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Dear Listmates:

    I just have to tell someone this who can understand the frustrations
of being a celiac, so here goes.  I had to mail a certified letter today
and the postal clerk asked ME to lick the sticker for certified mail to
be placed on the letter!  I told her I couldn't but if she had a moist
sponge (as most postal clerks might have in the nearby vicinity...one
might think), I could.  Then she started interrogating me about WHY I
couldn't just lick it and stick it on the envelope.  This was at a small
post office annex and there were about seven people behind me, all
wondering what the brouhaha was all about.  I tried to succinctly
explain that I have a disease and when I contact anything with gluten in
it, which is what is on that certified mail sticker, I would become
extremely ill.  She laughed like, "That's a new one!" and said, "Well,
all right, I'll use the sponge on it, then."

    Then just tonight when I just wanted to vent to my husband (a
non-celiac), he just started to interrupt me and tell me what I should
have told her.  *sigh*  Then asked me if I would accompany him to a
restaurant.  He knew I had already taken care of my dinner and just
wanted some company.  Does anyone else just abhor that ritual?  I would
just sit there, drooling over his hamburger, seeing everything that I
can't have.  Soooo, I declined.  Aaah, that feels better.  Thanks for
*reading*.

                    Cecilia