Co-worker/friend sneezes (F)

[DesperateSneezes]

Hi all...long, long, long time no see!!

I know that it has been a while since I last posted and for that I apologise but I hope you'll let me try to atone with this one!! I think its a corker anyway. Let me first begin by begging your indulgence while I provide a little context. For quite some time I was unemployed, plus I'm quite shy, my confidence and mental health suffered and I was quite the hermit for a long time, downward spiral and all that. This doesn't help with obs frankly!! Yeah you get the out and about ones occasionally, but in my situation there really wasn't much to report and at times I wasn't in a good place to post what did come my way....However, I did stay in touch with the forums, browsing and enjoying and eventually my luck changed and I got a job which meant I got out the house, met new people, made new friends, it has really helped reverse what was becoming a bit of a slump.

Of greater relevance to this forum though is one friendship in particular that I have made, we'll call her F. As time has gone on our friendship has developed, we now spend time with each other outside of work and work more shifts together too. It was some time before I heard her sneeze, a little more time until I saw her sneeze and even more time before it dawned on me how regular a sneezer she is...and in these last few weeks I have thought more about more about this forum because she has very quickly become my favourite sneezer of all time. Partly due to the frequency, the sound, the event itself, and because she has, in my opinion, a unique sneeze indeed. Let me describe her a little first; not far off 20, average height, shoulder length hair which changes colour quite regularly, quirky dress-sense, quite alternative. She has a nice figure, not a lot on top but often goes without a bra, very pretty face, a slender nose that does flare out slightly, small nostrils and several piercings including, crucially, a septum piercing.

So, the first few times I heard her sneeze it kinda passed me by and it became more and more frustrating!! Let me explain. The first incident went like this; we were working together and I heard this strange noise over the top of the music and other noises in the background. It was a little like a scream at first, sort of "EEEEEEE-IIIIII..." and then a muffled, wet sort of sound. The music alone was fairly loud so I didn't hear it properly. At this point in our relationship we weren't that close, more acquaintances. I had a bit of a crush on her and was interested in what kind of a sneeze she had. What I heard sounded unusual but it could have been a sneeze and I knew she was close by so I immediately straightened up and turned around just in case more would follow. I was disappointed in that sense but as I turned around I saw her raise her head and lower the polo neck she was wearing. One hand was clenched slightly up in the air and the other held the polo neck in her fist which she bought back down to its normal position. It was as though she had pulled the thing up and sneezed right down her front. I didn't see that but it sorta looked like it. Anyway, she must have noticed me and I might have even mumbled a nervous "What the..?" hoping for some clarification because she looked at me, a little red and sort of flushed and said "That was me, I sneezed." My mind was racing as it tends to when you get into a situation like this with someone you have a crush on! I cleared my throat and said "Um..what?" and she repeated "I sneezed." I was desperately trying to replay the sound that I had just half-heard to no avail, I thought she looked a little embarrassed too so I just kinda nodded and blessed her. She smiled and carried on but my interest was certainly picqued from then on.

Fast forward a few weeks, and the two of us are working together again. This time though there was another co-worker there. I also hadn't learnt my lesson about the music because it was quite loud again...gah!! Anyway, I had my head down when I heard what sounded this time like a double from her, or more precisely the tail end of one sneeze and the start of the next. I heard a high pitched "-HUU" followed quickly by the same sort of "EEEEEEIIII...." sound. The fact that I didn't get a look at the event at all or a decent listen again was compounded by what happened next. I looked up and moved over slightly to get a better view of her and as I did so she was turning around, having evidently been facing into the corner. This was slightly away from her work area so I wondered if she was a shy or embarrassed sneezer. As I type this I also wonder if there might have been others there too, possibly up four or five of us in total, it was like she had turned away from everyone to try and sneeze discretely. But the end of the first sneeze was quite high-pitched as I say, and the next "EEEEEEIIII..." was also high pitched but at the same time quite forceful and vocal. I kinda speculated that she knew she has a noticeably audible sneeze but didn't want people to see her sneeze. She again looked quite flushed but that might have been embarrassment because one of the other people then pointed and went "Oh wow, that was like the cutest and weirdest sneeze ever...like a mouse or something." He even did a sort of impression but it wasn't great, more of a parody than an actual reproduction of the sound. She sort of looked at the ground, smiled a bit and the subject wasn't dwelt upon. But again, the fact that I still hadn't heard it properly or even witnessed it played on my mind even more from this point.

Now I don't remember the actual first time I observed her sneezing, but there have been many since so I'll put down the most notable and the most recent.

One observation I can recall is went she was round mine one time. There was no music on this time heh, in fact I think we were deciding on a tv show to watch so it was quiet in the room other than us talking. I must have been looking at a boxset or checking my phone or something because once more I was looking downward, but this time I noticed a flash of moment from her direction and a slight intake of breath. I was looking right at her as she had pulled up her top once more, turned away a little bit and sneezed a forceful double..."IIIIIEEEHHHH....IIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIHHH!!!" Her eyes were squeezed shut the whole time, it looked quite intense for her. She sort of laughed a bit, I was beaming of course and she smiled and I blessed her and we moved on. It was great though because it answered a few questions that the other previous half-obs had. She clearly had a forceful sneeze and also she didn't sneeze openly in company. But she couldn't stifle because of the nose ring, so as a result her sneeze was very vocal, like the whole sound came barrelling out of her mouth as a loud and high pitched shout/screech rather than out of her nose. It just made for an unusual but wonderful sneeze!

