Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living

Secret of Life #1. Hot, maybe even warm, Chocolate.

Not scorching chocolate, like the kind I had today. 'Twas my first round of cocoa in a cup for the season at the hospital, and it tasted so good..... but only after I got over the fact that the once existing taste buds on the tip of my tongue were now depleted. As I picked the Nestle mix from St. Al's cafeteria shelves and handed over the whopping $.53 cents for payment, today's date ran through my mind. I was reassuring myself I was justified in the early start into the steamy drink season. For some reason, September 20th ran across my cerebellum's ticker and I took a silent sigh of relief. Oh okay, I thought to myself, this isn't so bad. So September 29th? I'm golden!

After forking over another half dollar for another cocoa packet (need. more. chocolate.), I slipped on the cup's cardboard mini skirt, and indulged my senses. Slowly, I raised the cup to my lips, gingerly tipped the bottom toward the sky- fully wanting rich goodness to engulf me, but fully acknowledging the risks involved of sipping hot water. The benefits so outweighed the risks. Or so I thought. As my careful tipping tendencies took place, and my one-eye-open anticipatory grimace contorted my face, the immediate shock of the heat startled me (no matter how prepared we think we are, think again). Ouch! Reflexively, I attempted to remove the noxious stimuli from anywhere near my face, and the cup immediately returned to the tabletop. Now being in front of fellow nursing student comrades, I very casually attempted to hide the shock and acted like my first sip was a dream, as my innocently victimized taste buds sizzled away into oblivion.

So here I sit here chain-chewing my way through a pack of Extra bubblegum (aka the pink package). And whenever I prepare the gum piece into a flat pancake to blow a bubble by squishing it between my tongue and pallet, fried taste buds scream in agony.

To my oral braille: See the 'new you' in a week or so.

Up in the Italian Alps, drinking their version of hot chocolate (really the equivalent to a melted Hershey's bar in a cup- to lick the lips, not the fingers). When it's cold outside and it penetrates to my bones--no matter how many layers I pile on--I am always game for a good cup of HC.