Do you ever feel, sometimes, like the whiniest person in the universe? Sure, we’ve got a disease and it makes us quite miserable, but I have to say every time I read the comments here, go to a celiac conference, or just read my FB feed, I realize—damn, girl, you’re lucky! After all, my diagnosis was like, in five minutes, my family has been nothing but (mostly) supportive, and my kids are ALL IN on gluten-free pizza. Most of my vacations have been pretty great, as it seems I blow it on my last day. So when I got this email, holy marymotherofgod, WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS WOMAN????

Luckily, Sharone at The Gut Reaction has a helluva sense of humor. So not only can we LEARN from her incredibly horrific family vacation to the Dominican Republic, but laugh. Just a little. You guys, it was horrible. Here’s a snippet:

Each meal I raced around the dining room, trying to find safe food at a buffet for myself and my celiac daughter. Buffet style restaurants are probably the worst set up for celiacs, second only to the crapshoot of a pot luck dinner.

The hotel quickly realized that if they dumped four new containers of Nutella on us at every meal, we’d shut up.  Nutella, in large enough amounts, will make your teeth chatter.

In the DR, gluten free actually means gluten reduced, since the gluten free menu at one restaurant stated that all the gf meals contained regular soy sauce.  When I pointed out that the soy sauce container listed wheat, they made those “oopsy, my bad” faces.

Please do go over and read the rest of her account which includes (but is not limited to) expired passports, shattered glass, a broken coccyx and signs from god. Obviously.

Which also brings up a fantastic point, which is I WILL SO TOTALLY CARE OF YOU IN IRELAND. Come on my trip, you guys. If this one goes well, I can keep doing it. Also, Irish whiskey makes every vacation better. Even with a broken coccyx.