jakorte's blog

I like to buy fresh catnip for Miss Fred. It’s the least I can do after sticking her with a name like Fred. She was initially misread. In any case, I do this little finger and thumb pinching/rolling thing to release the oils and scents so she gets as much nip out of it as possible.

So, there I was, half asleep at 4:45 am, roughing up the catnip leaves, when I got bit. Roughed up, you might say. At first, I thought it was just a scratch. It wasn't until I was in the shower that I realized there was a thin and wily catnip stick embedded in my thumb.

Picture this: a right-handed person trying removing a nippy stick from a rapidly swelling right thumb using a soapy tweezer-filled left hand. Didn’t work so well. Luckily for me, I work with a fine bunch of nurses. A few hours and 36 miles later, I found a willing mercenary at work. A couple of mildly painful tweezer pulls later, I am now nip-free, and appropriately bandaged (antibiotic, and all).

The most often asked question by coworkers witnessing my catnip removal procedure: Didja get a buzz?

The bottom line is that I have yet again managed to come up with some unique, previously unheard of way to hurt myself.

jak