Monday, May 07, 2012

Up North (part 1)


In addition to lovely weather and a thriving car culture, the greater Los Angeles area is also home to a surprising amount of unattractive natural phenomena; earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides and the USC Trojan Marching Band.
.
But you know what we don’t have?  Disgusting bugs that burrow into your body to steal your lifeforce.  Small arachnids in the order Ixodida – or “ticks”.
.
Our lovely trip to the hamlet of Stone Ridge was wonderful.  We had a great dinner, a nice day at the waterfall and loved the area up there.  Then we had a nice ride home and were ready for dinner at Aldona’s.  And then…
.
And then I noticed a tick on the crook of my arm – inside the elbow.  I wanted to clamly point this out to Ed, and ask him for tweezers.
.
However....
.
It turns out I have a small phobia with regards to small bugs that burrow into me or bite me for no reason.  (Anyone who has suffered through a mosquito outbreak has seen but a small instance of this).  With an insect that sticks it’s head into your veins  to feed  - while it’s little wings flap to get purchase, I did not react well.  And, I admit, not reacting well, might be a bit of an understatement.
.
I believe for the next 5 minutes, the only words out of my mouth were “Get it out. Get it out. Get it out.” As Ed took me to Aldona and Joe’s, I continued to repeat this phrase - apparently I was afraid Ed might forget the reason for our walk to Joe's.  I did, as we turned down the hall, to vary my speech for a moment to… “I want to move home.  Why did you make me come here.” Before returning to the familiar refrain of “Get it out.”
.
I must say Ed responded very well to this full blown panic attack, which was out of all proportion to the tiny blood sucking vampire stuck to my arm.  I really do chalk this up to some phobia now, since I had a freak out in Provincetown over biting black flies and then mosquitos.  I admit, I was just a bit out of control.  I have a very similar response with the dog has a tick.  I probably should confront this.
.
Someday.
.
Or Trevor can just be a city dog.