I Itch

Dear Lucy,
Yes, it seems I have developed a case of the hives. I have gone over in my mind what I have eaten, drank, worn, rubbed up against and can't think of a reason to be covered in red bumps and scratching like a dog at a flea convention.

So I went to the nearby Walgreens and bought myself some Benadryl pills which I took half an hour ago.

Now for some people, allergy medication makes them manic. But not me. I am not manic. I am NOT manic. I AM NOT MANIC! Quit staring at me! I'm hearing voices...oh no, it's just Satan again. Yes, kill, kill, kill. You say that every time. Why don't you get yourself some fresh material for Christ's sake???

Go to my happy place, go to my happy place...

Anyway, I have only had the hives once before in my life about 8 years ago. Could never figure out the cause then either. But Anne, God rest her soul, dutifully dabbed me from head to toe with that pink Calamine lotion which against my white skin made me look like I was wearing a hippie dress from the Summer of Love.

After a couple of days the hives went away and I lived happily ever after--except the time a few years later when while mushing up the ingredients for meat loaf by hand my fingers swelled up from the tips to the first knuckle.
Anne called them my "clown hands". I called her many names.
So, I took Benadryl and my enormously bulbous fingers went back to normal.
I have made meat loaf dozens of times the same way since. No clown hands.

So, I am sitting in the room of the hostel waiting to see if the itching subsides. There are three sets of metal bunk beds and six lockers in this room. It is like being in prison except I won't get raped.
Damn the luck!

I don't have any food, but there is a beer and pizza joint only 30 drunken, staggering steps from here. Location, location, location!

I just hope I don't scratch myself bloody. My luck I would get that flesh-eating disease.

"What happened to your leg," Suzie will say when I get home with one half-eaten away.
"I left my leg...in Sannn... Frannnn...Ciscooooooh"

The other side effect of Benadry is that it cannnnn....make....one...sleeeepppppyyyyyy...zzzzzzz...