Since yesterday morning, Tito Puente, the late King of Latin Music, has come back to life, and is practicing for his next concert tour inside my head.

I somehow got into a bad coughing fit as I drove to work yesterday, on top of an already stressful morning, and when I arrived at my desk I noticed that my head hurt.  It felt a lot like a migraine headache coming on, which it in fact was.  I took some aspirin, and that was no help.  I tried ibuprofen and that did no good either.  Tylenol was similarly useless.  Eventually I ran out of drugs to try, so I spent most of yesterday sitting at my desk with my head in my hands, trying to get Tito and his percussionists to take five.  No luck.

The headache continued into the night.  It started to affect my vision and I was afraid to drive very far … getting home was out of the question.  I went down to the corner store to get some naproxen, thinking that might work where nothing else had.  Nope, no help.  I went back to regular aspirin, taking as high a dose as I dared and hoping that Tito would, once again, just die, for God’s sake.

He didn’t.  He’s been playing nonstop all day today, and nothing I can seem to do will reduce his volume.  I was just about ready to try a ball-peen hammer this afternoon, until friend Omally suggested an acupressure trick, which I’m trying now.  I hope it works, because if it doesn’t, my head and I are going to be on parting terms!