#508: The Day I Joined the Circus

The dogs and I were sitting on the sidewalk curb taking in the Circus when I felt it.

A sharp biting sting.

It hit me up the left leg of my exercise shorts on my upper inside thigh. My brain shouted immediately “You’ve been stung!” Being in public, however, I was limited to how much checking inside my shorts I could do.

I discreetly pulled my shorts’ leg up a little to see what I could see.

No bug.
No bite.

But something was there.

I carefully readjusted my butt on the curb and stretched out my left leg…
hoping that the little bug dude might see an exit and come flying/running out.

Nothing came.

BUT evidently my movement had pissed “something” off because I was stung AGAIN in a slightly different place on my upper inside thigh.

Two stings!

“Oh…sh*t!”

An adrenaline surge hit me.
_______

A little back history is now needed…

I am severely allergic to bee stings.

I once drank from a can of soda that I unknowingly shared with a bee. He was inside the can when I took a gulp, and he stung my lip. I was off to emergency struggling to breathe.

A second time, I’d finished a long day’s hike in Italy and was squeezing a bottle of locally purchased honey into my mouth for quick energy. Somehow the honey had a bit of sinister bee stinger potion mixed in…and my throat closed.
_______

So in my current situation…

I crazily KNEW a bee was in my shorts.

I slowly raised myself off the curb…trying to not disturb Mr. Stinger any further. I walked EXTRA slowly back to my condo building. Two dog leashes were carried in my left hand…and with my right, I conspicuously tugged the fabric of my short’s leg so it would have minimal contact with my skin.

But this didn’t stop the stinger.

As I walked…

Sting…#3!
Sting #4!
Sting #5!

There’s no doubt that I had now become a hilarious attraction in the eccentric Human Circus that moments ago I was humorously observing.
_______

The ride up the elevator was slow.

I was vastly limited to how much close-up examining I could do because there’s a camera in the elevator. I had no desire to explain later to security why I had dropped my shorts in the elevator…and what I was looking for.

BUT…

Once inside my door and hidden from the eyes of the world, I dropped my shorts as fast as I could. Who was this bold, evil bug that was on an unrelenting mission to bite the hell out of me?

And then I saw him.

There he was.
Positioned nicely in the fabric.
High inside of my shorts.

He was… an acupuncture needle.
_______

A little MORE back history…

Thirty minutes before taking the dogs out, I had finished my first ever acupuncture treatment. Evidently, one of the little needles had been forgotten…and was left stuck in my thigh. As I pulled my shorts up…the needle went riding high up my leg and buried itself in my shorts.

There was no insect.
There was no bee.

And thank goodness, there would be no explanation to an emergency room doctor on how a bee had gotten into my shorts.
_______

When bad creeps in…

100 times our brains start shouting “Bee sting!”
99.9 times reality eventually reveals a F-A-R less dramatic truth.

Drama grows in heads.
We escalate worse by thinking the worst.

Want less drama?

Then remember not every sting in life is a “BEE.”