cat scratch fever

I didn't realize until just as I clicked "new post" that this will be my 100th post. I don't know why I'm recognizing it, really, as I'm sure there will be many more. I suppose it is a milestone of sorts.

Last night, after two hours of Lost and a good thirty minute discussion with my husband about our vague knowledge of the story of Jacob and Esau (if you watch, you'll understand), I pulled out my laptop to research it a bit and check my work email. The cat was running around like her tail was on fire, zooming from one window to the other, stopping only to attack some invisible spot on the floor. She does this at least three nights a week, always at about 10 pm. Usually she plays with my husband much more quietly-- well, not as hyper anyway. Quiet doesn't describe the scratches on his arm. But she's only about 2 so the kitten side comes out of her now and again.

The culprit, relaxing lazily on the very couch I was sitting on last night, leaning against that arm. 

I was sitting, reading, laughing at my husband's interpretation of the sumo wrestlers on tv, when out of nowhere an orange ball of fur and claws slammed into my face, using me as a landing pad, a backboard, and then shot off into the office. My husband says I made a loud "AHHH" noise and immediately sat up straight and covered my face with my hands. I didn't know what had happened, I just knew that it hurt and scared me. I remember saying "Oh my god!" and pulling my hands away from my face, seeing blood running down my left fingers, dark red and thick.

I stumbled into the bathroom, husband behind me saying "Are you bleeding?? Put pressure on it!" When I looked in the mirror, my top lip and front teeth were covered in blood. He got me some paper towels, and with very shaky hands I cleaned away all the blood that I could, swallowing a lot of that metallic tasting stuff, to reveal a split in my top lip on the left side, where a claw had no doubt caught and then ripped as she jumped away from my face. It runs from my skin all the way into my mouth in a slightly jagged but vertical line. There are also two less severe scratches on my forehead. I'm lucky she didn't take an eyeball with her on her way.

There's something about cat claws that make scratches swell up immediately, and that side of my lip looked like a grape within five minutes. I thought maybe I needed stitches, but we decided to wait until this morning to decide, after the swelling had gone. I kept ice on it for an hour until finally the bleeding stopped and I fell asleep. This morning I decided I didn't need stitches, but it certainly still hurts.

You don't realize how much you use an appendage or area of your body until you can't use it anymore. I could hardly brush my teeth, I need a straw to drink, and eating cereal this morning? That was a joke. I can't laugh, I can't smile, I can't talk loudly. It's very frustrating.

And then I hit a bird on the way to work this morning, a pretty red one.

When something like these things, things that bother or affect only me, happen, I always think of kharma. What have I done lately, or not done, that would cause this to occur? Gossip, we've been gossiping a lot at the office about the coworker we don't like. I've been trying to like her but yesterday she made me feel like a secretary so I turned around and made her feel stupid. Mean, I know, and it mostly comes from being frustrated because we're so busy lately, and honestly she is a little slow, compared to the rest of us (i.e. I don't have time to explain how to use a copy machine to her). So I'm going to chill out on the gossip and rude comments. Since I can hardly talk, that should be fairly easy.