My First Allergy

I'm listening to Rihanna's "Please Don't Stop The Music". After finding out I'd missed the concert last night, I listened to this song several times and wanted to go out dancing, but I was tired and recovering from this cold. So I went to bed.

I'm staying in a room of my own until I find something else, at a former place. The occupant is never there so I'm there now, and cleaning it up. Not for the long-term, but it really needs to be cleaned. I went to bed at about 8:30 or 9:00 I was so tired.

I tried mussels for the first time tonight. I didn't know what I'd think, but I like oysters and clams. Mussels though? They make me think of barnacles and things on the side of a rock that's been half-baked by the sun. The waiter recommended the mussels with the tomato sauce, a sort of bisque. It came with garlic bread and was actually pretty good. They're so small though!

I'm trying to work myself up to writing some more TTSOMLs tonight.

I also bought a new pair of running shoes today. But my knee is trashed. I really have injured it, and I have a dark bruise on the surface, but I'm really afraid I may have undone the good work my last surgeon did on it. It's not feeling very stable and popping, and today while waitressing I had very sharp shooting pangs. It was sort of weird because usually sharp pangs are very fast, but this was more of a slow growing sharp pain that kind of traveled. Really hurt. Right now it feels alright, but I'm sitting. I'm really discouraged about this because I was planning to try running a little bit again. I don't have giving way right now, by any means, but it almost seems to be getting worse rather than better with time.

I can't afford to go in to have it looked at. I don't know what to do.

I went to the garden store and bought some lilies, which is probably my favorite flower. I like the scented ones. My favorite flowers are scented flowers. I usually get asiatic lilies because even one stem fills the room with fragrance. I also like gardenias and jasmine but I think they give me headaches sometimes. I got a variation of the hot pink lily version. It was sort of lime green yellow instead of white with pink. I added some punch with bright red and bright yellow flowers. It sounds a little odd, but it goes together. I also got a ZZ plant, which, I was told, is indestructible, so maybe even my wayward roommate could manage to keep it alive after I'm gone. It can survive almost 3 months without water I was told. And, by the way, since when did florists become so good looking? Wow. They also gave me a sunflower plant, for free, that was usually over $20 because it was end of season. They would have given me two but I couldn't carry them. Maybe tomorrow I'll see if they have any leftovers. I put the pot on the porch of the house I'm at, but if I have another I could put the other one on the side. I considered planting it, but there's no soil in front where the sunlight is.

You know what I discovered? Rihanna is English. Another English musician I like.

I may have to buy a mosquito net for this room. My right eye is swollen on the corner from a bite. I was actually thinking I might get some peppermint and lavendar because I think these are natural repellants for mosquitos. I'll have to read again to be sure, but I think it's right.

This is so weird...UPDATE...

I just found out I may have an allergy! This is my first allergy, I think. I went to the bathroom, because my eyelid kept getting heavier and looked at it. It's only swollen on the right eye. And there is NO bite mark. So I happened to be chatting about it and asked this woman if she thought it was a mosquito or a spider bite. She just so happened to be a NURSE, thank god, and said it looked like neither. She asked me what I'd had to eat and I told her I'd tried mussels for the first time. She thinks it's an allergic reaction to the mussels. Four other women in the bathroom agreed, saying there was no bite mark.

I was thinking it was weird the "bite" would suddenly swell now, but turns out, it's not from mosquitos. The nurse told me she was a nurse and said I should be alright but that if I had trouble breathing to go to the hospital. Great....

I wonder why it would be on just one eye. Mabye because I rubbed this eye more, after touching the mussels? I hadn't washed my hands first. I felt I had something in my eye, and rubbed the corner, it felt like my mascara was off.

They say it's not very noticeable. I mean, people can see it when they look, but it's not super noticeable. The nurse said her husband had had a similiar reaction to mussels and his lips swelled up.

I hope I won't become allergic to oysters and clams now because I really like this kind of seafood.

