Cologne Induced Migraine

No, not me, lol. My co-worker who persists in wearing cologne every day even though he knows it make me sick actually gave himself a migraine Friday and had to ask me if he could leave early. I was happy to tell him YES! 'Cause then maybe I could avoid a headache for the entire weekend. Selfish of me but I think canaries (people with MCS) quickly learn self-preservation techniques and use them instinctively.

Cologne Free - For a Day At Least

Well, I'm still alive and guess what - it worked. My co-worker must have remembered my request (finally!) and didn't put cologne on before work today so I made it through all day without a headache which was fortunate since my workday was over ten hours.

Computer problems galore today and EXTREMELY frustrating. The computer geeks have been beefing up the main program we use and you know what that means, lol. We appear to be their beta testers in real time or else they just don't bother with testing. Then when you report that the program is taking 1.5 minutes to do what used to take 5 seconds they're saying it must be your computer and to reboot. This delay doesn't sound that bad until you multiply it times the thousand transactions necessary to accomplish what needs to be done. Anyway after finally convincing them that it has to be the programming they're saying yes it is but they have to do the fix over the weekend so no help today. Grrrrrr. . . .

Death by Cologne?

One of my co-workers continues to wear strong cologne to work every day and so today I asked him to just wear a bit more tomorrow and maybe my reaction to it will be so strong that it'll finally kill me and put me out of my misery. I'm just really tired of having to work every day with a pounding heart, splitting headache, and nausea. He was rather allarmed by my request. Guess I'll find out tomorrow whether I die or maybe, just maybe, he'll think twice before reaching for that bottle of cologne.

Tooth Fairy Rate Hike?

The son of one of my co-worker's pulled a loose baby tooth yesterday and put it in a zip-lock bag with a note on it. "Dear Tooth Fairy, This tooth was really hard to pull and was very painful so I think I deserve $20 for it." Haven't heard what the Tooth Fairy left yet but I thought this was very creative for a small boy. I know I'm getting old when I hear things like this 'cause I remember when the Tooth Fairy left a quarter and that was a lot.

Another Work Day

Had to work today, Saturday, with most of my team. We're swamped with work now and even working long hours during the week didn't solve the problem so it was just another work day. One thing I enjoyed about working today (did I actually say enjoyed?) is that with only a few scattered people, there were no toxins from scent so no headache, nausea, erratic heartbeat, or fatigue from MCS to deal with. First work day since Christmas that I was MCS symptom free and therefore I got a ton of work done in a short period. Just think how much more productive I could be at work if my company would just put a little effort into convincing people to leave there scent for non-work occasions. The toxins affect me severely but others must be affected also and just don't realize it. So making the work-place scent-free would probably increase productivity in general and thus would improve the bottom line.

So what's keeping companies from doing this? Offices have been rendered smoke-free so why not scent-free? Is the scent industry influence so strong (no pun intended) that the government can't do anything about this problem let alone individual companies. I've been reading some of the blogs and web-sites listed on the right and with no regulation on the scent industry's use of known toxins you'd think people would be a lot more careful about using highly scented products. Canaries (people with MCS) aren't the only ones affected, just the ones who get dangerously ill from it.

Funny how people think about this. I have a friend who's knows I have MCS and wouldn't dream of wearing scent when going somewhere with me but thinks nothing of wearing an outfit she laundered that day that reeks of highly scented fabric softener (one of the biggest culprits in my opinion). There's been a lot of discussion about the effects of these toxins on our health and the alarming increase in recent years of people with severe health problems that have to be connected to the toxins. Here's a really frightening stat for you, one in every 150 children is autistic. The odds are even worse in Georgia where I live. WHY? Has to have something to do with our increased exposure to toxins.

Well I need to get off my soapbox 'cause my daughter is bringing over my severely autistic granddaughter and she's faster than lightning and into everything but still doesn't know her own name at two years old. So sad. She's so cute that you just want to pick her up for a hug but can't since she doesn't like to be held and won't look at you. She sees what you're doing though and the other night her hand snaked out as she was walking by and grabbed a muffin off my plate of food. She just kept walking and made the rounds (den, hall, living room, dining room, kitchen, then back to the den) and grabbed another handful of food off my plate. At this point I told my daughter to get off the phone and computer and come FEED HER DAUGHTER! Grayson had just been fed about an hour before so really wasn't hungry. She just helps herself to whatever is handy and EVERYTHING goes in her mouth, even the pebbles from the gas fireplace (which my husband had to disconnect for this reason). Gotta go! Grandmother duty calls, lol.

Symphony Night and No Headache, YAY!

Came home last night from the Symphony with only a minor headache and this is a first for me since we frequently have to change seats and I still get really sick from all the scent (toxins). Wouldn't you know that on the one evening I could have enjoyed the music, the program was BORING! Had a hard time keeping awake. The musicians were really good but the music choices weren't.

Anyway I just purchased/downloaded La Tua Simplicita , a duet by Placido Domingo and Josh Groban from Placido Domingo's new album Amore Infinito. It's beautiful beyond words. Sometimes it's hard to tell which one is singing but they both have such fantastic voices that there's no way a duet couldn't be wonderful.

Blog Items

Can't keep up with all the new stuff available in the blog-world but I'm trying. Today I've added a chatbox and a followers box. OK so maybe nobody wants to chat or follow this blog but hey, you have to start somewhere. Next I'll try to figure out how to add some bling to my blog but this may be beyond my abilities, lol. I'd also like to add a slide show but this will have to wait until I upload some pictures to photobucket. So much to do and so little time. Wish retirement were next Monday so I'd have more time for what interests me. Guess we all wish that at some time or other.