Oh Erin, good for you for figuring out what does and does not work for you. I hope your next steps get lighter and lighter as you head down the path to balance.

I'm grateful to say that my horrific hay fever phase seems to be over. I am still a bit snuffly every now and again, and my throat sometimes feels skritchy, but overall gratefully better.

It takes courage to make these kinds of decisions, and I wish you nothing but the best.

What Maria said. You are making a difficult but important decision and you're doing it for the good of all involved. You are amazing.

Porn made Cass a teabagger. Pass it on.

You take that back!!!!

I've heard that allergies all over are worse this year.

Even highly medicated, it really feels like it.

We have thunder hail. I didn't know this existed but there you go.

Erin, nothing is better than knowing your boundaries and respecting them. I think you're taking good care of yourself, and that is awesome.

Unrelatedly, my allergies haven't bothered me thus far, which I am attributing entirely to my daily Allegra habit. (Of course, now that I've said that, I realized I just invoked the wrath of 100 tons of pollen. I await the sneezes to come.)

{{{Erin}}} You have to do what you have to do. It takes courage to make these kinds of decisions, and I wish you nothing but the best.

Maria said it beautifully, so I will just echo her. I wish you the best.

I am attributing entirely to my daily Allegra habit

I need to turn the Zyrtec into a daily habit. In years past, I was able to get by treating the symptoms, but this year it's turned chronic.

I was impenetrable for the first 28 years of my life. The last 10 have seen a huge change. Bodies r weird.

God, y'all are making me sniffly in a good way. This is in no way easy, but it feels right; hard but right.

(ZOMG, I'm divorcing teaching! I might have a fling with it in the future, and I'll always think it's sexy, but we are splitting up. We just have to live in the same house until June.)

And I agree -- the trees and bushes and flowers are absolutely gorgeous, but my allergies are going like MAD.

{{{Erin}}} You have to do what you have to do. It takes courage to make these kinds of decisions, and I wish you nothing but the best.

I, too, want to echo Maria. Erin, this is such a tough decision, but it sounds like the absolutely right one for you. There's no doubt that teaching can amp up anxiety and depression (if it weren't for Pristiq, my personal miracle drug, I would have made the same move years ago), and I have nothing but respect for you making the decision you need to make for your personal health and your students' needs.

ETA: My allergies have been out of control these past couple of weeks, too, ftr.

I am relived, Pix. I have to admit, I was a bit worried about your and Kat's opinion, since you both work your asses off and deal with huge issues and still manage to persevere, and and I do feel, in some ways, like I am wimping out.

But them my rational brain kicks in a says "It's not wimping out to know that you are making a healthy choice. You can't measure yourself my what's right for other, only by what's right for you."

But the other voice, she is insidious. Hence my hieing myself to therapy to keep Il Voce Insidioso contained in her little box, where I will jeer at her and poke her with sticks.

Oh sweetie, you had nothing to worry about. I would be much more upset if you were pushing yourself to keep teaching when you knew you weren't doing right by the kids (not to mention yourself).

At the risk of boring you guys,

OMG I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH.