KO’d by Karma

As most people know, karma can be a rude evil witch that blindsides us when we least expect it. To me, karma is the reaction to our actions in the universe. Sometimes it is negative and causes the boomerang to hit us in the face. Recently, I found this to be a fact.

I talked my husband Danny into having some freckles, (skin damage) burned off his face. The dermatologist seemed a little over-zealous and he came home with several dime-sized brown spots where the doctor had frozen them with liquid nitrogen.

“Look at what you did to me!” he said half-joking.

“People in Boulder get stuff burned off their skin all the time. They’ll know where your brown spots came from.”

It did look pretty hideous.

That night, Danny hurt himself. I mentioned in a previous post that I have a dry eye problem and avoid it by running a humidifier. You can imagine that I occasionally “remind” him to refill it with water before climbing into bed. After my washing and moisturizing routine, I came to bed and could hear it purring away. As I slipped under the covers I said, “Hey, thanks for filling up the humidifier.”

“I almost put my eye out doing it.”

“What?”

“I smacked my head on the arm of the rocking chair.”

“Didn’t you turn on a light? Let me look at it.” I switched on the lamp and could see a small cut under his eye, but other than that, it just looked a little bit red. “You should ice it.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Do you want any Ibuprophen?”

“No. It only hurt when I hit it. It’s okay now.”

The next morning I heard him get out of bed and walk into the bathroom. He moaned and then I remembered what had happened the night before.

“How’s your eye?”

“Oh, it’s black alright!”

“No way. Let me see.” I sprung out of bed and sure enough it was a shiner. I gasped at the huge swelling under his eye which had begun to turn dark red and then I started to giggle. I couldn’t help it. It was my fault in a strange sort of way, but had to leave the room since I was laughing so hard. He looked like a prize-fighter! I composed myself and tried to cover it up with concealer.

Of course, I had to take pictures and then threatened to post them on Facebook. He was a good sport and posed for me. I only sent them to our family. His eye and the spots got worse over the next couple of days.

On the Friday before Easter, I decided to cash in one of my gift cards for a facial to calm down my skin after a reaction to anti-aging products. Somehow, my appointment for a mini-facial turned into their top of the line acid wash. Not only was it twice as expensive, but she removed 6 of the 7 layers of my upper-epidermis.

The next morning, I woke up and screamed after looking in the mirror at my red road rash-like skin. It looked as though I had been in a terrible biking accident. The aesthetician had used a buffer and scratched me under my eye so the mark resembled a black eye! I freaked out. How would I shop for Easter brunch and entertain tomorrow looking like this? Would I be able to cover my abraded skin with makeup? How would I go to Church? Would people stare?

As we dressed for Easter Sunday Mass, I glanced over at Danny with his fading spots and black eye. Then I checked my reflection with concealer all over my face and said, “Wow. We look like quite a pair!” I turned my face upward and said, “Karma, you are such a bitch! By the way Danny, what did you do?”

Do you believe in Karma?

Image by William R. Curstinger, click on image for link to National Geographic