I’ve pretty much tried everything there is to take for allergies, and today it was Benadryl’s turn. I got into such a bad sneezing fit this afternoon that I thought I might lose consciousness. It was almost like some kind of seizure. Plus the dripping: I might have lost a couple of pounds, just from blowing my nose so many times in a row. Usually that helps, but not today. So I took a double dose of Benadryl (actually, the store equivalent). The label says one or two, and I was pretty sure one wouldn’t be enough.

It worked, more or less. It knocked me out, and I can safely say I stopped sneezing and hacking while I slept. Unfortunately it was the middle of the work day, and the phone and fax wouldn’t let me sleep as much as I probably needed to (or as much as I definitely wanted to). I’m still somewhat symptomatic tonight. My head feels full again, and my throat is a little scratchy. But I’m not sneezing, and enough time has gone by that I can probably take another Benadryl-like pill before I go to bed. If only I could sleep until all the dust and pollen were gone.

When I was in sixth grade, a new girl moved to town. She was put in my class, and when asked to introduce herself to her new classmates, she gave her name and then announced that she was from Red Bluff. “That’s in Tehama County,” she added, and that’s why I’ve never forgotten that factoid. She also told us that her favorite singer was Cowboy Copas, whom none of us had ever heard of. We were all Chubby Checker fans that year. Interesting factoid: Cowboy Copas later died in the same plane crash that killed Patsy Cline.