water tales

Remember that scene in Back to the Future III where Marty McFly walks into a bar and asks for water... and gets a glass filled with muddy dirty water? I've always thought that scene is a great reminder for us to be thankful for the progress we've made in getting clean safe drinking water piped into many homes all over the world. It also provided a reality check for whenever I wished I could just go back in time and live a simpler (but much harder life) in medieval times.

Anyways.

So over this past weekend, I was a this getaway with my meditation yoga group. We stayed at a "camp & retreat center" about 3hrs out of Chicago, on the shores of many minor lakes that dot the area. Pretty nice place, had fun.

But.

Every. Single. Time. I brushed my teeth, I would gag.

Once, it was so bad I almost lost my dinner.

Have I mentioned that I really hate puking?

So almost-puking twice a day is *not* something I enjoy.

What was going on? Well, from the first day already, it was pretty obvious to me that the Camp's water source musta been a well or perhaps the lake itself, based on the smell and taste of the water coming out of the faucet. I've come across such situations before, but in this case, the water was particularly "aromatic" and "flavourful". And it was only at my 5th teeth-brushing session that I realised it was this smell/taste combo that was getting to me as I rinsed the toothpaste foam out of my mouth, causing me to gag.

If nothing else, at least my last teeth-brushing session, conducted with a conscious effort to not breathe, not to taste the water, did *not* have me gagging.

So among the many takeaways from the weekend was a renewed appreciation for the water gushing out of the faucets in our Chicago apartment :-)

Yay for small things :-)