Monday, December 27, 2010

Festivus Brace



*The secular, nondescript holiday-themed, Berkleyan, PC wrapping paper yielded the name.

Friday, December 24, 2010

'Tis da Season

New cane!



Grandma feet!



Happy Holidays Y'all!

You had me at "Big," "Gay," "Truck" & "Ice cream"

Big Gay Ice Cream Truck

I've been quite obsessed with this lately. It's really masochistic for me to keep oogling their goodies, but I can't stop.

With the best company name ever and treats named Bea Arthur, The Gobbler and Salty Pimp you know you've struck gold.

I'm dead serious when I say this: "If I ever get the green light to eat ice cream, I'm immediately booking a flight to NYC." For serious

Friday, December 17, 2010

There's such a thing as a LOWER respiratory infection?!

You learn something new everyday...

I've heard people say a million times that they have an upper respiratory infection (which is basically a bad cold, btw) but have never heard of, or considered, that if there's an upper, there must be a lower.

It's official: my lungs hate me. They've joined forces with my eardrum and are waging war.

There is so much fluid in my ear and lungs that I can hear my own heartbeat and breathing like a thunderous underwater heavy metal concert. "Keep it down, will ya? I'm trying to nap!"

I went to see Sara Bareilles last night. She's my favorite :) and even though I felt like a corpse and there was a tidal wave of mucus erupting from my nose, I went anyway. We had seats and the show was amazing. I don't feel that was overdoing it but my doctor thinks otherwise. I now intend to sleep the weekend away, as instructed.

Apparently, fluid in your lungs is cause for rest. I'm still learning the meaning of that word, but I'm trying.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife

"the USA is the "only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage" (Wikipedia)

For 3 years, I've been trying to get medical insurance and for three years I've been told over and over and over again that I "present uncertain medical underwriting"(basically, "You actually need and will use this insurance, therefore we're not going to make money off of you and refuse to cover you") and have been denied repeatedly.

Last year, I was offered catastrophic insurance at $500+/mo that basically would cover me if I got cancer or was in a horrific car wreck and on life support. It did not cover dental, audiology, dermatology, mental health, women's health, gastroenterology, chiropractic or podiatry...all the things I needed at the time. I didn't see the point, so I passed...then, I got a catastrophic illness. Turns out, most of the care I'm recieving wouldn't have been covered, anyway; but, those ER visits (which will probably be the death of me before the black mold is) would've been covered. Oh well.

Fast forward to now: I just got approved for almost full coverage...wait for it...for: dental, audiology, dermatology, mental health, women's health, gastroenterology, chiropractic and podiatry; but not for my specialized care (nutritionist, infectious disease specialist and hematologist).

*Please take a moment to get out your Encyclopedia and look up IRONY. Does my picture look nice?


At least now I can finally afford to get my foot fixed. I love my cane and all, but I'm not ready to be such a Grandma just yet.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

This is your brain on drugs...

I've figured out that you can cook egg whites in the microwave without setting off the Apocalypse. (Does anyone else recall being scared shitless as a kid with horror stories about cooking eggs in the microwave?)

That's about as exciting as things get, relating to food, lately.

I'm kind of over cooking right now and food really holds no appeal for me these days.

I have grand plans of coming up with some kick-ass Christmas recipes...we'll see if I muster up the energy for it.

I must say, Aspergillosis is the best damn diet (if you don't mind feeling like utter shit all the time) and everyone should give it a try. I've lost almost 40 lbs in 6 months. It's better than The South Beach Diet!

Friday, December 10, 2010

When life gives you lemons, make scraper canes!

My foot is getting worse.


So now I have to wear a foot brace and walk with a cane...and you'd better believe theys gotta be pimp!









Inspired by:



Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Afoot & light-hearted I take to the open road...

So I decided to skip Thanksgiving this year and escape my life for a spell.

Why?
-My traveling has been practically nonexistent since I got sick
-I have a week off work
-I 'm able to go 7-10 days in between doctor's visits, right now
-Southwest was having $30 flights
-I don't have a place to stay in The Bay anyway & everyone has family visiting
-If I have to sit through a holiday where everyone is gorging on mashed potatoes, alcohol and PIE I WILL go Firestarter for sure

Last year, my roommate, a friend and I went camping in Big Sur. We cooked turkey and pie beforehand and made the rest on the fire. It was the greatest Thanksgiving of all time.






This year I decided to up my game and go a bit further away...

Happy Thanksgiving from Paradise, Montana!





