It’s Wednesday, so you know where I am. Sorta.

I am, of course, in Whit Spot. But it is the one a Ackroyd an Three Road, not the one at Richmond Centre like usual. After cashing my check, I did a little shopping at Pricemart, so it made sense to eat here then take the bus back home.

It has been a fun trip.

I am also coming to you via my snazzy new roll up Bluetooth keyboard. It is not the full sized keyboard I wanted, though. I really need to learn to read the fine print before ordering stuff.

But it is three times the size of the virtual keyboard, and twice the size of my other mini keyboard, so it is still pretty cool.

The breaking in period for a new keyboard always sucks, though. Between breaking in the keys and getting used to the new key feel and responsiveness, it always ends up with me wanting to go back. But I will persevere.

Holy bucket of fucks on a stick, the loudest family is seated behind me. Two super loud children plus third desperately trying to get a word in edgewise.

The irony is that I thought I was safe from that kind of thing here in the back corner of the restaurant. One of the things I love about this particular White Spot is that it has some tables and booths that are in a little L shaped section off the main section, and it has the extra comfy chairs as well. So it’s usually quiet and comfortable.

But where else do you put the super loud family in order to minimize harm to the most customers? This way, only me and the other people in the L get subjected to these junior voice immodulation sufferers.

I hate the result, but I can’t argue with the reasoning.

More on that when I get home.

(—)

Back home now, and I feel terrible. And all because of my fucking histamines.

I was fine up to a point at White Spot. I had a new toy to play with, I was munching excellent White Spot food, I was in my favorite spot in the White Spot.

My nose had started to run, but that happens all the time when I eat. No big deal, I thought.

But then, ironically right after I had ordered more fries, something went off inside me and I felt my insides turn to wet cement. A sinus headache was building rapidly and I felt faint and lightheaded.

So just like that, happy went to sad and I felt miserable.

And that’s when the super loud family showed up. Joy. My only condolence was that, from what I could gather, the kids were with their aunt and uncle, and it sounded like they were deeply regretting volunteering to take them on.

So yeah. Loudness plus histamines plus sinuses plus irritable bowel all made me quite miserable. Fuck.

The trip home was unpleasant as well. I had never taken the 401 home before, so I didn’t know where the stop was. Turns out, it’s a block down from Three Road and Westminster.

Not only that, it doesn’t actually stop at our intersection, Cook and Cooney. It stops at Cook and Buswell (a block away) and at Cook and Eckersley (a block away in the other direction) but not at Cook and Cooney.

So in the future, I will think twice about adding “get back from 3 and West by bus” to my plans. I think I only saved about a block of walking. Maybe a little less.

Plus, I had my definitely not summer weight jacket on, and I was seriously overheated. So throw heat sickness into the mix. And I was carrying my big, which I foolishly didn’t bother to empty of extraneous stuff before leaving, so it was extra heavy.

All in all, it was like Fru Hell without, thankfully, the being buried alive.

Now that I am home and sitting and hydrating and shirtless and so on, I feel somewhat better. But the next little while will be rough for me. I will have to be careful about things like stimulus levels and making sure my nose and ears are clean. When I am done a-tap tap tapping on the keys, I will lay down with the fan on low and pointed at my poor noggin.

Being me is so goddamned complicated sometimes.

Most of the time, I don’t think about these problems of mine. That’s because most of the time, I don’t have to. Irritable bowel usually only flares up once a month or so, and most of the time, it is fully handle-able and causes me nothing more than a couple of hours of caution and discomfort.

And most of the time, the allergy and resultant body wide inflammatory response are no big deal either. Especially in winter.

But come spring, and it all hits at once. All those problems feed into each other, and as a result, I can go from feeling perfectly fine to feeling perfectly miserable in a heartbeat.

And that is really fucking depressing.

So I have to work on looking on the bright side. The bad times are bad, but they only take up a tiny percentage of my waking hours. Most of the time, I am okay.

And there are always steps I can take to either minimize the chances of the badness coming or minimize the effects when they do. I am not helpless against this enemy. I might not be able to kill it, but I at least can keep it at bay most of the time.

Growth and freedom will prevail over disease and disuse. I will grow stronger. I will get better.

I will at last be free to be who I need to be, and know what it is like to be whole again.

Tear down the wall!

Oh, and don’t worry folks. Our trouble Radiant’s adventures will continue soon. Maybe later tonight, maybe tomorrow.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.