Tues. Day.

That is a photo of some things that are outside: Plants! The plants are outside.



Here's another example of an outside plant. There's my purple coleus in its teal bamboo pot. The pot's kinda dirty, but that's okay. There's dirt outside, too.

But this: Goddamned outside. I wasn't outside for more than five minutes and I got TWO goddamned mosquito bites. That brings the total up to three: one on my ass and one on each leg. After I doused the bites with hydrocortisone, I sprayed my legs with some OFF! insect repellent. When the mosquito came around again, I sprayed HER with some OFF! insect repellent and then she went away. (She's actually quite lucky; I only used the 7% DEET spray. I have 100% DEET that I used in Thailand. I break out those big guns on hikes and stuff.) Now I have these huge welts on my legs, each about the diameter of a coffee cup. No joke. Mosquito bites don't form little nubs on me, they spread into these massive swelled welts. I'd show you, but it's ugly ugly ugly.

So instead:



These are outside, too, with me. That is an example of why I am the schitzo way I am. That is my reading material for this morning: Ms. Magazine's issue about women's studies programs in the US and SHAPE with Danica Patrick in a bikini on the cover. When I bought SHAPE yesterday (along with a bag of chocolate covered pretzels for snacking while reading), the cashier looked at it and said sadly, "I wish I had a stomach like that," and I said, "All you need is some plastic surgery and some Photoshop." Because--hello!--who doesn't know that the chicas on magazine covers are not real? (Funnily enough, the cashier didn't say anything about the Ms. Magazine when I bought it at the Co-Op last week. Of course, he's probably used to the crunchy granola girls who transitioned from Highlights straight onto Ms.)



So that was part of my morning--coffee, reading, bug spraying--in between doing the dishes and trying on my new swimsuit. (It fits! But it has that annoying latex smell, so I need to wash it before wearing it.)