And yes, I'm being extra careful about my nose...



"Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose."
-Walt Whitman

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Spaghetti squash, round two



Spaghetti squash
Green pepper
Red pepper
Red onion
4 large tomatoes
Vegetable broth
Glass dish
Large skillet/pan
2 avocados
Lemon juice
Garlic

From top left, across:
-Cook & prepare spaghetti squash
-Chop a green pepper, a red pepper and a red onion
-Bake peppers and onion with chicken breasts doused in vegetable broth for 30 minutes on 350
-Chop tomatoes and saute in large pan
-Remove chicken from other dish, chop and add to tomatoes, cook for a few minutes while stirring
-Yes, we used that many knives...
-Combine peppers, onion and a few cloves of chopped garlic to pan then dole out ontop of squash
-Leftovers were used the following night for some lettuce wraps at a party. Zucchini was steamed, chopped and added. Guacamole was made with 2 mashed avocados, some chopped garlic and a squirt of lemon juice
-I needed another pic to round out the grid, so here's me in my party dress

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

You butternut cry, butternut pout, I'm telling you why...

I found my camera...in a bucket of my friend's Halloween candy. Don't ask, I have no idea.

Butternut Squash conquered!

Cut it in half (I had a Hell of a time doing this. I suggest a Machete)



Put it face down in a pan with half an inch of water



Bake for 40 minutes at 375. I know it's looks scary, but after you remove the skin(No, you can't eat it. My friend tried) it's really good.



Voila!



It's pretty filling and tastes great. I think this is my fav squash so far.

Monday, November 8, 2010

On second thought

After posting, the other day about not missing things I thought I would and missing things I knew I would, I soon realized there were a couple things I forgot to note...the things I didn't realize I'd miss and do. It actually didn't even occur to me until I was feeding these items to the kids.

Yogurt. It's not even that I like it that much, or crave it, but I'm supposed to eat Greek yogurt for the Probiotics and I find it disgusting. I'd rather have no yogurt at all, than force myself to choke down that thick, sour yogurt-imposter. Thus, it makes me appreciate and miss palatable yogurt, like Yoplait's Key Lime Pie. Oh great, now I've got myself thinking about pie...

Mashed potatoes. I used to eat potatoes by the pound. That can be attributed to my Polish/Irish heritage, I suppose. I didn't even care if they were boxed flakes, frozen, whatev; I needed them all day, every day. Funny that I hadn't missed them until now. I tried giving some to the kiddos the other day and they refused to eat them. I was heartbroken, lamenting to them: "You don't know what you're missing! You should gorge on them while you still have the chance!" That just made them laugh. Brats.

To add insult to injury, I feel as if my entire digestive tract is about to erupt from my exit hatch in a razored display of everything I've ever known, been, loved or revered.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

I ain't missing you at all

PIE.



I. Miss. PIE.

And BBQ. I'd stalk & butcher a cow tomorrow, single handedly, if my doctor told me I could.



And donuts. 3 dozen. That's how many I'd sit down and eat. I doubt I'd come up for air, even. With sprinkles. So. Many. Sprinkles.



I also really miss Smirnoff Ice, particularly the Mandarin Orange and Green Apple varieties. (I recently got wind there is now a pineapple flavor! FML)

I miss being able to drive through any place I wanted, order whatever hit my fancy and spend less than 5 bucks.

And pre-packaged foods and microwave dinners. Oh to be able to shop once a month and be able to prepare a meal in 3-5 minutes with nothing to clean afterwards. Those were the days!

And ice cream. I would KILL for an Its-It. No seriously, I've yet to see someone eating one, but when that day comes, my cane WILL be re-purposed to bludgeon.



But none of that comes as a surprise. From the start I knew it would be tragic letting those things go. What I was not prepared for, however, were the things I thought I'd miss, and don't.

Got milk? Well I don't and I'm surprised by my utter lack of heart-pangs for my loss. I was a gallon to 2 gallon a week-er and yet, rice milk is doing me just fine. Sure, throwing back a box of rice isn't the same as chugging from the gallon, but other than that, I've made a painless transition and never looked back.

Cheese. Aside from ketchup and bbq sauce, I once covered everything in cheese. I don't really like many spices, can't stand salt and pepper, and don't trust any white sauces(alfredo, white gravy, horseradish, tarter, mayonnaise, hollandaise, sour cream etc.), so cheese was always my go-to. But, I guess when you aren't eating burgers, pizza, noodles or bread, what's the point anyway?

