Queen of Rambles

I felt like some kind of pioneer woman this evening when I grabbed a bag of barely used bulgar wheat, two pieces of fabric and my sewing machine. Within minutes I had a spiffy little bean bag that’s ugly and smells bad, yet is functional and exactly like the bean bags of my youth. I made something! Something my son loves! It’s so weird to just be able to run up to the sewing machine and do things like that. Until I started quilting 3 1/2 years ago I couldn’t imagine why anyone would ever own a sewing machine.

Now Erik has two bean bags and he’s quite taken with them. I think they must taste good because he likes to suck on them, which is sort of worrisome, but I guess a little bulgar wheat never killed anyone. It all started with a book of toddler games I got from the library. I have no clue what toddlers like to do, other than run around and throw things, so I was inspired to check and see if the library could educate me. They can and they did and I was suddenly cutting the strawberry off my tomato pin cushion and letting Erik bowl over plastic cups in the living room. Only the pin cushion was lame and light and I really wanted to use a bean bag like the book suggested, but I only had rice in the cupboard. No dried beans. Only canned beans. I don’t want to stick a can of beans in a fabric square and tell a toddler to throw. None of us need a concussion. I spied the bag of bulgar wheat and that was that.

That’s about one too many paragraphs about something so silly.

How about something that is not silly at all.

I am being haunted. Yesterday the ghosts started talking and their screechy, whiny voices scared the bejesus out of me. I thought I was going to have to call an exterminator who specialized in ectoplasmic material until I realized it was my stupid iPod dying a prolonged and anguished death.

You know how if you’re a parent you have all kinds of crazy little rituals and habits that are somehow supposed to save your child from death or discomfort? I always, always, always put my diaper bag/purse/gym bag in the floor in front of Erik’s feet. My wallet is there and I can’t get far without my wallet. If I totally lose my mind and forget Erik in the back seat, I figure I’ll miss my wallet pretty quickly and when I find it I’ll find him. It’s not really that big of a concern now, but when I first had him I was always terrified I would forget him. It was kind of silly because the boy was not one of these docile, happy, sleepy babies that was so quiet you didn’t know he was there. He screamed bloody murder the whole time he was in the car (until we moved him to the convertible seat), so my neurotic habit wasn’t really necessary.

Back to the story. . .

A couple of months ago Erik was bored or angry or just exploring the world around him and managed to dump out his whole cup of water into the pocket of my bag while we were driving home from the gym. It was a huge, disgusting mess and I thought my iPod was done for. My cell phone has been through the wash (courtesy of my mom) and survived, so I held out a tiny ray of hope that my iPod might be made of such sturdy stuff. I had a shot of happiness last week when I plugged the sucker into my computer and it lit up and started charging. Saved! Finally I would have music again! Finally I would have audio distractions at the gym! I need audio distractions.

I got to the gym, turned the poor thing on and stared in dismay as I realized the button didn’t work. Bah!

I brought it home and left it on the counter to remind Mike to find the receipt (not sure if that will do any good, but doesn’t hurt to try), and forgot about it. Cue up the ghostly shrieks yesterday. It really was extremely disconcerting to hear it singing its electronic song of death.

But you know what’s even worse than a ruined iPod?

Figuring out that you are allergic to your wedding ring.

*insert long sigh-sob here*

I’ve always had metal allergies in my ears, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. The other day I made pizza dough and totally forgot to put my ring back on. I spent a whole 16 hours without the ring and suddenly I noticed my fingers weren’t itching uncontrollably and the ever-present rash wasn’t nearly as intense as it usually is. My brain started whirring and I started realizing a few obvious facts. When I was younger the rash plagued my right hand. I used to wear several rings on my right hand. In the past years the rash has only been on my left hand. I currently only wear a wedding ring. My hands have a weird pain skin pain after I play on the equipment at the playground. I have a known metal allergy.

Within an hour of putting my ring back on my fingers were itching with the fire of 10,000 demon hoards. I took the ring back off and it felt better within 20 minutes. I’ve been experimenting for the last three days and I think the only conclusion I can come to is that I’m allergic to the ring.

I’m so sad! I love my wedding ring! It is gorgeous and perfect and lovely and so very me. It is a symbol of love and hope and fidelity and all good things in our relationship. It was a gift given in pure love. I want to be able to wear it! I know I’m not the only one with this problem, but that doesn’t make it any better. For now I am leaving it off and letting the hand heal. I hope once it heals, I can wear it for short periods of time. I’ll take it off at night and when I go to the gym, but I’d really like to be able to wear it at other times. I think I need to consult my dermatologist but I almost don’t want to hear what he’ll have to say.

I do have to admit it has been a huge relief to not have constant skin pain. I decided I would just suck it up and deal with it and wear the ring, but knowing that there is a way to almost instant relief turned that plan on its head. When you are feeling so crazed with the itching that cutting your fingers off doesn’t seem half bad, the very special ring suddenly goes flying off your finger and you don’t even care that you love it.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.