Freeform Freakout

Katie sez, forget all your problems, come to bed....

Sigh. Today has been rough. Most of the time I seem to handle everything that's going on pretty well. Generally. Little blips of worry here and there, but mostly, pretty calm about things.

But for some reason, I'm having a freakout day.

Perhaps spurred by two things: Terri is feeling horrible for no apparent reason, which always ramps up my anxiety and feelings of helplessness, and we just did informal mold testing in our apartment, with shocking results. Mold is everywhere in our environments, of course, but some of Terri's tests indicate that we may have a mold problem in our house. So we did this initial test.
The informal mold test is this: shut all the windows in the house for 6 hours. Put out petri dishes in each room, expose for an hour. Label, then seal and put in a dark place for four days to see how many mold colonies grow. More than five can be a problem (they say).

The results? Surprisingly, only three colonies in the bathroom. However.

However.

Twenty colonies in the living room.
At least sixteen in the bedroom.
Twenty-six in the kitchen.
At least FORTY-FIVE in the garage, which is just below the kitchen.

(picture Lucy, running around with hands in the air, screaming, "Ugh! Augh! Dog germs! Dog gemrs!" only in this case it's me, screaming, "Ugh! Augh! Mold colonies! Mold colonies!")

YUCK. This is so gross and disturbing. I don't even know what to do with this. I took photos of the plates for posterity and we'll talk to Terri's doctor again in a few weeks to see what, if anything, we need to do next. The plates are so gross.

But this just makes me feel anxious. Like we're in this poisoned house.

Also, I'm having an allergic reaction to something. Among other symptoms, my ear (the bum ear) is really hurting and I'm worried about another Mother Of All Infections like I had last time. I took a decongestant and I feel somewhat better, so that's good. But it's all sort of swirling together into a perfect storm of freeform anxiety.

What's a girl to do? What would Buddha do?

I think I'll make a big dish of curried home fries, is what I'll do. And read my book. And cuddle with Terri and kitties. And hope that we don't have to move.

However, I love my new glasses. And The Witching Hour is even better the second time around. All is not lost.