Bread. Really carbs in general. Meh. I have some oats here and there and some rice crackers or millet and it's all good. (Hmm, it just occurred to me that I may retract this on Thanksgiving when I'm missing stuffing, but aside from that...)

Speaking of Thanksgiving, this year I'm going to have to come up with some worthy alternatives so I don't go crazy watching everyone eat and then murder them while they're enjoying their Tryptophan-induced fat-puppy comas.

I ain't missing you at all since you've been gone away
I ain't missing you, no matter what my friends say




*Also, I baked my first butternut squash this evening. I took pictures of it and promptly hid my camera from myself unwittingly. I swear, sometimes I believe all the weight I'm losing is coming from my brain...cuz it's sure not coming from my rear-quarters.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Hey baby, I like your swagger

The only thing that sucks more than walking with a limp is walking with a cane AND a limp...

Hi, I have a pimp cane now and I've been rocking it for almost two weeks.

Why you ask? Because I'm a trend-setting futurist, duh. You know we'll all eventually be using them, anyway, I'm just ahead of the curve...it also may have something to do with the fact that I'm falling apart.

In Feb 07 I was in a head-on car wreck and took the full impact of the crash with my right foot/leg and back, resulting in nerve damage that has lingered ever since.

The pain had been pretty manageable with alcohol, physical therapy and Advil on my side, but lately the game has changed. Obviously, I can no longer drink away the pain; most low-dose medications have alcohol or sugar in them, which I can't have, or the dose is too low to affect the pain; and I'm highly reluctant to take any high-dose pain meds because of my history of addiction. So I've been going to physical therapy, doing yoga(I'm such a Californian now, how did that happen?!) and getting massages as often as I can afford. It helps some, but not entirely.

To further complicate things(because nothing's ever simple or easy with me, as I'm sure you've noticed) nerve damage is exacerbated by a slew of other factors.

From that list, the following relate to me:
-Anemia: Oh Texas, I miss your meat!
-Autoimmune reaction: that's when your body attacks itself, which mine is doing since there is a foreign body raging in every cell of my body and my body wants to kill that foreign entity, thus attacking itself.
-Kidney failure: I'm not in full-blown failure, but they're working REALLY hard
-Infections: Check!
-Anti-viral/bacterial/fungal medications: Man, I hate the meds!
-Repeated compression/stress: It's kind of hard NOT to do that to your feet (rock climbing, walking, etc.)
-Systemic diseases: Check!
-Blood diseases: Check!

Also, apparently I've been walking incorrectly, in attempts to overcompensate, and ended up doing a lot more damage than I realized.

These are my feets. If you look at the left one you can see that my toes and joints are all straight and point forward and the joint on the side is rounded. Then, notice how on the right, my big and second toes curve inward and to the right and the joint juts out sharply.

It may not look like much but it's doing a whole lot of damage to my ankle, knee, hip and spine and eventually my toes will curl inward on themselves. (*Google "Hammertoe" images and you'll see what I'm talking about!)


I knew I would eventually probably have to have surgery on my foot, I just didn't anticipate needing it so soon. Furthermore, I'm not healthy enough right now to undergo the needed surgery, nor do I have the insurance or means to pay for it.

So until then, I get to wear these lovely contraptions.









And walk around with one shoe looking like it just escaped from the circus or a Caricature.



And rock a cane (which I need to take a pic of) to preserve my right leg from any more damage.

I'm sure the cane won't be so bad once I get the hang of it. I'm just not used to having to walk SO SLOWLY and if I try to pick up the pace I just end up tripping on the damn thing.

It's good thing I've basically no pride left, because falling face first on a crosswalk and having an elderly lady help you might be damaging to some people's self esteem. Not this kid, I just laughed my ass off at the ironic absurdity that continues to be my life.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

Last night I had a party to celebrate my sobriety birthday and a friend brought over caramel apples. Homemade. Caramel. Apples. Bless her soul for doing that, but FML for watching 20 of my closest friends shoveling them into their faces.

Also, since I've gotten sick, practically everyone I know has gone to TX. No, seriously. There was a conference there and at least 50 people I know were there; both my bosses have gone recently; and at least 15 of my other friends have gone, as well. One friend just came back and another is going next weekend.

Cue the pity party...

Before this year, nobody ever went to TX. Why would they? I even tried getting people to go with me and nobody ever would. Now it's a mass exodus and I'm left in the dust.

