Thursday, July 29, 2010

This is getting a little ridiculous

I made guacamole on Tuesday, and there is still hot pepper oil from the jalapeno on my hands. Now, I made guacamole last weekend, the same way, and had no problems. This time, I maybe handled the seeds a bit more, and wasn't as aggressive in trimming out the white part (which I learned is called the placenta...ew). Apparently that is where the capsaicin resides.

I didn't know I had actually acquired the oil on my hands until I went to take out my contacts Tuesday night, and my eyes burned. And teared up, and I generally wanted to claw them out. There was much hand-washing with soap and water and googling to find out what might help get it off. Apparently alcohol could be tried, so a quick wash with vodka and I called it good.

Wednesday morning more burning. Intense burning. I thought I had done serious damage to my eyes. I rinsed with rum this time, thinking my classmates may think I have a drinking problem if I show up smelling like a mojito, but oh well. The worst part is that the only way I can tell if it's still there is by sticking my finger in my eye and seeing if it burns. Rum didn't help.

Then I remembered I have latex gloves in my backpack from school, left over (but unused) from an oral mechanism exam I did. I donned the gloves and finally got my contacts in. Someone recommended milk, so yesterday I soaked my hand in milk. No better. So I'm still using the gloves to put my contacts in and take them out, but this is getting a little ridiculous.