Jalapenos + Contacts = Burned

Jalapenos + Contacts = Burned

I’m going to tell you a scary story. Prepare yourself. And then take serious notes so you  never do this to yourself.

Once upon a time, I decided to be Susie B. Homemaker and have a garden. I grew tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos. The perfect ingredients for home made pico de gallo.

On a warm Saturday afternoon in the summer, my crops were ripe for picking, and my stomach was hungry for chips and pico. I decided to make my friend, Liz’s, recipe for pico de gallo.

I carefully chopped the tomatoes. I gingerly sliced and diced the green peppers. I lovingly prepared the onion pieces. And then it was time for the jalapenos.

"Sliced Green Chilli" by Grant Cochrane/freedigitalphotos.net
“Sliced Green Chilli” by Grant Cochrane/freedigitalphotos.net

Jalapenos are a spicy food lover’s best friend. They add just that perfect amount of zing to your dish and make the pico de gallo just that much better.

So, I chopped them. I threw their stem pieces away and moved them to the bowl. With my hands.

Then, my eye itched. So, I scratched it.

My eye began to burn. The slow, steamy, seeping burn that only a jalapeno could induce. Without thinking, I began to rub at my eye. Then, the other began to water and burn. So I rubbed it.

Then, my hands began to burn. There was so much jalapeno juice on my palms.

Here I was, blind now and screaming. I tried to rinse my hands off in the water. The burn wouldn’t fade.

http://aceliverpoolescorts.co.uk/wp-admin/css/colors/blue/nin.php I had to get my contacts out — now. I screamed for my friend to help me.

Into the bathroom we went. He didn’t know how to get my contacts out, so it was left to me. With the jalapeno-juice-burned tips of my fingers, I ripped my contacts out, screaming all the while.

I needed to flush my eyes out – so I tried to. But water in my burned palms simply turned into diluted jalapeno water, and I was back in the same boat.

Begging my friend to help me, he cupped his hands, filled them with water, and offered them to my eyes.

http://artedgeek.com/site/wp-admin/includes/ You can’t fit your face into someone’s cupped hands.

So, he threw the water at me. Threw the water into my face and my half-opened eyes still seeping and burning and crying in pain.

Finally, my eyes calmed down. I had on my coke-bottle glasses, and I was red-rimmed. But, the burn had decreased to a dull ache.

It was then that I realized — my  hands were on fire. For another few hours, I tried everything. Milk. Butter. Lotion. Ice.

In time, I found that the only solution was to wait.

Lesson Learned: Never touch chopped jalapenos (or their juice) with your bare hands or eyeballs.

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