(no subject)

[the_rck]

Cordelia's birthday is the 17th. I'm trying to think of a way to celebrate it that she'll enjoy and coming up completely blank.

We're not really in a position to buy her gifts the way we normally would-- mostly because we all agree that the things she wants are in no way worth anybody putting themselves at risk. I think I've got one book for her that I bought back in February when I saw it at a steep discount.

We'd normally go out for either lunch or dinner, but the places she prefers are closed for the duration. We could order from somewhere else, but she's been unenthusiastic about the idea. I think that a big part of that is the risk that, no matter where we order from, at least one of us will discover, when the food arrives, that it's not safe for us to eat. (Or, worse, we'll eat it and find out it wasn't safe after it's too late to avoid the consequences.)

I've been coughing off and on the last few days. I don't usually get that from allergies, but I'm almost certain that that's what's causing the cough. I've been getting this sort of coughing since last September's illness/allergic reaction/bronchitis, and I don't have any noticeable non-allergy issues. I'm just having stronger reactions to usual allergens and moderate to severe reactions to things that never gave me trouble before.

Comments

[heavenscalyx]

Ugh, yeah, I've been coughing more (since the respiratory plague we got from the plane trip to Vancouver in November) when I don't manage my allergies really stringently, particularly while I'm down at my parents' place. Management means my daily antihistamine plus sudafed plus flonase plus flovent, and definitely my BP med if I take sudafed, and... yeah, bleh.

[the_rck]

I’m still figuring out what triggers problems. I’ve got nasty eczema that might be a contact reaction (it’s very regionalized) or might be from something I’m eating. Some of my food allergies produce rash in specific places— if I get it on the backs of my knees, it’s an aspartame problem.

I’m thinking, based on my respiratory issues with cooking rosemary, that I may need to carry an epipen going forward. Just in case the reaction is worse next time.

[evalerie]

Yeah, I was really stumped about what to do for James' birthday last month. I ended up conspiring with the neighbors across the street so that one house had a sign in the window that said "Happy" and the next house had "18th Birthday" and the third one had "James."

Wendy paid David Zinn to do a chalk drawing on the sidewalk in front of her house for Kristen and John's birthdays.

We had a neighbor in the neighborhood ask everybody to make chalk drawings for her child's birthday. (Some of us didn't have chalk and hung up signs in our windows instead.)

And a friend of mine asked lots of people to drive by and wave from inside their cars at 6pm, and they stood outside their house wearing masks and waved as the cars went by.

None of these is perfect, but I thought there were some decent ideas there. For whatever that is worth.

[the_rck]

I’m fairly sure Cordelia would find all of these terminally embarrassing. She has a very low threshold for too much attention. Her current request is something tasty and for us to give her as much time to herself as she wants.

Then, she added, “You usually do that anyway.”