Burn

It started out to be a grumpy morning. Drew hadn't finished cleaning the kitchen last night (how quickly the magic vanishes), and I wanted to make some ice tea to take to work with me. Problem was, I couldn't even *find* the sink. There was no help for it, I would have to load the dishwasher. Of course, that meant I had to UNload it first. I hate mornings that start out wrong.

I flew around taking care of things with one eye on the clock, watching precious minutes tick away. Every few minutes, I called Drew (yes, back to that again) to no avail. By the time I had access to the sink, I no longer had time to make the tea. I needed to shower and dress. I would be lucky to grab my lunch and get out the door on time.

In one last-ditch hope of connecting with ice tea, I yelled down the hall to Drew to fill the kettle (I didn't have time for the filter pitcher to finish filtering the water) and put it on the burner. Drew finally appeared, drowsy and half coherent. He stumbled in the general direction of the kitchen, and I headed for the bathroom.

Minutes later, as I entered the tiny kitchen, I heard the kettle begin to whistle. Drew wanted to know what I was doing with the hot water. "Making ice tea," I snapped, grabbing up the kettle and pouring it over the ginger peach teabags. Before I realized what was happening, the lid fell off and steam from the boiling water flew up and burned my fingers.

I knew if I dropped the kettle as every instinct told me to do, I would not only douse myself with the boiling water, but I would plaster Drew who was standing next to me. So I held the darn kettle long enough to set it back on the stove, then crumbled to the floor holding my hand and yelling.

If only I had taken time to get a potholder! The incessant clock kept ticking. Work was calling. I was going to be late if I didn't hurry. I grabbed a baggie, filled it with ice, and bolted out the door sans ice tea, sans lunch, sans sanity!

I figured in an hour or so it would be fine. How wrong I was. Every time I took my fingers from the ice they burned hard enough to bring tears. I had meetings all day - I couldn't just sit down and nurse my burn. In between meetings I ran to the staff lounge to get more ice from the freezer. During one breather, I went to see the nurse and try to locate an ice pack. She offered me several, but they weren't very cold, and I had a hard time breaking them to activate. Besides, they only lasted 15 minutes or so. She tried spraying my fingers with a benzocaine mix, but that just aggravated the burn.

I dashed home on lunch break to bring back more ice. Several times when meetings were going long, I excused myself to refill my little ice container. Concerned colleagues were sympathetic, and even pointed out the irony of burning yourself making ICE tea! I was beginning to feel a bit woozy and nauseous but I was determined to keep going. I would have rather just gone home, but I don't know what lies ahead. If I do have to have treatment again, I can't afford to use up precious sick time on something that isn't leveling me flat.

So I kept attending the meetings, kept typing one handed, kept responding to calls and emails until the end of the final meeting. At 4:30 I finally threw in the towel and crept home. For the rest of the evening, I sat with my hand in a bowl of ice - sipping ice tea! Naturally, neither boy was home, and of course I ended up having company three times - not having had any visitors since moving in.

I wondered if I were going to be able to sleep since I had to keep refilling the ice supply. As I retired, I turned it over to the Lord. Somewhere around midnight, I fell asleep, and when I woke, my hand was fine. No blisters, no pain, a bit of redness, good to go.

My friend suggested I make ice tea the new fangled way and use a powder mix. Burn or no burn, it doesn't taste the same. Besides, they don't do herbal tea (well, OK, there is some, but I don't care for it). As for the bottled stuff, it all seems to have sugar in it. So the answer is, keep making and drinking ice tea, but use a potholder and make it the night before ( - :