So everything is normal.

I'm looking forward to seeing friends this weekend and to cooking. We do a pretty good job of managing to see and hang out with people around here--a very good job, actually--but the kind of casual socializing that comes with living in a city/not having to drive to get everywhere and knowing people a long time is tougher. There's now an age issue as well: it's harder to become friends with adults. But today I'm feeling optimistic about Carlsbad--I've felt alienated and alone (but not necessarily unhappy, no no no) everywhere I've ever lived, regardless of the number of friends and colleagues I've had around.

The hives persist. It is vaguely comforting to read that, in many cases, not even a doctor can figure out the source of them. I suspect it's a cocktail of several things (as Anne suggested in my comment box a few days ago).

I'm sure it's not just something I'm eating. But if it is something I'm eating, it has to be something that I eat on a regular basis. I'm quite attentive to food, I know what I've eaten, and I haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary. But it took years for my shellfish allergy to become bad enough to obviously be an allergy, so maybe that's the case here. This makes me nervous, though. I don't want to stop eating cheese, nuts, tomatoes, eggs, or any of those common triggers. But obviously I will if I have to. Blech. Really, I'd rather have my body manifest its sensitivity in other ways.