INTRO

This is the annual peanut report, which I know is the highlight of many people’s year.

THANK YOU MR. CARVER

For anyone not aware, I have a major allergy to peanuts. I have been allergic to peanuts since birth, and although I do my best to avoid them, on average I tend to have a peanut-related incident once a year. Except for this summer while I was biking, when I got into peanuts twice in two months. The first time I got sick was after a ride into Coudersport, PA, where a church provided us with doughnuts as an after-ride snack. Although most churches fed us breakfast and dinner, not all of them provided us with after-ride snacks, so whenever it happened I was always quite excited. Getting to the church at 3:00 pm and finding I did not have to wait until 6:00 pm to get some food, I eagerly rushed to the doughnut station and immediately shoved one in my mouth. Then I immediately discovered that the doughnut had peanut-butter frosting, so then I immediately spit it out, immediately ran to the bathroom, and immediately started throwing up.

The second time I got into peanuts was in Helena, MT. I met up with my friend Paul from Hermiston, and he took me out to a Mexican restaurant. Unlike the situation with the doughnuts, where I was unaware that peanut-butter frosting existed, I have been aware for some years that Mexican restaurants occasionally use peanut butter as a seasoning in their food. With that said, a few times this summer I did not use my best judgment and investigate what I was eating to the degree I should have since I was usually starving from biking and whenever I saw food all I wanted to do is throw it down my throat as quickly as possible. Anyway, at the Mexican restaurant I ordered, started to eat my food, and after two bites I was met with an oral conundrum: the food tasted odd, but I could not tell right away if it was itchy (allergy), or just hot (spicy). After a few more bites, however, I had it figured out pretty well. Hooray!

NO MORE P. SALAD. FOREVER

Although both of the occasions I ate peanuts were not fun, overall I think I did pretty well while biking. Whenever I am not eating at home my chances of eating peanuts are much higher, and although churches usually had two of our daily meals covered summer, Bike and Build provides its riders with lunch, and that lunch is always peanut butter and jelly. Since obviously I cannot eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and plain jelly sandwiches get old, fast, this summer I got creative/lowered my standards. For the most part I would take whatever leftovers we had from recent church dinners and stick them in between two pieces of break. Sometimes these were things like hamburgers and hotdogs, but since those items tended to go quickly, more often I seemed to eat things like macaroni sandwiches, spaghetti sandwiches, egg-salad sandwiches, bean salad sandwiches, regular salad sandwiches, and my favorite, potatoes salad sandwiches.

Honestly though, I hate potatoes salad. I have never, ever liked it, and I really do not think anyone does like it, they just think it is a really easy dish to make and thus due to simply convenience it always shows up at potlucks. I always avoided it before this summer, but when all over leftovers ran out and it was potato salad sandwiches or jelly sandwiches, with the latter always being a bit of a danger as it could be contaminated with peanut butter. So, I always chose potato salad sandwiches, and by the end of the summer you could even say I liked them. In fact, long after I am sure the potato salad was still safe to eat, I kept eating it, and when fellow Bike and Builders would throw it out of the coolers I would rescue it from the trashcans and put it back it.

“It’s two weeks old!” they would yell.

“It’s all that I have!” I would yell back. And, when it finally got thrown away and I did not catch the foul deed, I got legitimately mad. In fact, as silly as it sounds, I think the most angry I got during the entire summer was when I discovered that someone had thrown my potato salad away and I would have to eat jelly sandwiches for lunch, despite the fact that continuing to eat the potato salad surely a recipe for food poisoning.

END

With peanuts/food, I think I only have about two more posts to write about Bike and Build. But do not worry, if you are still reading these and want some more, there is still plenty of things to type about. Although if I am typing about peanuts again so soon, I will be pretty angry. It really is not fun at all.