Allergies...

My whole life I've dealt with allergies. From the time I was a little kid, who had an anaphylactic reaction to a Cheezit cracker at preschool, to the time I got a henna tattoo on my back that turned into a a flower-shaped, welt that lasted for 6 months on my lower back, I've had to deal with allergies. Some are worse than others. For example, I'm allergic to dogs. However, I've always had dogs, and just dealt with the consequences. Usually I develop a little bit of immunity to them after a couple of weeks, and end up being just fine. On the other hand, if hair color even approaches my scalp, I break out in hives that last for days. It's super fun. Not.

My closest friends have seen my allergic reactions first hand. I can't even go to my friend Lindsay's house for more than an hour, because she has cats and dogs, and the animals always get my eyes watering and my nose running. It sucks, too, because I love the animals! My friend Laura has a couple of cats. I went to her house several weeks ago, and had no issue with allergies at all. It was great. However, several days later, I put on the jacket I had worn to her house, and discovered that the coat had cat hair on it. How did I make this discovery? I was in Target with my friend Beth, and basically began tearing up uncontrollably in the middle of the store. I'm sure people thought I was crying. I put my jacket in the cart, and suddenly my "crying" spell disappeared. Embarrassing!

Another time, I was with my Kansas City friends at the bar. We had just finished adult tumbling, and, just as we did every week, we went out afterwards. It was one of my favorite weekly traditions. Anyway, somebody had the brilliant idea to sit outside. I think we'd been outside for about 3 minutes before the tiniest little bug I'd ever seen, bit my leg. "Ouch!" I shouted! Everyone kind of laughed, because it was typical for me to be the only one bitten. It hurt, but I didn't know how bad the bite really was until the next day, when I woke up and had a baseball sized welt on my leg. Totally not exaggerating. I remember the next week at gymnastics, I was wearing shorts, and my friend Kellie said, "OH MY GOSH! Is that from the teeny bug last week?" as she stared at my welt. "Yup, story of my life," I replied. That stupid welt lasted the better part of a month.

Anyway, these stories have a point, I swear. I was hoping Charley would be lucky enough to escape my allergy issues,  because her father has NO allergies whatsoever. No such luck for Charley! She's allergic to peanuts, laundry detergent, and apparently has seasonal allergies, because she's been coughing herself awake since the snow first melted. Poor kid. Thank goodness for antihistamines! I'm hoping she outgrows them. Looks like that's just one more thing Charley got from me, and unfortunately, it's not a good trait.

The other purpose was the fact that I had some allergy issues tonight. I have seasonal allergies. I always have, and likely always will, especially living in Minnesota. But those aren't the allergies I'm talking about. I'm talking about hives. I went to a friend's house tonight (who of course has cats), but I've been there before and the cats haven't been an issue. I thought I was free and clear tonight, too, because I didn't have watery eyes, or an itchy throat or anything! When I got home, however, I realized that I had hives starting to form on my face. Then my hands...Figures! It was like my body was saying "Screw you! You took your Zyrtec too early in the day!" Ugh. I look like a hot mess, but it's nothing a little cortisone and Benadryl won't take care of overnight.

Ok, quick teacher story...This one didn't happen to me directly, but it's a good one.When I lived in Kansas City, I worked at an awesome school with amazing teachers, and a principal I really liked. He was one of those principals who stayed really involved, and engaged with the students. I'm fairly sure he knew every student in the school by name. He was great. Well, one night, he was driving down a busy street around 8pm, and saw a 5th grade student I'll call Emily, stomping along on the sidewalk, all by herself. Now, Emily was generally a good kid, but she was very spoiled, and her parents set no limits for her whatsoever. That, added to the fact that she had poor coping skills, made for a difficult student at times. So the school principal pulled up next to her, and said, "Emily, is everything okay?" She looked at him. "No!" she shouted, "My mom ordered me Sprite at Pizza Street and I wanted root beer!" She seemed to think it was totally logical to stomp out of the restaurant and down the street, because of such a devastating mistake! What I find even funnier, is the fact that neither of her parents followed her! Ha! The principal and his wife picked her up, took her back to the restaurant, and called it a night. Never a dull moment, when kids are involved!