Goodies At Work

[Teacher1958]

This week at work is Teacher Appreciation Week, and the PTA is treating us to all sorts of wonderful things. The goodies today looked like a photo spread from a gourmet dessert magazine. I just sat and watched everyone else pig out. Tomorrow is Massage Day, and as far as I know, the massages are, thankfully, gluten free.

[Guest j_mommy]

Yup i'm pretty certain massages are gluten-free!!!!!LOL That is really nice that they do that for you! Next time maybe you could ask for an ingredient list so that you know for sure if you have to only watch the eating or if you can partake!

[angel-jd1]

I totally understand where you are comming from. At my school they have a big birthday bash once a month and there isn't a thing in there I am able to eat. The people look at me like I am crazy when I walk in, survey the goodies, and walk back out with no food in hand. (keep in mind I have told them several times about celiac, so they "should" know why I don't eat it, but don't )

So far we haven't gotten a thing for teacher appreciation week...........maybe you can send your massage crew over!! That sounds like a nice treat.

-Jessica

[SunnyDyRain]

I hear you. On Administrative Assistant Day, the boss took us to a fancy shmacy buffet at a country club. I ate plain rice pilaf, while my co-workes ate pasta and turkey and stuffing and roastbeef in gravy. Elcairs, canoli's and cheesecakes for dessert. Baskets upon baskets of bread, rye, pumpernickel...oh god.

Bah... but the rice pilaf was good.

Sad this is his sister in law is celiac, and he STILL was clueless why I was only eating rice.

[tarnalberry]

They get cake and pizza and stuff at work all the time, but I can't have it. It's no big deal, really.

Here's my perspective: The inconvenience of dealing with one random person, at the expense of the time of trying to find something else and making other people less satisfied, isn't worth it, in the big picture. I'll sometimes bring in muffins or chocolate if I want to share food with the team (or a tea party!), but other than that, there's a lot more to our most local 35 person team than my food needs.

[wowzer]

I know the feeling. I pay a $1 a week for the birthday fund. So far I haven't been able to eat anything they buy with this fund. Maybe when it's my birthday I should tell them I want something from the gluten free bakery!!!! Of course they wouldn't probably want to eat it. But then I could make up for all the things I couldn't have.

[lmvrbaby]

A couple of weeks ago we had the Professional Administration Day which our group kind of does all week. Flowers from the Dr. which is nice, one of the nurses which I don't work with very often brought in muffins and donuts. Another nurse brought in jar candles, our full time nurse bought each of us a hard cover note pad for shopping lists, and a couple of the counselors brought in chocolate and I talk them quite frequently and they know about me having celiac and they went out of there way to make sure I could partake in this event. It is nice to know that some people who dont even have celiac will try and make it easier for those of us that do. I believe I am pretty good at my job, I have been there for almost 4 years and we learn more and more about those that we work with everyday. We use to do a birthday bash once a month but with food allergies, it became a hassle for those who could not eat anything brought in, so they stopped that. Just in our front office we exchange cards and usually have scratch offs inside, just for fun. Sometimes we make out and sometimes it just makes us dream for a few minutes. I have been diagnosed for close to 1 1/2 years and still find new things all the time about celiac. I have even started talking to the lady who orders for our grocery store as to what is good, my opinion of course, and she does listen and orders what they have listed for the store to stock. This is nice as when I come across something on here that someone has mentioned I can try it. Word of mouth of foods that taste better than others works for the most part. We just have to remember to take it one day at a time and read labels.

[blueeyedmanda]

I wish they gave massages at work. How relaxing.

[CGPGF]

I know the feeling. I pay a $1 a week for the birthday fund. So far I haven't been able to eat anything they buy with this fund. Maybe when it's my birthday I should tell them I want something from the gluten free bakery!!!! Of course they wouldn't probably want to eat it. But then I could make up for all the things I couldn't have.

I ask them to order ice cream cake for my birthday. It's a change that everone enjoys!

[zkat]

I am very lucky at work. For my Birthday this year, my staff bought themselves a birthday cake and ice cream and me a fruit tray. For lunch I got a salad and they all had subs. I really appreciated the effort. They still try to learn and are always asking questions, but not in a noisy kind of way.

One of my girls even checks her hand cream to make sure she doesn't gluten my office door or phone. I never asked her to do it, (I wash my hands before I eat for this reason)

My owner let's me pick the resturant if he takes us out to eat. Before I told him about the Celiac, he tried to get me to eat at breakfast meetings and I wouldn't, so he asked why and now is pretty cool about it.

[blueeyedmanda]

When my coworkers have panera for breakfast they always bring me a fruit cup. I love fruit bowls and fruit salads.

[kbtoyssni]

I know the feeling. I pay a $1 a week for the birthday fund. So far I haven't been able to eat anything they buy with this fund. Maybe when it's my birthday I should tell them I want something from the gluten free bakery!!!! Of course they wouldn't probably want to eat it. But then I could make up for all the things I couldn't have.

Gosh, in this case, I think I would not chip in. I don't mind the "free" gluten food, but I wouldn't want to pay for food I know I'm not eating.

[Susanna]

At our monthly staff meetings, the boss usually does this nice thing and orders some minor catering, like cake or a platter of cookies or brownies. Sad me had to skip the treats month after month. Then one day, I said to her, "Hey, you know lots of us are trying to eat healthier--could we get a fruit platter next time?" And she ordered it--we had lovely strawberries and pineapple and melon slices. The following month, she got us a veggie platter with ranch dip. Yay. I also asked her to give me a heads up if she was ordering gourmet cheeses and crackers--if so, could the cheeses be on a separate platter from the crackers? No problem--I JUST HAD TO ASK. (and I brought my own crackers, of course). So, I guess my point here is this: you gotta speak up: if you won't advocate for yourself, why should anybody else? My other thought is this: sometimes it's just too cumbersome to try to accommodate everybody's special diets (there are several vegetarians in my department too, and sometimes they feel left out if some meat dish is offered), so there are times it's right for me to speak up and ask to be accommodated, and there are times it's right for me to let it go and bring my own food

Flow like water around the boulders of life,

Susanna