Dolls n' Shingles

Though it threatened rain today, we made it to Plainfield for the annual Fourth of July parade and festivities. We started the day by checking out the cakes in the cake auction, but they were overshadowed by a new addition this year: someone had donated a crowd of ornate old china dolls, which were being sold for $5 each. They were, as you can imagine, ridiculously creepy. The girls immediately decided they each had to buy a haunted doll, so, after careful deliberation, they each chose one. Lucia chose a doll wearing a lacy wedding dress and veil. Greta chose a doll in a frilly pink dress, large hair bow, and an absolutely terrifying expression on her face. 

The day took a macabre turn from there, as the girls carried their haunted dolls around, standing them behind us at the parade and seeking out cornfields to lead us into. After having some burgers at the firemen's BBQ after the parade, we drove home, passing a few cemeteries on the way. Of course the girls/dolls begged to stop for a photo shoot. To our surprise, Andrew pulled over! So the girls ran all over the cemetery, taking creepy pictures of their dolls. 

That's part of why it's so amazing to be here: all the tween and teen self-consciousness disappears. They don't know anyone, they don't have to worry about running into people from school, and so they don't hesitate to carry haunted Victorian dolls along a parade route. 

The rest of the day was doll-focused, with photo shoots, a long spell of both kids typing on their computers and they wrote up the dolls' backstories, and other shenanigans. When it got super hot, the kids and Andrew went up to swim in our cousins' pool. I stayed home, for reasons I'll explain below.

We had hot dogs, corn on the cob, and watermelon for dinner, then sat around the fire pit. The sparklers I found in the pantry, which I'm sure I bought several years ago, did not ignite. But I also found two boxes of pop-its, which the kids threw around on the road, chasing each other.

Sadly, the fireworks were cancelled for tonight and rescheduled for tomorrow because of an incoming storm. It was, indeed, a huge storm. 

A fun addition to the day--even more fun than haunted dolls--was my certainty, generated by extensive Googling late last night, that I had shingles on the right side of my chest, just below my shoulder. Two days ago I had what I thought was a painful spider bite, but it kept looking worse and worse, and a red halo surrounded it, and it really didn't look like a bite at all, and it hurt so, so, so much. Just awful pain. I can't bear to have any fabric touching my skin. 

So after the parade today I had a virtual doctor's appointment, which was actually fantastic--it's through our UPMC app. It was just a doctor sitting in what looked like his home office, examining me as I trained my phone camera on the rash, and looking at a closeup photo I uploaded. "You're Googling was right," he said. How often does one hear THAT?! Anyway. Ten minutes later, he'd called in two prescriptions for the pharmacy just over the covered bridge, which I'll pick up tomorrow (it was closed for the holiday). So easy. 

But, in the meantime, ouch. It's surprisingly painful for such a small shingle (quarter-sized), like a burning stick is being pressed against my skin. Good times. I mean, I guess I'm glad it's not a wolf spider bite? 

One final funny thing: A shingles flare-up can be caused by stress. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I guess my amigurumi weren't calming enough.

Counting the hours till I get my meds tomorrow. 

Wildlife report: A dead snake in the bushes Andrew was trimming by the house, a few turkeys in the field, a tiny tick in Lucia's arm (easily removed).