Here it is, near the end of a holiday weekend, and I find that I am feeling less and less relaxed, and more and more nervous and there's something I forgot to do lingering the back of mind.
Oh yeah. I'm going on vacation. Tomorrow. And because it's almost-camping - cabin in a state park kind of camping - there is a ton of packing to do. And cooking. And baking. And I've dealt with all of this by pretending it isn't going to take long and I don't need to do it until today.
Yes. This is working well for me. Until 8am this morning when reality could be denied no longer.
My dad's birthday was last week, so I need to do some baking. Like, be-in-the-kitchen-all-day-and-come-out-barely-able-to-stand baking. All my siblings will be there. All my nephews. My dad. His wife. Now, I'm not responsible for all of the food. But we're still talking about several days of food and lots of mouths. My mommy-distracted brain can't even THINK about all of the food I need to pack right now. And a husband who only eats vegan. He might be eating corn straight out of the can for 3 days. Note to self: pack can opener. And corn.
Apparently there will be bugs at this place. Stinkbugs, mosquitos, and ticks, to name the ones I dread the most, although not necesssarily in that order. One of my sisters told me about this stuff you need to spray on your clothes and let dry for a couple of days to prevent ticks. You can't put it on your skin, though, because it breaks down on skin. So. Two days of preparations, and I'm just starting today. Oops. Note to self: stay in the cabin as much as possible. Wait. Unless there are stinkbugs. Second note to self: be prepared to sleep in car.
I believe I used to be somewhat normal in my dread of ticks. I didn't like them, but I didn't freak out either. I even suvived the lodging on and removal of two different ticks. It's normal to make your 7yo son take them out for you while you look in the other direction and try not to hyperventilate, right? But then there was The Incident. I had nursed my baby to sleep and went off to take a shower. Unbeknownst to me, he had an overgrown mutant tick who grabbed on for a trip into the Great Indoors and took advantage of the mommy-child bonding moment to hop on over to my body. I took off my shirt as I stepped in the shower, and spotted the black thing the size of a quarter that started to run up my . . . you know . . . torso area. All I can remember now is a blur of screaming and panic as I thrashed about in the shower curtain. "GET IT OFF!! GET IT OFF!!" And if you are thinking I could have just washed it off . . . .NO. nonononono. The rushing shower water just made it hunker down and look like it was going to sink its fangs into me. So. Yeah. Panic level increased a notch or two. My husband did finally come to my rescue - got me out of the shower curtain and that horrible creature off of me. FYI - it's very hard to look the other direction and not hyperventilate when something is that close to your chin.
Anyway, all of that to say, my sister sent me info about this spray and it takes 2 days to spray on your clothes and dry and then ticks will die or jump off of you and so I am rushing around doing this right now with the "help" of two children who think they know more about ticks than I do (they might) and that this won't do any good (they had better be wrong), and I am not really looking forward to going on vacation anymore. I am suddenly thinking about my Very Smart Friends who have talked about going to Disney. I don't like crowds. I don't really like rides. I don't mind cooking on vacation, but my husband usually chips in so I haven't thought our low-key, low-budget trips to places like this cabin are that bad. Plus, I just like to do my own thing. So my friends' attempts to convince me that Disney is the ultimate vacation have not really made any headway.
Until right this minute. I am betting there are no ticks in Disney. Or stinkbugs.
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