Really it isn't that big of a deal. It's just that I was supposed to be in TX this month. I was going to reward myself for my 1 yr and go for a couple weeks so I could celebrate with my Mom for her birthday and go to the Texas State Fair.

This is a pic of me enjoying a funnel cake. See the sheer determination on my face?! I ate so much that day I had to purge so I could eat more. That's how dedicated to the State Fair experience I am. I don't mess around.



I just want a caramel apple!

If Halloween is already this rough, Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be torturous!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Le Chaim

As of yesterday, I've gone an entire year without drinking alcohol.

It was something I needed to do, for myself, and it wasn't easy. It's been a very long, hard year, both working through the things in my past that led me to drink, as well as facing this illness and other woes, without being able to find solace in a bottle.

I'm choosing to mention this accomplishment here, because it directly ties into my journey with Aspergillus. I'm not going to go much into detail about my drinking days, because that's not relevant, but I will say that there are huge parallels between my recovery from alcohol and my being able to cope with my current health issues.

In recovery, I've been doing the AA 12 Step route, I've been going to therapy, and I have put everything I have in the hands of something outside of myself. In AA, we call this our Higher Power, and each person formulates their own definition of what this means to them. For me, it wasn't the "God" I'd grown up being told I should believe in, but rather, an entity outside of myself embodied by love.

Throughout this illness I have employed the coping skills I've learned during my recovery and I don't believe I would have been able to deal with any of the things it's thrown my way had I not been in AA and therapy, or, most importantly, if I hadn't placed my entire life in the hands of my "God."

I've worked the 12 steps around food and resisting cravings and temptations, just as I did with my addictions: I have recognized, categorized and let go of my resentments for this illness. I have accepted that there are many things that are out of my control related to my health and my life. I have learned to express my gratitudes rather than my gripes. (This does in no way mean I don't have bad days, or that my sarcasm has waned even a little bit, but for the most part, my tune is far cheerier these days than ever before.)

Multiple people have asked me how I stay so strong; how I seem to be happier now than the surly, cynical person I was before; and how I am coping with all the shitty things occurring in my life. I have two responses to that: "Just keep swimming" and "Bitching won't solve my problems." Basically, if I put those phrases into AA rhetoric, I "take it one day at a time"(or sometimes one hour, one minute, one second, one breath...) and I "accept the things I cannot change." There, that's my secret.

I don't know what's going to happen, so there's no point getting bent out of shape worrying about what might or could occur. I just put one foot in front of the other, I tackle head on everything that's put in my path, and I keep going. I trust that something bigger than me has this all under control and everything will work out the way it's supposed to. Maybe that plan won't be what I would have picked and maybe my path won't lead me to where I'd hoped, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to enjoy myself along the way.

I must also say that had I not stopped drinking when I did, had I not had four months sober when I first got sick, or six months when I was diagnosed, I would have literally drank myself to death. My body just would not have been able to handle the yeast and sugar and my heart and kidneys would have failed me. I think that the fact that I got sober when I did was an act of God.

It may sound silly, but this illness has been somewhat of a blessing to me. It has allowed me to grow in my humility, grace and appreciation for what's truly important. It has shown me how loved I am and how amazing the people in my life are. It has reminded me that life is a daring adventure and to seize every single opportunity I'm granted, because you never, ever know when it will all be taken away.

"May you live all the days of your life." -Jonathan Swift

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

When life's got you Squashed, make Spaghetti

I poked holes in this bad boy, threw him in the microwave for 12 minutes then let him cool for 20 minutes.



Then I took a knife and whacked him open.



Then I scooped out his innards and discarded the seeds.



Voila! Spaghetti squash. It was enough to fill four bowls, so I shared some with a couple of friends.



It was crunchy and sweet. I'll definitely be consuming mass quantities of this until I grow tired and move onto the next thing, as has been the case with everything else I've liked thus far.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

How am I?

People ask, but I'm sure they don't really want to know.
They're just being polite and I put on a damn good show.

"Pretty good."
"I'm fine."
"Doing better."

Lies...

