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As I was checking my email, I came across this.
It is all about the itch. I read it and could not stop scratching. It was all the power of suggestion. A while back, when Joslyn’s sister got lice, I couldn’t listen to her mom tell me about it without getting the heebee jeebees (read: itchy)
Now it is summer. Tis the season for mosquitoes. I get itchy just imagining what the midwest is going through with all the standing water that is a breeding ground for those pests. My neighbor’s yard sinks in one part and since she empties the kid’s wading pool, it fills with the water and then just sits. I can’t take my kids outside into the back yard without the mosquitoes swarming to the little ones. They look like the poor refugees from those third world countries with the bugs gathering around their faces!
A mosquito bite-be it large or small-is enough to keep me uncomfortable all night long with the desire to scratch. I scratch until I bleed. If my fingernails are cut short, I will scratch until I bruise. But ahhh….the relief I feel when I ‘get’ that special spot. You know, the one that makes the itching stop.
Babygirl doesn’t mind the bites. I have said “Use the bug repellent” as she runs off to softball or to hang outside at a friend’s house. Does she ever listen? No. Why? Because she likes to scratch. She enjoys the sensation she gets when she ‘gets’ that spot.
I can tell her about West Nile Virus. She is 16. She doesn’t care.
This is part of one of her creative writing assignments:
I’d graze the bite with a nail short and rough
flooding me with satisfaction
I’d scratch until I got enough
of performing my favorite action.
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Froggywoogie
said:
on June 26, 2008 at 10:00 pm“But ahhh….the relief I feel when I ‘get’ that special spot”… I had to read that twice and check if I hadn’t opened by accident some adult literature…
Froggywoogies last blog post..The perfect High-Five
Fantastagirl
said:
on June 26, 2008 at 10:26 pmMosquitos’ drive me nuts! I know what you mean about scratching until you bleed.
Fantastagirls last blog post..I passed (or so I think)
BlondeBlogger
said:
on June 26, 2008 at 11:09 pmWe actually had a couple of cases of MALARIA here a couple of summers ago. We live near Dulles Airport and they theorized that maybe the mosquitoes had come from a plane from another country.
And oddly enough, near the airport, there was a huge banner hanging over a highway overpass the other day proclaiming it “Mosquito Awareness Week.” Then I see your post. Now I’m all worried it means something, lol.
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 06:24 amFroggywoogie-You are so bad!! (Actually, I thought that too,but I couldn’t think of any other way to put it!
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 06:25 amFantastagirl-I really hate it when I do that. It usually happens before I realize that I’ve done it.
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 06:27 amBlondeBlogger-MALARIA??? Shut.Up.!!! I never heard about that.”Mosquito Awareness Week” is delicious irony!
NYCWD
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 06:30 amGet some Skin So Soft from Avon and tell her to put it on, “For her tan”.
It’s the best bug repellant I have ever known.
NYCWDs last blog post..BrittCon Primer: Mid-town Manhattan
Teri
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 07:19 amI try to always use “Off” when I’m outside but I don’t always succeed. These days, I get bit, I scratch a few times then it goes away. I remember itching like crazy, for days, when I was a kid. I wonder what the difference is?
Teris last blog post..What’s your house like?
Finn
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 09:29 amThere’s nothing so sweet as having an itch scratched. But I prefer a good back scratching to a bug bite. To each his own.
You want to know ’skeeters? Come to Florida in the summer.
Finns last blog post..Friday Fiction: Work In Progress, Part II
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 09:39 amNYCWD-I had a neighbor once who rubbed that all over his big fat bulldog every summer. That dog used to lay outside every day and never had mosquito bites, ticks or fleas. There mut be something to it.
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 09:41 amTeri-When I was a kid, I remember sitting in a chair reading and idly scratching bites on my legs. I didn’t care so much during the day, but at night, while I tried
to sleep it was too much.
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 09:43 amFinn-I went to Florida in August a few years ago. It reminded me of Jurassic Park. The alligators and lizards look primitive, and the bugs looked too big to be real. I’m glad I never saw a fly carry off a baby!!
Laurie
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 01:29 pmI just moved back to Minnesota from Florida the bugs were awful there. Very well put Metalmom, it is like Jurassic Park. I laughed my butt off when you wrote that. It brings back such awful memories of bugs, bug bites and bugs large enough to scare the crap out of you. As far as mosquitos go though Minnesota isn’t any better, they are pretty brutal here too.
Lauries last blog post..Prius Information Link
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 01:46 pmLaurie-As long as I was talking about itches, I should have mentioned the chiggers down there too! OUCH! Oh yeah…they ALL scared the shit out of me!!
delmer
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 03:27 pmI get itchy whenever we get ‘lice alerts’ from the school.
delmers last blog post..Flood
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 07:07 pmdelmer-Aren’t they the WORST?? Especially the ones with the pictures of nits! *shudder*
Tug
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 09:37 pmYou 2 need a therapist before you start cutting…it’s the next step I’m pretty sure. JUST JOKIN’…
Tugs last blog post..The Gratitude Campaign
Metalmom
said:
on June 27, 2008 at 10:01 pmTug-Cutting? Not me…that might hurt!!
DutchBitch
said:
on June 29, 2008 at 04:22 amYah… ok… thanks for that… IF I wasn’t feeling itchy enough already with the fucking mosquito crap going on in my house… thanks… really…. seriously..
DutchBitchs last blog post..All I got for today…
Metalmom
said:
on June 29, 2008 at 12:06 pmDutchBitch-You got skeeters in your house?? I’m sorry…really…and just a little glad they aren’t in my house! I keep them in the yard!