Bad Mood: Tick Bites, Dress Disasters

The Tick

Got up this morning. Was sleeping good. But was awoken by George taking Dexter out. It was past the time we normally get up. I made it to a 91 sleep score. Finally. But I was groggy. Why does it take so long to get to the part of the morning where we get to drink coffee? But first, attach leash to Maddie’s collar, then try to maneuver the three stairs going down into the front yard. Oh good, George fed the cat. Oh wow, is that mist I feel on my arms? Geez, I forgot to put my sweater on (not because of any morning coolness, but to cover my self in case I run into any neighbors this morning in my PJ’s).

I look up into the morning sky. It’s cloudy and squinting I can see that it’s darker in the distance – a bluer hue suggests that a heavier rain will be coming soon. Good thing George woke us up.

Maddie has to be coaxed to come in. She is enjoying the morning interlude with nature, prancing in front the cat, and checking out her neighborhood. Yes, she thinks it is hers.

Once inside, I must have fixed the dogs breakfast, although I don’t remember it. All I can think of is “I need coffee”. And I see George reaching for the coffee pot to start it. I go ahead and head to the bathroom to get my shower in. I think to myself. Ok, after shower, I will put on my robe and then I can sip coffee and put my day to order in my iPhone reminder app, and relax and wake up slowly.

After starting the water, to let it warm up. I quickly pick out my outfit for church. Since it’s August, I select a shirt that has some brown in it. It seemed too dark for summer wear but, with kids going back to school now, I can wear brown again.

I go back into the bathroom and slip my PJ top over my head. Something catches my attention. There is something brown and red on my right breast area. A closer look reveals what looks like a tick that has been there a while. There is a blood blister underneath the tick and what looks like the dreaded “target” to look out for with a tick bite, that could mean infection or disease. I tell George I have a tick. I grab the tweezers and gently pull. We put alcohol on it.

George suggests I go to the doctor tomorrow. I suggest I go today to a walk-in center as it does not look good. Catching it early might be the way to go. So he agreed. I told him he did not have to go with me, but he could go on to church if he wanted. I still had to take care of our grocery run and also Mom’s grocery run. But he agreed to go with me. I was grateful and happy that he did but understanding if he didn’t want to. I didn’t get to drink much of my coffee, trying to get dressed and ready for this urgent little doc appointment now pending on the wait list – now we are moving in high gear and I don’t want to be.

So off we went to CareNow, for my 8:24 appointment, after I registered all my info via the iPhone. The facility is about 15 to 20 minutes away from the house. The nurse saw my site and saw the tick (in a ziplock bag on a cotton ball). She ordered me some antibiotic topical cream at my local Publix.

George informed me that Publix Pharmacy did not open until 11:00 on Sunday. The store itself opens a lot earlier. So we went to Panera and had a lovely breakfast in waiting. I finally got a cup of coffee and tried to wake up and finally enjoy the day. Once breakfast was over we realized we had another hour to kill before the pharmacy was open, but what to do on a Sunday morning at 9:30? Turns out- not much. So we went back home, took dogs out again and killed an hour. I finally reorganized my day in my iPhone reminder to do list – in order as I wanted to “do all the things”. I love doing this every morning.

Out the door again for our Publix grocery shopping and Mom’s too. Mom has an app she is using now where she tells “Google” to put the groceries on her list. Only lately things will show up on any list. Today there were three lists I think. One called “Grocery” and one called “shopping” and another called “Grocery Shopping”. Google puts it to whatever she calls the list and if it’s not there it creates another list I also had my list on my iPhone reminder lists for my own groceries. So I think that meant that I had to look at 4 lists to cross reference that I had everything. :-O. I hope I got everything. I was crosseyed by the time I stepped out of the store.

I had told George previously that I would forget my Rx, after all that and he was to remind me. And sure enough, I did forget the Rx. So I had to go back in and get it. I had tried to get it first, (knowing me) but they hadn’t had time to fill it yet. I was told to come back after grocery shopping. The pharmacy lady said they were slammed already and the day had just started. I bit my lip so that I did not say that perhaps they should open when the store did because everyone else like me would also be wanting and waiting for their prescriptions and that this morning just proved that. But I decided to be nice and not state the obvious. I was already in a mood trying to maneuver all the grocery lists, and keeping up with my responsibilities before I could go home and take care of myself.

Mom’s.

We took Mom’s groceries in. George put up her refrigerated and frozen items. I took care of getting her fried chicken lunch to her, and getting a check made out for my nephew’s birthday and having her sign it. And also I gave her the zucchini bread. She reminded me her cleaning person comes on the 5th – which she has told me about six times now. I simply reply “that’s good”, once again. And it is a good thing. Mom said “are ya’ll sitting down? I have to inform George of something shocking”. I tell her he may have a shocking response, in similar tone. She says “I don’t have a list of things I want him to do today.”

Back home.

So I am trying on dresses to film each one after I slip it on, for the vlog, as I’ve chosen to share the finding of the dress with my YouTube community. The first one is a disaster of a look on me. Think beached whale in a blue chiffon dress in flimsy material. George doesn’t even bat an eye before saying “nah, I don’t like that one on you”. I didn’t either. The second one made me look like a hippo in a turquois dress. And the third one had hope but it just did not flatter me at all.

With tears on my face I uttered words something to the effect that fat women weren’t supposed to be going to black tie events. We have no place there. I told George if I couldn’t find a dress I would just not be able to go. I have since decided that I may open up to the possibility of a fancier evening pantsuit and if I get rejected at the door so be it. But there are some that look like long dresses but they’re just huge flowing fancy evening wear pantsuits. So I’m not ruling that out. But the Amazon dresses are not going to work. To be honest they probably were not dressy enough. Long dresses I will trip over as I’m short. A tea length will be long for me. But this process is traumatizing. And so now I have to start the shopping process outside the house. The ordering is over and I had already planned my week but I think we’ll have to change it now so I can get a day out to go shop for this darn dress that I’m going to wear once and probably have to pay a mortgage payment to find something that will fit my big huge whale of a self. Sorry. I’m just in a mood. I hope it gets better.

And my to do list today? Well it’s not going that great either. I can’t believe it’s 3:20 and well, not much has gone well, but I’ll take the nice time at Panera. I haven’t eaten lunch yet either.

I think things will be ok. I did get the cream on my tick bit boob after the affliction of trying on dresses. I had to wait to put on the cream so the cream would not get on the dresses I have to return. They are now packaged back up and ready to be returned. The tick bite is currently under its first of 3 treatments per day til cream is gone. I have added 3 more to do items each day on my To Do List, to be repeated daily so I won’t forget to put on the cream each day.

Ok I’m hungry. And I’m going to go take my whale of a self to the kitchen and try to find something for it to eat. And I will try to have a better mood tomorrow but today I think I will just sit and let the emotions come and go, the thoughts come and go, and let the dresses come and go. I suppose a dress has to be prayed for just like everything else in this life. Lord knows the first session was a bust. And a few hips and thighs. But who’s telling.

The tribe wants to declare that it has spoken but the tribe is too moody today. Maybe tomorrow.