Starting today, I’m going to be doing a personal non-Disney-related personal blog post about the general goings-on in my family’s day-to-day lives. These posts will have their own category, and are going to be titled pretty simply so they’ll be obvious for anyone looking to skip over the non-Disney content. This is just a quick glimpse into my life, and will still feature topics on the other themes this blog covers, as I’m still a fat, disabled person with a whole lot of food allergies.
Today was a nice little break from the norm. Earlier this week, my wife, our kids, and I were invited to join some of our extended family at a small comic convention near their house today. We got there early. We saw some really cool art (my (and my middle kid’s) favorite was the cryptid art from Manfish, Inc.) and my kids got hats and some plushies. Two of the kids got their faces painted (the tiny one got Iron Man, and the oldest got Loki). We also saw some neat wooden gifts from Chessie Maker. And the oldest kiddo, an aspiring author and artist, participated in a short class called “Writing for Diversity in Comic Books” from Art Way Alliance.
We spent a few hours checking out all the booths and programming, and the kids got some photos taken with their favorite cosplayers. Early in the afternoon, we were all starting to get hungry so we decided to pack it up and go to lunch at Maggiano’s Little Italy.
Now, I don’t think I’ve fully run through the list of my food allergies on here, so I may as well now. I’m allergic to wheat, milk, egg, soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts (except coconut), oats, rye, and barley. My worst reactions are to the seafood and oats, but the others aren’t pleasant either. We are currently testing to see whether I can tolerate soy lecithin and soybean oil, and are considering testing baked egg soon. I carry epinephrine and am on daily antihistamines, but with this long of a list of foods I need to avoid, eating out is a challenge to say the least, but Maggiano’s came through.
This is the second time our group has eaten there, and both times it’s gone really well. The staff have been wonderful. The first time we ate there was about 2 months ago, and they sent the sous chef out to go over everyone’s dietary restrictions. (I am not the only one with severe allergies in our group, but I am the one with the most extensive list. My wife also has celiac disease, and the other adults in our party have food allergies that are not in the Top 9.) At that meal, I was able to safely eat a steak with broccoli and asparagus, cooked by the chef separately in a pan with olive oil instead of butter, away from the other foods to avoid cross-contact, and it was delicious.
Today, not only did the person we spoke with have -EXTENSIVE- knowledge of the ingredients in each of the dishes, he even brought out the actual box of pasta he was offering me to verify the ingredients were safe. The only potential issue in this dish was a small amount of soy lecithin in the sauce, but like I said before we are testing to see if I can tolerate soy lecithin and soybean oil, so I was okay with trying it. Like last time, everything was cooked separately to avoid cross-contact, and after the chefs were discussing the allergies at the table, the sous chef from last time remembered our group from January and came out to say hello and gave us his card. That was reassuring, because I knew no one had any issues last time.
After we had eaten, the table decided to see what we could do for desserts. The chefs were willing to go off-menu for me, and made me a fruit bowl with a delicious strawberry sauce and powdered sugar.
After dinner, the other family members took the kids to check out some shops while my wife and I ran over to Torrid to use my Torrid Cash. I know that some people have opinions that Torrid isn’t great, and while they are a bit pricey… their sizing is consistent and it fits me. I currently wear a 28-30 on bottoms, and a 4 on tops. And however much the style annoys some shoppers… I like the cold shoulder tops! But today, I walked out with a couple new dresses for the Disney trip and one super cute floral tank top. I had been hoping to find a pair of flare jeans, but, if you shop at Torrid enough, you learn that the jeans aren’t typically in the stores in bigger than a 26, unless they’re in the clearance rack. And I have lucked out a couple times in that clearance rack…. but today was not one of those days. (Honestly, that is my big issue with Torrid. It’s a store that was founded on plus sizes, and while I don’t have much of an issue with the 00 and 0’s being available in general, I do have an issue with there being several straight sizes available in stores for each piece, but them not consistently stocking higher than a 3 or 4 in the stores for most items. I love the clearance rack, but I shouldn’t be relegated to shopping online with no idea how something’s going to look or feel on my skin OR having to pick through other peoples returns.)
Anyway, that’s it for today. The convention was a great time, I was able to successfully eat out at a non-Disney restaurant, and I can’t wait to show you all these super cute outfits in a couple weeks in the photos from the trip!
Check back tomorrow for information on wheelchair accessibility on rides at Walt Disney World!
Access the Mouse 