Results & Music

Hello!

So, the results of my allergy test are in. I am allergic to: nickel, cobalt (these are both metals), fragrance (a blend of fragrances added to products such as detergent etc), and "Balsam of Peru" which according to my allergy fact sheet is "a natural mixture of resins and essential oils" and these are commonly found in citrus peels (AKA lemon peel, lime peel, grapefruit peel :'( ). So it was the lemon and lime essence in the Rocky Mountain "Summer Lemonade" that gave me hives :(. This is very sad for me, as I LOOOVE fragrances and citrus scents are some of my favourites. A friend of mine said that I should also be careful about things that contain citrus peel in them (like food and dressings etc). The biggest reaction was that from nickel, but I already know I was super allergic...I think it's the worst also because I've been more exposed to it. ***Positive thing: if a guy tries to pass off fake jewelery for the real thing, I'll be able to tell in about 10 minutes, then dump his cheap ass haha*** Here's a picture 4 days after the patch was removed (sorry if it grosses you out)...it's actually better than it was at first. I've already switched my laundry detergent and fabric softener to "Tide Free" and "Downy Free" which is fragrance and dye free. I was told to be careful of things that say they are "unscented" and "hypoallergenic" as these products will actually still have fragrance they use to mask an unpleasant scent. Anyways, I was super worried about this fragrance free business with my laundry, as I LOOOVE the smell of fresh laundry. But I figured I really don't have a choice as the rashes aren't fun. So, I washed them, and I was SOOOO SURPRISED!!! My clothes smelled sooo good! They just smelled CLEAN. So, I'm in love with this new detergent and fabric softener...they smell like shit when you smell them directly from the bottle, but when you take the clothes out of the dryer, they smell soo good. So that was positive :).

On a different note, I start one of my volunteering positions tomorrow right after work. My position is essentially as a youth mentor in a group home with 3 teenage girls. Two of the three want to learn how to play piano...the organization has been looking for a piano lessons for these girls for awhile, and it's just too expensive. When she noticed that I'm classically trained, she jumped on the chance...free lessons! lol So, I'll be a mentor/piano teacher for them since they want to learn. It's really exciting, but really scary too. I've never taught piano before...I've taken piano from the ages 6-17, but to be honest I'm pretty rusty. I sat at the piano for a good hour and a half tonight warming up, and re-learning a few songs to play to them, and I can tell you my forearms are going to be sore tomorrow lol. So there's the aspect that I could totally embarrass myself. The second is that these girls are survivors...at 15 years old, they've had a really hard life...they've experienced things I can't even imagine, so I feel like I'm out of my element. But one of the best ways to get to know yourself is to be uncomfortable and just forge ahead. And although my mission with this blog is to be a more positive person and learn about myself, I can't think of a better way to do this than to be an active positive influence in another's life :).

Thanks for reading!

~Christine~