On a scale of 1 to Ottawa...this is worse!!!

Does anyone even read this anymore? Since I switched to my card making blog, I hardly ever post here anymore...it's not that I don't have anything to say...it's just that most of what I DO have to say relates to card making!

However...this has NOTHING to do with card making, so I thought I might as well post it here...as I type...with one eye swelled SHUT!

So yes...on a scale of 1 to Ottawa, this is much, MUCH worse!

Let's go back about 19 years...

The summer before I was married, I was working for a company that decided to implement a Point of Sale system in their stores. If you haven't been around long, I know it's hard to believe that there was a world before scanners and automated everything, but trust me...it existed.

Anyway...I spent the summer travelling and planning our wedding on weekends...that's a WHOLE OTHER STORY for another day...

While I was travelling (and living out of a suitcase - UGH!) I ate out A LOT! One evening, one of the ladies that worked in the store I was training on the new system invited me for dinner. I thought this was just FABULOUS as I wouldn't have to eat another restaurant meal all by myself.

I didn't know it at the time, but she had cats. I'm allergic to cats...VERY allergic to cats...as in get me an inhaler before I have an asthma attack allergic...yeah...not fun.

So, I went to dinner and we chatted and I had a great time with her family...until my eyes started to itch...and my nose started to get stuffed...and my breathing became laboured. And that's when I discovered she had cats. Well...I got the heck outta there in a hurry, went back to my hotel and took some meds. Of course, by then it was TOO LATE!!!

The fluid had started to build up in my eyes and by the next morning (despite the meds!) they were pretty much swollen shut. I had to wear sunglasses for three days straight, around the clock so I wouldn't scare little old ladies and small children. It was THAT bad!

Flash forward to last night...I was out with some girlfriends and had the same reaction. However, there were no cats to be seen. There was a dog, but I've been with this dog before, had him lick my face and snuggled with him...the whole nine yards. And besides, he's a shit-zhu. The friend that owns him is EXTREMELY allergic to both cats and dogs. This dog LIVES with her and she has NO problems. So...it wasn't the dog.

So...by the time I left the party, I had to drive with the one eye almost closed - goodbye depth perception - and just barely made it home, driving MUCH more slowly than I should have been on the highway. In hindsight, I should have taken a side road, but I wasn't exactly thinking clearly.

By this morning (having taken both allergy meds and ibuprofen to help bring down the swelling), I'm working with a left eye that is just barely able to open to about a 1/4". This is NOT COOL!!! I have a class to teach (card making, of course) to some young ladies on Sunday and can't do it looking like this! My hope is to be able to postpone the class...or at the VERY least that the swelling goes down enough for me to be able to function at least with a pair of shades.

So yes...on a scale of 1 to Ottawa? This is much, MUCH WORSE!!