Try to think about not itching....

            I'm one of those people who aren't terribly bothered by mosquito bites.  Really.  I can be outside with my son on a summer evening and by the end of the night I'll have oh, maybe one bite.  It will itch fiercely for an hour or so and then cease to bother me.  DS, on the other hand, will have seventeen welts that last for days.  I do not exaggerate.  I counted once last summer after a particularly bad night.  Poor kid wandered around scratching miserably for a week.  Apparently he takes after J.  Just yesterday we were out picnicking and he (J) was attacked by a biting fly that followed him around the table.  His ankles were covered with bites.  Me?  Nada.   Just this evening we went to see fireworks and I felt a mosquito get me on the ankle.  That was only a few hours ago and I can't remember now which ankle it was.
            I know my husband loves me to the ends of the earth, but this apparent immunity to the itch-inducing world of pests makes him a little crazy.  Some of you are nodding as you have already started to scratch at your most recent crop of bites.  (Sorry.) This clearly falls under the category of things that are outrageously Not Fair.
            So it will cause you a bit of shadenfreude to know that I was bitten by some mysterious critter (We're guessing spider but we don't know.  The internet has failed to produce a match here, much to my distress.) on Saturday that has resulted in about a 1" patch of skin with an itch so intense that I am up typing this blog at 3:20 in the morning rather than sleeping.  Cortisone cream seems to be helping slightly.  Benadryl cream did nothing.
            The small rash does not match the pattern for a Lyme-disease-inducing tick bite, a black widow or brown recluse bite, mosquito, flea, bedbug, lice or scabies infestation either.  None of the usual suspects seem to be at work.  So I am left to sit here, furiously trying to think of anything but scratching, and failing rather spectacularly at it.  To make matters worse, I have a song from the kids' Sesame Street album stuck in my head like a mental itch.  Fortunately, I have iTunes to help me scratch that.  Too bad I  don't have an equivalent for this stupid bite.
             Itch, itch, itch....