To put it simply: I have black mold (the deadly kind) growing inside my body. It's in my blood and thus everywhere. I'm starting to think there's more of It, now, than what's left of me. It causes my brain to swell causing blurred vision, headaches and fatigue. It causes my heart and kidneys to work extra hard and inefficiently resulting in toxins building up in my blood so I have to have my blood filtered often. It lowers my immune system making it difficult for my body to fight illness and leads to chronic respiratory, ear, vaginal yeast and skin infections. It causes my joints, bones and muscles to be stiff and achy which makes sitting, standing, lying down, walking, running and basically just being alive painful. It causes mucus and fungus to build up in my lungs making my breaths shallow and arduous. It makes my skin sensitive to touch, irritation, sun, wind, cold, heat and prone to bruising. Showers are difficult because if the water is too cold my muscles throb and my bones scream, but if it's too hot my skin prickles and peels. It's causing my acne to flair up. It's causing my hair to thin and fall out in handfuls. I have constant diarrhea and I throw up frequently (most often at about 2am). I have to take high doses of anti-fungals that leave me exhausted, disoriented and crazy. I'm basically living on raw vegetables, medications, vitamins and filtered water. I'm anemic. I have nosebleeds and rectal bleeding. I'm always starving and I've lost 25lbs, yet I'm flabby because I'm losing muscle tone. I'm tired all the time but I have difficulty sleeping or staying asleep. I'm constantly cold, yet sweaty. I get tired very easily and winded after walking short distances. I'm dead broke, having to work less hours than I'd like and had to accept a handout from my parents(an extremely difficult and humiliating thing for me). I cry at the drop of a hat and the hat drops often. I'm either short fused or too sick and tired to care about things that should bother me. I'm sick as hell, but I'll be fine.

Actually, I feel more alive than I ever have in my life.

"Thanks for asking."

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Pâtissierie pheromones



This weekend two of my dearest friends got married and I brought all their things home with me so they could whisk away to their Hawaiian Honeymoon. Included in these wedding items was the remnants of their cake. Three. Boxes. FULL.



Thus, I was left alone in an empty condo with 20lbs of contraband. The only thing keeping me from having my own honeymoon and making sweet love to that beautiful body of sweetness was the memory of throwing up at the wedding after having a little bit. Yes, I snuck some bites, I'm not gonna lie and say I learned my lesson a few weeks ago. At least this time I was able to limit myself (probably because my friends were there telling me I was making a horrific mistake) and promptly slipped away from the festivities ("I need to pee") to take a nice brisk walk through the moonlit vineyard (aka: high-tailed my ass out of earshot and tossed my cookies on some grapevines)

I took one box to work Monday and fed a chunk of it to the kids ten minutes before I left. It was win-win, really; I got rid of the goods and got the satisfaction of knowing their sugar frenzy kicked in as soon as my car rounded the corner. I pawned another box off on my women's group last night and the last box went to the other kid today. I'm glad it's all out of my hands because I don't trust myself to be alone with it for another day. The chemistry between us is just too much to bear and I can only be good for so long.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Wah

I should be at The Texas State Fair right now. That is all.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Shaken not stirred

Well, I planned for an easy class II, half-day rafting trip to avoid falling in the water and hurting or over-exerting myself, but as I've learned by now, things rarely go as I plan them to. I should've known when the guide asked my friend and I if we were "sturdy" that we were in for it. So much for taking it easy.



Despite being thrown around like a rag-doll, paddling like hell, getting smacked in the face with a paddle, inhaling a lung-full of river water and feeling, for days afterward, like I'd been put in a jar of marbles and shaken vigorously, I had a great time and I'm glad I went.


To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together.
- Barry Lopez

Bugs Bunny Fries

I mainly wanted to see if I could get The Kid to eat more vegetables...but also wanted to see if carrots could make a fry substitute since eating them raw by the fistful is getting really tired.

I took two large carrots, cut in half length and width-wise. Then I put them in a pan, brushed with olive oil and baked them at 400 for about 30 minutes.



Then I sliced them.



They were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and tasted great. The Kid had his with a side of mayonnaise(he's weird) and gobbled them down. Who says fries have to hail from potatoes?!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Two wrongs and a right

ONE: Two weeks ago I sent one of the kids to the ER when I used his face as a putting green. I never liked golf anyway. He cried more when I told him that I was never playing it again than when I nearly decapitated him. I really needed a bottle of Jack after that debacle. I downed a box of oat milk instead.

TWO: Right before I got sick, a friend and I bought vouchers to go white water rafting and were contacted recently telling us they were about to expire. I asked my doctor and nutritionist what they thought about me going and they made it pretty clear they thought it was a horrible idea.

"You can barely walk across the parking lot without getting winded and you want to propel yourself through rapids all day long? Not to mention, you must remember that you're not supposed to overwork your heart, put yourself in situations where you might contract an illness, overtire yourself, or risk bruising or bleeding..." (Sooo...tell me again why I shouldn't go rafting?)

