Q: What happens when you go home to your Muslim family and can’t drink for a month?

A: You go back to the city and get a headache after 2.5 glasses of wine on a Friday night and go home way too early.

Facebook dredges up ghosts of a rarely thought about past and reminds me why I log in so infrequently these days. The latest friend suggestion to show up on my page? Oh, only the ex-that-never-was.

The short story:  He was in a band and a couple years older. It was crush at first sight for me, which I kept secret for a year of being acquainted. Then my brother died, and as the only person I knew who had suffered a similar loss at a young age, he was kind of my rock in getting through that for the whole next year. Then came his rather sudden realization and confession that he loved me and wanted to marry me one day. Then he screwed things up very badly very quickly before we ever got a chance to actually date. That was followed by deleting him from my life completely, online and off…or so I thought. I never got to hear that song he said he wrote about me.

Can’t see his profile because, obviously, we are not friends. He’s holding a baby and kissing its forehead in his picture. I wonder if it’s his, but good God, am I glad it’s not mine.

I want to make agua de jamaica but don’t know where to get them. Am thinking hispanic or West Indian grocery/market and thought someone on here might know a place (preferably in lower Manhattan) that definitely or most likely has them. So, anyone?

Things I probably shouldn’t have done this week since starting to feel unwell on Sunday:

• stayed up till 3 a.m. chatting w/ mom & dad after the end of wedding week #2
• cleaned my bathroom at home from top to bottom, sweating the whole time because the AC upstairs wasn’t working
• tried to stop mom & dad from having huge fight on my last night home; didn’t work and lots of tears and energy spent
• flown back to NYC from ATL while feeling pretty awful; desperately needed to be back after 1+ month at home, but resulted in ears popping repeatedly and (still) feeling clogged from pressure changes
• gone to see two apartments in Brooklyn in sweltering heat; fine at first, but felt like I was going to keel over by the time I got to the second one
• chosen to have a meal at Dogmatic when I felt stir-crazy and wanted to get outside for a bit

Things I have done in the last week to feel better but have hardly worked:

• taken aleve sinus & cold (the kind that’s OTC but you have to show ID for at the pharmacy) since day 1
• had vitamin C in the form of several clementines
• drank lots of water water water
• eaten hefty portions of soup with some soy protein and veggies
• had ‘Tussin with expectorant for chest congestion
• taken hot showers to try to clear sinuses
• drank green tea even though I hate the aftertaste of it
• tons of bed/couch rest; have probably spent 90% of the last almost 72 hours inside

Maybe everything from list 1 has cancelled out all the good from list 2? Doctor on Monday if not better from continuing rest, meds, food, and fluids through weekend. Please share your “get well as fast as possible” tips with me if you have any.