The mosquito incident

Before I tell the mosquito incident, I want to make one disclaimer. Jin is a wonderful husband for more than two reasons. But I will say that he is doing the dishes right now as I type this :) Since we got here, he has done the dishes for every single meal. And he cleaned the hair out of the shower drain with a coat hanger.

Ok back to the mosquitoes.So Saturday nights we show a movie here at the KOA, we have a huge blow up screen and everyone sets up chairs in the field and watches a movie under the stars. Its lots of fun. This past saturday (the first time we have done this...) I came after getting off at the jumping pillow. We sat behind the screen and watched Cars backwards and ate dinner. After about 30 minutes I started getting very itchy around my ankles. I went home to get the bug spray and after thoroughly coating my legs and everything and everyone within reach, I thought I was ok. The next morning I woke up with about 35 huge red welts on the back of both of my legs. It was disgusting. Well, I always like to make a big deal about any injury/medical issue that I have. I want you to look at it and talk to me about it. Tell me that its getting better. Tell me how bad it is. Just make a big deal about it. Some call it hypochondria.

"Jin, I just want you to look at my legs. Look how terrible that is."

"Ok, will you look at my legs. They itch SOO bad."

"Hold on, I have to put more hydrocortisone cream on my legs before we go."

"Do you think my mosquito bites are getting better?"

You get the idea. Now this is perfectly normal for me. Maybe its growing up as a doctors kid. My dad was always ready with a diagnosis for my latest problem.

Jin, on the other hand, doesn't feel the need to discuss every bodily injury at length the way I do. I could tell he was getting a little sick of my ranting but I kept on going. On Sunday I stopped every KOA employee I saw and asked them if they thought it was chiggers or mosquitoes. Even campers were giving me advice. Jin listened to my whining patiently but without much comment. I also wanted to buy every kind of itch medicine they sold at Walmart and the KOA store. "Just in case its chiggers too..."  Finally, Jin had had it and looked up chiggers on the internet. He informed me that it was not chiggers and that my explanation that "Chiggers burrow inside your skin and live there" was in fact, false. He told me that they were just mosquito bites. You can probably guess where this is going. This is one situation where we fed right into the old marriage stereotype. Men are practical and women are emotional. By looking up chiggers on the internet, Jin was sympathizing with me and trying to help me. But I just wanted him to say, "I'm sorry I know that is very painful and uncomfortable. I hope you feel better." Don't tell me I'm wrong...even if I am so very obviously wrong. So, after seeing how ridiculous we were being, we both apologized and went to Wal Mart to buy benedryl.

-Emily