03 September 2006

allergisch nog?

This morning I woke up early because of the sunlight, feeling as if I had a cold. My mouth was dry because I'd been breathing through it all night while my nose was completely stuffed up. I feel asleep gradually with aching muscles and sniffles, woke up again to JC's phone call, and drugged myself up to put on the semblance of being healthy. Fortunately, the green chilli pepper I grabbed off the Indian buffet and ate in one go cleared up my sinuses like no drug or sinus treatment ever had before, and I stayed that way for several hours. The experience also proved the absolute effectiveness of mango lassi for relieving the searing burn of extreme spice.

My parents have taken off towards Corning to find a hotel, and I am left here with the worst allergies I've endured since the last hayfever spring I spent on the East Coast. They have spent well over a thousand on moving me in, not to mention traveling here, and I can't help but feel guilty. I know the prices that seem so painful to me are not so bad to them, and I know their standards of living for themselves and therefore me are higher than my collegial ones. I also know that in the past year they have spent way less on me than they did when I was living with them or when I was in college, and hopefully the situation will remain that way. But I can't help but feel that I'm a bad person for letting them spend such money on me. Perhaps I have developed a desire to be independent that outpaces my financial ability to be so, but I don't trust myself to recognize this. Tell me from an outside perspective. Is it okay that they've helped me so much? Or should I have used the loans and the credit card?

I am still experiencing reverse culture shock. This morning someone honked outside and I ignored it, sure it wasn't the postman on Sunday. Impossible. The card stuck in the door said he'd just come by. Doh, USPS delivers on Sundays--for Global Express Mail.

Tonight I'm going to sleep in the living room, which has hardwood floors. If necessary, I will repeat this foolishness tomorrow. If my allergies get better, I'll know I need to yank out the carpet in my room. If they don't improve, then it's time to take the air mattress on the road and camp out in a friend's apartment to see if I'm allergic to 3 Grove Place or to Rochester, New York.

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