Crime And Death Were Too Close For Comfort
Yesterday wasn’t one of the better days in my life. First off I seemed to have an allergic reaction at lunch time, then shortly after I was informed that one of my across-the-street neighbors had been broken into and had their hours ransacked on Sunday evening.
The Case Of The Swelling Mouth
Lunch yesterday didn’t seem as if it would be any different than any lunch which had taken place in the past. How wrong I was.
A few coworkers and I went to the Mellow Mushroom where I ordered a jerk chicken sandwich with water. With the exception of feeling a bit rundown and then sitting in a restaurant which must have been 60˚F (I kept my coat on the entire time) this lunch still seemed like all others. I started sneezing as we headed back to work, I assumed a cold was on its way.
Once back at work I brewed a pot of Starbucks coffee and ate a piece of a Christmas snack that was brought in by a coworker. The snack consisted of graham cracker, pecans, and some praline syrup. I walked back to my office with coffee in hand and got mentally prepared to restart my working. And then it hit…
All of a sudden the inside of my mouth started to swell. I thought that I was imagining this so I got up and went to the bathroom to look in the mirror. My fear was confirmed, my face was a little red and noticeably puffed. I asked another coworker if he knew anything about the local hospitals. Of course he assumed I was joking, until he saw my face. He suggested that I get some Benadryl.
Heeding his advice I went back to my desk — none. I went down to my car where I have two nearly-unused first aid kits — neither of which had Benadryl in them! Starting to panic I decided I should rush to buy some Benadryl so I jumped into the car and drove through shitty Perimeter Mall traffic to the nearby Target where I found Benadryl, opened the package and swallowed two, and then paid for the drugs.
Things seem to be back to near-normal, but you might correctly suspect that I’ve been a bit shaken by this experience.
ITP Flickr Pic
I’ve been in possession of this whimsical snowman statue since last year. I’ve been trying to figure out how I wanted to shoot it.
Then it dawned on me that my comforter kind of looked like snow.
Shutting My Social Life Down Until Christmas
Last night I stayed in. Tonight I’ll stay in. Tomorrow night I will be staying in.
My life has become too hectic and I need to spend a few more nights at home. I plan to do a lot of television, more specifically dvd, watching consisting of Christmas specials.
They Say The Mind Is The First To Go, I Guess That I’m Gone
The other day I was pleased when Netflix sent me the first disc for season one of Mad Men.
I had decided that I was going to watch the entirety of season one, I had previously watched about half on my AppleTV, so I put the entire first season into my Netflix queue.
I ripped the three episodes from the disc so that I could watch them on my computer or AppleTV. And then I remembered… I had been watching the episodes on my AppleTV because I had already purchased the entire first season from Apple and had them downloaded to my AppleTV! Yikes! How could I forget this?
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – meh, as if I didn’t have enough weighing on my (weakening) mind
Current Music – listening to the “News From Lake Wobegon”
Website Of The Day – xkcd is a great site for web comics.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 11.5 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 23 (23)
Vegetarian Days – 11
Carnivorous Days – 11
Marta Rides – 0
Ongoing
Books To Read To Earn Kindle – 4
December Goals
1) Lose no fewer than two pounds
2) Drink no soda
3) Run no fewer than 50 miles
4) Completely read no fewer than one book
5) Write at least one program using Ruby on Rails
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
It’s comforting to know you’re still with us!!
Thanks Sal!
I don’t say this often, but I’m really happy to be alive today.
Glad you survived, Benadryl is an amazing drug, I just hate that it makes me (and most people) so tired.
Thrashers last night played like they were the Gladiators, and the Maple Leafs aren’t that great of a team, but sure played better last night. At least we had great seats, I sometimes forget what a different game it is sitting in the lower level. But, I like when we play the Canadian teams, Oh Canada is a great national anthem.
Swelling mouth and throat would freak me out as well. I have an insane fear of suffocating, I probably would have gone to the hospital.
Glad to hear you made it through!
I know you are not a big fan of dogs but have you considered a large dog for your house to deter thieves?
