Achoo!

For the record: whatever I'm allergic to has started blooming/sporing/pollinating/whatever. Sometime between noon and 6 p.m., to be precise. I think I've used half a box of kleenex in the last 6 hours, in spite of starting on the Claritin a week or so ago.

It's not the ornamental pears, because they've been blooming for over a week. Might be the oaks, since they just started leafing out yesterday. If I knew what it was, I'd move away from it. But, two weeks or so of sneezing isn't worth the needles involved in allergy tests.

Either way, I hope it passes soon, and that it doesn't get as bad as the first year this all started, about 5 years ago. That year sucked. In the space of ten minutes, I could go from normal to looking like someone socked me in the eye. My left eye (always the left) would tear up, go all bloodshot and teary, and puff up. I usually had to take that contact lens out, because the swelling inside the eyelid would keep knocking it off center (as my optometrist explained it). I ended up on both Zyrtec and an allergy eye drop for the summer, and wore my glasses a lot. The eye drops were pricey, too. It's not a good sign when the doc gives you a rebate form with the Rx, and it's for a $25 rebate on a tiny, less-than-an-ounce bottle.