Amber & Catching Up

While I have been waging an inner battle, armed with mucous and coughs, against my arch allergy nemesis American Elm, so, so very much has been happening in the world.  Let me quickly try to recap.

1.  I got this pretty scarf from my favorite broken body person, Nick.

2.  And my hair color changed.  (See above.  It's darker.  One might even call it espresso.)

3.  Some incredibly smart and adorable marketing professionals over at everybody's favorite investigative news source, Mother Jones, launched a fundraising campaign featuring a Boat-o-meter to measure the campaign's success with the tagline "Sink the ship of fools."

Seriously genius--the kind of stuff we should be doing over at Mother Goose, Inc.  (I pronounce it "boat-oh-meter," but Kevin says "boat-om-etter."  Your choice.)

4.  The above fundraising campaign, to which you should give generously in order to help pay for, among other things, their Circulation Director's cat food (especially if you are getting a free sub from me) prompted me to remark that I wouldn't really be considered the captain of the Boat-o-meter but more of the navigator.  This caused a professional colleague to volunteer to be the ship's barkeep.

Completely amazing likeness, right?  Mobile technology is the absolute best.  I would say some boat stuff here, but really I confuse sailors with pirates all the time.  Arrgh!  That ship is yar!

5.  This caused me to hum the theme to my favorite Boat Show ever.

Did you see those guest stars?  Robert Vaughn and that hot reporter's mom?

6.  Lizzie, the best back seat road trip and tent companion ever, started a blog about her new macrobiotic diet.

Today's post is about allergies and diet and acupressure... which brings us back to the whole reason why I had all this saved up stuff to share with you, dear readers.

Damn you, American Elm.  Damn you and your seed, but thank you for your beauty and grandeur.

Amber & Annual Surprises

Every year, like clockwork, spring arrives.  Blooms, short pants, and reading outside on park benches.  And then, oddly, Woody starts getting wheezy, and then I start feeling cloudy and having a slight runny nose.  And I'm so confused by the weird symptoms.  What could it be?  Why am I so tired?  Why am I even more forgetful and easily distracted than usual?

And, then, every year, I realize it is allergy season.  And then, I restart my relationship with my friend Zyrtek and everything gradually returns to normal.

Why, oh, why am I so surprised every single year?  Is it because I am so excited for the spring that I refuse to associate it with allergies?

Amber & Wheezy Week

It's been an exhausting week, with no time to spare for blogging. Thankfully, CRD has been picking up the slack over at Internals Plural with two blogs post daily.

I haven't been the only one suffering from seasonal allergies. Poor Woody has been a wheezy beast. We saw Schaubhut this morning who confirmed he has been having another bout of kitty asthma. Schaubhut also reports that horses sometimes have asthma, and that they sometimes sneeze. Although my own pet's respiratory distress hurts my heart, theoretical sneezing horses make me giggle.

On the way home, I stopped by the office to get my laptop so I could be productive on my couch. Since the office is pet-friendly, I took the opportunity to let Woody stretch his legs.


He started off by sniffing the entire perimeter.


And then he settled into a spot that allowed him full view of the exits.


Maybe, instead of daydreaming of getting a pug, I should just start pretending Woody is a pug? He's already got the lap thing mastered.

Amber & Sleepiness

I have been having horrible trouble sleeping. I lie down at a reasonable hour, caffeine long behind me, but then I just can't get comfortable. I didn't doze off last night until well after 2 pm, and that was even after I self-medicated. And, of course, self-medication then leads to an inability to function in the morning, such as today when I poured the water into the french press, let it steep, and then realized I hadn't added any coffee.

And, I am still feeling under the weather, although some people are suggesting that it may be allergies.

Days like today make me wish I had a train ride to Trenton.


Only, I would spend less time playing with Photobooth on my laptop and more time following Kevin's lead.

Amber & Chronic Sinusitis

It's official: I have my tenth sinus infection of 2007. (Start sending the aluminum and tin.) 2007 has been the year of the perfect storm of health issues for me: stress, allergies, autoimmune woes, a deviated septum and the worst possible environment for someone allergic to mold and mildew. My maxillary sinus on my left (stage right) side of my face is completely filled, despite daily neti potting and use of an intranasal corticosteriod spray.

The current course of treatment is to continue the neti and the spray, but add an antibiotic and get me a referral for an MRI to get a better look at the inflammation and deviation in the passage-way. In the meantime, my face hurts.