Wasps!

I’ve killed 3 wasps in 2 days in my house.  With the warm weather, they’ve woke up and seem to be everywhere.  And it’s reminded me that wasps are my #1 least favorite thing about warm weather.  Here’s why….

On one not-so-special day in May 2005, I had nothing much to do so I decided I’d drive from Franklin Springs to Lavonia to use Ken’s mom’s tanning bed that she had in the storage room of their garage.  I was told that I could come over and use it anytime I wanted.  It was a nice day other than my pasty white legs reflecting in the sunlight.  So, I go to tan.

I turned on the light in the room and noticed 2 wasps flying around it.  I didn’t panic, I just thought “as long as they stay up there while I’m down here, we’ll be just fine.”  I was only going to tan for about 7 minutes (you have to build up), but I set the timer on 20 minutes to let it warm up (cold tanning beds are not fun) while I put on my tanning lotion.

It was counting down and was about time for me to get in.  I looked around – Wasps on ceiling? Check. Door locked? Check.  Goggles? Check.  So, I open the lid and lay down.  About 12 seconds later, this excruciating pain shot through my back and I came flying out of the tanning bed and starting stomping my feet and dancing around the room.  When I could finally see through my tears, there was a wasp flailing around in the tanning bed where my back used to be.

Now, I said this was a not-so-special day in May; it was actually 3 days before my 22rd birthday.  I couldn’t tell if I was crying because it hurt, or because I was mad that I had to get completely dressed to go find someone to help me, or because I had gone 21 years, 11 months, and 27 days without being stung my anything worse than an ant!

So, I come out of the room into the sunshine and Marie is coming around the end of the house and sees me.  Our interaction went something like this…

Marie:  “Hey, girl!  I didn’t know you were here.”

Cyn:  *sob* Hey, Marie… *sob* I just got stung… *sob* by a wasp… *sob*sob* in the TANNING BED!  *SOB*SOB*SOB*

Marie: Oh no!  Come in the house, I’m sure I’ve got something we can put on it.  You’re not allergic, are you

Cyn: *sob* I don’t know… *sob* never been stung before *sob*sob*

<enter the house> Marie reaches in the freezer and grabs a few ice cubes, wraps them in a paper towel, and tucks it in my bra strap to hold it in place to get the swelling down.  Then she pulls out the “medicine tub” and starts looking through tubes of creams

Marie: I’ve got some Benadryl cream and some Benadryl spray and some Benadryl capsules and some Benzocain spray and some Neosporin.  Here’s some Advil, take these now.  I guess we can just use all of these.

So, standing in her kitchen, she proceeds to apply Benadryl spray, Benzocain spray, Benadryl cream, and Neosporin, followed by a Band-Aid – always letting the previous layer dry/soak in before applying the next.

Then we walked back out to the storage room to see why there were wasps in there.  The wasp that stung me was still laying in the tanning bed, and the 2nd one was back up at the light on the ceiling.  She made sure they were dead and ensured me that she’d have Kenneth to look around outside for a nest since we didn’t see one inside.  And we went back to the house.

Then she says “Here’s 2 Benadryl capsules, but don’t take them until you get home and know you aren’t going to have to drive anywhere else.  The guys were out working, they should be home soon.  Here’s some chocolate pudding, I’m going to go finish weeding in the front yard.”

So, when it was all over, Ken found me sitting on his mom’s front porch, red-faced and teary-eyed, and eating chocolate pudding – and still white!

The good news…Ken loves me in spite of my whiteness and I haven’t been stung since.

M*A*S*H

I get home between 4:30 and 5 pm most days of the week…I turn on the Hallmark channel and watch 4 episodes of MASH. Yeah, you heard me right – I watch MASH. I’ve seen almost all of the episodes – several of them more than once.
I haven’t quite decided what it is about MASH that makes it such a timeless classic.
It’s not their disdain for the US government and military. I know there were some seriously strong political beliefs behind this show, but I have been taught to honor the leaders in authority over me, even if I disagree with them, and I have the utmost respect for members, past and present, of all the branches of the military.
Maybe it’s the perfectly comedic ad-lib ability of all the actors involved. I’ve always wondered how much of what was actually said was scripted and how much they came up with on the fly. (Seems like they tried the same thing on Seinfeld, and in my opinion, that failed miserably).
Maybe, as a 25 year old medical professional, it gives me a glimpse of what “cutting edge” was 40 years ago and I get to see how far our medical knowledge has really advanced.
It amazes me how tickled I get at some of the things they do and say on this show.
Maybe that’s what I love about it – the randomness of it all!
I think my favorite episode is when an unexploded bomb ends up in the compound – they call the Army, they call the Navy, they call everyone they can think of, give them the serial number, and no one knows who it belongs to. So, finally they find out that it’s a CIA bomb (the CIA has it’s own bombs?) and get the directions of how to disarm it. Even though they’re surgeons, they cut the wrong cord and cause it to explode. Only it wasn’t a real bomb, it was a propaganda bomb with “the USA is our friend”-type fliers in it!

Laughing & Playing

Our Sunday morning ritual consists of the alarm going off about 7 am and Ken snoozing until 7:45.  Then he turns on the TV to watch a little Creflo, takes shower and gets ready during Ed Young, and tells me I need to get up and kisses me “bye”.  He leaves for church, I roll out of bed and get ready to Joel Osteen.  Then I leave to make it to church by 9:30.

This morning, Joel was preaching on laugher as medicine. (Pv. 17:22)  And it was something that I could totally grab onto.  I am of the firm belief that emotional health is intertwined with physical health.  Maybe you’ve seen the commercial “Depression hurts”, but hurting causes depression too.  At that moment, I thanked God for such an entertaining life that I get plenty of opportunities to have a good chuckle.

Then, during Shaken & Stirred this morning (that’s our Sun AM teen class), Ken brings all the teens out to the play ground at the daycare and gives them 5 minutes (more like 8 or 10 minutes) to play as hard as they can on the playground.  They went nuts – once they realized he was serious.  On the playground, he taught them that following Holy Ghost is kinda like playing on a playground.  Instead of Ken, you’ve got a born again spirit and Holy Ghost.  Instead of a playground structure, you’ve got a service, a worship experience, or a portion of a lesson.  Sometimes, you “play” within a pre-designed structure.  Other times, you “play” – ignoring the structures, jumping over the structures as if they’re not there.  But either way, Holy Ghost won’t hang you out to dry.

Today was a very playful day – and very insightful of how my life is working right now.  I am very grateful for a “playful” husband – literally and spiritually.  And sometimes, the literal play can have lasting spiritual affects.

For example, many of you are aware of our situation right now – I live in Savannah on weekdays for school, then come home on weekends.  This weekend was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time (yeah, get your mind out of the gutter – I wouldn’t be blogging about that – my dad reads my blog!).  I got home Friday afternoon and Ken meets me in the driveway chatting about all these ideas he had for us to do.  Friday night, we went to Athens – ate at Rafferty’s (potato soup and a salad – stupid fast!), went to the mall, Sam’s, the AT&T store (he got an iPhone), Wal-Mart (he took a picture of my butt on his iPhone) – a wonderful date out with my husband!  Saturday, we went hiking, then ate at Ryan’s (salad bar and veggies!).  You can see the pictures we took in yesterday’s post.  Came home and watched 4 episodes of the Sopranos.  It was amazing!  The sadness and loneliness that so many people worry about us feeling (and yes, we feel it sometimes) went away!  The laughing and chatting and playing that we did this weekend was the exact medicine that we needed.

The lesson from today:  “play” with Holy Ghost, play more (literally), and laugh a lot!