woozy fun in the grass

i am having a heck of a time this year with seasonal allergies.  i don't know what specifically i'm allergic to, other than something in the great outdoors.  i think it's grass, or maybe grass and something else.  when i lived in ontario i thought it was ragweed, everyone's favourite yellow culprit.  when we lived in richmond i began to think it was grass, abundant and wild especially down along the river where we had a community garden plot. back then, i'd get on the bus home from work downtown feeling fine and 30 jiggly, sometimes smelly, minutes later i'd step off in richmond and bam - allergies.  then living downtown for a several years, nothing.  ah, it was so pleasantly back-to-normal.  i got used to it.  i began to think that allergies were for other people, people like jamie or those nuts on allergy medicine commercials who swoop around in fields bathed in soft lighting, hopped up in a pharmaceutical haze, slightly loopy music playing distantly in the background.  but this year, after moving out to new west, i've had a return of the symptoms.  itchy face, itchy eyes, itchy throat, sneezing, sinus headaches - and the attendant feelings of irritability.  something about having your face itch makes you feel persnickity - go figure.

we seemed to be spending a lot of money on over-the-counter allergy medicine recently (not that much, but more than none, which is my ideal).  i rationalized that if the allergies weren't going away then i was going to knock them unconscious with medicine.  i don't take a lot of medicine, preferring a more holistic approach, but if your face itches long enough you'll do anything to make it stop.  i was a little phased by how easy it is to march into a random clinic and ask for prescriptions - and ahoy, you get three in two minutes.  the doctor didn't even want to look at my eyes, nose or throat.  i wonder if it's always that easy, even if you want crazy things.  anyway, armed with $100 of free medicine (cheers, benefits!), i marched back home to try it out.  so far, meh.  sometimes my allergies are better, sometimes the medicines (eye drops, nose spray and pills - sexy!) don't seem to do much, aside from giving me various other woes - odd and concerning things like a hacking cough and stabbing face pains!  

and what on earth do these photos of cole in the long grass have to do with my allergies?  i still think grass is the culprit, and it certainly is abundant in our neighbourhood.  to the side of our building there's a big grassy hill, one that we love to roll around and take photos on.  we like to read out there, look for sticks, cuddle and eat snacks.  i'd been avoiding it recently, but yesterday we took our blanket and books and walked over there to find a good spot underneath the oak trees.  

i've long made it a habit to argue logic with the folks on commercials who take their medicine dutifully and then go rub their face in a cat or run through fields of wildflowers, tempting their symptoms to return.  it's always very "doctor, it hurts when i do this..." and makes me laugh.  i still think it's dopey, even when it's me - hopped up and rolling around on a grassy hill.  the medicine didn't really stand up well to the assault but it was worth it anyway for some late afternoon romping.  

we climbed and rolled, read "hand hand fingers thumb" and substituted "bum" as cole wished, pretended to snooze and cole climbed inside my t-shirt awkwardly because he was convinced he was a baby bird about to be born.  well worth it indeed.  and then back inside to wash that blanket and take more eyedrops.  ;-)