Wednesday, June 22, 2005

swamp love

This is my first summer actually living in DC and I am reminded of something I always try to forget from the last summer ... the itchy red blisters on my skin from the blood sucking denizens of this marble city built over a swamp. For the past three years all my bug bites have not come from my rockclimbing escapades, Shenandoah hiking excursions, or mowing my mother's lawn, but from enjoying Ben'n Jerry's in Dupont Circle, or dining al fresco in downtown for brunch? What the hell??? I thought the pest trade one made when moving from the suburbs to the city was mice for rats, bumblebees for pigeons, and dragonflies for other things. I suppose I should remind my self that the cicadas hit DC pretty hard with their fat clumsy bodies, but I am rather perturbed by the mosquito phenomena.

I HATE getting bitten. I would rather scrape my right arm 10 feet across a quartz-spiked cliff ... at least that'll heal in a couple days. In the past, my bite would swell to ten times their size and burn for a week, sometimes even scar. I went to my doctor and told her I might be allergic. She told me to take Benadryl when I get the bite, take a prescription anti-histamine during the day, and apply a topical steroid to the bite area .... "You're not allergic, just sensitive."

Okaaaaaaay ... yeah not allergic ....

No comments: