Traveling Gluten Free?

I can write now that I do have celiac.  I am a celiac?  Sounds like cereal meets maniac.  The aural grammar of this is just not right (read it out loud and you’ll know what I mean.)

The plan was that I’ll eat gluten again for the month before my scheduled endoscopy; but I phoned my doctor and asked if I really needed to have the last test since I’d already started eating without gluten, and did not want the tummy/head/joint/cranky aches back.  EVER.  Not even for a final diagnosis, unless he know of some non-intuitive reason I needed more than the blood tests.  He laughed (especially when Ben handed the phone to me and said, “Mom, it’s Dr Benjamin So-and So.”) and said that usually he has to finish the tests to get any patients to give up wheat in the first place.  He’s going to get back to me about the non-intuitive reasons to finish the tests.

Aunt Bev’s memorial service is this Saturday in Houghton, NY, and on Thursday at Park Street Baptist in Boston.  K has been asking where Aunt Bev is, peeking at the corner of Grandma’s couch where she usually napped.  I told her that Bev’s soul was with Jesus.  K asked what a soul is.  My cousin Beckah gave defining the soul a whack, which made my Uncle Paul laugh a great deal behind our backs.  Since he is ordained, I should have asked him for help; but it was good to hear him laugh and I’m sure I’ll have more chances to define the soul later.

I asked friends on fb for travel menu suggestions.  Most were beans and rice sorts of meals, which made me really wonder if there is such a thing as a portable crock pot?  Dan went into engineer mode and wondered if he had time to make such a thing before our treck out to Houghton for Aunt Bev’s memorial service.  My Cousin Ben said they were probably thinking of a cold rice and beans salad.  Still not computing, I gave him the strange look, and he pointed to my olive oil on the counter – oh, like 3-bean salad, only with grain in it too?  Now I get it.

I’m thinking I’ll pack rice crackers and hummus with apples for the rest stops when the gang has hamburgers.

The funny thing is; the kids will all want to eat my rice crackers.