Warning! Clothing Attracts Stinging Insects

It's true.  Clinical studies have proven it.  Okay, okay...there weren't any clinical studies and I'm speaking purely from personal experience.  Yesterday we went to my husband's company picnic.  It's a small outfit and this was their first one.  Lots of food was provided and everyone contributed some sort of dish as well.  It was good to finally get a chance to match faces to the names of folks I've been hearing about since February.  This picnic was held at a place we'd never been to before.  There were nice grounds, two swimming pools, lots of picnic tables and about 10 million yellow jackets.  I think the entire area was built on ancient yellow jacket burial grounds.

My husband did most of the grilling and anyone who's ever had to fend off aggressive, apparently starving yellow jackets knows what a challenge this is.  Trying to actually eat anything without ingesting one is even more so.  Yellow jackets are so vile; they sting for the sheer pleasure of it.  Of course, I got stung on my thigh.  It's a painful sting that makes the surrounding area puff up and turn hard as a rock.  Today the entire site alternately burns, throbs and itches.

We took to the waters, hoping it would bring a little relief.  We were the only adults in the group who did; this is not an aquatic group, I guess.  This, obviously, was not a clothing-optional facility and all in attendance around the pool wore bathing suits.  It was the strangest feeling to be in water with material between it and my skin.  I didn't care for it at all--it was an alien sensation.  This reaction is a major antithesis to what I thought a little over five years ago.  My, how things change.  As I looked around at the people, I couldn't help thinking how much more comfortable they'd be if they were naked.  Even if at no other time, it should be perfectly acceptable everywhere to be naked in or by water.  It makes sense to me but I realize this is because I've become so accustomed to the idea.  Bathing suits do little more than cut a body into separate pieces and some are so scant one wonders what is actually the point of wearing them at all?  It is years of conditioning that deem them necessary to the majority of the population.

I, for one, am so glad I chose to break free from this custom.  I might add, also, I've never been stung by any kind of wasp, hornet or bee in all the times I've been naked outdoors.  I know this isn't a fair rationalization; it was the food that caused the yellow jackets to descend upon us.  It just seemed like such an ironic injustice to be stung while clothed.  I think I'm in need of a trip to the Springs to restore my senses and soothe my soul.