Knocked down

currently: see title and below

I'm not that same little kid, kept inside during recess (sitting on the hard, wood bench outside the principal's office like some kind of baby delinquent) because springtime and fall allergies were overwhelming and could result in a lack of...breathing. Decades (eek!) later, through many pharmaceutical innovations, various dosage trials and errors, a move down south (where, for some reason, even though there is more pollen, it's not quite the same pollen of my youth, and therefore I seem to be slightly less allergic to it, which, thanks be to the gods, because if I was as allergic to redbud and dogwood as I was to northeastern plants, I probably would have keeled over my freshman year, back when I actually went outside and didn't live in an office), and a carefully orchestrated pill-popping and steroid-taking regimen, I can mostly function at nearly 100% during the months of budding and flowering. No, I'm not at my sharpest for a good few weeks - there is much sneezing, itchy and watering eyes, and stuffiness of the nose. I can, however, take at least limited pleasure in the recession of dead, brown winter and the burgeoning of grassy, rainbow growing things.

Except.

The first few days, well after the flowers are in bud and the grass begins to unfurl, when the weather is nice enough to tempt me outside...to play, to stroll, to hit some balls down on the courts, to revel in the sunshine and the bask in the spring...I pay heavily for my enjoyment. My whole body shuts down with almost flu-like symptoms: I can't breath, I feel beaten, my body is exhausted and my mind is uninterested in being engaged. I claw at my red, swollen, tear-filled, monstrously itching eyes (always convinced and secretly terrified that I'm going to pop an eyeball) and my oily nose (well, whole face, really), which is constantly exploding in sneezes and alternately stuffed and dripping. I am detached from life and work, my appetite diminishes (fretfully - I'm still hungry, but I don't know what I want and nothing tastes particularly good), and I can't concentrate. It's the epitome of April fools and no. fun. at. all.

Still, Virginia in the springtime is so beautiful that it's just barely worth it (because I can breathe!), and sure beats missing recess.