Down the Rabbit Hole

Mantis Phobia and Poison Ivy

"Blogging Circle of Friends "
Day 1261: April 28, 2016
prompt: today is a free day.... I give no direction on what to write.... but right something fun.

I was thinking this morning, that I might be a bit quirky. Now that I've reached a comfortable middle-age, I feel I can examine my life with a little more honesty. I think I have a pretty good handle on my flaws...and they are not small in number. I have a bad temper for one, a quick to fire response that burns hot and fast. I tend to be bossy and controlling, fallout from honing a type A personality for most of my life. I also tend to be too trusting, a personality trait that has often transformed me into a doormat too many times than I'm comfortable admitting. I'm too easily frustrated and I yell too much. While that's not a comprehensive list, it represents a few of the "biggies". So flaws yes, but also there is that quirkiness thing...I find myself thinking or saying things lately that make me briefly wonder about myself...and how these little eccentricities have managed to take root in my otherwise practical and normal routines.

For example...I am highly suspicious of yogurt. I force myself to eat it to fend off occasional threat of yeast infections during rounds of antibiotic treatments...but I loathe it. I can't get past the fact that its a living organism or that it can appear runny and weirdly smelly and still be perfectly ok to ingest. Or, and perhaps even more telling, my mother-in-law routinely makes homemade yogurt from expired milk. Yes. Yuck. No thank you.

So aside from the yogurt thing...I am completely creeped out by anyone touching my belly button. When I was pregnant I remember hating idea of someone rubbing my belly and inadvertently touching it. I had a friend who once told me that I had a special scream reserved for whenever he would try to touch my belly button. He really found humor in tormenting me with that. Quirky, right?

Then there is my absolute fear....okay if I'm being totally honest it qualifies as a phobia...of praying mantis. If I find myself in the vicinity of one, I become almost completely incapacitated, immobilized in visceral fear. I break out in a sweat, my legs buckle and I feel sick to my stomach. Eventually, I will bolt, screaming to put as much distance between me and it as possible. I know that they are a mere bug. I know that they are harmless, even beneficial. I know that they are also illegal to kill and that some say they bring good fortune. I know all that and it doesn't matter. My response is as involuntary and immediate as taking a breathe. As you might imagine, members of my family find this spectacle extremely entertaining. During the long summer months, a praying mantis appearance at one of our family parties is akin to a gift from the humor Gods. The last time, my mother and Uncle called me over under the guise of needing my help, only to step aside and reveal a tiny praying mantis sitting on the hose reel. Their peels of laughter echoed my screams and followed my hastily running feet. I nearly took down my own toddling child in my effort to get away. Funny? Not really. Not if you are me and you can't enjoy those humid days of summer without looking over your shoulder or glancing constantly up into the eves of porches and under picnic tables. I have always been more of winter person, I half wonder if this is the reason why.

These are just a few of my quirks. I discover more and more as I age...I supposed that is only natural. God bless my good friends and family who accept me, quirks, flaws and all.


"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
Day 782 April 28, 2016
Prompt: Have you had any bad experiences with gardening or planting flowers? Let's talk about them.

I am, at best, a novice gardener. I enjoy it though, the planting and eventual harvesting of my own string beans, tomatoes, baby eggplants and more. My daughter loves eating the cherry tomatoes and green peppers right off the plant. For the most part, our family has had good experiences with growing our veggies and keeping our property pretty with perennials.

The only bad experience I've ever had with a plant would be the summer I discovered that I was highly allergic to poison ivy. It was during my first marriage and we were bent on clearing the yard of our new home. We worked for hours to clear the overgrowth around the detached garage and under the porch. Because we were newlyweds and concerned with such things, we took a break to cadoodle and mess around at bit. Anyway...a few hours later I began to feel funny down there...actually, everywhere. Within an hour, both my eyes had swollen to slits. My lips burned and my tongue felt to big for my mouth and everything south of my belly button raged with an insanely, ravenous itching. We must have come into contact with the plants while we worked and our other activities had spread the awful oils all sorts of inconvenient, painful places.

The doctor felt terrible for me. He said the shots would give me some immediate relief but that it would take some time for the oral meds to reduce all the swelling and drive the itching away completely. It took four full days, one bad reaction to Cipro, countless oatmeal baths, a pair of dark sunglasses and a whole lot of angry cursing to get through that experience and come out on the other side. Never again. I steer as clear away from anything remote resembling poison ivy as I do praying mantises!