In case you were curious about the state of my sinuses

This is something that I am considering:

(Thanks to former DC roommate Holly for the picture.)  (That's not her in the picture. It was just part of an email that she forwarded to me.)

Here's something that most people don't know about me: I have excess amounts of histamines.  This means that my body tends to overreact to anything that irritates it (sort of like me, certain days of the month) which is why mosquito bites swell to the size of quarters and a fire ant sting roughly tripled the size of my right ankle one time.

It also means that my body overreacts to what appears to be an ever-growing list of allergens.  Over the summer, this meant that my ears were clogged up for an hour or two in the mornings.  Annoying, but not that big of a deal.  But in the months since then, it has progressed to the point where I currently consider being able to breathe through my nose a novelty.  It catches me by surprise from time to time.  Oh my gosh!  Was that an unobstructed breath through my nose?  Hallelujah!

Ever since I ran out of Nasonex, I've been cycling through the various options.  Alavert kind of works.  The Vicks spray kind of worked.  The Mucinex spray was an absolute miracle product for the three days that I was allowed to use it.  According to the pharmacist at Copps, they're serious about that not going over three days thing.  Otherwise your nose could become addicted to it and you'll never be able to breathe without it.  For some reason, this is considered to be a bad thing.  I, personally, could make my peace with a lifelong Mucinex habit.

So I'm on to Claritin D 24 Hour.  This works for 24 hours much the same way that I worked for eight hours at my temp job in Austin.  Over a period of eight hours, I worked at times.  I also did nothing for long periods of time.  The difference here, of course, is that my periods of inactivity were due to there being no work to do.  But there is ALWAYS work for anti-histamines and decongestants in my head these days.  The Claritin is also very much not non-drowsy, despite the fact that its entire advertising campaign is built around that claim.  It is currently six in the evening and I have been fighting sleep for about an hour now so that I can watch this here Cowboys/Giants game.

Since this has gotten worse in the past couple of months, I have developed what (as far as I know) is a new symptom.  Internet, when I am especially congested, I snore.  I am aware of this development since on more than one occasion, I have WOKEN MYSELF UP.  I cannot tell you how upsetting I find this.

How tired am I of this whole allergy thing?  Well.  Alan and I were discussing those Nasonex commercials where the bee has some sort of Antonio Banderas-esque accent.  Alan is disturbed by the concept of using a cartoon bee with sexual overtones to sell nasal spray.  And my response?

I'd have sex with that bee if he could get me some Nasonex.

I think that pretty much says it all.