L's

Lame

I woke up, not wanting to get out of bed. I was tired from two long days of work. Still, I had more work that day to accomplish. Bills to pay. The same ole song and dance.

I rolled over, tried to fall back to sleep. No go.

I sat up, pulled out my netbook, and wrote. Blog posted, I hopped out of bed, grabbed my robe, and headed to the bathroom.

As I was about to jump into the shower, I noticed some weird scab-like thing on my hip. I scratched at it. It didn't go away. I tried again. It moved.

I freaked out.

I grabbed a pair of tweezers and pulled. And pulled. Finally most of it broke free, but some was still in my skin.

More freaking out.

I took a breath.

I could hear my roommates talking in their room.

"Hey guys, I need your help. And sorry but I'm naked."

They opened their door.

Lending a Hand

I showed them the tissue with the bug on it. One roommate identified it as a deer tick. The other confirmed. And there was still some in my skin.

My tweezers were no good. They used their own. I leaned against the doorjamb as one roommate worked on trying to pull out whatever was left in my skin. The other sat on their bed and observed, giving pithy commentary.

When my first roommate couldn't get the stuff out, the other jumped in. Gave instructions. There was a needle. And then a knife. They both apologized for the pain. I didn't care if it hurt. I just wanted the shit out of my skin.

After some cutting and scrapping, and a flinch or two from me, my body was finally free of the bug's remnants.

"Thinking back, if this had happened to me while I lived alone, I would've freaked," one roommate said. I didn't say it, but I recognized I would've probably done the same. In fact, I kinda had.

Lime

So now I'm on the lookout for any change on my skin on the bite area. I really hope I don't get Lime disease.

My roommates assured me, since I caught the tick before it really started to feed (it was flat when I pulled it off), my chances are low.

It was a relatively mild winter here. The bugs are beginning to wake up. I already found a random stinkbug in my car the other day.

This is just the start of the infestation.