There’s really nothing like being cocky and then having the Universe punch you in the head to focus your mind.  Remember I said, phew, no symptoms from the two ticks?  About one week after writing that I noticed the skin on my right leg was totally numb from the knee to the ankle, and thought oh dear, I must’ve pinched a nerve sitting on a high stool at King Taps at Happy Hour with Kathy.

About a week after that I was eating dinner and thought man, my salivary gland is feeling very funny.  This got much worse and I realized I had a swollen lymph node at the top of my jaw and under my ear.  My friend Julie who’s a nurse had warned me to be vigilant about any weird symptoms, and between the numb skin and this lymph node I finally realized the ticks did mess with my system.

As seeing a doctor is out these days, I was able to book a ten-minute phone appointment with her, explained everything, and she prescribed ten days of doxycycline and asked for the tick as it’s going to be analyzed to see if it carries Lyme disease.  As the doctor’s office and pharmacy are adjoining, I picked up the pills and dropped the tick.  So now I wait for the results.

I’m thinking even if that filthy tick comes back negative, how do I know the tick I had in my chest, and which I pulled out and threw down the sink, didn’t carry Lyme?  Or, if I have these symptoms, and the tick doesn’t have Lyme, I think I should stay on the antibiotics no matter what they do to my system just to ensure all tick filth is dead.

Into every life a little rain must fall.  And I guess this is why my entire system decided to fail and go into a migraine, which made me sick for three days afterward, and so I’ve contacted Joan and said I need Reiki badly as obviously I’m out of alignment with the Universe.  What next, I wonder.

Shopping therapy is my excuse for the ridiculous amount of tchotchkes I’m hauling home from the thrift stores.  I fell in love with a trio of adorable Beswick ducks from the 1940’s, a small lusterware bowl with two intertwined swans as the handle, a Shafford hand-decorated cup and saucer made in Japan, and several other unneeded items.

My house is actually a small gift shop when you think of it.  I’ve chosen what on eBay, Etsy, and wherever I do my research, are decent and laudable items, so basically a person could just walk around shopping, pointing at items they wish to view, and then buying.  But could they, really?  I insanely pondered breeding dachshunds at one time and then realized I could never, ever sell any of the puppies.

You know how I love to cook and bake, so am happily planning the menu for my birthday party in Osoyoos next week.  I’m going to make sriracha chicken skewers, wild salmon, Amish pasta salad, Greek salad, sweet and sour cucumber salad, small roasted potatoes and buy some nice soft buns to warm.  For dessert Phyllis offered to make a cake, but mom can eat half of one on her own, so I’m going to make a Black Forest cake to ensure everyone can eat like mad.

So all things considered, life isn’t all that bad, and the next time I write an entire blog about my health please send nasty messages to bring me to my senses.