UPDATE: Not keeling over yet.

Probably not a good idea to be publicizing allergies when I have enemies unbenownst to me. I do feel a tiny bit panicked, like, I keep taking deep breaths to be sure my respiratory system is working okay.

I think I'm okay, really. I'm psyching myself out a little, but I'm okay so far. Now I'm reading about mussels. So much for TTSOMLs,. Soon, though! tonight! after panic dies down.

Alright, I was reading all about seafood shock and getting worked up so I went outside for fresh air, where someone tried to recruit me for the Obama campaign. He offered to take me to the hospital if I needed to go. He said, "My car is right there" and pointed to a huge, very old, vintage, 70s VW bus. I thought, "That's going to get us there in NO time!"

Anyway, I'm fine. I just stopped reading the stupid mussel information about Red Tide and all the toxins. I think I'll be more careful next time I try mussels. My favorite thing ever is the way my Mexican friends do their oysters on the grill, with lime afterwards and everything. Mmmm. I hope I'm not ruined for seafood now. That would be such a shame!

I'm now listening to "Sweetest Girl" by Wyclef and Akon.

I really need, I think, to call this lawyer I met the other day, who knows how to hold off the big dogs. This guy, I could tell, was special. He also works for BET. Black Entertainment something or other. I love it. I could totally learn from that man.

There are a lot of good people who have offered me cards and numbers and I think, tomorrow, I need to get a little black book and start filling things in, because I haven't called ANYONE who has given me their number. I have a whole bag full of cards and numbers, and some from very sincere people.

One journalist, too, whose work I looked up and admire, who came into work today and whom I ignored, simply because...Well, I don't know why. He wasn't sitting at one of my assigned tables? I don't know. He's doing some good work though, and is someone I would like to talk to. I will call him up soon, or email, after I find his number.

I'm a little intimidated of him though, because he is also attractive, and on a number of levels, and I have, I feel, nothing to offer really, at this time, except a lot of trouble and hot toddy soapboxing. He left today, without eating his cheese sticks. I ate them. Well, we all did. I thought he'd left behind some huge alcoholic drink too, and wondered why. Don't ask me why, but I was curious. He'd already had one of these bubbly pink drinks, and he left a huge glass behind? So I took a sip in the backroom. It wasn't alcoholic. Well, this is not something I would do, or have ever done before, but I figured it's my risk, not his, because I'm not giving it back to him. I didn't want to ask someone else what it was he was drinking. I just wondered why he left everything behind so fast. SHhhhhhhhh...

This is the most rambling post ever. I just found out, Princess Diana said she had migraines. She did?!!! Huh. I didn't know that. She attributed colonic cleansing as her cure, and I've found pot to be a preventative cure. I wonder if colonics would do it for me. Perhaps! but pot is cheaper. I do know, it's not good to allow toxins to build up and store in the body because it will affect you. I notice with migraines, that sometimes I need to drink more water. It's never been a cure or preventative, but it has seemed to help just slightly. I don't know. I'm sold on pot for now, and for that matter, I need to write a post advocating its merits for soldiers at war. There we go! let's get the conservatives on board with this plant. I swear to you, at least for me, it honestly works.

And my "dealer" keeps asking when I need more. I'm fine! Like I said, it takes very little. I still have a little less than a half of that bag I bought, which is TINY, AND I also have about a 1/4 of a joint besides. See...! I'm not an addict, and I'm living proof this works.

I haven't been to ER in how long? or missed work, or fun, or appointments... It's a miracle drug. I am telling you, it WORKS.

I really didn't know Diana had migraines. I wonder if that's an accurate quote from her. I read it, attributed to her, with quotations. I know Queen Victoria had migraines, because my friends in Blaine told me so when they convinced me to try weed for my migraines. They told me the Queen was prescribed pot for her migraines. I wonder if anyone in the royal family currently suffers from them. They're terrible is all I know.