Non-sequitar rant: the horrors of spring

So, I have terrible allergies basically year-round. I have built up enough of a tolerance to Benedryl that I can take three or four at a time and not get sleepy. Which is kind of ridiculous. In the spring, it gets worse because things bloom and there's pollen and nature is awakening and what have you, which apparently my nose is not designed to handle. Even though it was designed by nature. Whatever. So, I usually take more anti-histamines than usual and throw a few decongestants and just go with it, and usually that works.

But for some reason, it is not working this year. I'm not sure what it is -- the crazy roller coaster Michigan temperature, the roofing work the landlord is doing on my apartment building, the cactus that has recently taken up residence on my desk, the Hand of God striking me down (via clogged nasal cavities) for my rampant and unrelenting blasphemy -- but it is ridiculously bad this year. I'm popping more pills than a bored WASPy housewife and burning through tissues like there's no tomorrow.

But the worst part is the sneezing, hands down. I'm sneezing in strings of five or six at a time, and they are always, always followed by a string of expletives just as long. Which makes me look like I have Tourette's. Thank christ the semester's over and I'm working from home most days. Still, though, it's only a matter of time before I drop the F-bomb in a lab meeting.