Aerobics Class

I like to brag that I love to exercise now. It's a major change for a former couch potato whose most strenuous exercise was lifting a fork to her face. I exercise 6 days a week - I'm actually trying to cut back to 5 days because my aging body appreciates the rest. Every week I look forward to my Wednesday morning step aerobics class. It is just the most fun I've ever had while exercising. I love the instructor, who is young enough to be my daughter and is also my hairdresser, manicurist, and town gossip & info source. I love the music - very loud, upbeat, fun. I love the moves - kind of dancey - and surviving one of those classes makes me feel like Superwoman.

But not today. Oh, no.

Because last night when one of our dogs was licking my feet (I absolutely HATE foot licking - I don't care if it's Goober the mutt or Richard Gere doing the licking), my husband of 24 years, the man I (previously) trusted with my life, said, "I know just the thing. I'll cut open one of these hot peppers, rub it on your feet, and the dogs won't go near your feet."

I said, "But won't it feel hot on my skin?"

He said, "Naw," and proceed to rub the pepper all over my feet and toes. And BETWEEN my toes (I think he actually had another agenda in mind, but we ain't goin' down that road anytime soon, oh no no no). And sure enough, the dogs sniffed my feet, wrinkled their noses, and found something else to lick. Good going, Mr. P.!

But what Mr. P. had NOT told me is that as soon as my feet were inside socks, inside sneakers, and doing some major sweating through a 50 minute aerobics class, they would feel MORE than hot. More like, ON FIRE! At the end of that hell-fire class, I ripped off my shoes and socks and saw huge red splotches on my feet, as if I'd been scalded. Which I had. In the shower, I tried to scrub the hot pepper off, but my feet hurt too much for scrubbing. I very gingerly dressed and slipped my burning feet into my sandals, wondering if I could get away with calling in sick due to hot pepper foot injury (um, no). Thankfully, my feet felt almost normal by noon. Of course, I did remember to mention all of this to Mr. P., who giggled the whole time. Mr. 59-years-old-going-on-9-years-old. But at that point in the day (6 pm) my feet felt fine, so I let it go. Now it is 8:20 pm and the toes on my left foot are burning again (why?). Mr. P. went to bed at 8:00 pm (he gets up at 3-4 am) but I'm thinking now that he needs to get up and apply ice cubes to those burning toes....in my mind, I tiptoe into the bedroom, gently shake his shoulder, and dump a 5-gallon bucket of ice cubes on him...but then the bedding would be wet...not sure how to proceed now...suggestions very welcome!