Sniffle

Something absolutely terrible has happened over the last two weeks.  I have developed allergies.

I’ve never been allergic to anything in my life.  I’ve never even gotten poison ivy, despite walking through patches of it in shorts.  Yet for some reason, I am suddenly terrible allergic to…something.  I am constantly sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes, even kind of blurred vision at times (I never really understood that part of the Claritan commercial).  I started taking a claritan knock-off, but supposedly those wimpy little pills will take a few more days to kick in.  Also, the ones I’m taking expired 8 months ago, but I’m guessing their still ok.

Seriously, this had better be something highly seasonal in the air, or I’m moving to Antarctica.

Nothing was ever so sweet…

as getting sick in the middle of a two week stretch of finals, final papers and presentations.  I am in the middle of three finals, 4 final papers, 2 group projects, three presentations and a research project.  Overloading grad school, as mentioned previously, is stupid.  Things are somewhat confounded by the fact that I feel like I’m being dangled upside down under thirty feet of cold, mildly electrified water, ears messed up, unable to breathe, while annoying group members prod me with sticks.  I’m getting desperate here – I’ve taken every pill in the house I can find, jammed sprays up various holes in my body, eaten nothing but fruit, eaten nothing but Arby’s…and I hate taking medicine.  I had to leave a class last night 8 times in two hours because I couldn’t stop coughing.  I didn’t sleep last night because of pressure in my ears.  I have 4 (FOUR!) papers due today.

When this is all over, at 9:50 pm next Thursday, I am going to drink rum out of a hollowed out pineapple until I fall over.   At which point, if someone could be so kind as to bring me a straw….

A well-balanced diet…

I’ve been trying to eat much healthier over the past two years, mostly for environmental and health reasons.  Environmentally because some aspects of our food production are insanely unsustainable and polluting, and healthy wise because I was getting a bit o’ belly and it seemed easier to eat better than to work out.  So I’ve become a “flexitarian” if a label need be applied.  I eat meat maybe once or twice a week, and then I try to have it be a flavoring, such as pepperoni pizza, as opposed to the meal, such as a steak.  Beyond that, I’ve been eating a lot more vegetables and fruits, lots of almonds, walnuts, beans and tofu for protein.  I don’t drink milk much anymore (trying to drink more water), but I eat a lot of cheese.  I don’t add salt to any of my food anymore either.  I will say that it makes me feel much better to be eating this way, in terms of energy and most noticeably in not feeling lethargic or sluggish after eating.  I’ve been eating a lot more spicy and ethnic foods lately too…Thai, Mexican, Indian, Lebanese and Japanese, mostly.  And I’m normally pretty good at sticking with the new food regime (I don’t like calling it a diet, because I’m eating more and better food), although I do have plenty of fast food relapses, especially nights when I’m just too tired and hungry to think about microwaving a bean burrito and hit up Mcdonalds instead.

I am eating some interesting, healthy stuff though.  For lunch today, I had a mixture of black beans roasted with red onions, peppers and mangos in a mango sauce, over a seven grain rice pilaf, all organic.  Full of protein, fiber and vitamins, sustainably grown.  Even cooked it in the microwave, because for small meals microwaves use much less energy than ovens, due to the smaller size, shorter cooking time and lack of pre-heating.  It almost made up for breakfast, which was a bag of cheddar goldfish and a pickle.