An Unfortunate Incident With a Pepper

James and I went to dinner at Genghis Grill tonight on our way up to Nashville from Columbia.

Normally, Genghis is a wonderful experience filled with nothing less than about 30 or 40 "Oh yum"s coming from the two of us. But tonight got off to much different start.

There were some new items to choose from on the bar... I threw some calamari in and a few new veggies, one of which looked like a sun-dried tomato. I figured, "oh cool, I like these. Maybe they are a pepper of some kind. But they don't look very hot."

I don't know if I've ever been more wrong.... about anything...

Bite #1. Excellent. A little spicy. Yum.

Bite #2. Even Better.

Bite #3. Sun Dried tomato looking thing worked it's way in.

"Hmm... crunchy. That's weird."

"Whoa. SPICY."

"WHOOOOOOA WAY TOO SPICY!!!"

"OH NO!!! OH NO!!! WHAT DO I DO???"

"GET RID OF IT!!! GET RID OF IT!!!"

"SWALLOW!!!"

Whole body on fire.

I persisted to drink all my water. Suck and chew on ice cubes. Drink half of my refill. And then finally just ask for a box. Every time I tried to take another bite, that awful, painful feeling would come back and I couldn't take it.

I don't think I will ever make that mistake again.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie