If we are to eat, we must first be eaten

"Will you let me be your servant..."

As I was drying off after showering, I noticed an irregularly shaped, bulbous mole on my right thigh. Just above my knee was this dark brown bump that, after running my finger over it, seemed to actually be more of a scab than a cancerous mole. However, after picking at the scab (like I do to most scabs I encounter... both my own and others') I discovered that it was not dead skin at all. It was, in fact, a TICK!

I took a very short walk through some very cut-back woods yesterday with Maria and friends, was wearing pants, and even had tick repellent spray on my exposed feet, so I was very surprised to find this tag along tapping into my blood supply. I was also slightly concerned, considering that if the tick was from the woods, I had been playing host to its feasting for some sixteen hours. Eeep. However, I put on shorts when I got home last night, and it seems like I would have noticed this thing when I got undressed last night. But if it didn't come from the woods, how else did I get "ticked" when I went straight into the house upon my return home? I didn't even take a stroll through the vegetable patch or anything.

It's been a puzzling and humbling experience all the same.