spiny poisonous plants and phobias

Today I learned that there are these agaves in people's yards around here that spread like crazy if you water them, and when they bloom, they send up what looks like a giant asparagus stalk, and then they die. They're also poisonous, which seems to be a requirement around here unless there are spines involved.

In other news, I screwed up ordering pizza and got one with mushrooms on it, and instead of picking them all off because mushrooms are a mold relative, I just ate it anyway. Now, it's entirely possible that I'm reacting to something in the gusty winds we had today, but I think it's going to be a long, long time before I try another mushroom.

My mother worried that when I got sick, I'd develop a bunch of the crippling phobias that EIs sometimes suffer from. Today I kind of wish I had some slightly more crippling fears, mostly because it would keep me out of things like mushrooms.