Valentine's Day with Lyme Disease 2016

Dating with Lyme sucks.

After waking up to flowers, a card and gifts, I got into the car for a trip to an aquarium in a different state.

The way there was miserable for me. I was car sick, had migraines and forgot half the things I wanted to take on the trip at home. We tried listening to stand up together, and the voice was so loud to my sensitive ears I felt like the speaker was yelling at me! It was a relatively bright and sunny day, which was nice, but I had forgotten my sunglasses as well. I was blinded for a time.

Valentine's Day this year fell on a Sunday, and the Aquarium was PACKED.

There was a very long line of bundled up people standing outside and waiting to get their tickets.

We stood in the miserable cold for a half an hour.

An over weight woman with some kind of mental illness and disabilities walked by as we waited, shouting incoherent things as she walked and pointing to nothing. Breath escaped from her mouth as she drug her body forward, preaching an enigmatic gospel.

"That woman has a message" My guy said. "What if that woman has all of the answers to everything? Maybe she knows the future and what's going to happen, and it all is being yelled from her right now, but no one will listen to her? She's like Cassandra."

"That woman is the Oracle," I said, and then we continued to shiver.

By the time we had obtained our tickets and ventured inside of the building, I could not feel my legs.

The place was overly crowded. There were children screaming everywhere. It was a hell hole.

Everyone was crushed against the glass, and crowded around each exhibit. You had to get so close to someone to be able to see anything. I didn't want people's germs. My immune system is working hard enough!

There were some good things to see. Penguins and sharks. Smiling Manta Rays that glided by and a couple of huge sea turtles. They were my favorite.

I started taking pictures of the animals that presented themselves to me in pairs. There's the romantic in me.

Two Hippopotamus.
Two Star Fish.
Two Sea Horses.

We thought to try and have lunch there, but there was nothing I could eat with the Lyme. Not even a decent salad.

We were both happy to leave when we did.

On our way home, I was surprised to be at the gates of Longwood Gardens, a place I've been wanting to go for awhile now but never got around to it. It's an indoor garden with 4.5 acres of botanicals to observe.

I was very pleased with this surprise, until we found that it was only opened for a half hour longer by the time we had arrived. Sunday hours.

We vowed to come back again in the springtime, so we could explore the outdoor grounds.

We came home, we cooked a bland Lyme dinner and then we watched the Twilight Zone and played mystery Science Theatre 3000 with eachother while watching it. We made voices for the people on screen and our own ridiculous plot lines.

Anything sexual had been out of the question due to possible pain.

And to end the day in true Lyme fashion, I couldn't sleep that night due to Herxheimer reactions.

Even when mild, they still suck.

Dating with Lyme sucks.