Female Stories The Journal Entries ***NOTE:these are true-life experiences of my own. I put them in journal form for lack of a different way to write them down. They did not take place recently, but not too long ago either, for me not to remember*** Dear Journal, I went to Ikea to buy bookcases today. As usual, the were too expensive and I had to opt for the cheep "put-it-together-yourself" ones. So, I went into the back to find them in the aptly named "find-it- yourself-in-a-mass-of-unmarked-boxes" section. I must have been looking around for two, maybe three minutes before I felt a sneeze coming on. I suppose there must have been a lot of dust in the air, because it didn't seem like one of those normal sneezes that just comes to tickle and clear my nose, but something much bigger, though I hadn't imagined how big. I felt the irrepressible urge to sneeze fill me and I stopped in my tracks, obeying it's call if only to try to suppress it. I clenched my teeth and pursed my lips, trying to keep it in. I dislike sneezing in public; it calls too much attention to me, and sometimes when I start I can't stop for a while, so I try to keep them in as best I can until I'm in a bathroom, or at home, or my car or somewhere(anywhere!) secluded. Most of the time, when I try to hold them in, they cooperate and back away. But not this time. This time, the urge was stronger, not a light tickle, really, more of a need. The feeling filled my nose and caught at me very strongly. I breathed in without wanting to, the start of the sneeze I felt coming at me so hard, and tried to hold in my breath- and the sneeze. It was too strong for me. I closed my eyes and put my hand over mouth and nose out of habitual politeness. I felt my mouth open, as if to receive a kiss; my eyebrows lift, as if in surprise, and my nostrils flair ever so slightly as the urge forced its way through my nose. "Ha-CHOO!" I was a different sort of sneeze than my usual. It was deep and forceful but surprisingly not loud at all; I sneezed at a volume just over normal conversational tone, my head tilting forward as I did so just a little. The moment I sneezed, I realized it was a mistake for the sneeze coming out seemed to trigger another, and almost immediately I sneezed again. "Haa-Choo!" wet, against my palm, of course I didn't have any tissues with me. And again, my nose filling with the urge from back to the top bridge to the nostrils. "HA-CHOO! HA-CHOO!" It was then I lost control, the sneezes bursting out, one after another after another. I gasped in between, taking in air and sneezing it out again just as fast. "Hhhaaa-Choo! Haaa-Choo! Ha-CHOO! Ha-Choo!" I just couldn't stop. I tried stifling them with my finger under my nose, but they still came out in muffled explosions, "Ha-chusshh! Haa-Chusshh!" I tried plugging my nose, but the urge was relentless, and they seeped out still, my nose running fiercely, my ears popping at the pressure. I wiped my nose on my sleeve and decided that, with another few sneezes, "Ha-Choo! Haa- CHOOO!" that politeness could wait for the moment. I sneezed freely, head bobbing forward a little more at the power; my neck began to hurt, not to mention my nose, which was getting no rest at all. I began to get light- headed from lack of oxygen, or so I see now; at the time I was just confused and woozy. I began to wish they'd stop soon- but they didn't. If anything they came out more and more, giving me little time in between to breathe or try to hold them back, so I just let them take over. "HA-Choo! Ha-choo! Ha-choo! Ha-Ha-Haa-CHOO!" Getting into the rhythm, I could feel each before it came out, and anticipated the size and sound a feel of each the moment before they came out of my nose. After a while, I began to hope the sneezes wouldn't stop, and began enjoying them, hoping each would stay in my nose a bit longer. "Ha-Choo! Ha-Chooo! Haa-CHOO!" It passed after a good twenty minutes of solid sneezing, and I left the store quite quickly after, not taking the chance of any further attacks due to whatever it was that started the first. I sneezed a little more when I was outside after, though I can't believe it was for anything but the irritation left by the sneezing that caused my nose to continue to let out the uncontrollable sneezes. I even sneezed a few more times before I got home, twice when stopped at a red light, and I was able to catch them in a tissue in time. "AhShoo! AhShoo!" they were more normal sneezes, typical for me as far as sneezing went. The guy in the car next to me was staring, but the light changed and he turned right as I went straight so I never knew why. I sneezed three more times while making dinner that night, once, totally unexpectedly, into the pot of food and so I had to throw the whole thing out(as IF I needed to waste more money!). The other two I sneezed regularly, in a double. I covered my nose when I sneezed them, and was glad when they were out, for they felt like they cleared me out almost entirely. All in all, an exciting experience, except that I still need bookcases! Dear Journal, I was in class seminar today and trying to stay awake after a night of partying(so what's new?!), when I noticed a few people sneezing. In a room of so many, it's not surprising for a few people to be sick, but it was actually very interesting to observe and listen to them. The girl was sitting three rows closer to the front and about twenty seats to my right, far enough over that the curve of the room brought her into my view if I leaned forward in my seat slightly. She had a box of kleenexes and a stack of balled-up, used ones sitting on the fold-down part of the desk, her book, spiral and pencil