Fro-yo Cures All

I’m allergic to Oklahoma.  It took some time to confirm it, as all sound research does, but I can now say with 95% confidence that I am statistically significantly allergic to the state of Oklahoma.  I am struggling with yet another attack of allergies—itchy eyes, stuffy nose, clogged lungs, lots of phlegm.  Really quite a deliciously attractive situation going on over here.  Thankfully, this little bout of allergies doesn’t seem to be nearly as intense as one I suffered just about a month ago.  I thought I was going to die in my sleep during that one.  Well, if I could’ve fallen asleep, that is.  My constant coughing and nose-blowing made sleep impossible for about a week that time.  I cannot ever recall having an allergy attack before this year.  And now, it’s a regularly occurring party in my mucus membranes.  Gross.

Allergies or not, I enjoyed some quality outdoor time this weekend.  I’d call the first annual OK Runner Chili Cook-Off/Trail Run a success.  We had 12 varieties of chili to taste and beer courtesy of Mustang Brewing Company to cleanse the palate.  While not being able to participate in the trail run was a bummer, a 4^th place award in the chili cook-off and an opportunity to get an early start on the beer drinking almost made up for it.  It was a beautiful day—85 degrees and nothing but sunshine.  Asher was fortunate to get some miles in with Scott, and a couple of swims, too!  I won a sweet hydration backpack.  I even studied a bit for my Monday exams while everyone was off enjoying the trails.  Darn near a perfect day altogether.

Now back to those exams.  Excuse my language, but this is the only way to describe my Monday:  it sucked.  Seriously, Mondays are rough enough with class from 9AM-6PM, but throw in two exams that I’m not remotely prepared for compared to normal, and it was one heck of a stressful day.  I survived the exams well enough, I suppose, but I’m going to need to get my act together for the next round.  I’m a lover of learning and a lover of school, but recently I’ve started to experience slight burn out, I think.  I’ve got a lot of other things going on these days, and quite honestly, I’d rather be doing a lot of those other things than going to school.  It’d also be fun to not live like a student for once in my adult life.  Stay tuned for huge future decisions, my friends.

It was probably due to the stressful day, but I was especially sensitive to boot comments yesterday.  As I was walking down the hall at school, a woman looked me up and down with pity and said “That boot must be heavy for YOU to carry.”  I swear she emphasized the word “you”.  Please, lady, like you could carry it any better.  These legs are strong, whether I’m wearing a boot or running a race, thank you very much!  Then, I went to the Y to relieve stress last night.  My plan was to practice my swimming technique and aqua jog, since I can’t swim very long without getting tired. The pool wasn’t crazy busy, but I did have to share a lane with a man who was swimming laps.  I began with aqua jogging to warm up a bit, and I made it exactly one length of the pool before a Y employee came over and said “I hate to do this to you since I seen you hobble over, but could you move to over there if you’re just going to be going up and down the lane like that.”  And by “over there” he meant the end where water aerobics was going on.  I was shocked.  What is the difference between me aqua jogging up and down the lane and someone swimming up and down the lane.  Plus, I planned on swimming intermittently, although I was too ashamed to tell the guy this because I know I’m a terrible swimmer and I feel like he and his cronies (ie, lifeguards) would have been watching and judging as I splashed up and down the lane.  So, I hobbled on over to the water aerobics end, fuming internally as I tried not to put weight on my left foot, and the clearly out-of-shape swim coach comes up to me and points to the water aerobics class and says “Maybe you could join them.” Now, I have nothing against water aerobics, but the mean age of the participants last night was 75, I swear.  Seriously, do you think I’m here to play around in the pool?  Do you think I LIKE being in this cramp-inducing pit of death?!?  I hate the Y! Whew.  It felt good to get that off my chest.  I'd like to add that no one ever filled my vacant spot in my original lane the entire time that I was there. 

So since the Y clearly isn’t going to be the stress relief I had hoped for, I have a back up.  Lots of ice cream/frozen yogurt.  It’s instant euphoria when it hits my mouth.  Combined with great company, and there’s just nothing better.  I finally found my way back to Orange Tree last night, and had one of the most delicious concoctions I’ve come up with yet.  You can tell who the rookies are in self-serve place like that.  There is a perfect ratio of fro-yo to toppings, and the rookies always go WAY overboard with the fro-yo.  Don’t be discouraged if you find this happening to you.  It just takes practice, like anything.  Some of us just practice more than others.  You, too, can become a master if your heart is in it.  I think my allergies are slightly better today, too, which is most likely a result of fro-yo consumption.  Perhaps that will be the secret to my surviving allergy season in Oklahoma.