on that long, painful drive from fort collins to santa teresa, desperate for any kind of relief from my itchy throat and snotty nose, i stole a piece of my brother's gum. cinnamon "extra".
aside from a brief period of time in middle school where all the cool kids were chewing grape bubble yum, i don't think i've ever been a gum-chewer. so i don't really know what made me yoink the stick of cinnamon "extra" from rob. it was a whim. utter desperation.
but thank god i did, because it almost INSTANTLY relieved the worst of my cold symptoms. i can't begin to explain the medicine of it, but my nose was cleared and my throat was soothed. i was happy! joyful respite! a miracle!
so i found myself, throughout our time together in new mexico, 'borrowing' lots of my brother's gum. and though my jaw got quite exhausted from near-constant chewing i didn't care. i became addicted to the relief it provided me. i was hooked.
when i arrived back home, already well on my way to recovery (thanks, probably, to a z-pack and not necessarily the gum) i found myself throwing a pack of orbit cinnamon gum in my shopping cart. (i had looked, unsuccessfully, at several stores for "extra".) as i was tossing it in the basket i remember thinking, "what the...? i'm buying gum?!?!", but i found myself wholly incapable of putting the pack back on the rack. (ack.)
in the last 5 days i've chewed myself through the entire 14 sticks. my jaw is tired. i think i'm addicted, and i don't know how to quit.
one thing that keeps running through my mind is a co-worker who noticed my chewing. she looked at me funny, and i launched into the story of cinnamon gum's therapeutic qualities. she was sympathetic, but said, "many years ago i caught a reflection of myself chewing gum. i haven't chewed since."
that haunts me. the idea that she was so horrified by her gaping mandible that she swore off of gum forever.
i need to quit.
Posted by xta at January 4, 2006 12:29 AM | TrackBackach - we all have these terrible little habits.
K works with a guy, a groovy, NYC film-y guy who CHEWS tobacco! If they are editing here he uses a beer bottle to spit into and washes it out and disposes of it discreetly - but I can hardly believe he does it at all. He said he got hooked when he was in his teens, so be happy it's just gum.
Posted by: blackbird at January 4, 2006 7:05 AMthe cinnamon gum i chew will burn my tongue if i chew it too often or hold it in my mouth for too long. that'll cure ya. it's dentyne fire.
Posted by: lisa at January 4, 2006 9:16 AMYou should write to Joe and Terry Graedon about the cinnamon gum thing. At least it would get them to stop talking about Vicks VapoRub on the soles of the feet.
(Didn't you see them in a restaurant once, or am I thinking of someone else?)
i think that's a pretty dramatic reaction your co-worker had. you're smart enough to be discreet about it. it's not like you'll be chomping away while you're on the air.
Posted by: joy at January 4, 2006 11:41 AMhow does that orbit cinnamon compare to the extra? i also have trouble finding cinnamon extra most places, and i consider it to be the king of cinnamon chewing gums (haven't tried orbit tho). i've found that gas stations (of all places) seem more likely to carry it than grocery stores and the like. i often buy a handful of packs when i run across a store that carries it. you might not want to engage in this behavior until you get that habit under control, though ;-)
Posted by: robdob at January 4, 2006 1:00 PMDid you know that Extra and Orbit are both made by Wrigley? So maybe they have the same medicinal properties. And they're both sugar-free. But Extra lasts "an extra, extra, extra long time." I don't know if Orbit has a jingle.
I think they might sell big cases of Extra at Costco, but I might be wrong.
After you've typed it and/or looked at it and/or said it multiple times, the word "extra" seems really weird. Extra weird.
Posted by: minty at January 4, 2006 1:40 PMlisa! i've gotta try me some of that fire!!! thanks for the tip.
minty (cinnaminty?)-
i've only ever seen joe graedon in person when he on the witness stand at the petrick trial. i wonder what he'd say about the restorative properties of cinnamon gum. (and i agree with you about the vicks -- i think he once listed amongst its uses "slather on the pole for a birdfeeder to keep the squirrels away". really.)
robdob-
i'm very "meh" about the orbit gum. extra's better. if minty's right, it's probably a Good Thing that i don't have a costco membership.
In high school I was totally addicted to gum. I even chewed myself to sleep... it was the only thing that seemed to help my insomnia. I had to chew dentyne at night, because it was the only gum that kept its gum-like state and didn't liquify during the night, leaving me to wake up with a gooey, sticky, choke-able mess in my mouth.
But I did ruin several sheets and got gum in my hair a couple of times.
Posted by: marie at January 4, 2006 4:20 PMI'm an avid gum chewer. I chew Extra; they have a new green apple flavor & I dig it the most. Costco does sell boxes with something like 16 packs. Yes.
Posted by: Alex at January 4, 2006 8:15 PMFascinating. I did a Google on "cinnamon gum medicinal effect" and read a few good things about cinnamon oil (including gum delivery). Sadly, it didn't look nearly as promising for some of K's regular sinus maladies, but I will suggest it to her.
Posted by: Phil at January 5, 2006 4:17 AM