Food allergies suck
I have a few food allergies. These are true allergies, the kind that make me break out in hives or make my throat and tongue swell up or make my digestive system react as if I have food poisoning. I've yet to need the adrenalin shot, but I've come pretty damn close before. I thought I'd pretty much figured out everything I'm allergic to, but I was quite surprised to wake up on Monday morning feeling extremely ill. Was the pork from that previous night bad? Why can I barely open my eyes? Why does it feel like I have something stuck in my throat? Why does this remind me of the lobster experience? Because it's a allergy response, you idiot - grab the Benadryl!

Turns out I didn't need to go get an adrenalin shot, but I did need to figure out what was I allergic to this time. And the only thing "new" that I ate was sauerkraut. I've always avoided it before, but my memory was that I just didn't like the smell as a kid (my mom was a big sauerkraut fan.) Well, I really enjoyed the pork cooked with sauerkraut late Sunday evening, but I definitely did not enjoy what happened in the early hours of Monday morning. So I add yet another thing to my list of foods that I can't eat. Sauerkraut seems a really strange thing to be allergic to, but there's no denying the reaction that my body had to it nor the effectiveness of Benadryl on the symptoms. I suspect that I've either never actually eaten it before or it made me sick at the time I did eat it because I can say with certainty that I've not eaten it in at least the last 30 years or so. I did find it tasty this time, but it wasn't so good that I'll be craving it again anytime soon. Unlike oranges, which I pine for regularly and occasionally break down and eat one and end up with a nice case of hives as a result. Oranges and shrimp - two things I shouldn't eat, but do and one or the other will probably be the death of me someday when I have a much more severe reaction than just hives. Some people live dangerously by jumping motorcycles over canyons and I live dangerously by just eating food. Ah well, I guess we all need some element of risk in our lives, eh?