Irratation and Celebration

Yesterday I was eaten alive by bugs. Not only do we have mosquitoes here, we have some nasty black flies. Now we all know what a mosquito bite is like but when these black flies bite, they use four slashing teeth to cut a shallow well in your skin and as your blood seeps out, the female black fly laps it up. Her saliva (I have learned) contains chemicals that partially numb the nerves AND an anticoagulant to keep the blood from clotting ... so, like the mosquito bite, these bites swell and itch. Unlike the mosquito though, the bites of course break open and bleed easier. I have them ALL over the place (in addition to mosquito bites). The largest concentration of bites I have are on my back. I have 15 - 20 on the small of my back (where a girl would get their "tramp stamp" tattoo) and another 5 - 15 on my neck ... I also have plenty on my arms, a few on my hands and my face and one or two on my leg. ... oh and one super bite on my neck - it's swelled up so big it feels like a tumor no joke.

Right so other than itchy, today was an okay day. No Carl at all of course - they'll be on the water for 4 - 5 more days now. It's really quiet here on base and there are only 2 - 3 tables of people at each meal because everyone is on swamper. This afternoon, Emmet and I dressed up and welcomed our first crew with our little skit. I don't have pictures of it but I'm sure I'll have some pictures of my goofy clothes by some point. It was pretty fun and went well - I remembered to say all the things I was supposed to.

I have the rest of the day and tomorrow off - it should be nice. I'm not really sure what I'll do though because nobody is around. I'll probably spend a lot of it sleeping that's for sure ... and knitting or reading? Flute? Who knows.

Dinner is up in a little while and the four crews that came in today are joining us. I'm not sure if it'll be nice or not to have some noise back in the dining hall... :)