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April 17, 2000
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poison I'm keeping the quote from yesterday. May need it again. You see...hmmm...I didn't wash thoroughly enough or soon enough after the exposure to the dreaded poison ivy. I knew I wasn't meant to do yard work. When I woke up this morning, I slowly realized that the dreaded rash was appearing. You can see this relatively gross picture of me talking on the phone to SuRu ("What time are you picking me up at the Honda place? I'm trying to take a picture of my poison ivy with the digital camera.") Well, it looks worse than it is at the moment. By which I mean, it isn't bothering me that much. Perhaps the poison ivy isn't bothering me because of the nice wine and cheese I had over at LG's. I told her the other day we should visit some time, just the two of us, instead of only getting together when other friends came to town. So she had some good cheese in the fridge. And some wine around. (Smoked oysters, olives, fruit and baguette, too.) We had a good time solving the world's problems. It was like old times when she lived in L.A. (Northridge, actually) and I would go to visit. What fine times we had! Our conclusion, as usual, was that we'd rather be traveling somewhere for pleasure. We'd rather be retired. LG retired once and we all envied her until she had to work again. That had to hurt. (Of course, I 'retired' for five months in 1972/1973 and have never really believed the part where you would 'miss' work. But I was young and got back into it without too much pain. Work was still pretty new to me then, I'd only worked part time for four years and full time for two and a half when I took off.) One is inspired to read about poison ivy when one has it. Thought I'd read that you had about half hour to wash after exposure to avoid the oils penetrating the skin. Hmm...here it says ten minutes. Should have shoved in front of Forrest! (No...actually I'd rather have it than him. I wouldn't want to be around me when I have it!) Work was OK today. I'm listening to "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" tapes in the car. Often, one of the most distinctive thing about Europeans is their shoes. I just thought of that today while meeting with my German buddies. Everything gets so homogenized, though. One guy bought a coffee travel mug like mine to take home. (He'll probably see them for sale in his own department store next week.) Levis are at least cheaper here. When I came home all six pillowcases were off the bed. It is wise to wash them...glad Forrest thought of that. We should probably wash the dog, too. She might have brought some good poison ivy juice into the bed. ("Not me, Mom. I just roll in the grass and never go near those wild areas where you were pulling up weeds and trees.") I'm not touching the shoes I was wearning either. (Although putting them in isolation for three weeks seems excessive!) To show what a true medical nihilist I am, I am now thinking that maybe this exposure will make me immune. Hah! I know better, but denial is denial.
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"Better use medicines at the outset than at the last moment." Publilius Syrus, Maxim |
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day 1 (actually about 100 hours after exposure to the plant)
it's surprisingly hard to take a picture of your own poison ivy and, in this shot, I missed!
and on a lighter note...a great looking shop on 12th street |
