In Which Things Happen to the Kitten
Help, I'm Leaking
At the moment I'm leaking brain lubricant at an alarming rate. (Don't you just love that image? You're welcome.) I have been trying to pin down what set off this excessive allergic reaction, and I have a couple of potential culprits. The first, unfortunately, is my cats. I've supposedly had an allergy to cats since adolescence, but I've lived with and owned cats sporadically since college, without much problem. Schroedinger, who was a long-haired cat (read: ball of fur with eyes) had the run of my room at AO and I've had two cats since shortly after I moved in with my former roommate. (Waves at former roommate. "I miss your Tivo uh, your husband's cooking you! Did you see Heroes Monday? Watching Grey's Anatomy is no fun by myself. And no one leaves half-eaten blueberry muffins out for me Saturday morning.")
I began noticing worse reactions in my last year living with my roommate, and its gotten worse since I moved to my new apartment. Either my new apartment is substantially more cat-ty then my previous room or the pendulum on my tolerance has swung way in the other direction. The person I'm subletting from has lived there for 10 years and always owned a cat, so its possible the place is just more steeped in allergens then my previous place.
Last week some guy on the news was saying that the pollen counts are off the scales this spring, so that might be a factor.
I also read somewhere that eggs are mucus forming. I may have to cut back on the deviled eggs as snacks. Which would be a shame, because I love those things. Yesterday I made a small batch to snack on. I mistakenly put cinnamon on the first one I sampled. I actually wasn't that bad.
Whatever the cause, I've been sneezing enough that the women in the office next to me said "Oh my gawd, are you okay?" after the last fit.
On My New Digs
This is my first ever apartment all by my lonesome. Useful and frivolous observations about my life currently include:
- Refrigerators must be turned on to cool things. Thankfully the stir survived until lunch the next day.
- Don't put asparagus in the garbage disposal.
- If you smell gas upon entering the apartment, check the stove's pilot light. (I was so busy at work the week after I moved I didn't cook anything for several days).
- If you are moving boxes or furniture, your cat will stand in exactly the spot you have just cleared for said moving, the better to stare blankly at you while you try to shoo them out of the way.
- Don't kick the lump that's above the covers next to your foot on the bed. Dirty looks from kicked cats are seven years bad luck.
- If your neighbors leave a pile of unwanted comic books in the hall don't expect you will be able to pick up the elfquest when you get back from doing laundry. (I did get a bunch of cool stuff out of the pile, including several short graphic novels and some DC comics I intend to read. It's also nice to know there is a fellow comic book reader in the building.
- Verizon DSL is fine, when its working. So far, mine has worked for approximately one day. Getting it working took three phone calls (the first two got disconnected part way through, without the promised phone call back in the event of disconnection). When it stopped working two days later, a friend took over trying to get it working for me. He called Verizon. They said they could see the modem on the line and it was working fine. He said that wasn't possible, because the status light on the modem showed it wasn't working. He asked them to try again. They said their check showed it was up and running fine. He responded that that was odd because he had unplugged it from the wall, and the power supply.
- BBQ corn chips are laced with crack. I bought a bag last week thursday to have as a snack. And by snack I meant dinner on the walk back from the supermarket. And dinner Sunday night while I waited for the stuff for I was making for dinner to be ready. My hand just kept reaching into the bag like it had a mind of its own.
- Roasted red pepper humus tastes too good to not be bad for you. I'm not a big fan of regular humus, I find it rather bland, but the roasted red pepper stuff is divine. After about my third mouthful of cracker or pita loaded with the stuff, I start to feel guilty for enjoying it so much.
- Is it the clothes or is it me? Some of my clothes don't fit properly, or don't hang right, or such. I'm inclined to view it as the clothing's problem, not mine, except that I fell off the gym wagon a while back and haven't managed to get back on. I have three pairs of jeans that are currently out of rotation in because they simply don't fit, my thighs are too big. I want to go back to the gym, but with the right mindset. I want to be exercising because it improves my mood, curbs my cravings, helps me concentrate, helps me sleep and improves my energy levels. The past year has seen some significant changes in my body chemistry and tolerances, and I know that if I want to keep myself healthy, with all that entails, I need to work at it. I recently was relating to co-workers the ungodly amount of sugar I consumed as a child. Kool-aid was a nightly dinner accompaniment, in addition to some sort of dessert, and my Mom liked to bake. When my stunned co-workers asked how I managed to still be relatively trim given my early eating habit, I explained that I was a cheerleader, dancer and volleyball player through most of junior high and high school. I'm nowhere near as active now as I was then, and I still have sugar cravings.
- Speaking of cravings, the kitchen in my office has become a minefield. My last trip to hunt for a healthy snack encountered: string cheese and cheese slices, pretzel sticks, twizzlers, peppermint patties and pepperidge farm milano cookies. Basically, someone has crammed almost all of my favorite snack foods into our little kitchen. I can't even avert my eyes because if I turn around there is something else. "No, no, don't think about the twizzlers, just look away, look away, Ack, the milanos!" About an hour ago I grabbed half a banana and a box of raisins and ran out of the room. The peppermint patties were calling me...