in her lap. She was Asian, with almond-shaped eyes, beautiful straight raven- colored hair, and a perfect yellow-brown complexion- women like that make me jealous. She obviously had a bad cold, though I wouldn't have been able to tell had she not been sneezing. Her nose was small, and the sound of her sneezes not surprising. They were small, "hi-tchh"s, high pitched and short. She'd take a tissue and fold it in half, then close her eyes and bring up in front of her face. A moment later, her head would go back and suddenly, "Hi-tchh!" and her head went forward, nose into the tissue. She would wipe her nose and add the tissue to the pile, then take another as it came again, the tiny, "hi-tchh!" that seemed to both come out of her nose and stay in, as well. As I was watching and listening to her, she had a different sneeze, where it started to come out and then let her go. "Hi-Hi-Hi-HI-" she began four or five times, the tissue lowered after the third false start, so I could see her nose. Her nostrils didn't flair the way mine do when I sneeze(which, incidentally, I was having trouble not doing, listening to the others!) but instead remained small as her nose wrinkled and turned up ever so slightly with the intake of air. It seemed to leave her alone for a while, almost fine minutes, in fact, when suddenly she grabbed a tissue and covered her nose just in time to catch a small but slightly larger "Hi-TCHHH!" The girl sitting to one side of her looked annoyed, and the guy on the other side didn't look pleased either, though I few times I could see his mouth telling her "Bless you" and her nodding a thank you as she tried to pay attention to the lecture, a cause I'd given up by this time. The other person in the class just so happened to be a girl, too, sitting across the room from me. Seemingly less prepared for her sneezes as she had no tissues or handkerchief to sneeze into when she did so. She sniffed every half a minute, nostrils widening a tad, eyes looking forward in concentration. I knew the feeling myself only too well- she was trying to hold back the sneezes. I watched her close her eyes and take in a sharp, deep breath, her chest rising below the spandex top so that her breasts stretched the fabric tighter. She rubbed her nose with her index finger and the palm of her hand a few times as I watched her, trying to suppress the sneeze. It was a hopeless cause, for she ended up sneezing after every few minutes of trying to restrain herself. She held a fist up to her nose and mouth and sneezes into that, nostrils wide and eyes squeezed tightly shut. They were large, dry sneezes that she blushed at, her cheeks bright red for a few seconds after giving out one of the giants. "KER-CHOOO!" She'd sniff and run her finger under her nose as needed afterwards, until letting out her next, great, "KER-CHOOO!" Once, as I watched the girl across the room struggle to hold a big one in, she seemed to give up and let it out just as the girl to my right sneezed and was almost drowned out by the sound. "hi-tchh!" and "KERR-CHOOOO!" I'd never heard two people sneeze at the same time before, as far as I could remember, especially not two completely different types of sneezes. They were pleasing to the ear, and I realized that it wasn't that bad of a class after all, even if I did have to wake up early in the morning for it. Dear Journal, I went to the mall today to go to the DMV and wait in line for a few thousand hours. The DMV's on the 6th floor and I parked on ground level since the parking structure's always filled to the top. As I was not in the mood to climb the stairs, I took the elevator. I got on with a couple who had their son in a stroller and a man who was wearing some very strong cologne. It smelled very nice, not at all like John's old spice which makes me think of him more as an old man than a friend. At the first floor, the could got off and two woman got on, laughing about something funny one of them had just said. Well, as soon as the door closed, the blond woman sneezed quickly, echoing in the small elevator. "Ha-chhh! *sniff*sniff* Excuse me," she said, taking out a tissue from her purse and dabbing at her nose. Suddenly she sneezed again, and then again, in sneezes that ended not in the sort of release I normally sneeze with but just a dying chhhh. They were continuous and her friend seemed worried at them. "You okay, Laureen?" she asked her sneezing friend. The woman nodded, unable to stop sneezing to answer. "Ha-Chhh! Ha-Chhh! Haa-Chhh! Ha-Ha-chh!" Breaking the pattern, she pinched her nose, feeling the sneezes but sneezing them without letting them out, "Ha-mmmmph! Ha-mmmmph!" just so that she could say a few words. "It's that Ha-Ha-mmmph! smell." The man blushed. "Sorry, it's my cologne." "Ha-Chhh! HA-CHHH!" she sneezed hard, getting out another kleenex and blowing her nose. They seemed to be getting stronger, and she was trying hard to keep them back by holding her nose. She gave up as we went up another floor, letting them out as they came to her. "Ha-Chhh! Ha-Ha-CHHH! Ha-CHHH!" She sniffed, looking at the red-faced man. "It's okay. Only a few more Ha-Chhh! flooaaa-CHH! Ha-Chhh!" The two women got out at the fifth floor, Laureen still sneezing fully in a great allergic reaction. We could still hear her as the doors to the elevator closed and the apologetic man and I were left in the elevator. He turned to me and said, "I feel horrible! That poor lady!" I shrugged, my secret desires well intact within me. "I like your cologne, myself. It's very nice." He grinned and we got off at the top floor. "Thanks." We went our separate ways. After that, I didn't mind waiting in line so very much.