I NEVER Thought This Would Happen

This picture doesn't have much to do with anything, other than the fact that I took it at the end of the summer and love it but never got around to posting it.

Look at those adorable sandal-clad feet at the park playground! For someone who used to collect crazy socks, I sure have an aversion to actually wearing any...

Brace yourself for the words I never thought I'd say: I miss the summer.

Yes, in all it's over 90 degree glory, I'm missing summer. It's not that I mind the cold, it's just that I mind feeling like I have a cold. Cedar fever has my eyes feeling like they've been filled with lint. My congestion is so bad that I sound and feel like I have a bad head cold. M has only half-jokingly suggested that he fashion me a Kleenex holster. (It would have a box on one side and a garbage bag on the other because he's so sick of my piles of used tissues. I know it's gross, but I can't go waltzing over to the garbage every 23.8 seconds.) And this is likely to continue for at the very minimum, another month!!! Probably two.

Well, it took me until I was in my mid-20's, but I have officially followed in my parents' footsteps and become an allergy sufferer. I naively thought I had escaped allergies. Never mind the fact that my mother has horrible seasonal allergies with accompanying asthma and my father is allergic to a whole smorgasbord of things including ingredients in most delicious pre-prepared foods. They live on Zyrtec at their house. (I think many hallelujahs were sung when it was announced that it's going over-the-counter at the end of this month.) Never mind the fact that if one of your biological parents has hay fever or pet allergies, there's a 50 percent chance that you will have some sort of allergies as well. That probability jumps to 75 percent when both biological parents have allergies. I thought I had beaten the odds. I made it through puberty, college, and even 2 pregnancies (which is what intensified things for my mom) without any problems. I was lulled into a false sense of security when we moved here because I didn't have any problems the first winter. I should have known...

I guess it's time for me to explore allergy medication options. I was in denial last year when these symptoms kicked in. I told myself it was the apartment we were living in even though I knew it wasn't. I can't just suffer through again this year, especially since it's escalated. No more conversations interrupted by sneezing fits for me, I'm determined to DO SOMETHING...