Being as persuasive and persistent as I am, I came to an agreeable solution with my medical team:
-The weather is supposed to be very warm and I will be wearing a wet-suit with neoprene boots and gloves, thus avoiding the potential risk of illness
-We're doing a class II, half day trip, thus minimizing my risk of overexertion/overtiring
-I promise not to bruise or impale myself on anything
-I run a 15-minute mile, without stopping, while keeping my heart-rate under 200 (and some other junk like blood-pressure and not bleeding and whatever)

That last stipulation was the real clencher. Basically, they were thinking "there's no way in Hell she'll be able to do that" and I was thinking "I love a challenge, I totally got this, Bitches!" If you know me then you probably know that I HATE running and the last time I ran a non-stop mile was during A Presidential Fitness Test in Junior High. It is also no secret that should you challenge me, I will accept it, and kill myself showing you how wrong you were to doubt my fortitude.

I'll have you know I didn't run a 15-minute mile. No, I ran a 12-minute mile...with my heart-rate hovering around 190, but never going over 200. Seriously, don't F-ing challenge me.

I'm really looking forward to rafting on Monday. I'm hoping by then my legs won't still feel like Nancy Kerrigan's did in '94.

THREE: Last night I had a major slip-up and fell off the band wagon. Well, more accurately, I didn't so much fall as dive facefirst into a six hour long binge-fest worthy of kings. Ice cream, three kinds of cake, cookies and brownies graced my lips with a hearty homecoming party in my mouth. Oh dear friends, I'd missed you. Interestingly, I didn't go for donuts or candy, my sugar-drugs of choice. Perhaps, somewhere deep in the recesses of my self-will, behind my engorgement, I knew that if I'd gone for those, there's no chance I would have been able to stop once I got going. I also had enough sense to stay away from my Heroin of sweets: PIE(I would have landed myself in the hospital if I'd gone that route). However, I did stay on the sugar-train at full speed until it derailed in Projectile-ville in a fiery display out both ends. I was up all night crying and pissed at myself and disappointed and worried and so very sick. Today I feel like I got hit by a truck.

I'm not looking forward to seeing my test results this week or having to tell my doctor how much I suck. I really hope I didn't set myself back too much. If I have to start back at square one I'm going to have a lot of sucking up to myself to do before I'll be able to forgive me.

At least I get to go rafting before I see my doctor... well, if I'm able to be more than 12 feet from the bathroom by Monday.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Blanch THIS

I'll tell ya what, this illness has been such a learning experience for me. Up until a week ago, the only reference to Blanch I knew was a saucy character on a favorite tv show. I now not only know it's cooking definition, but have successfully used it (and only slightly burned myself in the process).

I went to a friend's sushi birthday party on Friday. I don't even really like sushi, but I wanted to come up with something comparable. I saw a recipe for veggie spring rolls where they used cabbage and stole that idea.

I blanched some cabbage (boil in water for 2 minutes then immediately throw into pot of iced water). This makes is somewhat pliable so you can roll them and tacky so they stick to themselves.



Throw in some quinoa and sliced vegetables.



Roll those suckers up and there ya go!



My friend tried one and commented on how bland it was...my response: "welcome to my life."

In other news: I made 3 dozen cupcakes for a double-bachelorette party and I did not die. Who would've thought such things possible? Not I.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Help, I'm Alive

I've been feeing more like an actual human being lately and able to actually function in society. I'm still running at about 60%, when I'm used to running at 115%, but I know slowing down is actually really good for me and I wouldn't have done it unless forced to do so. So, thank you Aspergillis, for forcing me to cool my jets and stop running at the speed of sound. I mean that with 73% sincerity and only 17% facetiously. I'm supposed to be two days into a three week trip to The East Coast right now, but I'm not going to be bitter about that (ok, maybe a little). I'm also not going to be bitter about the fact that it's prime hiking weather and I'm not in hike-able condition (actually, that's a downright lie, but I'm trying).

Here's what I was eating one year ago, on a camping trip to Oregon and Redwood National Park (I'm also pretending I'm not bitter about not being able to camp this year. NEXT year, it's on!):



And what I'm eating this year:



That last one is about 3 days worth of food for me. Which pretty literally equates to about 20 lbs of veggies.

In other news: my friend did Reiki on me and it has significantly helped with my pain management. Unfortunately it only lasts 1-3 weeks and she lives in LA. I'm currently seeking someone else that can do more on me.