Have you ever had a tick embed into your skin?
Yuck.
I haven't ever found a tick in me, but sometimes I worry that maybe that is a BAD thing. What if I missed it? What if it's there and was so fast that it already embedded and I am going to get Lyme disease!?!?
I know this may seem rather odd, since it's not like we have a dog or have to hike through a tallgrass prairie to get to school, but I am taking a Field Botany class where we run around in the woods & tall grasses looking for flowers. And we get ticks. The only two that I've found haven't been in me, but rather were trekking up my leg. I've found both in my Anthropology class, since it occurs right after I've returned from the field.
I'm sitting in class and I've asked a question when the teacher is answering me and I feel something on my leg. Quick to squeeze it through my pants so that it doesn't escape, I listened distractedly to the answer and then jet out of the room when she's finished - heading toward the bathroom. I pull that tick out from between my fingers and toss it in the toilet, mocking a little as it struggles before I flush it down the tubes in a torrent of toilet water.
Did you know that ticks don't drown? They become dormant.
But a tick can't survive being boiled.
Not that I've tried...
Watching that tick get washed down the toilet is an interesting feeling. I just killed something - albeit indirectly. I mean, I didn't actually KILL it per se, but I did facilitate its death...
It makes one feel powerful. But a little bad. Poor tick.
Just watch - they'll get me as I sleep now.
Anyway, Nathan and I are off to "Northern Illinois" to go camping with my Botany class this weekend and so I'll probably have some cool tick stories when we return.
But I won't share them with you. That's icky.
Have a good weekend.
love,
~liz
My arm is aching from a midterm essay exam and so this will be short!
Nathan has been at the BMG (Baha'i Black Men's Gathering) at Green Acre Bahai School in Maine since Saturday, and so I've had the rule of the roost to myself. I've been cleaning and cleaning - sort of a meditation for me, I guess - and have resolved to do all-the-things-I-have-been-meaning-to-do-for-a-million-years before I fly to Maine on Thursday night.
I think I overbooked myself, though.
Life goes on outside of my little world (who would've guessed?), and I've got Assembly work to do, as well as cleaning and classes to boot.
It seems as though work never ends!
I've also been a bit lonely, especially at night, when there's no one else in the house. And what with all of my errands, I haven't found time to hang out with people - which is a problem I put on myself.
Plus - babies are being born! (Right now, maybe!)
So let me be the first to say (if I'm not the first, that's okay, too):
Welcome AMIA CARMEN ALLMART!!
love,
~liz
Yesterday, full of confidence that even I could master the beast that is HTML, I decided to edit my weblog's appearance.
If you'll notice, I added a few new links!
However, if you've been here before - things are looking a bit off.
Actually, things are looking a LOT off!
Billy! I think I broke my weblet!
I'll fiddle a bit and see what I can do - but maybe I shouldn't try to fix it anymore.
Disaster may ensue!
love,
~liz