Rudolph the Red-Nosed Allergy

I used to think that I caught a cold about once every five years, and that when the doctor said allergies it was code for he didn't know.

I did some research on allergies after unexplained hives (my only known allergy is hives in reaction to cigarette smoke), and boy was I wrong! What I caught Tuesday night ten days ago (and I'm just now starting to shake it off) in Wisconsin is probably an allergy because my nose is running very thin and perfectly clear, and I don't have even the slightest fever. While I was fighting off the nasal drip cough, I thought, This is the same cold I always get that's so hard to shake. So the bad news is that I've had more allergies than I thought, although infrequently. But the good news, I suppose, is that I get colds less than one every five years.

After the nasal drip, I got another side effect that's probably more allergy: a rash on the side of my nose that looks like poison ivy. However, since I thought it was allergy this time, I just treated it like poison ivy, and this rash has never dried up so quickly!