorm, feeling nice and crappy. Allie sympathized with me, but was suffering headaches as well... poor us. I just collapsed on the bed while she played some Frank Sinatra. She has successfully converted me into a Frank Sinatra fan. And he helped. Not through female sympathy, obviously, but through soothing vocals... I layed on that bed for... an hour and a half, and the pain was still not going away. Ugh. I finally got up and started to revise the peer papers, which I was supposed to have done before class--Did I mention I have that class at 6 in the evening? Suckage. Pure suckage. But it was while I was working on those pictures that I started to feel better... even if Allie flipped on The Real World in the middle of my session... that was distracting. And brain-numbing. Oy. Later that day I had to conference with my English professor too. Luckily I was in much better shape by then. Otherwise I don't think that meeting would've been very productive. And my professor being male, I don't think I would find the courage to break it to him that I started my period and was in extreme physical discomfort... and like I said, by that time I wasn't, so it was okay.

Heh heh, later that evening I nearly told him I loved him. During my English class, we were supposed to be peer editing/discussing each other's papers. My group had gotten that done rather early, so it turned into a more social event after a while... but soon the teacher stopped the class... and found us being productive, so he let us out 40 minutes early! SUH-WEET!!! I was nearly skipping when I left the room. And by this time physical discomfort was minimal. Alan and I decided to celebrate by getting some sugary items from the market and watching one of his favorite movies, Airplane, and listening to my new CD (a gift from him) of the Bobs. Ah, good times...

So today's day two. Cramps and calmer than yesterday, flow is still on its heavier side. If you're male, I'm sorry... but at the same time I'm not.