Mosquito-Ville

My cartoon version of
all of my mosquito bites.

I've never been certain whether mosquitos love me or hate me. On the one hand, they could hate me because they insist on biting me all the time. On the other, they could love me, something about my smell, my being that they find irresistible. Either way, I am that person that gets about 3x more bites than the average person. It's been this way my whole life. It's kind of a bummer. I was walking from the parking lot on campus to the building where I work, a 3 minute walk. I got inside with three bites on my hands. MY HANDS. I've often said to others when we're outside, "Hey, just stand next to me and you won't get any mosquito bites because they'll come to me."

When I was a kid and we would visit my family in Maui, at the end of the day my brother and cousins would count our mosquito bites. I would always win. (Being the youngest cousin at the time, it was the only thing I ever won). Then there were the times I went to Ecuador to visit Kevin's folks, and my ankles swelled up. It's just the way it goes with me, even with deet I still get some bites (although not as badly). In the last few years, Kevin came to realize how badly I get eaten up by mosquitos and he bought me a little heat pen. It's supposed to neutralize the venom from the bite. Apparently mosquito bites are sensitive to heat, so when you slowly put heat on a bite, it makes the itch go away. Alas, it does make the itch go away and provides some relief, but it doesn't make the giant red mountain range on my legs disappear.