There is nothing that can give me the heebie jeebies more than a person's head infested with lice! Eeeew! First thing this morning a child comes to me crying about her tummy. It turns out her mom and baby sister were going to be doing something fun at home with out her and she just wanted to go home. Well, she got her wish when I noticed the excessive scratching of the head. I took a little peek and didn't notice anything outright. Not any nits to speak of, no real evidence of lice, then BAM! A creepy little bug fell right out of her hair into the sink then another went crawling right over my comb. I literally jumped back when I saw it. Probably not real good for the child's ego - whatever.
Now I have inspected many a head in my day. It never fails to creep me out. Then, of course, my head starts itching. This little girl today went back to her class to get her things and proudly announced she would be going home due to lice! She did, after all, want to go home. Then all the other kids head's started to itch. Oh, Lordy, what a day. By the end of the day I had checked siblings and several other classes. I had even checked the teacher's hair. One teacher from another class who has had a particularly trying first few weeks offered to pay me if I rubbed certain children's' heads up against the infested child. Tempting as that was, I did not take her up on that. Bummer, I could have used the cash.
Mom, yes, today I did feel like nit picking. It was written in the stars. For those of you not my mother, there is a story. When I was elementary age my cousins and my sisters and I passed the lovely lice back and forth for a while. On one occasion that I had it, my mother had spent the evening picking the little eggs known as nits out of my hair for hours. We were sitting at the kitchen table. The newspaper was open on the table to the horoscopes and when she was finally done she picked it up and read her horoscope for the day. "Today you feel like nit picking." It's a true story - I couldn't even make that one up.