variegated threads

I was recently talking to Dead Bride and Leotard[1] at Artisan's Asylum when Pastry Queen and all the other folks who went to Lithuania this summer gave their talk. Leotard had the flu and so was sitting by herself in a corner- I think she was on day nine - and I mentioned that I was relieved to have gotten my flu shot, because I didn't know it was going around this early. Dead Bride said she'd only gotten a flu shot once in her life, when her work gave them out for free.

As a kid, I would have killed to be Dead Bride. Not only did I hate shots, I actually looked forward to being sick. Back then, being sick meant I was cared for. Pop would make me food. I got to stay home from school and watch old tapes or, if I was over 11, browse the Harry Potter fansites I frequented. Maybe some of the appeal was because it didn't happen very frequently. My parents were adamant about keeping myself and my brother on schedule, and we never missed a flu shot, booster shot, or dentist appointment.

My pediatrician's office was near a Friendly's, and if my brother and I made it through the shots without crying, we'd get Friendly's ice cream afterwards. This lasted for a few years until maybe I was eleven or twelve, when we were thought of as old enough to not cry when we got stuck with needles. When I asked for post-doctor ice cream after that point, we always had to get home because we had to pick up Mom from the station and we were about to have dinner at home, or we had ice cream at home and could eat it there, and we could even buy chocolate sauce and sprinkles, how about that? But even if I had a flavor I liked waiting in the freezer, it just wasn't the same as ordering from the menu, looking through the plethora of flavors to pick the very best one, and eating it in the car. 

Now, I'm twenty-four, and I don't have sick days, and being sick means taking a day without pay, and I can't afford to do that. Also, getting the flu while living on my own would Suck Major Ass. I've been fortunate enough not to get anything more intense than colds and UTIs since moving out on my own, and when I went into the doctor's office to get my ears irrigated recently, I asked the doctor if I could get my flu shot as well since I was there. It pinched. It hurt. I imagined Antlers running his long fingers through my hair and I didn't cry. 

And then I marched across Davis Square and got myself ice cream because that's how I do.

[1] all these characters are fellow pilots in SCUL, a gang of funky freaky bikers in my current town of Somerville that I recently joined