tis the season

I’ve been a bit preoccupied with poison ivy since Sunday.  It’s the worst case I’ve ever had my life, and believe me, it’s something I should be used to by now.  I’ve had nasty rashes from poison plants (ivy, oak, sumac) more times than I can count over my lifetime.  Leaves of three, let them be.  I know that, but Gracie and Molly have no concerns at all and rummage through the woods without a care in the world about what they might bring home. 

I’m blaming Gracie this time.  Somehow, I got this stuff all over my face and neck and only a tiny bit on my hands.  I woke up Sunday morning with my eyes almost completely swollen shut, my nose three times larger than normal, and the red itchy weepy rash all over.  I scared myself to look in the mirror.  I sort of look like a Shar-pei, only red instead of tan.

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Erin is excited about Halloween.  She loves anything to do with haunting, monsters, serial killers, or anything having to do with horror.  I have fond memories of reading to my little girls and them reading to me.  All my girls loved Mother Goose.  Sarah liked Pippi Longstocking and the Boxcar Children.  Emily loved the Harry Potter books and  Bailey School Kids series.  Erin liked the R.L. Stine scary books, and the Series of Unfortunate Events books. 

When Erin was about 7, I told her that when she got older, she would probably like to read stories written by Edgar Allan Poe.  She had already heard of the Tell-Tale Heart and asked me to read it to her.  We had the book on our shelf so I read it to her, but it took us forever to get through it.  The language was hard for her and she asked lots of questions.  She wanted me to read more of his stories to her but I thought they were too intense for her and really, a whole different level of evil as compared to scary books intended for children.  When she was about 10, she started reading Poe’s stories and poems herself. 

Erin made something for me.  She knows I like skulls, and with Halloween coming up, she thought it would make a nice decoration.  I think it’ll be a year-round addition to my desk.  His smile makes me happy.  

   

   

Poison

Poison ivy.  Yes, I have it again.  Thanks for that, Molly.  All I have to do is think about the damn stuff and I start to itch, so I know what it looks like and I stay clear.  Molly, on the other hand, being a stupid cat, blunders through the woods and has no cares about poison ivy or poison oak or poison anything.  Last week, she came in and jumped into my lap while I was trying to work.  She doesn’t do this because she loves me, she merely wants to be fed.  I was trying to work and ignored her.  So she rubbed her head all over me, swished that plume tail all around in my face.  I didn’t even think about poison ivy then, didn’t even enter my little pea brain.  Now I have this wretched rash all over my face and neck and arms.   It’s been over a week and it’s no better.  The last three times I got poison ivy, I had to go get a steroid shot to make it go away.  I’m about to give in and make that call...tomorrow if this crap is no better by then.    

Feed me

The girls are reading a book over the summer for their English class, entitled Things Fall Apart.  They both tell me it’s dreadful so I googled it and it’s a classic.  Good for them!  Read those classics.  It’s kind of the way I feel lately with all this poison ivy and a sprained ankle from karate class last week.  So now I’m gimpy and itchy and I just have no patience for this at all.  

We’re going on vacation soon and I’m packing up all my work to take with us because I get a break from my job (hopefully..if I get no trouble calls) but I still have a class going on and I’m determined to finish Chapter 2 at the very least before I return from vacation.  I emailed the gentlemen who developed the questionnaire I want to use to ask their permission to use it.  They still haven't replied…..now I’m getting all antsy about that.  I told myself I’m not drinking again until that proposal is written and submitted.  Maybe that is the real cause of all this foul mood I’ve been in lately.  Maybe I need to invest in a bottle of liquid patience.