Wow! Has it really been nearly three weeks since I last posted an update? Where has the time been flying?
So much has happened since I last posted: revelations, new developments, and SSDD stuff. The first week of May I was in Vegas for a hospitality design conference. It was great to meet up with old friends/colleagues and be back in a desert environment again. It revealed that my coughing issues that had been tormenting me since Christmas was a direct result of my tree/grass pollen allergies here in the PNW. (Even more of a reason why my goal for the upcoming year is to connect with new clients down south so I can move back to Vegas and start up an office location there).
Trigger-wise during the conference, I experienced the SSDD triggers that I normally do whenever I travel or am immersed in crowded events: whistlers, fidgeting anxious people at the airports, eating noises... I just do the best I can with mitigating my exposure to the triggers or wear my earplugs most of the day so people don't have to see me inserting them into my ears. One evening I got to a restaurant before a friend and when the host tried sitting me at the end of the bar right in front of the bathroom doors and directly underneath a speaker, I was proactive and asked him to be seated elsewhere. He put us at the other end of the bar - right where the servers went in and out of the kitchen - but I still felt it was better than the distraction of people bumping into me trying to go in and out of the bathroom.
A little over a week ago I went to a new misophonia meetup group that started near me. It was fairly small (only three of us) but that's understandable being that it was the very first meeting. I've only been to one other meetup before (the UK Misophonia Meetup group) which seemed to be a more casual meeting, but I liked the fact that the organizer of this new group put a lot of thought into the meeting structure. It was nice to hear everyone's experiences with misophonia as well as to be able to share mine with people who truly understood what I experience on a daily basis.
The most exciting misophonia happening for me though was the resignation of the junior designer in my office. Even though she knew about my misophonia, many times she would say to me, "I don't understand why you have to wear earplugs or listen to your music so loud." Let's just say I won't be missing her frequent eating noises every couple of hours (potato chip bags, scraping yogurt cups, dropping handfuls of nuts onto her desk, eating crunchy apples, clinking her silverware on the china bowls when she ate her oatmeal in the morning... etc.) There will only be about a week of having the office to myself until our summer intern starts, but I'm looking forward to savoring the quiet environment during the time I have.
One other goal I have this weekend is to make my travel plans to go back to NYC for Father's Day weekend so I can see the opening screening of Jeffrey Scott Gould's misophonia documentary called "Quiet Please."
So much has happened since I last posted: revelations, new developments, and SSDD stuff. The first week of May I was in Vegas for a hospitality design conference. It was great to meet up with old friends/colleagues and be back in a desert environment again. It revealed that my coughing issues that had been tormenting me since Christmas was a direct result of my tree/grass pollen allergies here in the PNW. (Even more of a reason why my goal for the upcoming year is to connect with new clients down south so I can move back to Vegas and start up an office location there).
Trigger-wise during the conference, I experienced the SSDD triggers that I normally do whenever I travel or am immersed in crowded events: whistlers, fidgeting anxious people at the airports, eating noises... I just do the best I can with mitigating my exposure to the triggers or wear my earplugs most of the day so people don't have to see me inserting them into my ears. One evening I got to a restaurant before a friend and when the host tried sitting me at the end of the bar right in front of the bathroom doors and directly underneath a speaker, I was proactive and asked him to be seated elsewhere. He put us at the other end of the bar - right where the servers went in and out of the kitchen - but I still felt it was better than the distraction of people bumping into me trying to go in and out of the bathroom.
A little over a week ago I went to a new misophonia meetup group that started near me. It was fairly small (only three of us) but that's understandable being that it was the very first meeting. I've only been to one other meetup before (the UK Misophonia Meetup group) which seemed to be a more casual meeting, but I liked the fact that the organizer of this new group put a lot of thought into the meeting structure. It was nice to hear everyone's experiences with misophonia as well as to be able to share mine with people who truly understood what I experience on a daily basis.
The most exciting misophonia happening for me though was the resignation of the junior designer in my office. Even though she knew about my misophonia, many times she would say to me, "I don't understand why you have to wear earplugs or listen to your music so loud." Let's just say I won't be missing her frequent eating noises every couple of hours (potato chip bags, scraping yogurt cups, dropping handfuls of nuts onto her desk, eating crunchy apples, clinking her silverware on the china bowls when she ate her oatmeal in the morning... etc.) There will only be about a week of having the office to myself until our summer intern starts, but I'm looking forward to savoring the quiet environment during the time I have.
One other goal I have this weekend is to make my travel plans to go back to NYC for Father's Day weekend so I can see the opening screening of Jeffrey Scott Gould's misophonia documentary called "Quiet Please."
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