Poison Ivy. An enemy of mine.

Poison ivy and I do not get along. 25 years of a hate-hate relationship that doesnt seem to be getting any better as time goes on... Ive been horribly allergic to poison ivy for as long as I can remember, but a particularly bad incident happened during a summer in college when my brother and I went to visit my cousin in San Francisco. We went on a hike through some woody terrain in Big Sur and although I rinsed off in a creek near the end of the hike, I came back to Atlanta with an oozy rash all over my inner arm (one spot I guess I didnt rinse off well enough). You couldnt see any skin on the majority of my inner arm bc the rash was so huge (I’m not exaggerating at all). I had to go to the doctor and take steroids to finally get the rash to go away, but it was a month of awfulness- I was itching and oozing over everything - it was disgusting. (i'm sure youre getting a beautiful image in your head right now....)

From my many itchy experiences with poison ivy, I'm very good at spotting it, but somehow, that tricky poison ivy always manages to leave its mark.. I can be 50 ft away from it and boom, I'm covered. So, when we moved into our house and I noticed some poison ivy in the backyard, I knew it as going to be trouble.... and boy has it been trouble….

Our poison ivy is particularly hard to eradicate and avoid bc its mixed in with the English ivy that covers half of our backyard, so oftentimes you cant see it until you’re literally standing in it. Chad and I are trying to get rid of the English Ivy bc its taking over the yard, choking our trees (sad I know) and also creates a haven to many wonderful creatures that we want get rid of (snakes, ticks, spiders, etc). Much to my dismay, in our attempt to remove the English ivy, we noticed that the poison ivy was growing up the majority of our trees, some with vines as thick as my thigh (and even comparing it to my thigh, that’s pretty thick)! We even spotted a tree that was actually dead but looked like it was alive because the poison ivy had grown up it and had tons of leaves hanging off of it… (just what I always wanted.. my very own poison ivy tree!) To further complicate matters, our dog loves running through the ivy and then when I pet her…, another way that I can get poison ivy.

We’ve been able to get rid of some of the English ivy and Chad has sprayed all of the poison ivy that he can find, but until we are able to totally get of the English ivy, I guess I’ll have to resign myself to being itchy :(. Today I’m sporting a few rashes on my arms and a nice spot on my eyelid that looks like I haphazardly applied some red eyeshadow.

Unfortunately, I’m not the only casualty in this war with poison ivy. Chad, who has never gotten poison ivy in the past, has been able to share in my itchy experiences- a few months ago, Chad and I had matching poison ivy rashes around our wrists just above our glove line and wonderful splotches on other places from where Chad accidentally weed-whacked some poison ivy and sent the juices flying . What a wonderful way to bond with each other….

Check for updates in the future on how our Operation Ivy Removal is progressing…

In the meantime, here are my tips on how to relieve the itching associated with poison ivy without actually scratching the rash- (bc scratching inevitably turns the rash into an oozy mess, which is best to avoid) All of these tips have been tested and proven by me to alleviate the itch- at least for a few minutes…

(1) Slap the itchy area as hard as you can
(2) Pour scalding hot water over the rash
(3) Apply duct tape to the rash and quickly remove (this method works but is discouraged as oozing can soon follow duct tape removal)
(4) Scratch in the immediate vicinity around the rash (this tricks your brain into thinking you’re actually scratching the rash, buying you a few seconds of peace)

And my personal favorite…

(5) Put the hair dryer on the hottest setting and blow-dry the rash for as long as you can stand it. In my experience, this method works the best and doesn’t necessarily result in oozing.

After doing any or all of the above methods, quickly apply calamine lotion. Although the lotion might not alleviate the itch as successfully as you would like, at least you look cool with random pink patches all over your skin.

Snow!!

so in the spirit of non-MARTA related posts.....

It snowed pretty intensely all afternoon here in Tyrone! I would venture to say it was around 2-3"- maybe more? I was constantly watching the radar at work to see if I needed to duck out early because I have no experience driving in snow....luckily, our office decided to close at 2pm so I made it home before snow started to stick on the roads. Bella loved the snow and played in the backyard for around 3 hours before deciding she wanted to come back inside and get out of the cold!! The snow was really awesome... not the normal slushy snow that I'm used to getting in GA, but solid snow that you could pack down and make into some really awesome snow balls! Playing in the snow was a great way to kick off Valentines/Presidents Day weekend :)

 

 Bella chilling in the snow

 

Bella displaying the numerous ice/snow balls that formed on her legs!

 

Our front yard looking beautiful covered in snow!

 

Chad trying to sled in our front yard- didnt work too well.. haha :)

  

Chad putting the finishing touches on Frosty!

 

Frosty close up! In case you were wondering, his eyes are made from pieces of a chocolate bar and his mouth is a rotten banana. Chad and I were joking that the carrot is going to get eaten tonight by some of the deer that like to destroy our plants... we'll see if Frosty and all of his body parts survive until the morning...

2 more marta encounters

I really should just name this post 'Adventures on MARTA'!! :) When I'm sitting in front of a computer, it's normally right after I've ridden MARTA so its fresh in my mind... maybe in the future I'll actually post about my life outside of public transportation. but that day is not today.

1) So this morning, I said goodmorning to the newspaper man (mentioned in the previous post) and he walked towards me, which is weird bc he knows by now that I never buy a newspaper. He proceeded to hand me an envelope that said "you so sweet" on the outside. When I opened the envelope, there was a hersheys bar inside! So I guess I now have a MARTA valentine.

2) Yesterday on my ride home from work, a short gray-haired man stood up and stood in the middle of a very crowded train and asked 'does anyone have a cigarette?? I'm nic-ken like a chicken'. It made me laugh- I've never heard that phrase before.

In other MARTA news, have yall heard about the controversy of the naming of the 'yellow line'? Apparently the route takes you to a large Asian community, and some people living in that community were offended that they decided to name the route 'yellow'. MARTA has caved and will now rename the line the 'Gold line'- which will cost xxxx amount of dollars to do. Awesome.

Happy Valentines Weeekend!