Friday, August 2, 2013

Frock Fridays: Mosquito Appropriate

We are now in the six week period of summer I like to call Death By Mosquito.  Running roughly from mid-July to the end of August, this is a time of suffering and anguish for many - and that includes me.

See, I'm one of those people you want to stand next to if you're outside in the evening anywhere there might be bugs flying around.  They flock to me.  I'm not pregnant and I don't have Type O blood - I'm just really sweet, as my mom used to tell me.  Unfortunately, I also react really badly to bites.

As I've gotten older, I've gotten a bit better about managing my reaction to mosquito bites.  My letters home from camp are full of tales of woe; I used to count the bites and list them along with dimensions and descriptions.  (Here's a direct quote from one of the letters, dated 8/5/199?: "My right arm (from the elbow down) is almost the size of a football.  It's awful.  Well, I'll ttyl!")  But sometimes... man, sometimes it gets bad.  Like, wanting to cut off my whole [expletive] leg bad.

So I do whatever I can to minimize the chances that I'll come into contact with mosquitoes and other thirsty flying insects.  I try to stay inside at dusk during the summer because it's when they're most active, and I douse myself with bug spray regardless of the time of day if I'm even thinking of venturing out.  When Charlie and I go for a walk between 5 and 8pm, as we have to, I wear jeans and long-sleeved shirts - yes, even when the mercury is in the upper 80s.  And every time I step out of the house, I carry an arsenal of cortisone- and DEET-infused goodies.

The problem is that late afternoon / early evening is a beautiful time during the summer.  It's the prime opportunity for drinks on the waterfront, dinner on restaurant patios, and backyard barbecues.  Charlie's walks aren't the only thing that lure me outside during the Death by Mosquito time.  But if I do leave my apartment for an adventure, I make sure I'm as covered up as possible and sprayed to an inch of my life - and you'd better bet I keep all of these anti-bug and anti-itch products in my bag!



summer nights

[ dress / jacket / bag / shoes ]

linking up with {long distance loving}

41 comments:

  1. Haha! I love this! I know exactly what you mean, as a child I had scars all over my arms from those pesky mozzies!

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  2. Hmm those are interesting mosquito attraction facts... the bugs must not be too bad here this year (we have had a few amazingly mild weeks for July), because I haven't noticed any pregnancy uptick! And getting to wear such a fab dress and even more fab jacket wouldn't be a TERRIBLE tradeoff to make for outdoors vs mosquitoes, right?! :) Love the outfit picks.

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  3. Ugh! Mosquitos are the worst! Loving that maxi.

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  4. a 6 week period??? are you kidding me? don't ever leave DC. it'll be a rough adjustment for you.

    I'm struggling with the idea that mosquitoes are out at seemingly all hours of the day here. I can step outside to check my mail in the middle of the afternoon and come back in with several new bites! I'm still used to thinking that mosquitoes are only active around dusk/nighttime/early early morning, which is clearly not the case here.

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  5. haha I knew this post would be personal for you :P

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  6. thank GOODNESS my wedding gown is long because it'll hide all the mosquito-inflicted horror on my legs!

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  7. Georgia ChristakisAugust 2, 2013 at 9:56 AM

    Peter gets this too. He's very atopic; his mosquito bites linger for YEARS, poor fellow. He takes it very personally, as if he's involved in a bitter vendetta (which is kind of amusing to me, not gonna lie.) The only advice I have for you is don't ever move to Florida.

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  8. Type O blood? You just solved a life-long mystery lady. G-d-damn misquitos...

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  9. You made the perfect summer outfit!! I love it :)
    xoxo
    Suzanne from www.writtenbysuzanne.com

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  10. also apparently drinking beer outside is a thing. OOPS.

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  11. Oh man, my sister is the same way! She'll be outside and end up with her legs covered! Me? I don't think I've had a mosquito bite in years.

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  12. Holy jeez I love that dress.But $225? No way.


    Also, my sister gets crazy reactions to bug bites too. I always call her a little whiner but maybe there's some truth behind her pain...

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  13. haha that's the fun of fantasy Frock Fridays :) last time I went out socially at dusk I wore my $20 Target maxi!

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  14. First of all--that dress! I love it. Secondly, we must share more than a name. Our blood must be similar b/c I am also a mosquito target. So is my sister. Hate those little suckers. Yours sound worse than mine though for sure. Question-you instagrammed an aveeno bath--what was that and does it help mosquitoes stay away??

