It's not right to be awake and blogging this early the day after my birthday, but here I am - allergies and all.

I was looking online to see if there was a relationship with my recent allergies and quitting smoking. Though I did not find any real medical sounding information, I did find a forum where people discussed this issue:

http://www.topix.com/forum/health/allergy/TG70I7EP1E0LDU3ED

Sadly, there were no real answers, just a bunch of ex-smokers complaining of allergy symptoms and attempting to self diagnose. But, I did feel better after reading it, because my allergies are truly kicking my ass, and I am now unable to sleep in which has taken me and my mucous to a new, very uncool level.

The King Tut exhibit was amazing!! 10 rooms of glittering artifacts were quite overwhelming. I had a hard time grasping how old some of the items were - over 3k years old! Thrones, busts, masks, coffins. There were videos running in some of the room as well. That Carter dude really hit the damn jackpot in that excavation trip. I was kind of wondering though if Tut would be pissed his tomb got hijacked, you know? Like these things were all set up very ceremoniously to assist him in the afterlife. Maybe it was just to help him get there, but I imagine he'd like to be sporting his scarab necklaces in heaven? I was wearing high heels and by the end, I could hardly walk around. I had to keep finding benches to rest on, which turned out to be a good thing I think, because I needed some time to digest some of these exhibits. My favorite things were the golden shrine, and the gilded coffin of Tjuya.


http://www.touregypt.net/museum/tutl55.htm
http://www.tutsanfrancisco.org/content/coffin-tuyu

I could go on for days, but anyone living in the bay area should see this. It's touring around the US, and it's really a magical thing.

After the exhibit, we drove back to our apartment. My driving strike ended after realizing what a pain it was to get to the museum. But, I was back on strike for dinner time. We came back and I opened my present from the bf's mom. She got me a super cute headband, and a very blingy necklace. Not my normal style, but once it was on it, I liked how it looked. It's one of those wild Betsy Johnson necklaces, with crowns and bows and hearts. Hearts in leopard print. I got a bunch of compliments on the thing, so I know it worked! The bf went downstairs to start his car and get us to dinner. His car didn't start. I didn't say a word, but I could feel my blood pressure building. He kept trying and then nothing. I was pissed beyond pissed at this point, and although my readers you may think I could quite possibly be the biggest brat in the world for this kind of hissy fit, but there is history and reason behind it.

The bf's car is my age. He refuses to get a new one and relies on my car to get us around. Pretty much every dinner is spent with me toting the two of us around, and as I am a strict observer of the no drinking and driving policy, I never get my fancy dinner cocktails. However, last year on my birthday, all I wanted was to be able to have a nice drink and be taken care of. It was bad enough I was sharing my birthday dinner with the bf's mom's friend, and bad enough I really got no say in where I was going, but I wound up driving us to my birthday dinner and boy, was I not happy. We broke up shortly thereafter.

So, back to the present. I get my keys and storm around in a huff and tell everyone to get in my car because we have to make our reservation. I was feeling insanely pissed because I had already driven the first leg of my birthday, and here we were going with round two. The gods were on my side and the bf tried his car again, and in we piled. We had a fabulous dinner, and I had a very, VERY strong Mai Tai.

We came back to the apartment and relaxed with Band of Brothers. It was then my body started revolting on me. I was itchy, sneezy, plugged, snotty - all at once. With piles of tissue around me, I tried to relax and let the allergy attack ride out. I found a trial sized nasal spray my doc gave me and snorted some of that. Nothing was working, so I took a very hot shower, which helped a great deal.

I did wake up this morning with the same allergies, which is why I was awake earlier today than I am for work days. But, with the gym, picnic on the beach, taking the car in, Oscars, dinner and homework, I think I'll have a pretty enjoyable, but busy end to my birthday festivities.