After class on Tuesday I noticed that my knees were very itchy. When I got home I discovered that I had bites all over them - and a couple at other places on my legs. They have been driving me crazy ever since - they are red, extremely itchy and hot to the touch. More serious than ordinary bug bites, but not as bad as when I was bit by a poison spider years ago...at least not yet. It doesn't help matters that when I have a bite, or contact dermatitis, or a blemish of any kind I have to remove it. I don't care how many times I've read that it's a bad idea to pick at zits and such, I must scratch 'til it bleeds. End of story. We haven't had a frost, and maybe some weird insect got me? I've always thought that one of the best things about winter is that all the bugs are dead. We went swimming and hot tubbing at the YMCA tonight and even the skin burning levels of chlorine didn't help a bit.

It must have happened on campus. Something living in my office maybe? It is dark and dusty there. The janitors empty the trash but that's about it. When you share a space with others who aren't there when you are - kind of a transient situation - no one really feels much like cleaning it up. So I sublimated my need to make that one day per week habitat better, and today I freaked out and washed every blanket at home; the ones on the bed, the ones on the couch, the ones in the dogs' and cat's baskets. Tomorrow I am going to launder anything that's left that isn't nailed down. I don't know if the linens were harboring vermin (the image of Edna and her prey is unwelcome) but it made me feel better to do it. And this place certainly needs it.