I’ve been taken in by

I’ve been taken in by the advertisements for Zicam that promise to head off or shorten a cold. Homeopathic, proven to work…sign me up! I’ve been feeling that pre-winter sniffle coming on, so I stopped off at a convenience store and surveyed my choices. There were a lot of the nose sprays and nose swabs (?) but I went the more traditional medicinal route and bought the slow dissolve tablets. The packaging has them labeled as “Cherry” but they don’t mention that the overall effect is more “Afrin-tinged post nasal drip” than “fruit.” I sucked on a few for a couple days and any impending cold seemed held at bay. I decided to Google Zicam to find out more about it. Okay, when you google the name of the medication you’re taking? And what comes up are pages and pages about lawsuits? I don’t think that’s a good sign. It turns out the nasal swap version of this stuff has supposedly resulted in a lot of people’s loss of smell. Sometimes permanently. Okay, that freaked me out a little, but I figured, nasal swaps sound terrifying and I’m taking the tablets. Plus, they wouldn’t sell this over the counter at Duane Reade if it actually hurt people.

Fast forward to later in the afternoon. I grabbed an apple out of the fridge. I had made a special trip to the farmer’s market for these apples, the beloved Honey Crisps that everyone raves about. I’d had a delicious one the day before, but as I took a bite of this one, I was overcome with disappointment. The texture was right. It was juicy. But it tasted like nothing with a hint of sour. My coworker thought that was weird, as she’d also been regaled with stories of the heavenly Honey Crisp. She took a bite declared that it was completely delicious.

Then I freaked out. I went nuts on Google (o friend of the overly anxious and neurotic) and turned up all these message boards about people taking all kinds of Zicam and permanently losing smell AND taste! The hell?! My coworker dutifully pulled out a handful of Lush products and I went through them all and was relieved to find everything in working order. I didn’t get another chance to eat anything until much later, but everything was FINE. (You can ease back into your chairs, now.) I did, however, decide that I was sufficiently scared into not using my slow dissolve tablets anymore.

It’s Krista’s birthday! Happy Krista Day!

Google searches also turned up the following:

I want…

to Be A Paleontologist
an average Joe
the earth plus 5%
golf
to live
to whistle
to vote
to embrace Islam
the OPML Editor to open my .opml files
it that way
you to invade Iraq
to be a Long Neck, too
More time in the UK as a student
You for the galactic empire

I don’t want…

to talk about it
to miss a thing
to get off on a rant here
people think I'm sucking up to Mr Gaiman
them coming back
to read your blog
to work in a big city
my mom to be in the delivery room
my foot on the ladder
no trouble
to be a Hilton
to be prompted by a password
her to be my baby’s godmother
to see your toes

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