Gettin All Up In There (With a Flashlight)

Days Walking - 25

I peeked from the shelter this morning, wary.

Eyes darting left and right, watching for germs...

Church and Kwame have come down with what seems to be the same bug. Same symptoms anyway. Sinus pressure, runny nose (shouldn't it be one or the other? Pressure, or runny, I mean) I wonder who infected who? Sheltering with Church, I'm almost certain to catch the germies. But will I fight them off without getting sick? I shall try. So far I feel fine. The large cloves of garlic I'm wearing around my neck are keeping the sicko's (and everyone else) at bay.

No, I'm joking. No need for garlic, my natural funk is doing a fine job of keeping people at pole's length. Thanks for the advice on odor, Heather! I'll have to try anti-perspirant over deodorant. Still, when you cannot properly launder your clothing, exactly which paste you apply to your pitts can only help so much. Hey there was some accidental alliteration going on there.

I started a short story yesterday, and wrote a few hundred words. It's a silly little thing (you're thinking - Silly? From Litany? Why I Never!) and I'll probably have it finished in a few days. If it's any good at all I might post it online somewhere for you to read. My real life is rambly enough, the people who come here for the posts should not have to slog through my fiction.

I look around my surroundings sometimes, and try to describe them with some justice. Yes, the sky is usually greyish white and the ground is white and the shelters are white, but it's also beautiful in a stark, rugged way. There's that line from Contact - something like "They should have sent a poet, no words, no words..." Well I gotta tell you, I am a poet, and sometimes I get that Ellie Arroway look in my eye, but I'm saying "They should have sent a better poet, boring words, boring words..."

I used to envy Church for her Useful Skills. I'm really the only team member without Mad Skillz of some sort. Granted, I am the one who started the whole idea, wrangled these mofo's together, etc, so props to Lit for that. But medical skills are really something to be proud of, in my book. You'd think that, and you'd be right, but then there's all the icky stuff:

Despite repeated lectures, some of the members (Jake and Gabriel!!) have not been taking proper care to moisturize their hands, arms and faces. I don't know if this is a bullsh*t macho man anti-lotion thing, or what their problem is, but now Gabriel's chapped lips have cracked badly and begun to bleed. And this is not the environment you want to walk around with Big Scabs on Your Face.

Every time Gabriel eats, he's 'manipulating the tissue', (sez Church) and this breaks the healing tissue and the process has to start again. She said that if this happens too many times, he'll end up with scar tissue in his lips. That could lead to a loss of sensitivity (which isn't just a issue when it comes to snogging or lapping) and that's a problem because "Your lips are meant to be highly sensitive, to monitor the temperature and texture of your food." Who knew? Also, "He could lose the ability to whistle." I told her she was full of sh*t on that last factoid, but she was very serious and insisted it was so. Hmn. I still think she's messin with me.

So ok, I mentioned icky medical stuff. Gabriel's lips, while not appealing, can't really be called icky. Caeled has an issue, er, down there. With the package. The family jewels. The hanging chads. LOL. I love the part in Four Rooms where Jennifer Beals' character goes on and on for like two minutes, about different names for a penis. Great!

Caeled's hanging chads are experiencing some kind of fungal growth, it seems. After checking him out thoroughly (sorry, girl) with the flashlight, gettin all up in there (sorry girl) she spent a good half an hour looking at medical sites online while Caeled cranked the dynamo (the very least he could do, I thought) she was able to determine that he's gonna be all right. Good daily scrubbin, careful drying, and regular applications of anti-fungal ointment should clear it up. Apparently, it's oh so itchy burny as he's hiking. Sorry dude.

All right, when it comes to icky medical stuff, it could have been a lot worse. I've seen tv shows where a person is all opened up and you can see all the quivering internal goo. The blood doesn't bother me. It's the goo.

And hanging chads, I have to admit, are not at all attractive. I have worshipped some male equipment in my time, but the chads, not nice to look at. Better with lights off yes thank you.

Litany Webb, signing off

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