the Hippo Brigade

I’m Too Young and Adorable To Die

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April 6, 2009

I’m pretty sure my insides are revolting against me and are trying to get out, because the other day I could have sworn I felt a hernia. 

There I was standing over a Pottery Barn catalog, when I decided to smooth out my shirt (or grope my stomach, I don’t know which), and I felt IT! It was right over my belly button: a protrusion of skin, and if I listened close enough I could hear the tiny cries of my small intestine pleading with my skin to let it out. It felt tender and just as I was about to storm out of the house and head straight to the E.R. I realized I should check with wikipedia and my husband for second and third opinions, I have some sense, you know. 

My husband confirmed he felt something, and then I went straight to the computer and began deliriously reading wikipedia about DEATH regarding hernias. OH SHIT, I’M GOING TO DIE! My small intestine is really pissed off, it’s leaving, and it’s taking my life with it! This was a lot to swallow, so I poured myself a glass of wine and decided to mourn. In my wallowing I made a list of all the things I want to do before I die:

• get “pug life” tattooed on my knuckles in honor of Zoey
• flash my boobs off the caboose of a train
• hang glide
• learn to levitate like David Blane
• compete in some sort of eating contest

That’s all I came up with when I began to fondle my hernia again. It made me shudder each time I touched it, but I knew if my life was on the line I had to make sure that what I had was indeed my innards trying to break free. Upon closer inspection, I realized that maybe it wasn’t a hernia after all. But instead, just my formerly pierced belly button skin.

It seems that I have grown a small lump at the piercing site and combined with the tenderness,  (because of the ka-jillion sit ups I did the day before, because of all the peanut butter eggs I ate the day before that) I concluded that it was not a hernia, just a dirty and semi-stinky belly button.

PHEW! I was so relieved. That was a close one. Having a hernia would have really sucked, and I’m pretty sure you guys wouldn’t even visit me in the hospital and bring me mylar balloons.