Note to Self...

Every year at work, we have a United Way fundraising campaign with a few days of activities to raise money. This year, we did our annual chili cook-off where you can pay $5 to judge/eat the chilis, and if you make chili to enter that's your donation. So this year I braved the regulars and decided to whip up a crockpot of chili. Figured with my robust garden, this was a great way to utilize my overabundance of tomatoes and peppers, and put it to a great cause.

So last night I looked up an "award-winning" recipe via Google and doctored it to my liking. Of course, the spicier the better in my book. I was cutting up my last jalapeno from our garden to throw in when I felt a little burning on my hands. Didn't think much of it...I had been cutting onion, tomatoes, mild peppers, etc., so just figured all the juices were irritating my skin a bit. WRONG. Come time to clean up, my left hand was on fire. Suddenly nothing felt good unless I stuck my hand in cold water. This burning kept progressing...it literally felt like I had just burned my hand on the stove top and my raw skin was exposed and in serious pain. This was around 8pm and I was hoping it would go away pretty quick, since I was tired. Slightly confused and in panic mode, I went back to trusty Google and checked out "pepper burn on hands." Apparently it's pretty common, and a number of people posted home remedies. I tried a baking soda/milk paste, Dawn soap, vinegar, aloe...you name it, if I had it in the house I tried it. No relief. Whatsoever. Finally, at about midnight after making remedies and not wanting to keep Jeremy up, I laid down on the living room floor with my hand in a Tupperware of cold water next to me. Nothing else was working and this was my only relief...there was no keeping my hand in the open air for more than 30 seconds without crazy pain and I couldn't keep my mind off it. I mean, was I even going to be able to sleep tonight? Did I need to call poison control for help from these stupid peppers?

I must have dozed off finally and woke up around 3:30am (no, I didn't pee because of my hand in the water, though that would really top this experience) to a much less irritated hand. Put some aloe on it and went back to bed. That's right, about 7 hours of burning pain from some jalapeno peppers. Note to self, wear gloves when cutting hot peppers. No exceptions.

And I'm happy to report, the burning hand was worth it (well, not fully but I'm going with it). I won the chili cook-off today! Won a restaurant gift card and bragging rights among the boys at work. I'm probably not going to tell them that Jeremy's new nickname for me is "hot hands."

The chili that I sacrificed my hands and sleep for...