Self-obs: Not a good situation...

[DublinShadow]

It's that unfortunate time of the morning.

The time when the rest of my household is starting to wake up... but foremost on my mind at the moment is the individual presently staying in the room directly adjoining mine, with only a door between his bed and my room.

And of course -- OF COURSE -- this is the time my nose has elected to be the almost-daily call to start becoming.... bothersome.

Most days it's not too bad. Most days I just wake up congested as hell and if there are people stirring nearby I can simply grab some tissues and retire somewhere out of the way and clear my nose and be done with it.

Today does not feel like a day I will be allowed to get off that easily. So for your entertainment and gratification, ladies and gentlemen and others, I am going to try something new. Beginning in just a minute, I am going to attempt a live commentary of how this progresses either for the next 15 or 20 minutes or until I either have the freedom to let it play out as it will or cease to have any contro0l over the matter.

Shall we bein?

7:00 a.m.

Nose is stuffy and feeling itchy towards the way back. Mild irritation, no immediate threat of sneezing, but the kind of feeling I often get preceeding some kind of inevitable outburst.

I have a box of tissues at hand but don't want to use them, both because occupant of neighboring room would hear and because previous experience suggests that blowing is likely to make the irritation worse.

7:03 a.m.

Starting to feel a little sniffly. Hoping this may help alleviate the tickle.

7:05 a.m.

Nose running more noticibly now. Sniffling seems to irritate nose more. Using tissues to rub nose as gently as possible to avoid as much irritation as possible.

7:12 a.m. Nose running even more. Sniffling a definite irritant. Feeling a sort of pressure in the back of my nose as well as that tickle seeming to get worse. Trying to pinch nose in various ways and breathe through mouth to keep it from getting worse.

7:16 a.m.

Hearing housemates awake now, occupant of adjoining room clearly awake, just heard someone else walk down the hall outside my room. Tickle has stayed constant but congestion keeps getting worse. Starting to really want a good nose blow but bsolutely certain it would be heard and pretty sure it could very well draw that tickle out into something I couldn't hold back.

7:22 a.m.

Housemates still wandering around in the hallways too often for me to want to rosk making any noise at all. Been sniffling as little and as quietly as possible and mostly trying to contain my nose wth a handful of tissues. Thinking it would feel SO good to just be able to blow right now. Also that tickle seems to be getting more persistent. Starting to worry that it's going to become a very urgent problem very soon, especially if I don't decide what to do about the un-cleared gunk in my nose from last night and the congestion building up on top of that.

7:30 a.m.

One hand full of 5 or 6 tissues constantly trying to pinch, rub, and alleviate as much congestion as I can silently. Started hitching a couple times but pinched it back. Just heard the shower down the hall go on. Hoping occupant of next room clears out soon. Think I can hold this back a while longer but not sure how long.

7:34 a.m.

Hitching more often & more desperately each time.

7:36 a.m.

think next room guy going to shower in a minute. moving to the closet anyway just to block the sound in case I can't hold back that long. hitching lots.

-----

So that was as long as I was able to keep up typing as this happened. I did move into my closet I think at pretty much exactly the same time the occupant of the room adjoining mine left it to take a shower. I sat down and had just enough time to turn on my mic and try to record the inevitable fit (I'll check if the audio came out usable once I post this) before I finally had to just let my nose take over. I did my best to sneeze quietly but as I've said in previous posts, I have a lot of difficulty controlling the force or volume of my sneezes and since stifling tends to make them even MORE messy, there was just... nowhere to go from the point I was at when I started sneezing. My nose just NEEDED to clear itself out from the congestion from the night before as well as get rid of whatever was irritating it. I've been doing a lot (I mean A LOT) of cleaning over the past couple of days so I think it could have been dust.

I didn't count how many sneezes I got out but it felt like it went on for a few solid minutes of pretty messy sneezes followed by finally, FINALLY the relief of being able to blow out all the gunk in there. My nose still feels pretty sensitive and since I have work today at the very dusty feed store, I may end up posting an addition later if it stays like this long enough.

If any of the audio I got is usable, I'll upload it to my channel and put a link below later. If not... otherwise enjoy, I guess.

[DublinShadow]

Audio was totally usable. Enjoy...

[Lime]

Great obs Really well-written.

[Raven Insight]

This is excellent.

[count tiszula]

Wonderful recording; lovely meaty sneezes!

But wait a moment; closet means cupboard, doesn't it? So you hide in a cupboard when sneezing? Wouldn't it be a bit awkward if someone came in and a SwH scenario took place. I mean it would be a very exciting obs, but what would you say when they found you there?

[DublinShadow]

Wonderful recording; lovely meaty sneezes!

But wait a moment; closet means cupboard, doesn't it? So you hide in a cupboard when sneezing? Wouldn't it be a bit awkward if someone came in and a SwH scenario took place. I mean it would be a very exciting obs, but what would you say when they found you there?

Does "closet" mean "cupboard" somewhere?

I'm American. The use of "Dublin" in my name has absolutely nothing to do with anything except that the intention is to maintain anonymity. Where I live, a closet is where you keep your clothing. I have a small walk-in closet. It's like a little room about the size of a bathroom stall.

I didn't know that was potentially a point of confusion...

[Coffee Mug]

truly wonderful. Thank you for sharing!

[Honkytonklagoon]

That was great Dublin. I've listened to the recording several times since you posted it, and finding this tonight just made it all perfect. Thanks for sharing your trials, tribulations and sneezes. You're a national treasure.