ingredients: marine lipids

My boyfriend smells like fish today. Why, you ask? Did he munch on some tuna for lunch? Spend an afternoon at the seaside? Nope.

Last night, when he was rubbing yet another goop-ful of Neosporin on his kickball wounds, I suggested that some Vitamin E oil might help it heal quicker. Not wanting to go all the way upstairs to get said oil, he says he'll do it later.

Fast forward to us going to bed two hours later, wherein I have placed his two nightly vitamins on his side of the bed (I'm sorry, when did we turn into our grandparents?). The supplements are Vitamin C and Fish Oil, to be exact. Now, even though the vitamin bottles reside on my side of the bed, RL knows what he's taking every night. He knows that this little capsule is fish oil, not Vitamin E. Yes, they LOOK an awful lot alike, but they are not, in fact, the same thing. But before my very eyes he bites off the tip of the fish oil and proceeds to spread the marine lipidy goodness all over.

The funniest part of this story is that I didn't think a thing of it. I am the one that emptied the little capsule into my hand, directly from the fish oil jar. I watched him as he spread. And then I quietly went to sleep beside him.

After this morning's shower he went back to his half-empty capsule, and continued spreading. Something clicks on in my mind--I see the jar flash before my eyes, replay last night's conversation about Vitamin E, and it dawns on me even as I catch the first scent of fishiness emanating from his person. "What you're using there? That's fish oil. Why are you doing that?"

A few hours later I get the following email:

"Computer is locking me out and i smell like fish. f%*k."

It's okay, the absent-mindedness is endearing and reminds me of my mother. OMG.