(this is an iris, not poison ivy)

i needed a running start but i finally got enough speed to get a good 8 hours of sleep last night. i could've slept longer but my morning was interrupted by a phone call from the doctor's office asking if i could come in tomorrow afternoon and get my japanese encephalitis vaccination.

today was a warm day (did the temperature hit 90's?) but there was a surprisingly cool breeze blowing into my bedroom window. i was scheduled to go running but decided to work through it instead since i had a tentative deadline tomorrow; besides, it was too hot to go running, only crazy people (or people who just don't know) go out when the sun is at it's zenith.

my upstairs neighbors slipped me a note through my mail slot reminding me about tuesday night's dinner with them plus our next door neighbors franz and jen. tuesday? i thought it was tomorrow. thank god they reminded me, because i would've shown up and made an ass of myself. and franz and jen? i thought it was our other neighbors, the lesbian couple who i'm pretty sure hate me for some unknown reason. that would've been awkward; now it'll be a good dinner. i actually talked to franz yesterday, and he mentioned something about the dinner, but i gave him one of those, "i don't think you're invited" look. who knows, maybe there's still some room for awkwardness!

however, i did go out briefly to water my garden. it took a few minutes for me to unwrap and pull the hose all the way across the property, and a few more minutes to coil the hose back up for storage. none of the wildflowers have sprouted yet but the morning glory seeds i planted on sunday have started to poke out of the dirt. all this warm sunny weather we've been having must be great for the plants. i hear tomorrow it's going to rain - even better - saves me a trip! maddy (the woman who used to have my garden) called me later to inform me that the tall stalky plants growing out of my plot are actually parsnips.

after all these months, i finally got my first google check. speaking of opportunities, client P contacted me today about doing more work for them in the near future. i told them my traveling schedule, but hopefully when i come back i'll have something to do (and more importantly, a way to pay the bills, since after june i won't have any more projects lined up).

remember how i was saying something about psychosomatic sensations of itching? i finally put 1+1 together and realized it must be poison ivy. i was definitely doing some bushwhacking on sunday, and there was for sure a lot of poison ivy everywhere in the woods. i didn't touch any directly, but i forgot about the jeans i was wearing, and wore them again for a few more days instead of throwing them into the wash as soon as i got home. i don't think i've ever gotten poison ivy before and was starting to think maybe i was immune, but i'm pretty sure it's what i have now. i have a big itchy (crusty) patch on my elbow and a few tiny raised blisters on the back of my hands. i've probably touched other parts of my body, hence the general scratchy feeling. so today i did another load of laundry, learning my lesson the hard way.

for lunch i went to the relatively new subway across the train tracks and got a foot long tuscan chicken sandwich. it was okay, like a lot of their sandwiches, but i just didn't feel like i was getting a taste of tuscany. for dinner it was another imagination-lacking night of ramen.