Full Blown Spring

Hey folks.  There's no question about it, we're in full blown spring down here in Georgia.

By the way, spring is NOT my favorite season.  It is, in fact, runner up for last place (eff you summer...I hate you).

Spring for most of the rest of the country means the last little bit of snow melting away (or maybe even the last snow storm of the season), daily high temperatures finally raising into the 60's, trees beginning to get their green leaves, grass beginning to come out of it's dormancy, and the first sprouting of new flowers (followed by bees...so many bees).

But here in the south, spring looks a little different.  It didn't snow at all this year, so there's no snow to melt.  The temperature has already been fluctuating for a month and this week we're "blessed" with temperatures up in the 80's (though it's still 45 in the morning).  The trees have not only gotten their green leaves, but have already nearly finished blooming.  The flowers have been growing since February (because southern flowers are dumb and think winter is the best time for blooming).  I've already missed my window for spring planting because now it's too damn hot to start new flowers.  The grass has been growing like crazy for a few weeks already.  The bees and wasps are out in full strength and are starting to make their homes in such horrible places as our bird house that is MEANT FOR THE DAMN BIRDS (not you, you stupid paper wasp)! The rain...so much rain (the number 2 reason why I hate spring so much...I'm not meant for the rain...I melt). And, to top it all off, there is a generous coating of yellow dust covering the whole city (probably the whole state....the whole regional maybe) like a blanket of death.  Pine pollen...blech!

With all the above "springtime niceties" comes my damn allergies.  Thank you, Georgia, for making me allergic to pretty much everything in the environment.  Lived in Wisconsin, no allergies.  Moved to GA, allergies every season of the year (just one more reason to add to the WHY I WANT TO MOVE BACK HOME list).

I can't breathe because my lungs are full of dust that turns into a nasty gooey mess.  I can't breathe because my nose is full of pollen boogers (grossed out yet?).  My face hurts because my sinuses are full of pollen.  My throat is in a perpetual state of scratchy because it's coated with pollen.  My eyes are extra itchy and watering like crazy because all the pollen in them feels like grains of sand floating around every time my eyes move.  The piece de resistance:  2...TWO...cold sores at the same time.

Some people get cold sores when they have a cold. Not me, no, that would be silly.  I get cold sores for one of three reasons:  1-I'm under a lot stress, 2-I'm coming out from being under a lot of stress, 3-PINE POLLEN.  One day outside with bare lips (because I accidentally left my chapstick at home when we went to the mud bog) and I woke up this morning with two cold sores.  Yesterday they were chapped and I was lathering on my favorite sweet mint EOS lip balm like it was going out of style, and sadly it was all for naught.

I made it through 5 months of cancer hell with the most stress I've ever had in my entire life and never once got a cold sore.  One week into pollen season, and I've got two.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!  We're going to Florida this weekend for Passover.  Oh, a vacation?  Time for cold sores!

(On a side note, after having spent a little over a week reducing my gluten intake, I can now see the veins in my feet again, see my ankles, and I can move my feet without them being in excruciating pain.  It would appear that gluten was, in fact, the cause of my extreme swelling.  I intend to maintain a reduced-gluten lifestyle from here on out.  I can't cut it completely out, that's just ludicrous!)

This, my friends, is why I hate spring nearly as much as I hate summer.