skin trauma

I have developed a fixation with cutting off pieces of skin with nail clippers today. I feel so emo. I bought a new food processor last week. On Saturday, I was doing dishes after lunch whilst M and E played with blocks and I was literally watching my hands cleaning the cutting blade and thinking, be careful, be careful, don't cut yourself, be careful because the blade is wicked sharp. And of course, what happened? Blade slipped and I sliced a chunk out of my right thumb. It went in at an angle, creating that wonderful flap of skin that makes healing so difficult. I bandaged (and bandaged and bandage and bandaged... I've gone through enough Band-Aids this weekend to be newly grateful for my couponing hobby... who cares if I'm wearing Hello Kitty, Barbie and Elmo?) The strangest part, though, is that late that night, when I was ready for bed? I went into the kitchen to put my phone on charge, which was inconveniently located behind said food processor*. I had unplugged the charger to plug in the food processor, so I had to find the plug, right? And guess what happened? I sliced my left middle finger open on the same damned blade. In my defense, I had no clue that it was there--M had moved it to the back to keep it out of the way of anyone else cutting themselves on it again. Irony abounds. The second cut was also a real cut, but it wasn't as bad and the location (top of middle finger, just below nail) made it much easier to bandage and thus heal. It was just so weird to injure myself twice in the same day on the same item. Anyway, I've had to keep the thumb covered with a band-aid because of its location and the nature of the injury, most of the time, which of course doesn't allow it to heal very well. I had snipped off the biggest part of the "flap" on the first day, but today, I was finally able to leave it open and it's been drying out a little at a time, which has necessitated the nail clippers. It's strange and pleasant to watch it healing before my very eyes. It is like the Discovery Channel is happening in real time on my thumb.

*My phone died, and I had to pull out the crappy backup phone, which is like a parody of a cell phone. I happened to be cooking dinner while trying to get the phone to charge the first time, so clearly that's where it can still be found.

I have been doing some serious cleaning today, which was almost pleasant. I kind of like new organizational challenges, and I was attempting to put away some of those things that don't really have good homes. I was working hard enough that I could legitimately call it exercise, what with the running up and down the basement stairs while carrying heavy things. I haven't been to the YMCA since Friday so I was really beginning to feel guilty.

On Friday, I thought Evie was getting sick since she slept so badly and M woke up feeling sick at the same time. But, I watched her all day and she acted FINE, and in the late afternoon, she started begging to go to the play place, and so i took her. When I went back to pick her up, the lady said that E had said that she didn't feel good. She blamed it perhaps on allergies from something in the room because she was coughing and sneezing a little. I brought her home and... fevered child that turned into a complete mess of miserable within a couple of hours, and on Saturday, she felt truly terrible. In her words, it was "the worst day ever." Mere hours before the sickness landed, we had decided to go out and have shopping fun on Saturday, so we got that extra bonus suck of canceling plans on top of two sick people in the family. I managed to skip it (so far) so I'm grateful for that. Anyway, she stayed sick and fevery through yesterday, so I still haven't been able to take her back. Guess I won't have an excuse tomorrow though, because she's feeling a lot better except for a cough that sounds like she's about to lose a lung. That's one thing that she unfortunately got from her mama. When I cough, I mean it, most of the time. It drives M crazy, in a way that I am sure is meant to be loving.