fatlipped

Last October, I was a pill poppin' fool trying to get an allergic outbreak under control.

Since then, I've tapered down to one pill every other day or so.

Couldn't got off the pills completely, though: I'd get welts on my elbows within three days of the last popped pill, and that would be the first indication of reactions still threatening.

So what with all the recent fun and excitement (har har) of packing and moving, the stress plus the dust pushed the allergies through: on Wednesday I was going about my business when I realised my lip felt funny... went to check in the mirror, and hey, whaddayaknow, half the lower lip was swollen. Not good.

So Wednesday night, and the whole of Thursday, I was in a benadryl-induced zombielike state, fighting a fully swollen bottom lip and a ton of welty hives. Today (Friday) I woke up feeling much closer to normal.

We've still got a lot to unpack, but hopefully I've got enough drugs in my system to withstand the effects of those dust mites!

... scary thing is, I only have an ever-so-slight reaction to dust mites, according to the allergist: imagine how much worse it could be / have been for someone else with a more severe reaction? Yikes!!


Have a great weekend everyone! And for those who celebrate: Happy 4th of July!

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jamais deux sans trois

Jamais deux sans trois, loosely translated from French, reads "never two without a third".

So first there was Ed McMahon - someone not well known outside of the US, I think, but a name that even I recognised.

Then went Farrah Fawcett - the Charlie's Angel who went public about her battle with cancer recently; I remember seeing that Ryan O'Neal had proposed to her, and that she had said yes, then she passes away. I'd like to think at least she's no longer in pain, no longer suffering.

And now, breaking news - Michael Jackson is dead! A suspected heart attack, details sketchy right now. But wow. Love him or hate him, he was a HUGE presence in the 80s and even in the 90s.

Yes, I broke my "break" because there's no way I could NOT mark this somehow.

And now, back to procrastinating on packing!

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Is it KitKat time?

Life After Work will be on a short break for slightly over a week, until early July: the Naranek household will be moving (within Chicago, no worries), and will be needing a lot of non-internet time to pack, move, unpack and settle in the new place.

^^ no, that's not me!

By all means, please follow me on Twitter for random updates over the next week or so, and beyond. And in case you haven't already done so, how about taking this opportunity to subscribe to this blog via email or in a reader? This way you'll easily know when I'm back in action! :)

Cheers!

[Photo Credit: Moving Woman by jynmeyer]

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Tagged: the 10th in the 1st 3rd!

Patricia at Subjective Soup tagged me in this photo meme: "Post the 10th photo from your first photo file"

I ran into a bit of a problem: my 1st photo file has 2 images; the second file has 5 images; so I went ahead and took the 10th image from the 3rd file. Here it is:



This was taken at the end of 2001, at a 70s-themed New Year party to ring in 2002.

Can you figure out which one is me?

As usual, I won't tag anyone... if you want to play along, feel free to do so! But do drop me a line in the comments so I can check out your "10th in 1st" image, k?

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book bummer

... so about three weeks ago, I was doing a circuit of the Popular Library at the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago, when I noticed The Well of Ascension, Book 2 of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series.

I decided to check it out, even though I wasn't in a big hurry to continue the Mistborn tale yet. I ended up taking my time with it, catching a page or two here and there during el rides to/from town, and therefore not making much progress. Then we went to visit my Kosh's sister and family, which included an overnight stay, babysitting services and taking two of the three kids out to see Star Trek (yes, finally!! and wow!! more to blog about that later!).

I managed to get some serious reading time in, too, and am now at page 223 (out of 578). It's due back today, though.. but no biggie, just go online and renew it....

*sigh*

... someone else has asked for it, so I can't renew it. Waaaaaaahhh!!! It's been out for two years already! I found it on a shelf!! Why oh why if there a hold placed on it?!! :( Waaaaaahhhhhh!!

Rather than incur a 20¢ daily fine, especially since I can't guarantee I'll buckle down and finish the book off in a day or two, it looks like I'll have to make a quick trip to a local library to drop it off, then promptly put a hold request on it for myself so I can get it back soon to pick up where I left off.

Ugh. That'll teach me to not whizz through books as I usually do! :p

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