We didn't get much of an eclipse - I didn't go out and it was hard to tell what was dimming from the eclipse and what was just the clouds. I did see a bunch of people outside, some with glasses and some with pinpoint cameras. There was a double-decker tourist bus stopped and some of the people had glasses. One person decided that looking at the sun through their phone camera was fine ... sigh ... people ....

I told my coworker I was battling a low-level migraine (seriously I am slightly headache-y, slightly nauseated, and slightly sensitive to smells) and she did the "maybe you're just dehydrated" spiel. Nothing makes me crazier. If I'm complaining that painkillers haven't touched it, a glass of fucking water is not going to help.

I hear dehydration can cause confusion and poor language comprehension. Maybe she should drink some water.

I hear dehydration can cause confusion and poor language comprehension. Maybe she should drink some water.

Hahaha! So true. She's super sweet, so I didn't snark at her. I did say that I don't think I've ever had a headache that went away after drinking water.

It's amazing how much I get this when I say I have a headache. I guess people think they're being helpful, but they're really not. I'm going to start asking them if it's ever worked for them.

Data point of one, but drinking water (and/or eating something) is pretty much always the first thing I do when I have a headache, and it does sometimes help! But I also understand that it must be annoying to hear that from other people all the time.

Data point of one, but drinking water (and/or eating something) is pretty much always the first thing I do when I have a headache, and it does sometimes help!

It has never, ever helped me, even if not eating or even too much sun were the cause of my headaches. Mostly my headaches are cause by muscle tension, anxiety, or hormones, and no amount of water will help.

Have you tried throat punching your co-worker and leaving work? I'm just sayin.

Punching people in the throat is very therapeutic.

It was totally worth 2 vacation days to make the trip to Columbia, Mo to hang out with friends I don't see enough and to be in the totality zone. We hung out in their front yard where we could have a little snack table and chat without a crowd around. I wish I'd thought to check how much the temperature dropped. It started at 90° or 91° and at totality was really quite comfortable. Traffic noise stopped, streetlights came on, the daytime insects quieted and the cicadas started singing. Just before totality the color of the light was kind of eerie. It felt like the kind of color processing they do to film when the location is another planet. Then the light coming out of totality was... whiter somehow. It's hard to describe. When totality happened a cheer went up from various unseen backyards, then a little voice piped up saying, "Thank you, moon!"

We did get the 360° sunset although houses and trees obscured a portion of that. We didn't see any stars though because there were a lot of whispy clouds, but those clouds stayed clear of the sun/moon for the duration of totality. I think my location had one of the longer times of totality, too. 2:37. I think only St Joseph, MO was supposed to have longer (2:38) but I heard storm clouds made their viewing party a bust.

I took a lot of state highways with letters for names to avoid St. Louis on the way home and I think that turned out to be a good choice. Traffic on I-55 was still heavy where I joined in at Springfield, IL.

So I just was in with the head of HR, basically reporting on a colleague, and of course the colleague was right there when I came out of the HR office. I think not close enough that she would have overheard anything???