Yesterday I had just about the worst allergy attack I’ve ever had in my Life – and I’m terrified of what today is bringing.
Generally I’ll get smacked when the weather changes, and I’ll have a day where I feel like I’ve got THINGS crawling in my nose. Bristly things. Perhaps tiny sea urchins. Perhaps budding crystalline entities. I don’t know what they are, but I hate them. I also generally have a pretty nasty allergic reaction if I’m at HMT when the Renaissance Festival stuff comes back – hammered dulcimers and guitars and mandolins, boxes and shakers and paper, all of which have been collecting dust and pollen out at the House of Musical Traditions Renaissance Festival booth for the past month and a half and all of which land in a cloud of dust and pollen in the store. We then stir up that dust and pollen further by putting everything back on the shelves in the store and generally just stir up a lot of GUNK.I think both of those things happened yesterday and I was reduced to an itchy-eyed, streaming, moist and sticky mess. I actually eventually had to retreat from the floor entirely and hid with my laptop on the upstairs balcony, trying to find computer work for me to do. I dosed myself with Claritin and sat and sneezed and dripped. I was absolutely miserable until Kristen was able to wrap up and get us out of there.
Unfortunately, our timing then landed us in Monday evening rush hour on our way up to Baltimore to run my Teavolve open mic. It was a long, slow drive, but slowly mysinuses slowed, the sneezing stopped, and Life got better. I felt the slow, subtle haze of “non-drowsy” antihistimines FINALLY entered my system and realized that I was probably in for a very, very long night.
Fortunately it seemed like the universe was listening to me for a change. It WAS a long night – but it was a long night filled with some wonderful artists and for the first time in a long time I didn’t find myself missing my two-song format. Beggar’s Ride and Nelly’s Echo especially were very, very welcome appearances and slowly my world got much, much better.
Later we drove home, pet the cats, ignored the “presidential” debate (there’s been nothing “presidential” about these stupid, “did” “did not”, childish verbal brawls) and went the Hell to bed. (I was full of snoof).
To round out a day of awesome – at the end of National Trails Day I got close to nature. 
For the last musical set of the day at National Trails Day our friends of Lilt glommed my Rowan to place him in his natural environment (that of Irish music!) playing bodhran!
