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.