Favorite Things

Back where we used to live, the nearest beach by street was Segara. Often we would go to the beach by cutting through the lovely grounds of Segara Village, one of the oldest places to stay in that area. Sometimes I'd go alone and bring my laptop in a little backpack, drop it off with the staff at the bar, swim for a bit, come back and change into dry clothes, and sit with my legs crossed on a couch facing the waves beyond, my trusty laptop on a cushion in my lap. There I'd drink tea and work on the vital matters of the day. It's a snazzy place so didn't eat there much and they don't care if I just have tea, but sometimes Katrinka would join me later on and we'd order some food. One day at the couch when I reached for my cup of tea to take a sip, it stung me. Ouch! I looked at my hand and realized it was not the cup that had inflicted that pain as there was a bee between my third and fourth finger of the right hand. The bee had obviously alighted on the handle of my tea cup and I'd picked it up without looking. 

A waiter brought me some soda water to soak the hand in and soon returned from the kitchen with some baking soda. I've hardly ever been stung and when I have, it was by accident like that as I recall. It was pretty stingy hurty ouch. I recalled the line from an old song - "When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad." So while holding a towel over my hand to keep the baking soda next to the sting area so the alkaline in it will absorb the poison, I thought, well what is one of my favorite things. But then I was distracted with images of cartoons that could be created to illustrate Maria from Sound of Music, played by Julie Andrews, dealing with one of these problems as she explains in the song. She was in the Alps so I envisioned a rabid St. Bernard mauling her, a bubble above her head displaying the words, "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens...." And then I started laughing like crazy which puzzled the staff, concerned for my condition following the bee attack, but which did indeed work and I realized that one of my favorite things is to laugh.