At the moment I'm leaking brain lubricant at an alarming rate. (Don't you just love that image? You're welcome.) I have been trying to pin down what set off this excessive allergic reaction, and I have a couple of potential culprits. The first, unfortunately, is my cats. I've supposedly had an allergy to cats since adolescence, but I've lived with and owned cats sporadically since college, without much problem. Schroedinger, who was a long-haired cat (read: ball of fur with eyes) had the run of my room at AO and I've had two cats since shortly after I moved in with my former roommate. (Waves at former roommate. "I miss your Tivo uh, your husband's cooking you! Did you see Heroes Monday? Watching Grey's Anatomy is no fun by myself. And no one leaves half-eaten blueberry muffins out for me Saturday morning.")
I began noticing worse reactions in my last year living with my roommate, and its gotten worse since I moved to my new apartment. Either my new apartment is substantially more cat-ty then my previous room or the pendulum on my tolerance has swung way in the other direction. The person I'm subletting from has lived there for 10 years and always owned a cat, so its possible the place is just more steeped in allergens then my previous place.
Last week some guy on the news was saying that the pollen counts are off the scales this spring, so that might be a factor.
I also read somewhere that eggs are mucus forming. I may have to cut back on the deviled eggs as snacks. Which would be a shame, because I love those things. Yesterday I made a small batch to snack on. I mistakenly put cinnamon on the first one I sampled. I actually wasn't that bad.
Whatever the cause, I've been sneezing enough that the women in the office next to me said "Oh my gawd, are you okay?" after the last fit.
On My New Digs
This is my first ever apartment all by my lonesome. Useful and frivolous observations about my life currently include:
- Refrigerators must be turned on to cool things. Thankfully the stir survived until lunch the next day.
- Don't put asparagus in the garbage disposal.
- If you smell gas upon entering the apartment, check the stove's pilot light. (I was so busy at work the week after I moved I didn't cook anything for several days).
- If you are moving boxes or furniture, your cat will stand in exactly the spot you have just cleared for said moving, the better to stare blankly at you while you try to shoo them out of the way.
- Don't kick the lump that's above the covers next to your foot on the bed. Dirty looks from kicked cats are seven years bad luck.
- If your neighbors leave a pile of unwanted comic books in the hall don't expect you will be able to pick up the elfquest when you get back from doing laundry. (I did get a bunch of cool stuff out of the pile, including several short graphic novels and some DC comics I intend to read. It's also nice to know there is a fellow comic book reader in the building.
- Verizon DSL is fine, when its working. So far, mine has worked for approximately one day. Getting it working took three phone calls (the first two got disconnected part way through, without the promised phone call back in the event of disconnection). When it stopped working two days later, a friend took over trying to get it working for me. He called Verizon. They said they could see the modem on the line and it was working fine. He said that wasn't possible, because the status light on the modem showed it wasn't working. He asked them to try again. They said their check showed it was up and running fine. He responded that that was odd because he had unplugged it from the wall, and the power supply.
- BBQ corn chips are laced with crack. I bought a bag last week thursday to have as a snack. And by snack I meant dinner on the walk back from the supermarket. And dinner Sunday night while I waited for the stuff for I was making for dinner to be ready. My hand just kept reaching into the bag like it had a mind of its own.
- Roasted red pepper humus tastes too good to not be bad for you. I'm not a big fan of regular humus, I find it rather bland, but the roasted red pepper stuff is divine. After about my third mouthful of cracker or pita loaded with the stuff, I start to feel guilty for enjoying it so much.
- Is it the clothes or is it me? Some of my clothes don't fit properly, or don't hang right, or such. I'm inclined to view it as the clothing's problem, not mine, except that I fell off the gym wagon a while back and haven't managed to get back on. I have three pairs of jeans that are currently out of rotation in because they simply don't fit, my thighs are too big. I want to go back to the gym, but with the right mindset. I want to be exercising because it improves my mood, curbs my cravings, helps me concentrate, helps me sleep and improves my energy levels. The past year has seen some significant changes in my body chemistry and tolerances, and I know that if I want to keep myself healthy, with all that entails, I need to work at it. I recently was relating to co-workers the ungodly amount of sugar I consumed as a child. Kool-aid was a nightly dinner accompaniment, in addition to some sort of dessert, and my Mom liked to bake. When my stunned co-workers asked how I managed to still be relatively trim given my early eating habit, I explained that I was a cheerleader, dancer and volleyball player through most of junior high and high school. I'm nowhere near as active now as I was then, and I still have sugar cravings.
- Speaking of cravings, the kitchen in my office has become a minefield. My last trip to hunt for a healthy snack encountered: string cheese and cheese slices, pretzel sticks, twizzlers, peppermint patties and pepperidge farm milano cookies. Basically, someone has crammed almost all of my favorite snack foods into our little kitchen. I can't even avert my eyes because if I turn around there is something else. "No, no, don't think about the twizzlers, just look away, look away, Ack, the milanos!" About an hour ago I grabbed half a banana and a box of raisins and ran out of the room. The peppermint patties were calling me...