trials

I am sitting here writing this with Patsy purring in my lap. Yesterday I went into Manhattan to do some errands. When I got on the train to come back to Brooklyn I had an allergy attack of epic proportions. I must have sneezed twenty times in a row, and then it was as if a faucet had been turned on in my head. My eyes, my nose and my throat itched. I was blind-sided.

When I got home I took two sudafed. Then I noticed Patsy licking at her belly. I took a look and saw that the sutures from her surgery looked quite irritated. Closer inspection showed that at least one of the sutures was infected; I won't go into the details but it was quite nasty. I called the vet and hoped someone would answer, as it was past their regular office hours. Luckily Dr N picked up, and I told her about Patsy. She told me to bring her in right away. So I did. Dr N removed the stitches--they are the kind that are supposed to dissolve, but they sure weren't dissolving quickly enough--and gave Patsy an injection of an antibiotic. Then she gave me liquid antibiotic to give her at home, twice a day. It is like animal hospital here. But already the infection looks gone and she is not licking that spot anymore.

Unfortunately my allergies did not abate quite so fast. I went to my brother's to exchange gifts in the evening and I was just a mess. So I took another sudafed, and then, as so often happens, I felt like I was so high I could barely walk. I took a cab home. I don't really remember much, but I fell asleep with a candle burning. When I woke at 5 am I wondered why it was light in my room. I could have burned my apartment, the whole building down. I was so freaked out. I am stupid beyond belief sometimes.

My brother gave me a beautiful Misono handmade chef's knife. Japanese knives are really the best. I am quite a serious cook, and while I have good knives already, this one is the gem of my arsenal. Just looking at it you see how beautifully it is made, and I was cutting up a lemon for tea and just barely had to touch the fruit andt the blade just went right through, effortlessly.