How can I go from such an ecstatic post to one so low....read on! I had such high hopes for today. After a stint of bad birthdays two years running, I had planned a great birthday for myself. No one was going to get in the way, or mess with the schedule of my fulfilling day of birthday delights. Finally, for once, I was going to cash in on all of that free stuff you can get on your birthday.
Genius, you say? I must concur. It would start with a free coffee from Starbucks, followed by free panties from Victoria's Secret, on to a woman-only soak at Everett Healing House (it is International Women's Day after all), and throw in some free Thai food and that's a great birthday! All carefully documented, with pictures of said free service or good, plus bonus photos of those random folks who got to share in my overflowing birthday glee of free.
Apparently there was another plan for me. In some universe (probably this one but I'm unable to wrap my head around it), this was the birthday I was supposed to have. How do I know this undeniable fact? Because it just happened.
It all started yesterday when after an afternoon nap I noticed I was getting the crap my darling nephews have been trying to share with me for the last week. All of my turning down of sharing straws, water, and food combined with frequent hand-washing wasn't enough. When you're 4 it manifests as puking 10 times in one day, raging a fever, and lots of crying. Luckily I'm 38. Oh man, had to try that out. I'm 38. Birthdays.
I canceled my plans, chose not to infect anyone else, and went to bed at a very reasonable time to "heal". I don't know when I woke initially to find myself tossing and turning until the sun rose. I just couldn't get comfortable and the sick was coming on strong. As it is in the sensory deprivation of pre-dawn hours, my senses were bombarded by sick signals. And some random itchy patches.
Finally surrendering to 9:30 am, I made coffee and took a shower as a sick-but-still-determined birthday girl does. That's when I noticed all of the bites. Forearm, torso, hip, a smattering of blistering spots that itched like crazy. I've seen this before too, seven years ago I had bed bugs for weeks before I realized what was chewing me alive and keeping me up at night.
In the lens of sick, I saw a day of laundromats, poison, and steam cleaning every bit of carpet and mattress I could, and it sucked. I fought it all day, tooth and nail. Now my birthday is winding down, the bed is remade and calling to me to risk sleeping in it.