Tuesday, May 30, 2006

I can breathe!

It's truly magical, except for the times when it's not because being able to breathe means being able to smell. Bad things. Like the diaper-esque aroma of the bathroom in my office building. Yuck.

The predinisone, I think, is to blame for my weird mood/slightly dizzy feeling over the past week. I'd go for a little walk and just feel bizarre. I felt very empty-headed and sometimes depressed. I felt enormously tired. I...decided to stop taking the stuff after a week.

Which is perfectly okay. Great, even. The allergist told me it would take at least five days but up to two weeks to work, and to stop using it once it started to work. Since I've been largely sneeze-free (well, significantly less sneezy), I think that counts, so as of today, I switched to my old nasal spray, rhinocort aqua. It's a thing of beauty. I feel much better today than I did over the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, it was odd. I slept in a lot, partly because I had sporadic bouts of insomnia and partly because I just felt weird. On Saturday we tried to have a picnic at the beach, but we got a late start, plus it was windy as hell. Pajaro Dunes on a windy day is not fun. I got sand in my eyes. Then I was freezing. This was partly my own fault for trying to be cute that day by wearing a skirt. Bad idea. Mostly I ended up having a minor hissyfit and being generally moody and unpleasant for an entire evening, until we made it to the Malabar Cafe right before it closed and ate delicious food, including some freebies.

Sunday I let go to waste. I don't even remember what I actually did on Sunday. Monday I woke up around 9 and cleaned the shit out of my apartment and my sister came over and baked challah for me. One of the loaves is in the shape of Cthulu. It is awesome.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Allergies, reveal thyselves!

Behind Door #1? Miscellaneous grasses!

Door #2? Dust mites.

Door #3? Cats.

Nos. 2 and 3 are no surprise. Three is especially unfortunate, since I do love cats. No matter, I have new Magical Prescription Eyedrops (I think that is their brand name) which should help me in case I get a little overzealous with the petting of cute furry things and forget to wash my hands before I rub my red, irritated eyes.

The tragic part of it is that I am not allergic to dogs. I am only emotionally allergic to dogs. How confusing.

The pathetic state of my nose was confirmed by the allergist, who took one look up my nose and made a sad face. She also said that those coughing fits I've been having while off the claritin are due to some kind of allergic asthma, which sucks balls, though it is seemingly taken care of with simple medications. No nerdy inhaler for me! (Strange that that strikes me as nerdier than the glasses I've worn since I was 5. Cognitive dissonance is a beautiful thing.)

To remedy all these situations, or at least try, I have been given high-dosage allegra; a two-week course of predisone, which is a steroid that should clear up my nose problems enough that I can use the rhinocort aqua (and possibly a second nasal spray, in case just one isn't sufficient!); and the aforementioned magical eyedrops, to be used as needed. After getting sorted with the predisone, it's back to the allergist with me for further consultation and possibly starting allergy shots to rid me of this crap permanently.

Allergy testing was not as unpleasant as I expected, though it certainly wasn't fun. It is amusing to commisserate with your fellow test subjects in the waiting room, however.

To change the tone to something much less mundane and upbeat, if you're a praying soul, or even a "you'll be in my thoughts" type, please send your prayers and good thoughts to my family's close friends, who suddenly and tragically lost their 18-year-old daughter last week.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

You don't even know.

John Vanderslice is so good, you guys. SO GOOD. This was the first time we've seen him as the headliner and thus the first time we saw his rant against encores. The man (and his equally awesome band) just kept on standing up there, playing more songs. So many songs! So many OLD(ish) songs, even, like the ode to his fourtracker and the one about the tank man in Tiananmen Square. Fantastic!

Laura Veirs toured with him, but we missed the first half of her set and the second half was beset with distraction in the form of people talking. I think her Noisepop set was the best I've seen her; this was not, but I still find her awesomely endearing.

Being off the allergy meds is interesting. I am clearly allergic to everything now, so the claritin WAS doing SOMETHING... just not enough. It will be good to see what all it is that ails me, because I must say I'm flummoxed. Outdoors, usually, I am okay; at the show last night, I wasn't too bad; everywhere else: ACHOO ACHOO attractive nose running! Especially from (1) waking up and (2) the air conditioner fan at work. So what do you think mold and dust are going to do in that skin test, hmm?

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Travel plans

By the way, I did book plane fare and stuff. I will be arriving at SeaTac on Friday, June 9 around 5 p.m. and bussing up to visit Becky, then meeting up with Chris and Lauren (and whoever else) to see the Mountain Goats, then staying... at one of a few places that have been offered to me (thanks, Christine and Josie!) and spending Saturday getting re-aquainted with everyone else in Seattle as much as possible. THIS MEANS YOU!

Either Saturday or Sunday I will head down to Olympia for my brother's to-do, then spend the evening with my family there and fly back to San Jose around 6 p.m. on the 12th. I've got 1.5 days paid vacation approved, an airline confirmation number, and an envelope from TicketsWest, so I'm set. Can't wait to see you guys!

My body is so awesome!

And so is blogger, because it's down half the times I think to post something! Yay!

But getting back to the body = awesome thing. So my current slew of allergy meds is clearly not sufficient (claritin + nasorel [crap!] + the occasional benadryl at night to help me not wake up with dry mouth), so I returned to chez Kaiser to beg for help. He did me right, that ol' doctor, and gave me (1) a prescription for rhinocort aqua, which is the only nasal spray that's done anything for me in the past, and (2) a referral to the allergy clinic.

I'm going in for allergy testing in two weeks. That means, for ten whole days between Thursday and my appointment on the 22nd, I have to be even semi-functional med-free. No claritin, no benadryl, no starting on the rhinocort. That will be fun. I'm going to sneeze my way through May, but maybe I'll finally know which piece of crap in the air makes me sick all the time.

Then spend the next SEVEN YEARS getting regular shots to make it go away.

The worst-case scenario is if I am allergic to gluten or something. That would be the fucking worst, though I'm not even sure they test me for that.

So that will be fun.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Happy Birthday, Margot!

It's my sister's 22nd birthday. If you know her, send her a hello.

I am still solidifying Seattle/Olympia travel plans, but a couple people have said they'd be interested in the show and/or putting me up for a night, so thanks to you. It doesn't seem like I'm going to find a good schedule for fares less than $210, which sucks, but I will be in the area that weekend no matter what. I even plan to take Monday off to make things easier.

There has been far too much show skipping lately, and I'm sad to say it's been mostly me to blame. The amount of snot in my sinuses is at least unpleasant at all times (on a scale of "eh" to "fuck I want to die"), and that makes it hard to want to do things that are fun. Sometimes Benadryl helps me sleep. I have been walking, though, a little bit, and enjoying fresh local produce thanks to the horrible horrible sun. There were strawberries AND valencia oranges in my CSA share this week, in addition to a bunch of lovely vegetables. Fruit is so good!

Edited to add: I have booked plane fare and bought three tickets to the show Friday night. If I can only get one person to go, well, I am sure someone will want to buy an extra ticket at the door. I will send out an email shortly with details for those concerned.