I went to a concert last night and the mysterious smell in the crowd was me. This is probably the only place I will ever say this out loud because I am still embarrassed in levels I cannot fully describe.

My friend and I drove an hour to get there. We decided to grab food beforehand, which in hindsight was the beginning of my downfall. We shared spicy Korean fried chicken and split a panini and everything tasted amazing. I felt totally fine walking into the venue. We were excited, vibing, ready for a good night.

About an hour into the concert I started smelling something weird. It was this very strong sausage and bell pepper smell. At first I thought my friend was burping because we were talking and the scent floated up out of nowhere. Then it passed so fast that I thought maybe I imagined it. A little later it came back and I could not figure out where it was coming from. My friend was not burping. No one around us seemed to be eating anything. I honestly thought maybe someone smuggled food in or had some strange snack hidden in their bag. It was that specific.

Time passed. The smell drifted by again. My friend leaned over and said she kept smelling bell peppers and I practically shouted that I smelled it too. We laughed about it on the way out of the theater once we could actually hear each other again. We even joked that someone near us must have been eating something wild. We drove home thinking the mystery was solved.

This morning I was sitting here minding my business and I let out a small fart. Nothing outrageous. Just a normal tiny one. The smell hit me like a plot twist in a movie. The same exact bell pepper aroma. My stomach dropped. I honestly stared into space for a full minute accepting my fate.

Spicy food sometimes messes with my stomach but I truly did not realize I was slipping little farts throughout the concert. I was so overwhelmed by the noise and the lights that I barely registered anything. And even when I did discreetly let one out, I never imagined it was releasing that suspicious cloud into the universe. I had no clue it was that powerful and that oddly specific.

So yes. I went to a concert. I blamed the mysterious bell pepper smell on strangers. I even joked about it with my friend. And somehow I was the gassy queen the whole time. Life is humbling in a very personal way today.