Orange Hoodie

Another day, another allergist appointment. Actually, it’s been over 4 months since my last appointment, so it’s been quite some time since I’ve seen the allergist (in comparison with the annoying frequency that had been happening). This was just a follow-up, but he is displeased with the frequency with which the hives and swelling are breaking through the antihistamines and I must turn to steroids for relief. I actually thought it was pretty good (only about 20% of the time), but he doesn’t. So on with more experimentation. First we’re going to try two weeks on one more innocuous, safe drug, one of the few I haven’t already tried. If it doesn’t work, though, we finally move onto the heavy stuff: anti-rejection drugs. He said the side effects of the steroids at the frequency I’m taking them are actually worse than the side effects of the anti-rejection drugs. So… okay.

On with the experiments!

The last time I went to the allergist, I did metro. His office is very close to a metro stop, so that seemed like a fabulous option, but it turned out that it’s really not a pedestrian friendly area at all, and parking is free and plentiful, so this time I decided to try driving. The allergist is in Silver Spring, which is just north of DC, and I work at the south end of DC. Thus, I knew my GPS would want to take me through DC, but having done that several times already for other things, I wanted to try going around, so I printed out directions for around rather than through. I knew I’d just need to get partway around before the GPS would give up and direct me the way I wanted to go. I didn’t want to ditch the GPS entirely, of course, because I needed it to get me to my destination once I made my way around DC.

My path was I-295 to the George Washington Memorial Parkway to I-495 (aka, the Beltway). So I started along the path and my GPS kept directing me to leave my planned route so it could take me through the city. The foolish GPS thinks it’s faster that way, but the GPS is smokin’ crack, for there are horrible things there like traffic, stoplights, people turning left, and – the greatest horror! – roundabouts. And if you’re really lucky, there’s a random protest outside some embassy, and the protest is spilling into the road and messing up traffic even more. I kept ignoring the GPS. Five times it tried to direct me back into the city and five times I ignored it.

I felt so guilty. Here it was, trying to helpful, trying to do its job, and I was thwarting it. How could I be so cruel?! I almost cried. I’m not kidding, by the way. I really felt guilty and felt a bit teary about it. I told myself to get a grip. It’s just an electronic thing! It has no feelings! But my bizarre empathy with inanimate objects would not be swayed. Absurd.

It finally gave up and led me perfectly along the path to the allergist. Because it was a slow crawl once I got to the Beltway, it took almost exactly as long as the path though the city would have taken, but it was A LOT less stressful. I’ll definitely go around again. Unless I do metro next time. I’m undecided on which is ultimately easier.

Since I drove, I stopped by a nearby Trader Joe’s after the allergist appointment. That’s probably the best benefit of driving. I like Trader Joe’s.

I hadn’t planned a path home, so I just let my GPS take me however it wanted, and so through the city we went. It was pretty painless, though, since the worst of rush hour traffic was over by that time, plus I was going into the city and most people seemed to be going out.