Spring Fever

It's been nice outside these days. Too nice. It must be a trap for all of those seasonal allergy sufferers. I, of course, have been graced with the wonderful lack of allergies. I would like to say that is because of my upbringing in a household led by a mother who doesn't believe in allergies. Except my mother doesn't like for me to tell people (even nonexistent Internet audiences) that she doesn't exactly not believe in allergies. It's more of a I don't have any allergies (seasonal, food, latex, medicine, or whatever people are allergic to these days) so my children must not have any allergies ergo they don't ever need to be tested for allergies. I am, of course, exaggerating about my mother's viewpoints. However, I have never been tested for allergies and continue to fill out all doctor's forms with a long string of "N/A's" when it comes to allergies, reactions to drugs, sexual activity (which is never awkward for me. Just kidding. I die a little bit inside, especially my mother is in the room when the physician asks me that).

While we're on the topic of fun experiences at the doctor's office I actually (knock on wood) don't get too sick frequently. I like to say that I'm as strong as a strong animal, but usually no one laughs at that - although my track record the past few years hasn't been looking too good. Swine flu (H1N1) - I would like to give whoever gave me swine flu something equally bad, but then I realize that whoever that is also contracted swine flu. Pneumonia - the day of my high school graduation, I was still recovering from pneumonia. Let it be known to all high schoolers that graduation involves a lot of standing in close proximity to a lot of folk who seem to be extremely chatty (read: when you've got a beautifully, tenderly painful headache, having loads of people shouting around you makes for a fun time) for people who never spoke a word to each other during the past four years. ALSO, there is an unnecessary amount of hand-shaking. Even when healthy, I detest gripping palms of strangers with my exceedingly sweaty ones. However, when swimming in a cold sweat, hand-shakes become an experience where the opposite party attempts to mask a face of disgust once coming into contact with your cold, clammy, nasty hands. I believe that I may have scarred a science teacher, or two. 

When I did experience those two fun diseases, it just so happened that my father (who does not live with my family) was in town. His attempt at taking care of me while my mother was away at work? Feed his daughter with pho, either by wrapping her up in sweaters and jackets and bringing her directly to a restaurant or bringing home buckets of takeout pho and bean sprouts. So, these days when I am feeling down or a little under the weather, I visit a terrible little pho joint near campus. A little bit for the food, but mostly to feel like I'm being taken care of.

(In this sweet mood, I've decided to bring up the vomit story on another day)