divine angst

After college, I lived in a part of the country where allergies are a fact of life. Cedar in the winter, pollen in the spring, mold in the spring, more pollen in the summer . . . everyone I knew had allergies of some kind, except me. Oh, I might get a little sniffy with the molds, but I never had any sort of reaction to pollen or cedar or grass.

Maybe immune responses to allergens really are conditioned on where you grew up. Because it seems the pollens here in Our New City™ really don’t agree with me. I started feeling an itchy throat mid-week, perhaps from some drainage, and it waxed and waned for a couple of days before almost completely subsiding. Yesterday, I felt fine. Maybe a little sniffy, but I’ve been sniffy since they turned the heat on in our building last fall.

This morning, even, I felt OK. A little sniffier, perhaps, and the sniffiness . . . moving . . . a bit more freely in my sinuses, but I was OK. Off I went to school to do some studying, feeling fine, but by the time I got there, I was a mess. Sniffy, itchy, sneezy, itchy, sneezy, and uncomfortable. I’ve since come home, gone to the grocery store, come home again, and it’s just gotten progressively worse. My eyes are now watering, I’m blowing my nose every five minutes, and my head feels heavier by the moment. I’ve taken an all-day sinus and allergy pill already today–and it had no effect–so I’m not sure what else I could do to feel better. Basically, I’m just miserable.

Thunderstorms are supposed to move in tonight, and it’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow. Maybe the rain will drown all the pollen out. Or maybe it won’t, and I’ll just end up miserable from the pollen and the mold. On Easter. While I cook a big meal. Fun!