A Sad Day On the Road

Today I had to go upstate to Maple Fest for work.  Tough job, I know.  But being gluten free I was a little nervous.  I assumed there would be some food there, but I didn't know if any of it would be "safe".  In an attempt to be prepared, I packed as many gluten free snacks as I could fit in my purse without looking conspicuous.

As soon as I got there I saw that there were several booths set up with fresh baked goods - cookies, muffins, doughnuts, brownies, scones, etc.  Scones happen to be my favorite.  Or used to be.  Most people got fat in college because they drank too much.  I got fat because I ate too many scones.  Anyway, I still get kind of sad when I see baked goods, especially when my gluten free snacks consisted of things like carrot sticks and bananas.  I was having a personal pity party but I kept it under control.  Then a guy I was working with asked me if I wanted anything.  The conversation went like this:

Guy: Hey, I'm going to get a snack.  You want something?
Me: No thanks.
Guy: Are you sure?  They have cookies, muffins, what do you want?
Me: Oh no, that's ok.  Thanks.
Guy: It's no problem.  You must want something.
Me: Yes, I do.  But I can't because I have a gluten allergy.
Guy:  Wow, that sucks.
Me: Yea, I know.

So he went to get a banana muffin and I ate some more carrot sticks.

A few hours later I went to check out the lunch provided for the workers.  Sandwiches and pasta salad - great.  There were also hamburgers and hot dogs for people attending the fair.  This didn't work either, but around 3 when I got really hungry I decided I'd go buy a burger without a bun, as sad as that sounds.  Even sadder is that they were closing and there was no food left.  When I got to the train station to head back to the city they had a food stand.  Various crackers, cookies, granola bars, packaged cakes and muffins, and a hundred other things containing gluten.  The only thing in the place that was safe to eat were some greasy potato chips.  So I ate greasy potato chips.

When I got back to the city I went to pick up some gluten free Chinese mixed vegetables.  It wasn't that good and cost $16 when the same thing from the Chinese place down the street would have cost $4.

It was pretty much a failure of a day in gluten free eating.  More positive posts to come....