The Festival of Trees and Curry Powder.

As I may have mentioned a time or two, I have pretty horrible anxiety. Especially if it's coupled with depression. I have a confession. I hate people. They're everywhere and they all suck. Okay, maybe not. I hate people in large gatherings, particularly if they act like they've never left the house before. Those happen to be the only kind of people at the Festival of Trees. They're everywhere and they have no sense of common courtesy. In large crowds, my anxiety becomes overwhelming. Last year, we had to leave the Festival of Trees because I almost had an anxiety attack. Back then, we didn't really know I had horrible anxiety and my mom thought I was just being a brat. This year, I was trying to hold myself together for the small one, but he didn't really understand why he couldn't have any of the stuff we were looking at and just kept getting frustrated. We decided to take him to the kid's corner, but it was really for older kids. We were getting ready to leave and my mom wanted to get him a treat, so I agreed, Until I saw the graham crackers. That sent me in to a bit of a panic, remembering that he could react to any thing at any time because I still don't know what he reacted to in graham crackers. I also left his epi-pen and benadryl at the house, so I was kicking myself for that. He got an apple instead.

I tried so hard, guys. I tried so hard to keep him from having a reaction. And I failed.

I found a recipe on Pinterest that I wanted to try. Coconut curry shrimp. As expected it was amazing. Bubba got food everywhere, I ate until I was ridiculously full, everyone had a grand ol' time. Until I took his messy shirt off. Hives. Hooray. I didn't give him benadryl at first because I didn't want to if the hives weren't raised and he didn't seem to be having trouble breathing. By the time I came back with his pjs, they were raising. I put him in bed and set to Google. I thought maybe a coconut allergy, since he doesn't normally have coconut and I'm allergic to pineapple. I thought tropical fruits must be the key. Until I Googled curry powder. See, I thought curry was just a plant, and that's what's in curry powder. I was wrong. Curry is usually coriander, tumeric, cumin, fenugreek and chili peppers. Guess what else it *can* have in it. Did you guess nutmeg?

DING DING DING.

THERE'S NUTMEG IN CURRY POWDER.

After bubba fell asleep I double checked the ingredients. Yep, there it was, clear as day.

I'm so mad at myself. I check the labels of everything before it even gets to the cart in the grocery store. To be fair, I bought curry powder before we discovered his allergy. But I should have double checked.

So now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to buy plane tickets to every single place that you can find the tree that grows nutmeg and mace, and I'm going to burn them all down and laugh over the flames, knowing that I never have to worry about nutmeg again.

(in my dreams)