Yeah the Benadryl knocked me out all afternoon/night. I was useless in the office and when I arrived home I whipped up a little dinner (part of tomorrow’s blog perhaps) and then got under the covers. I must have been asleep by no later than 9:30pm.
In what section were you seated? Occasionally I want to be in good seats for my photography desires. And now that I’ve lost the source of awesome company seats through one of our mutual friends I might have to pony-up for my own.
I agree with you on “Oh Canada”, I think it’s awesome.
Bob, in reading the accounts of the all-too-many break-ins large dogs no longer seem to be a deterrent. My neighbors across the street have dogs and luckily nothing happened to them as I’ve read at least one account where the thugs injured a dog during a robbery.
Further, having a dog would mean that I’d be unable to have a motion detector as part of my alarm system.
Crazy reactions like that are scary… I’ve had HALF of my tongue swell up for no identifiable reason… even one of the docs here was like, “WTF is thaT?” The picture is a classic however!
Crazy armed homeowner seems to be the only thing that works completely, 2nd seems to be an alarm, that way they have to ransack your house quickly… it is f’ed up. Somebody in EAV actually shot a dude in the elbow a few weeks ago, and it was the 3rd time the crook broke into their house to get the new replacements… not good.
Yeah, it’s bad enough to get broken into once but then the thugs (oftentimes correctly) assume that you’ve replaced everything with new stuff and break in again weeks later.
We sat in section 117, about half way between center ice and the goal that IF the Thrashers ever scored in the 1st & 3rd period, we would have had great seats. But, unfortunately, the Thrashers felt that defense was a waste of time, and their goalie needed a good workout (poor Kari last night), so they spent a lot of time at the other end. My friend Felicia has a friend that works for Philips Arena, so if I hear of more free seats again, I’ll let you know. They are usually pretty last minute though.
What you need is a couple of Toby and Nibble dogs to protect the house…it is a three prong approach.
1) they lay down in front of the doors so the bad guys can’t get them open and
2) if the do get in most likely will trip over said dog and fall to the floor where
3) they come face to face with Nibbles barking at them, thus leaving the bad guys so doubled over with laughter then can’t steal anything before the police arrive.
I’m pretty much off the Benadryl and take Claritin…it seems to help just fine when I break out in a rash/hives about once a week and doesn’t make me sleepy.
Okay now that you have benadryl handy are you going to try another cookie to see it that was the culprit?
The cookies have been eaten. I should have set one aside but I was fearful of experiencing that swelling again.
Barb, last minute is okay by me. Just holler at me and if I have no plans (and don’t swell unexpectedly) I’ll be there.
>and don’t swell unexpectedly
Is it wrong that made me giggle???
No, as I read it again I am laughing. This just goes to prove that I am not on top of my game at the moment. Just more proof that the light is on but no one is home in my head.
Maybe you took a little too much Benedryl?? Fried your brain?
Don’t you have the wrought iron “screen doors”? The other thing is not to have the expensive toys visible from the windows.
-FP
No, it’s just that any Benadryl knocks me out. The Mad Men mess up happened well before the Benadryl intake.
I have bars on my kitchen and basement windows, and a iron door on the basement door. The rest are nekkid.
maybe your mind is going because you now have to watch all the asinine commercials on tv?
I’d tend to agree with you if not for the fact that I tend to fall asleep immediately while watching tv (or reading for that matter).
Perhaps I’ve contracted Mad Cow disease?
That would explain many things about you!!!
-FP
Don’t blame the beef!
Yikes, hope you can figure out what the culprit for the swelling was and steer well clear in the future. As a victim of anaphylaxis allergy to nuts myself I’ve been told that each time the reaction can get worse. Seems to be the case for me, last two times I came into contact with nuts (most recent being last year with sneaky ground walnuts in some Trader Joe’s pasta) I ended up in right states in the ER and have to carry an epi-pen with me now.
Just got internet connected to the new house here. Hit the Buzz and was appalled to read about the dogs being dumped on the corner at our house in Atlanta. Rather relieved to be here right now and now overrun with puppies for Christmas. Hope it’s not the rose tinted specs on but it all seems terribly pleasant in Charlotte so far.