Cheerios are delicious. Especially The honey nut variety. 

The first time. 

Later, when you’re in the middle of a swim, head underwater, breath held and mid-stroke, a little bubble makes its way from the murky (and 2% milky) depths and enters the world through your olfactory passage. 

It burns the nostrils. 

The hair that inadvertently grows there curls up in heat seared death (note to self: when nose hair gets too long, have some Cheerios).

I find it difficult to see when my goggles are filled with the salty tears that my eyes have literally projectile squirted into them, filling the little void almost instantly. 

Keeping my eyes open was zero problem but for some reason my mind was screaming “Don’t look!” just in case something escaped my pursed lips. 

I had to re-swallow a hunk of something I swear I never ate in the first place. 

I could only assume that the mild mannered O’s that I had so lovingly gazed upon in my cereal bowl were tearing me apart from the inside out. 

From now on, it’s back to the smoothies…