Clearing Out Under a Billboard

In the summer after I graduated high school I took a job as a landscaper. I knew that this was risky because I am so highly allergic to poison ivy. But after four weeks there had been nothing. Then one day we were weeding out underneath a billboard at a local gas station. There were weeds as tall as me, trees, vines, bushes, everything. I didn't know what I was grabbing or stepping in.

That night as I was hanging out with my friends, I started to feel an itch on my ankle. I thought, "Oh boy!" Sure enough, as I got up the next morning - for my college orientation - I had a fairly bad case of poison ivy all over my legs. As I went off to my orientation, I wasn't feeling too much discomfort. But by lunch time my legs had become so swollen and crusted that I had a very difficult time even walking. Only two hours of sleep followed that night. Now, I sit here in my room, 3:00 in the morning on the fifth day of my ordeal. No more landscaping for me.