Yesterday was pretty good. I spent a big portion of it online chatting with various people, and sending e-mail back and forth with other people, and writing. Matt played basketball after work, and since he's usually not very hungry after playing, we just had some corn on the cob for dinner.
First corn on the cob of the year, for us. Piled with butter and just a dash of salt... Yum. Corn on the cob is one of my favorite foods, right along with garden-fresh tomatoes, still slightly warm from the sun... Summer is my least favorite season, but it does have its good points.
When Braz and Kris were in town visiting last month, Braz developed a canker sore that was really bothering him. I get the things occasionally myself, and my dentist had given me at my last visit a few sample packets of some topical ointment to try on them. I'd put them in my medicine cabinet and forgotten about them. But Braz was really suffering, and when I opened the cabinet to see if we had anything, I saw the packets. Well... Why not? I gave them to Braz, and he followed the directions and then spent the rest of the evening poking at his cheek, unable to believe that he couldn't feel the pain.
Well, I'm always happy to help out a friend, and I hate canker sores. I used to get them pretty frequently - the insides of my cheeks are scarred from all the times I've accidently bitten swollen canker sores, and I can't tell you the amount of time I spent standing over a sink with warm salt water. I gave Braz the last of the packets, and forgot about it.
Except that yesterday I started developing a canker sore of my own, right at the corner of my mouth where it's nice and easy to bite. I happened to be chatting with Braz on IM when the inevitable happened and I bit the damn thing. I complained to him about it, and he suggested that I pick up some of the stuff myself, and told me the name, which I'd forgotten.
Well, I had to go to the drugstore anyway, so I grabbed a tube while I was there. Zilactin comes in three varieties; I picked up the one I thought best fit my array of problems, and took it to the counter. When I got home, I read the directions, snipped the tip off the little tube, and applied the goo.
Well, it tastes disgusting, but most of those things do. But I'll be damned if this stuff didn't do exactly what it said. It formed a thin skin over the sore, and stuck there even after the numbing agent wore off. I ate some salty chips. No pain. I salted my corn on the cob at dinner. No pain.
The area's still swollen, of course, and I'll have to be careful not to chew on it again - but I can actually eat! I am astonished, amazed, and happy! I thought $8 for a quarter-ounce tube was a little pricey, but this stuff is great!
Word of the Day: flout - to treat with contempt; mock; sneer
One usually encounters the phrase, "to flout the rules." We all do that a little - drive a little faster than the speed limit, push the boundaries of acceptable clothing or hair, browse the internet at work... A little something that declares us to be individuals who will not bow meekly to confining rules that serve no purpose other than to make those in charge feel more powerful.
It is when one begins to flaunt one's flouting that the problems arise.
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