Providential adventure

Yesterday I went to Providence to help doing merch for ENSMB. I got a ride, which meant getting there very early, so there was time for me to go walkabout before the show. Though the area right around the club is a bit sketchy, I found some interesting things. ( More, with photos. )

Capsaicin woes

Or, how I wish I were a bird (they can't sense it).

Wednesday I made salsa and started hot-pepper booze. I touched one hot pepper with my hands, though I was pretty careful to have minimal contact. For the rest, I had plastic bags on my hands to avoid problems.

And I thought it had worked, until an hour or so later, when my left, then right, hands started burning. ::sigh:: I held them underwater so, held some frozen peas I was using in a rice dish for dinner, and it slowly got better. By midnight (five hours later), I felt fine.

Yesterday I took a warm shower a bit after midday. Even though my hands felt fine, when I touched my eyes, they started burning. I kept them closed while I showered, and by the time I was done, it felt like I had toothpaste in my eyes (instead of burning, a miny sort of sensation; not pleasant, but not as bad as the burning). A couple of hours later, my hands started a low-key burning again. Um, what?

And now today, after a bout of cooking, my hands are burning again, the right worse than the left (even though that's my knife hand, so the other hand was more likely exposed to capsaicin directly). I'm not sure what to do at this point. I mean, obviously, I need to get serious gloves if I'm to prep hot peppers ever again, but right now? There can't be any surface capsaicin left to wash off, so I don't know what to do, other than wait it out. I wonder if this is even vaguely normal, or maybe I have a contact allergy (since eating hot peppers hasn't led to issues).

Oh, I just realized, this means this year I have Burning Hands. Not as exciting an event, all around.