Summer's Siren Song

A few weeks makes all the difference, doesn't it? These are pictures taken just a couple of months apart in my backyard.

Can I just say that these pictures also represent how I feel like my life will change after May 29? The weeks between the end of March and the end of May are the most exciting for anyone who works in a school, because it's when the countdown begins. 10 weeks...9 weeks, single digits!...8 weeks and a wake up....7 Mondays...there are so many ways to do it! As an easily excited woman, I'm probably about to blow the top off excited. Give it a whole new meaning and maybe even set a new standard in the excitement department. It's not that I dislike my job, although this year would not rank as high as other years in terms of greatness, it's just that summer beckons and I want to heed it's siren song.

On to more immediate concerns. The above is a vibrant memento of my bluebonnet excursions. The incredible flowers were a cover for the evil that lurked below. I don't think I've ever purposely walked thru a field (4 times!) with so many stickers and, apparently, venomous spiders.

In the last few minutes of the last shoot, I had a searing pain in my calf. I thought it was a sticker, another of dozens we had pulled from our feet, legs and rear ends. As I shook my pant leg, something feel out. It looked like a bug, small and lentil sized, but I couldn't tell what kind since I didn't have on my glasses. It hurt for about an hour, but didn't really leave a mark so I forgot about it. A WEEK later, it started to itch. The next day, it looked like this, but a little smaller, without the purplish center. We drew a circle around it to gauge it's progression, and it grew. Then we drew another circle and it outgrew that, too. Eddie told me to try some things to make sure it wasn't an allergic reaction. I tried them and it grew, so I sent him the picture. He said probably a spider bite and go see a dr. I thought that's what I was doing, but texting and emailing pictures aren't considered a dr.'s visit, I guess. After school, I trotted to the Minute Clinic and they told me the same thing (not to see a dr., but that it was a spider bite and was probably infected). I am now on an antibiotic that apparently will not only take care of the spider bite infection but also clear up my acne AND, if taken prophylactically, will prevent malaria. How's that for getting a bang for your buck? I'll give you an update if my leg rots off, and certainly a picture, too.