Dear Mother Nature...

I thought we had an understanding.  After the first frost of the year, you would stop with the pollen, ragweed and all the other nasty, but necessary, crap that puts me in allergy hell.  Last week, you decided to give us our first taste of fall- with not one but two nights of frost.  I was happy-no, I was thrilled.  I thought--no more sneezing, no more allergies.  On top of that, I thoroughly enjoy fall.  I enjoy being outside in jeans and a sweatshirt, I love cuddling up at night under my blanket as the temperatures dip below 35 degrees.  I truly do.

But today, Mother Nature, I woke up to a beautifully sunshiny morning.  65 degrees at 7:30 am (and why I am awake at 7:30 am on a Sunday is another story entirely).  OK, so not entirely "fall" weather in almost the middle of October, but I can handle that.  What I can't handle is the sudden onset of some of the most severe allergies I have ever had.  And only on one side of my face.  And the itching.  It is extremely annoying to have only one nostril completely plugged up and one eye constantly watering/puffy and swollen.  I fear doing any delicate work in the lab today because the sudden, violent uncontrollable sneezing attacks could cause me to stab my eye with a pipette or spew snot into my bacterial cultures. Why did the frost not take care of this?  Why, Mother Nature, do you feel the need to torture me like this? 

So, I beg of you, Mother Nature, please go back to your normally scheduled programing and give me fall back.  With all the frosty nights you can.  Teasing me like this is just mean.  I would like to be able to breathe normally and not carry around wads of Kleenex with me wherever I go and and not have people treating me like a leper because it is not allergy season and they all assume I have some super-cold.

I promise that if you do this for me I will not bitch when the first snowfall comes.

A stuffy miserable Dr. Zeek--