Kind of weird that frozen food has its own holiday. But, there are a lot of awesome frozen foods out there!
Apparently, Ronald Reagan was the one who made Frozen Food Day official in 1984. My spice calendar features different types of salts this month. Talks about the history, how it was used, what 'special' type of salts are good in certain dishes, and good wine pairings. I would love to someday try some of the less common types of salt. I didn't feel like changing my wallpaper yet, so I might do that later in the month.
My Jewish calendar features different pages from a haggadah, done by Jozef be David Leipnik. It's made out of lambskin parchment and leather, from Darmstadt, Germany, from 1734. Kind of cool to see one that old.
A haggadah is a book that tells the story of the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt. It also gives instructions on how the seder is laid out. Seder means 'order' and is a specific way in which the first two nights are conducted. Kind of like we act out the story, and there's a lot of symbolism. Haggadah literally means 'the telling'. Ashkenazic (came from Germany, France, and Eastern Europe) and Sephardic (came from Spain, and the Mediterranean) Jews have different traditions. Makes it interesting.
I can't believe Passover is coming up so fast!
It starts the night of the 25th. It felt like it would be much later. Well, the Jewish calendar is lunar, so it seems like it 'changes' every year if you compare it to the 'regular' calendar. It'd be my first Passover without Mom. Even though she couldn't really help out much last year, she was at least there. And able to give advice on things. It's a holiday that's definitely a bit more of a 'to do' than most.
It's 8 days long, and there are special dietary laws that go with it. You can't eat anything with leavening. So no bread, pasta, etc. Can't have certain grains. (These are just some of the restrictions.) The only type of 'bread' you can have is matzah, which is unleavened. But, you can use things like matzah meal for cakes, rolls, and things. And matzah farfel for things like granola. Although, it doesn't taste quite the same. I'll try to cook more for it this time.
Oh, another kind of personal holiday for me that's coming up is St. Patrick's Day. Since I'm part Irish. We usually have corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, and some soda bread. Sometimes we listen to some Irish tunes during it.
The month-long holidays are: National Celery Month, National Flour Month, National Frozen Food Month, National Nutrition Month, National Noodle Month, National Peanut Month, International Ideas Month, Irish-American Heritage Month, National Kidney Month. Some are important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. A lot of interesting holidays this time.
I noticed a weird bump on the upper left side of my back, which was close to my spine about a month ago. I thought it would just go away on its own, and didn't think much about it. On Saturday, it had become extremely painful. So, we went to urgent care. Apparently, it was a sebaceous cyst. Really big and went pretty deep. They were amazed that I didn't really notice it until now, because it had to have been growing there for years. I don't look that hard at my back too often, unless it's painful or something.
The reason it had hurt the most then was that it had ruptured. Anyways, they drained it, and then tried to take most of it out. It was pretty painful, even though they used something to numb it. The nurse who was doing it, said it kept moving away from her, and that it just wanted to get bigger. Not something you really want to hear when it's on you.
She managed to drain it pretty well, got about 80% of it, and stitched me up. She also put a 'wick' in to help with leakage. I felt like a robot, and that was like my control switch. They prescribed an antibiotic, and prescription strength ibuprofen. It's still pretty sore. Especially, if I bend a certain way, have my back touch some sort of surface (wall, chair, etc.), stretch an arm to get something, etc. They told me to take it easy while it heals. Which will be in 7-10 days. (I won't resume my sit-ups until then.) Can't wait until it's healed! It might have been the cause of my shoulder pain a year ago. So, I should feel great.
Went to have my primary care doctor look at it on Monday. He was surprised about how big it was, and asked why I didn't tell him about it during my check-up. We had a bunch of things to discuss, and I thought it was the least important.
While looking at it, he said that the stuff inside was gone. (It was still leaking slightly.) There wasn't any more 'bits' to take out. I wonder what happened to the last 20%? He took the wick out, and that felt a bit better. Then, a wound specialist came in to see it, and redressed it. She talked a bit more about what I can and can't do with it, to help it heal. I'll see her again tomorrow. They told me to shower as little as possible. (I normally can't shower as often as other people can, because of a genetic skin disorder. So, it's not that hard for me to do.
) Just took one, and it really hurt! As soon as the water hit the area, I was in pain. I luckily had someone to help with drying it off, and putting a new band-aid or dressing on. It probably also hurt, because it had stuck to the gauze from the one before, and I yanked it off. Not very bright, and hard to do with where it's at.
I found out while going to so many doctor's appointments, that I've lost 20 pounds!
This is just in a little more than 2 months with doing everything in my 'fitness' plan. Pretty good. Technically in total, from my heaviest, I've lost about 70 pounds. (Before, I was losing an average of about 25 pounds a year. The way I'm doing it now, it's going much quicker.) I feel so much better than before! Yesterday, I went to my psychiatrist appointment by bus. It was quite an adventure. I kind of liked it. Except for the getting lost part.
But, I found it at least. Asked if my weight loss affects my meds. She said if I ever feel overly sedated (which I never feel 'sedated' normally on it), than yeah it's messing with it. But, most of the time she hasn't heard anyone have problems like that with it. While I was waiting for my bus at the transfer center just after the appointment, there was a strange guy about my age who went up to me. He said, "I just love your hair! Can I take a picture of it?" I should have said no, but I think since I was tired by then, I kind of didn't care. He took it, and said as he walked away, "I want your hair, by the way!" First of, it's kind of odd hearing that from a guy. But, who knows maybe he's into that. Secondly, I felt like he was going to come back with a knife or something, and cut it off me or scalp me. Either way, makes me shudder.
I stopped on the way back in Silverdale, and walked to the mall. Then, looked around in places like Fuego. Made my way to Barnes & Noble, and stayed there for a while. Had a 'double chocolate' cupcake, and some watermelon/strawberry juice thing. All of it was pretty good. I felt I needed to have a snack like that with how much I actually ended up walking. Then, I looked around the store, and ended up getting sucked into the cookbook section. Essentially, stayed there the rest of the time, until Dad came over to pick me up. And, even then, we stayed so she could look at things too.
Eventually, we got out of there, and made our way to our support group meeting. There were a couple of new faces this time. Which was nice. Went to Shari's afterwards, like we usually do. I really needed a full meal. Besides the juice and cupcake, the last time I had a meal that day was at around 10:30am. The meeting ends at 9pm, so probably didn't get my food there until at least 9:20pm. That's a huge chunk of time in between, so my stomach was really growling. I still stuck to my 'plan' for eating, and only ate half of what I ordered. I got their 'Philly style' prime rib with fries, and a strawberry lemonade. Probably had WAY too much sugar yesterday...
I still have to go through all our Passover stuff we have leftover from last year. Some of it can keep for a while, but I have a feeling there might be a lot of things I'll have to toss. I also have to make an appointment to see an OBGYN soon to discuss how to go about replacing my IUD through surgery. I have to go through all of my mom's Jewish books, too. (That'll be a pretty huge project.) Thinking of applying to be a barista at Starbucks. So, lots of stuff I have to 'tackle'.
But, at least things are really looking up, lately. I made a pretty good dent into the last chapter of my novel too.
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