I had a difficult morning today! I was going to write about the fact that I am afraid of it and I do not like my, “New normal.” It seems that it’s taking me longer to wake up and move around and be coherent and that scares me. Things are becoming more difficult for me to accomplish. That really stinks!
I made my way to my living room still not feeling well but I knew that I needed Chapstick. I started laughing once I looked at what I will now call my, “Bag of Chapstick.”
The memory is a little hazy but I remember two students being close to my desk. One of them knocked some things off of my desk and the other student somehow exclaimed some thing about, “You dropped her bag of lotion!” I had never heard that before but I laughed kind of a lot! As I laughEd, he said, “Well, that’s what it is! And it really wasLet me explain:
I think it had to be The winter of 2007 or 2008 and my disease had just begun progressing into things that I didn’t even realize but now I know. What was happening in the winter of 2007 or 2008, (well, really BOTH of them!) What is that my hands would get really dry and when it was cold, they would subsequently crack and eventually, they would bleed. At that point, it was clear that I do not like heavy lotions on my body or even my hands. so, my hands would be dry most of the time and in the winter months when it was cold, they would crack and bleed. Sometimes it would start as early as mid October and would go until late February.
to counteract my dry hands, I went to the health food store that say would buy my organic things from. They had a bunch of different lotions and I told the sales person to tell me the lotion to use if I do not like the feel of lotions on my hands. They showed me the specific one and allowed me to test it. It was really light on my skin and I bought one. It was kind of pricey. Hey it had a strange packaging to it, it was shaped funny. it was a hard plastic tube that opened from the bottom and it was shaped kind of like a ball just before the opening and then it had a thinner handle Toward the end opposite of its opening.
I think I had left the tube in my car overnight so it cracked and I wasn’t done using the lotion yet! I put it in a Ziploc gallon bag and just let the lotion seep out inside of the bag. It WAS very expensive on my single mother, teacher’s salary. I had to make it last! It was the only lotion that felt good on my skin. retrospectively, that probably wasn’t the most sanitary option. I use that lotion for a long time but I didn’t buy another one until my hands cracking and bleeding again became a problem. I went back to the store and bought another lotion to deal with my hands that were dry and bleeding. I was in a different classroom then and it was extremely cold in the winter in there. The lotion cracked while I was teaching in the class. I was close to the kitchen in the cafeteria and I got another Ziploc bag to put the cracked lotion tube in.
Now that I no longer work, my hands do not crack and bleed in the winter anymore. I am not out in the elements very often these days. I really appreciated that today that I was able to remember a fond memory from my teaching days and that amused me! Now, I am on a fixed income but I would not say that the chapstick was “Extremely pricey” like the lotion was but it’s more of a “Principle of the matter” for me. Now that I no longer work, I finish chapstick completely! I have posted pictures of completely used chapstick tubes on my blog before! So, even though it wasn’t pricey, I HAVE TO finish it! I remembered my, “Bag of lotion” so now I have a, “Bag of chapstick.” I am almost finished with this tube anyway. I dropped the cap yesterday and I think it rolled under my TV stand for the cable box.