Evil Spirits, Begone...

My life has been a festival of drug intake as of late. Last week, I was roughing it through a cold I contracted while being Austin's dad (ie, the boy coughed right in my face many a times, despite having been taught to cover his mouth). NyQuil was my friend and ally in the war on boogers. I thought I had it beat after taking an early afternoon off and resting. I even woke up, picked up Austin from school, and he and I cleared out a great deal of the garage.

But, soon as that was done, I was practically comatose again. Bless Michelle's heart, she let me just sleep away the hours. I thought it would help, alongside some decongestants. I was longing to breathe through my nose. I still am. No amount of anything seemed to get me through, and I tell you, I was one cranky bastard.

So after feeling the worst of it yesterday, and barely surviving through after school rehearsals, I took a different path. Last night, I took Austin with me to do a little shopping, namely to get some allergy medication in the desperate hope that it would work over my having to see a doctor.

I must say, I've never dealt with my boy being so good at a store before. He just sat in the cart and played with his helicopter and told me stories as I was going through my shopping list. He even was helpful and obedient when trying on new shoes and sandals for the summer. Seriously, especially considering the condition I was in, he was absolutely perfect. Much better than the previous trip out where he grabbed the can of shaving gel I put in his part of the cart (I'm not an idiot; I suffer from idiocy) and shot himself square in the eye. He had to have emptied at least a quarter of the can. It's funny in retrospect, but man... rough little go. Most annoying, though, was a random lady showed up to put in her two cents. I guess she had pulled the same foolish move herself recently, as she wasn't quite perceptive enough to notice Michelle taking care of the poor boy right there, either.

Finally last night I ingested some house-brand Claritin and nice Chamomile tea and went to bed. This morning I still woke up feeling like grim death, and even after an almost sinus-clearing, scalding hot shower, nearly called in. But then I went for the big guns: Excedrin. Nothing like painkillers doused with caffeine to kick it up a notch, Bam! It finally started to kick in as I got Austin up and out the door, dressing himself on the way (oh yeah. Once I teach him to tie his shoes, that's it. I'm done parenting. Anything else I do will just damage him). Now I'm floating along just fine, bottle of pills at the ready in my bag.

I'm not a particularly big fan of taking drugs, as I do think it's better for the body to learn to cope properly instead of using a crutch. But then again, what species wouldn't use whatever it had at its disposal to make it feel better. Of course, nature's bloody deceptive, as my dad can attest to birds eating berries that apparently taste good but essentially get them drunk enough to fly into windows and die.

Well, to sum up this completely derailed post, Midwestern allergens are apparently waging a successful conquest of my sinuses and I think I may have finally figured out a cocktail of pharmaceuticals that gets me by. We're still continuing on with another month's worth of testing, with the light at the end of the tunnel being school ending by the next lunar cycle. Ta~