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  15. we are twins of the soul :)


    AVEENO IS MY SUMMER DRUG OF CHOICE. It doesn't keep mosquitos away, unfortunately, but it provides glorious relief once you've been targeted. The thing I instagrammed is their bath powder http://www.aveeno.com/product/aveeno-+soothing+bath+treatment+.do?sortby=ourPicks&from=fn it's basically a packet of colloidal oatmeal (whatever that is) and it dissolves in the bath and is incredibly soothing on your bites. I didn't itch for a full three hours after I got out - that's unheard of! (It could be because I used three packets instead of the recommended one, but...)


    I'm also trying to find this http://www.aveeno.com/product/aveeno-+anti-itch+concentrated+lotion.do?sortby=ourPicks&from=fn because at this point in the summer I use hydrocortisone cream like body lotion and I'd rather GET body lotion that has what I need in it. But I can't find it anywhere! Let me know if you see it :)

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  16. I hate mosquitos. I always seem to find a massive one in our apartment here. They're disgusting.


    I'm loving that bag!

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  17. haha true - I'd rather not have the mosquitos at all, but I will keep the dress :)

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  18. I just had to look up atopic.


    AND IT IS PERSONAL. [expletive] mosquitos.

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  19. Type O blood here, and now I know why my life is a living hell every time we go camping. I honestly refuse to believe they're a vital part of the ecosystem...do they provide food for birds or something? If so...more of those birds!!

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  20. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html



    don't read the comments. if you do, you'll want to go to the commenters' houses and let a flock of mosquitos loose in their bedrooms UNDER THE COVERS. (is there anything worse? I think not.)

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  21. I've been getting attacked by mosquitoes a lot this summer, and it's so annoying! I wish that we could sit outside as it cools down in the evening, but my citronella candles are useless, and, well, we all know how that ends. I've read that certain plants and flowers are natural mosquito deterrents, so I might try that for the rest of this month or next summer.

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  22. I like that dress. I don't like OFF, however. I hate bug sprays so much that I'd rather get bit. Even when I was little. But then bugs don't bite me as much as they do other people. I went YEARS (like, since I was 10 or 11) without getting a mosquito bite, and then I got two in Spain last year. Then this year I've gotten dozens. So I'm not sure what it is either. And I am not pregnant, nor do I have Type O, nor do I eat bananas (another theory I've heard).
    I do have ninja-skin, though, and I often feel them and then kill them. Most times I'm out in the evenings I have an equal number of carcasses to bites on my legs/arms.

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  23. My mom used to tell me the same thing about mosquitoes when I was growing up! We moved to a house on a lake when I was 7. It sounds nice until you factor in the Florida part of it. It's a lake from November-March. It's a mosquito swamp for the rest of the year. Sometimes I think I can hear them laughing at me outside my window.

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  24. Oh man... I can empathise. Bugs LOVE me! In Namibia no matter how covered up I was I would wake up in the mornings with huge welts all over my arms and legs. It didn't take me long to realise that they were actually biting me through my leggings. Madness I tell you! We'll just stick to the 'we're so sweet' story ;)


    xxx
    Jenna

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  25. That reply literally made me snort with laughter!

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  26. the skeeters cant resist! :) I LOVE that you have bug spray in your post hahah #truth

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  27. I'm Type O and highly allergic. It's terrible. They love me. I hate it. But I love the outfit! Especially the deep woods "perfume" haha!

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  28. Love this outfit! It's super cute even if you don't plan on getting eaten alive by mosquitos ;)

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  29. it sounds silly, but fans work. mosquitos aren't very strong fliers!

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  30. then you don't want to hang around me in the summer - you can get high off my OFF fumes.

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  31. the flies that bit me in Oxfordshire bit through my spandex when I was running! it was INSANE.

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  32. haha thank you! last time I went to the doctor for my bites (in England) the nurse was like, "you're at the level of reaction right below needing an epi pen, so... there's nothing we can do for you." ARE YOU KIDDING?

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  33. I DO NOT PLAN ON IT. they take over my plan :(

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  34. Martha Douglas-OsmundsonAugust 3, 2013 at 10:56 AM

    Best bug repellent every - and all-natural!

    http://shop.cestlabee.com/Bug-Me-Not_c5.htm

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  35. I feel ya! I grew up in Wisconsin and we had a cottage on the lake...every time I was there (or went outside period) I would get eaten alive!

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  36. Love that maxi dress! Apparently as someone as short as I am, I'm not "supposed" to wear maxi dresses but I do anyway and I love them!

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  37. I should have been wearing this outfit yesterday morning... six mosquito bites before 8AM! It was just about the worst way to start a Monday ever.

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