I have so much good news to share with you all!
ONE: We have a door for the bathroom! It ended up being sort of complicated because it turns out that all the doors in this place were custom-cut to different sizes, but everything is worked out now and it looks great and closes and everything. No more will contractors and guests have to use a curtain when they have to go to the water closet.
TWO: Cheddar slept at the foot of our bed one night this month, which is a first, and he let me see his belly!!?! Look at that sleepy face! I gave him soft, soft, feathery pets on the belly and he was a little startled ("Humans can DO that?") but I stopped and moved away before he could get scared and turn away. He's still very skittish during the day when we walk around, but he's learned to come and sit on the floor by the bed in the evening time when I give out dried chicken treats. He likes those. LOOK AT THAT BELLY THOUGH. I just want to bury my face into it, but not yet. He still gets nervous when I kiss his little head; he knows that my head contains my mouth and he's afraid I'll bite and eat him. He's such an orange.
THREE: So. Okay. I have had the worst allergies for at least three years now? I actually went to an allergist before we moved from Texas because I wanted to see what I was allergic to before we moved somewhere, on the grounds that we didn't want to move and make the allergies worse. They did the full prick test on my back and said I wasn't allergic to anything they had on hand, but that I had "vasomotor rhinitis" which basically means you're allergic to something but we don't know what. When we moved to Chicago my symptoms got worse, and it seemed to be something in the house because leaving the house made me feel better, which was distressing! Was it mildew? mold? paint? I would spend every day with my nose running like a faucet, which made me cough and hack. Anti-histamines helped, but being on them every day 24/7/365 made me a tired zombie.
I have been having trouble getting in to see an allergist but finally I got in this Wednesday. I met this wonderful woman who asked me 1 million questions and eventually we got to: "Do you have any plug-in scent diffusers?" Well, no, because I have known for years that I have a sensitivity to fragrances. But in the interests of accuracy, we do have one of those Feliway cat pheromone diffusers for multi-cat households? I wasn't worried about that, though, because I'm not allergic to cats, so that should be fine, right? Nope! She asked me to unplug it because apparently plug-in diffusers have a lot of chemicals for the "diffusing" into the air, and people with rhinitis can have a strong reaction to them. I agreed, but privately I didn't really expect a change....until Thursday morning, the literal next day, when I woke up with only about 20% of the symptoms that I've otherwise had non-stop for years. MY LIFE HAS CHANGED. I do still have allergies, and I may still need to work with her for that last 20%, but oh my god!! I had to share because (a) happy news!! and (b) maybe someone else out there has the same problem!
Stay safe out there (and I hope everyone who can vote in the upcoming elections can do so safely). Thank you again. ♥
