Cruel Irony

Let's talk about allergies: those nasty histamine responses I used to pride myself on lacking as a child. That was back when I wanted a pet so badly, but my dad used his allergies to animal dander as one of many reasons I should give up the argument (We did finally get a dog!). Unfortunately, there was a point in high school when I felt sick for a good chunk of the summer, and we decided to go to an allergist. Younger brother Isaac came too, and we each got the lovely prick test on our backs where the assistant makes a grid with various common allergens and pricks each spot to open the skin and wait for a response. I was glad to be free of food allergies (having just a slight reaction to turkey) since Isaac showed at least some allergy to dozens of foods (as a side note, we were grateful for the Word of Wisdom that day since he'd probably have died if he ever tried coffee). We both had a few animal allergies and I turned out to have lots of plant allergies... lots. I'm allergic to grasses, weeds, trees: the works. So I'm pretty much allergic to outside.
Challenge accepted.
You may remember my major is all about the outdoors, ha ha. This semester I joined the plant ID team (an extra-curricular in the major) where we learn 200 range plants and compete on exams to identify them by various characteristics. Now that I think about it, I'm probably allergic to most all of the plants we learn, but fortunately the mounts we study are often older than I am and haven't produced pollen in decades. Anyway, I can usually keep the sneezing and whatnot at bay with OTC allergy meds, but I learned that even then, there are times of the year in certain places that I should probably stay hidden inside or at least wear a mask outside (because of the pollen, not how I look...). Earlier this year I was quoted as lamenting (between sneezes and sniffles), "Everything and its mom is pollinating!"
Other than those few times of the year, I almost forget I have allergies, but a few weeks ago I was reminded when some friends from the major/plant team invited me to spend a Saturday with probably my worst allergy of all - my childhood love: horses.
We got to go riding, which is a rare occasion but something I love doing, and since I'm around horses so seldom, I forget how crazy-allergic to them I am. I took my allergy medication in preparation, but not quite early enough for it to kick in before we brushed down the horses and saddled them up. By the time we were getting on our steeds I had hives on my forearms and was trying to avoid touching my face or I'd be miserable the rest of the time. It turned out okay - when I was on the horse I didn't have much of a problem and the medicine was helping by then, but man, talk about cruel irony. I loved horses as much as the next girl when I was little, and horses don't seem to particularly have a problem with me, but my body sure hates horse body. So this is what I pondered as we set out on our ride, but soon enough I was distracted trying to identify live plants in their natural habitat.