It's been about two weeks now since my allergies decided to try to kill me. While trimming the Lilu cat the other night couldn't have helped, it's just the general Austin weather and air full of pollen and such that is bringing me down.
It hasn't been this bad in a couple of years. For a long time now, whenever I felt my allergies might be kicking in, I just started taking a 24-hour Claritin (and then its OTC generic) religiously and I wouldn't have to deal with them at all. I could mow the lawn, wash the dogs, whatever I needed to do outdoors or inside and still be okay.
Well, Claritin appeared to have joined the long list of allergy meds that have stopped working for me--the first being Actifed (which, by the way, is still THE worst tasting pill ever--it started dissolving the instant it entered your mouth so that tasting it was unavoidable--like strange, bitter, sour, metallic lemon rind, or something like that--blech!) I swapped to Benadryl, but that didn't seem to do much other than make me a little drowsy. I finally went to the store and did some comparison shopping. I never took Zyrtec when it was a prescription--I never needed to--but I figured I'd give it a shot. I bought a pack of the generic stuff last Sunday and had high hopes it would save the day. A week later, things are hardly better if not worse. There don't seem to be any other alternative meds, can you think of any?
Today, while mowing the yard, I was so horribly sneezy and runny nose-ed that I actually just took off my t-shirt and started using it as a hankerchief. I know, gross, but I was desperate. (No, I did not put the shirt back on--I'm not that gross.) I'm vacuuming constantly and I've changed my sheets again, I try to change my clothes and brush out my hair as soon as I get home in case I have residual allergens on me. I use rewetting drops all the time to try to keep me from rubbing the hell out of my eyes. (But oh how I would love to rub the hell out of them right now.) I haven't been this bad since two jobs ago when I couldn't even put my contacts in for two weeks and had to wear my glasses to work the entire time. As I type this I am holding back sneezes and trying not to breathe too deeply for fear of starting a major fit of them...I'm a serial sneezer...fourteen in a row is not unheard of for me.
Anyway, since nothing pharmocological is doing the trick, I've decided to go back to nature--which I should have remembered sooner than this--for another tactic. What's the answer? Honey! LOCAL honey produced by bees who are gathering pollen from all the stuff that's making me sneeze. They say a teaspoon a day is a good supplement. I've already had my first dose. Cross your fingers for me that this will work for me since I really do feel like digging my eyes out of their sockets right now. And my throat? I won't even get into how itchy that is. I feel it in my ears!
]]>My girlfriends Annalisa and Vanessa sent me some lovely flowers on Monday to further brighten my day. They're just so pretty I had to bust out the camera and save them for posterity.
I thought the little faux bird was actually quite cute--I didn't even see him at first!
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I can't help it. Despite last night's freeze and the one to come tomorrow night, today feels like and certainly looks like spring!
I woke up this morning to put my Hillary sign on the corner part of my property--yes, now that I'm decided, I'm in all the way--then headed to the polls this morning to try to beat the line that I thought would surely wind around the building. I'd forgotten that since the last time I voted little ol' Kyle had built and opened a new city hall, and this time only 2 precincts would be voting there instead of three. So, it was hardly a mad rush but there was a small line, at least for the Democratic primary, that went through the atrium to the outside doors. I imagine that this evening will be a little nuttier--what with all those people who had intended to vote this morning, but running late for school and work, probably figured, eh, I'll just do it tonight. (I have been there many times before.)
I think, though, that the caucus process is probably going to be long, tedious madhouse. I could be wrong.
It was cool in the morning, warm and breezy midday, and the trees in the front yard have buds and blooms coming to life. My run today cut my time to an 8.5 minute mile, and I even fit some yoga in too. I'm busy, but pleased to be, and I'm hopefully excited, rather than anxious, that good news of my divorce will come soon.
It's spring, I tell you! I declare it and so I call it forth!
]]>remember those signs of hope? they're still around. they tiptoe up out of the earth and shine through as the north star in the night. these are of the earth-bound kind.
this is just one of my bougainvillea. (a word i like both to look at and say--a five dollar word you might call it. say it with me now: boug-ain-vill-ea.) dried up and depressing to look at just days after their arrival, they have been gloriously revived. plucky little things, aren't they? and pretty too. almost makes you want to hum a little tune or whisper some thank yous to the breeze.
the breeze itself is another thing to be thankful for right now. alas, the summer heat has fallen on austin like an old, wet mop. splat. not exactly a pretty metaphor, but it fits. it felt like 90 degrees at 2 am this morning. i know because i was out and about. unusual for me to be out that late, but my little brother was in town and i had the opportunity to sit and talk and just listen with friends who've been missing for a little while and who i've missed. it was nice.
and then a drive home to walk evita under a starlit sky of deepest india ink. i think people should go walking in the middle of the night more often. the early morning too. that's when the world seems more solemn and joyful, more freeing and true, than any church or cathedral. and when you pray--whether out loud or just in your heart, whether you call it praying or just talking to yourself--you can almost hear, and almost feel, someone answering back.
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the night i was stranded at hula hut, this is what was happening back home.
trees blowing down in wind and rain. this one looks like it might have been struck by lightning, but i think it was just wind.
and no, that's not my tree exactly, but a neighborhood tree i always liked.
my own newly potted flowers were pretty badly banged up too, but they're already recovering.
little signs of hope everywhere. if only we're willing to look for them...
oh, and welcome to my friends' and neighbors' new daughter...Ana Lucia Nieto was born this morning at 1:42 am. Good job, Mama Erika!