Summer Food

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Is there anything more summery than mangos? Well, maybe popsicles. Or watermelon. There are actually a lot of foods that say summer, but there's something about mangos. The golden color, the sweetness, the sticky juice. It's like eating sunshine.

I've been eating more mangos lately, mostly because they've been on sale, even though they're kind of a pain in the ass. I mean, you always have to cut them up, and that pit is slippery, and you always end up making a mess.

Anyway, the other morning I chopped up a mango and ate half and put half in the fridge for later. I ate the other half yesterday morning for a quick breakfast. As I was popping pieces into my mouth, I realized I had gotten a little chunk of skin in there. Failure at mango cutting. I spit it out and threw it in the garbage.

Now, to preface this story, I occasionally have lip problems. My lips get horribly chapped and cracked on the edges. It hurts and is generally unpleasant. Don't worry. I won't show you photos (but you can find really extreme examples on the internet if you're inclined. Google image angular cheilitis. This one is especially great because it's all mouths). Anyway, I've been dealing with a bit of that and it bums me out.

Now yesterday evening, I realized, in addition to the regular cracking, I had these tiny blisters accumulating on my lip. Like three tiny blisters. And I was seriously freaking out. All I could think was, I've got the Herp. It didn't actually look like a cold sore, but what else could it be? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Done for.

Now, I will admit to frequent internet self-diagnosis. It's never a good idea but it's irresistible. My internet research gave me nothing but assurance that I had a herpes outbreak on my lip, and then Sam was going to have a herpes outbreak on his lip, and we were going to be one of those couples with matching lip sores. Doom.

But in my darkest hour the internet prevailed. I happened upon some crazy natural remedy forum and someone mentioned something about mango being in the same family as poison oak and ivy. What? I researched further. Yes. It is true. Mango is in the same family and its skin contains the same oil (Urushiol) that poison oak and ivy does. And if you eat it (which I did yesterday morning), and you are allergic (which I am, horribly so), then you will have a similar reaction. Which I did. Tiny little blisters. Internet and mango magic. Yes, it still sucks (though it's going away), but it's sooo much better than the herp. I think this is the first time in the history of internet self-diagnosis that I've closed my browser feeling better about my life.