Well, I talked a little bit about my allergy problems the other day but I did not mention my food allergy problems… or as I like to call it, the “Attack of the Hive.”

I am supposedly allergic to pine nuts (even though I ate them happily for years) so I avoid them and tell wait-staff about that allergy when I go out to eat.

Last night, Case and I went out with our friends, Julie and Adam. I have known Julie since I was a wee little freshman in college at UNH. She and Adam are getting married (!!!) in September and I am her maid of honor. (An honor I am dreadfully afraid that I will screw up since I have never been a maid of honor before!)

They live in Brookline which is on the other side of the Charles River from us… and on the Green Line (yuck!). I am such a Red Line snob it is silly. The Red Line is a regular subway train, underneath the city for the most part, and has a huge capacity for moving people where they want to go. The Green Line, on the other hand, is a complex system of four different lines that are all 2-4 street-car like trains that are constantly filled with people. It also runs through a bunch of universities (Boston College, Boston University, etc.) and stops every 2 seconds.
Ok. end Green Line rant.

So, Casey and I meet Julie and Adam and we decide to go into the North End (Italian section) of Boston. Now, the first thing that both Casey and I think, we discover later, is that going into the North End usually ends with me crying in the bathroom (massive stomach cramps and tummy problems) and wearing almost no clothes (hives and rash cover my body making clothes very uncomfortable). But we both decide, what the heck, let’s give it another shot.

So we go into the city and have a really nice meal (chicken with artichokes and mushrooms for me, pasta with mussels for Casey) and decide that we all cannot bear to get on the T since we all overindulged a bit and it is a nice night for walking.

Of course, we are strolling along Newbury Street when I start to not feel so good and I feel my belly start to get itchy. I look down and, sure enough, I have “the hive” underneath my belly button. Don’t ask me why, but I always get one solitary hive there just before the bad stuff starts to happen. (Casey thinks it is cute for some reason. hehe.)

Of course, nothing is open. Don’t you just love these situations?! Luckily, it is not such a bad reaction and I just spend some time getting to know the inside of a bathroom of an upscale bar. (yay! relatively clean!) (Ah! unisex bathroom!) Chug some benadryl and goodnight.

The most annoying thing about this is that I cannot figure out what I am allergic to. I told the waitress that I was allergic to pine nuts and I assume that she told the kitchen. So now I have to call the restaurant and find out all the ingredients in what I ate. Always a fun conversation. Especially with Italian cooks who speak no English. Believe me, I have past experience.

Well, I hope that story didn’t drag on too long. It was sorta interesting in my head- maybe not so interesting all written out… oh well. I have to buy a suit for my conference in Baltimore next week. Better get moving!

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 23rd, 2004 at 11:40 am and is filed under Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.