Other sneezes I've heard and witnessed really do make it sound like she is deliberately vocalising it as though she is afraid to stifle for obvious reasons. They're always double syllable sneezes, "EEEEIIIIIIIIHHH" or sometimes "HEEEIIIYIIIIH", variations but all of that type of sound. She also mostly seems to sneeze in two's, each roughly 5 seconds apart, with a sharp inhale before each. Sometimes they're more powerful or its like she gets caught off guard by them. You tend to have to be looking at or near her to see it happen because its quite rapid and there isn't much in the way of build up save for a pause if she's doing something and the sharp inhale. She also usually scrambles to cover her nose, frequently by pulling up her top to cover her nose and mouth but also into her cupped hands or into the crook of her elbow. They do vary in power and loudness, but are all vocalised in a similar way. A less powerful sneeze can be quite a girly but very high pitched "IIIIIIHHHH....." but sometimes they are belters with more draw out endings like "HHEEEEIIIIHHHHUUUU....HHIIIIII-IIIHH"

She is quite a frequent sneezer, although by that I mean that it might only be one double each shift or each time we hang out but as I see her more often I get more obs, I rarely go a week without something. One notable obs was quite recent. She was round mine, laying on the floor in my room, sort of leaning on her elbow to one side. I think she was wearing something simple but smart, tight black jeans and a black polo neck again. I was looking in her direction when she pulled her top up and squeezed her eyes shut, but unusually the sneeze was not forthcoming and she fluttered through a series of shallow hitching breaths before sneezing the usual intense double. The only time I’ve seen her sneeze repeatedly over the course of a day was one time when a cold went round at work. She looked and sounded rough went she came in and sneezed 6-7 doubles, possibly more over approximately 9 hours. She still hid away at first, sometimes she left the room or moved over to a corner, or simply turned her head, but as the day went on and so did the sneezing she seemed a little more resigned to it. The sneezes got wetter too, and this one time we were standing quite close when she brought her hands up to her face and her eyes began to shut as she inhaled sharply. Her hands weren’t completely covering her nose and mouth just shielding them so this time I stepped to the side a little to get a better view and you could really see the intensity of the sneeze in her facial expression, head tilted back slightly, nostrils flared, eyes screwed shut really tightly and mouth open as she rocked forward each time... "HEEEEIIIIIIISSHH....IIIIIIIII-IIIIIIISSHHH” This time she actually said “Ugh, I hate sneezing!!” after, to which I should have said “Why?” or something to try and get a conversation going but I was too befuddled to and then the moment passed.

I’ll end by saying that she has a boyfriend now so nothing will happen but we have become good friends so we hang out and work together frequently. She’s a great girl, a great friend and a great sneezer too! Regular, unusual and I reckon a stifler for sure if she hadn’t got the piercing. She seems like the type that would stifle to avoid the attention but her nose ring means that because of the power that is often there she has a noticeable and audible sneeze and she does seem embarrassed by that to a degree, and she did say she hated sneezing. I don’t know of any allergies but she could well just have a sensitive nose as she does sneeze quite often as I’ve said and more often when she has a cold. When we are at work together it is often just the two of us where we are but others are in and out depending on how busy it is. On a quiet day, we rarely get disturbed but on a busy day people will be in and out. It seems at work when others are around she’ll try and be as quiet as possible but we’re close friends now and around me she sneezes a little more openly, if we're round mine or working alone together she sometimes won't even turn away, just lets it take over for the duration. I always bless her, after each sneeze in a double too, and she smiles and says thank you. One time she was off on holiday the next week and we wouldn’t see each other, but she remarked that she worried she had a cold coming on and I said “Well, just in case, bless you times a hundred...” and she smiled and said thanks so I’m cautiously hopeful of some more sneezy info or convos and very confident of more sneezes. I’m sorry this post is so long, I have a very long winded style I guess, I just had to tell you about this friend of mine and had a lot to say!

It is nice to be a poster again though, hope you’ve all been well, DS x

[ThePokeFan599]

Welcome back! Great obs from your co-worker and friend. Looking forward to many more great obs.

[Arty]

Congratulations on the job. What do you do by the way if you don't mind me asking? And your lady friend sounds nice.

nice for you hon.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Artygirl22

[NoV]

Definitely makes for a better sneeze when they let it go through their mouth rather than through their nose or a combinations of the two. Good obs with some great detail

[DesperateSneezes]

Welcome back! Great obs from your co-worker and friend. Looking forward to many more great obs.

Thank you, I'm looking forward to many more too. Working with her tomorrow and the weekend so fingers crossed for something..

Congratulations on the job. What do you do by the way if you don't mind me asking? And your lady friend sounds nice.

nice for you hon.

We work in hospitality, so I did wonder whether the smells of the kitchen were responsible in any way. But there aren't a great deal of herbs and spices being thrown around, just pepper, and she just sneezes fairly regularly whereever we are. Another sneezy cold would be nice though, hopefully something will happen as the weather gets chillier!! ...and yeah, she is nice, a really great friend!

Definitely makes for a better sneeze when they let it go through their mouth rather than through their nose or a combinations of the two. Good obs with some great detail

Thanks!!

I'll be sure to post any more obs I get, hopefully she maintains her regularity!! With any luck she'll be careless with the pepper one evening or pick up a cold from somewhere! I thought I might try buying some new cologne and asking for her opinion or lighting incence sticks when she pops round, see if we can tickle a few out..