When I first started this journal, I thought I was going to be one of those people who updated a lot, but I've found that it's a lot harder to do that than I thought it was. I don't want to just write entries about what I ate for lunch and all that, but it takes a long time to come up with ideas for things that would be interesting to write about. Even then I want to mull ideas around in my head for a while. And that only works when I have mulling time.

Lately I've started a serious offensive program against my hives. It involves me following the strictest anti-salicylate diet possible (which is really hard) and continuing to take large amounts of Benadryl on a regular schedule. It seems to be working pretty well. Yesterday when I forget to take my before bed dose, I noticed that the hives I had in the morning as a result of missing my dose were a lot better than they usually were when I wasn't taking the Benadryl. Being on that medication all the time is really tough though. I have to be sure to time my doses so that, for instance, I don't take one an hour before my weekly meeting with my boss, or else I'll just stare slack-jawed at him for an hour while he wonders, "now what am I paying her for?" Needless to say, things such as laundry, dinner, and website updates have not been high on the short list of things I can manage to get done most days. I hope this works and I can go off the Benadryl some day. Plus I really miss things like ketchup, raspberries, and broccoli.

One thing I've learned from this interesting experience is just how little medical science knows about most things. For instance, when it comes to allergies, it may seem like they've found out a lot, but there's still a huge amount they don't know. They know about the actual chemical reaction that characterizes a true allergic reaction. Still, they don't really know what triggers an allergy. They don't know why they sometimes go away. They don't know why people have allergic reactions to things that don't cause the actual chemical reaction (like the majority of chronic hives cases). My husband seems to think that in the next 50 years or so, they're going to have currently mysterious diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (which my mom has) all figured out, but I'm not so optimistic. Every fact learned leads to 20 more questions, each more complicated than the first. It's amazing what complex, beautiful and fragile bodies we have.

I've also got some exciting (for me) news. I'm going to be taking a basic black and white photography course here at the university either next month or January. My husband is borrowing a camera from someone for me. I tried to take a photography course in 8th grade in the gifted program, but I had to leave it for other reasons before we really did anything. I took one at my high school, but someone stole my developed film before I got a chance to do anything with it, and it happened too close to the end of the class for me to begin again. (Of course, I probably could have done it if the teacher had helped me out a little bit, but he was more interested in flirting with all the girls in the class. Incidentally, he was fired the next year after being caught in the darkroom with a girl. He was old and gross.) Hopefully this is finally my chance to learn something about photography. Yey!

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather. The temperature and trees have been just wonderful here lately. God sure was smart when he came up with this whole season thing. Happy fall everyone, and enjoy the new fall decor here on the website as well!