2000-07-03

fat ankles & a stiff neck

I'm slathered in aloe and ammonia, which, according to my After Bite Itch Eraser, is an ingredient apparently active in eradicating mosquito bites. I don't think it works. In fact, I seriously doubt why anyone would consider rubbing ammonia on any kind of skin affliction. I mean, duh. I've tried Caladryl and I'm going to try a nice baking soda paste when I get home. Mom said I should try Benadryl also. This is round number two of killer bites, and you should SEE my ankle! Actually, it's probably best that you can't because it's pretty icky. Really swollen. Which got me a bit worried, considering that mosquito bites usually just *itch* and not so much *swell* you know? I wondered if it might be some bizarre northwoods spider bite or encephalitis or rabies...

In more exciting news, I have whiplash! Here's the story: tubing with my friend R* on Saturday. L* was driving the boat. Like a maniac. We are laughing and screaming and holding on for dear life. I am trying desperately to keep the tube balanced as we are flung at 99 mph careening across Island Lake. I fail. My head hits the water. My body flips over it and I continue to roll across the water. When I'm finally just floating, my first thought is "Can I feel my feet?" R* is there holding my life jacket and yelling "Look at me! Look at me!" And of course I'm ok. But a bit frightened.

I have a death wish by boat, you know. Well, it's probably more accurately a warning than a wish. When I was 15 I was in a boating accident. The boat flipped over. I was thrown and had to swim up and out. Something hit my head. Hard. But I didn't realize that until I'd swum across the bay to retrieve a ski. Halfway back my head began to pound. And I had a huge bump. I mean HUGE. Also, I had no shoes. They had been in the boat, you see. Jon had been skiing and had let go just as we were in a really tight turn. The boat then was at least 30 years old, and simply flipped over.

The summer before there was another accident. Same group of people. Same boat. Same bay. Only the driver from the time we flipped was on a knee board and I was skiing. Our dads were in the boat. And watching us instead of the land that was fast approaching. So they cut it hard to left, and we swung hard to the right. To the bank. Where Jim, always the asshole, was riding up against me pushing me harder to the shore. And me, always the softie, thought to myself, "Gee, if I just keep heading over, I'll stop when I reach the shore and Jim won't crash." So I let go and pull up onto the beach. Going much faster than I had anticipated. The skis stopped. I didn't. I was launched through the air until I landed, quite solidly, on rocks. Ouch. Jim laughed. What a fucker.

Main lesson I learned much after these incidents: don't go anywhere near a boat with Jim.

I realized this weekend that I feel a bit of anxiety while boating now. I have done much less in the past few years than I did growing up. I was spotting for L* who was trying her new wake board. R* was driving and each time we circled to get the rope back to L* I'd feel a bit anxious. I think it was from cutting such a tight circle, which was how we had flipped those years ago.

I also realized that all the old people who sit in lawn chairs and watch the kids ski aren't so dumb after all. Wrecking really hurts.

And so do mosquito bites.

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