Hope 2017 will be better. I know politically it might not be, but personally it might. I also want to post more often on here. Last year had a poor amount of posts. The least I've had during a year on here.
I have noticed a trend that I'm posting less and less each year. Hopefully, I can break that this time. I wanted this blog to be a daily one at the beginning. Skipping only Saturdays. I think I should at least do a few a week.
This year, my secular calendar is Pusheen themed. Pusheen is a comic cat, created by Claire Belton and Andrew Duff. First appearing in 2011 for a comic strip called Pusheen Things on their website, Everyday Cute. The original comic (from what I've read, looks like it started in 2010) had many other characters, mainly influenced by their pets and themselves. Pusheen is based on a chubby grey tabby, who was Belton's parents' cat. Her name stems from the Irish-Gaelic word 'puisin', which means kitten. She's become so popular, they launched a spin-off site dedicated her. (Some of the comics are animated/with GIFs, which is fun.) In 2013, Belton published I Am Pusheen The Cat, a collection of comic strips featuring Pusheen. There are also Pusheen sticker sets on facebook. This calendar came with actual stickers. It's cute.
This month the main pic's of Pusheen with donuts around her. One's caught on her ear. The second pic's of a mini version of her hiding behind a huge donut. Haven't gotten a Jewish calendar yet for this year. I normally get the ones put out by the Jewish Historical Museum from Amsterdam. It's cool to look at what artifacts they feature each month. Especially the really old stuff. It's a little odd that they make their calendars 16 months long. Apparently, starting around the time of Rosh Hashanah (our New Year), another RH, and ending with December like the normal secular calendar. That means if you want one in January or December, you're always a few months late.
Yet, they tend to not be available around Rosh Hashanah. At least, not locally. I looked for it at Barnes and Noble recently, and they weren't there. They usually have them. I'll probably end up ordering it online, like last year. Might do that next month. I don't know. It has all the parshat or weekly Torah readings listed for each week, is accurate for Jewish holidays (which isn't the case for many of the secular calendars), they even have most if not all of the very minor holidays, there are candle lighting times on the back, each day has its Jewish calendar day right next to it, Rosh Chodesh is listed along with the phases of the moon, etc. Very in-depth. Rosh Chodesh is a holiday marking a new month. Usually, a women's holiday. Each one has a name. We're in the month of Tevet at the moment. Maybe I'll mention those in the future...
Our calendar is lunar or moon-based. We start every holiday after sunset, and end it after another sunset (usually when you see a certain number of stars). The number of days for each month might be different when compared to the secular calendar. Each month is in relation to the new moon on ours. I think in leap years, another month is added to the Jewish calendar. Unlike how the secular calendar has either 28 or 29 days in February depending on leap years. Our holidays seem to move around when compared to the secular calendar, as well. Like, Hanukkah seemed late this year on that calendar. It's always the same on ours. Here are the month-long holidays: National Candy Month, National Egg Month, National Hot Tea Month, National Meat Month, National Oatmeal Month, National Soup Month, International Creativity Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. I really love tea!
Awesome that there's a whole month devoted to it. Eggs, oatmeal, and candy in general are all great things, too. I'm definitely a meat eater. I just don't eat certain kinds of meat, and it's not all the time. I love beef, chicken, turkey, and duck. Haven't had duck in a while. I think I really liked buffalo when I tried it a while back. Sometimes lamb is good, too. Have to be in the mood. If fish are in this category, I love salmon, tuna, cod, and more. Soup is really versatile. I think I like stew more, though. Cool there's a month devoted to creativity. That should be celebrated. Hanukkah ended yesterday. I used my fave menorah for half of it. It has 2 angry-looking lions holding up the red tablets with gold Hebrew lettering, and the bottom part where the other candles are is green with gold cups. I think it looks cool. Anyways, I ran out of Hanukkah candles halfway through the holiday. I had plenty of Shabbos (Yiddish for Shabbat or our Sabbath or Day of Rest) candles left. There's only one menorah essentially made for Shabbos candles, or at least candles in that shape. They're bigger candles. It's a lot more traditional looking. It's silver with branches coming off of it. Also, it's tall, and slightly bent. I think it was one of the things that Mom got for free. She worked at a Judaica shop, and they couldn't sell anything that had even a slight rip, a little bit bent, missing a little piece, etc. So, the employees could take anything that was. She got several books this way. The challah board with a bread knife on the bottom was another one. A little piece of one of the legs had fallen off. She super-glued it back, and it was/still is good as new. If you look at the menorah from far away, it doesn't look bent at all. It makes it slightly more dangerous when lighting the candles, though.
A couple of the cups are bent in such a way that they're too close to each other. It was really easy to clean it, though. Impressive on the last night, too. Actually from the night I started with it until the end, I'd say that was quite spectacular looking.I had a sufganiyot or a jelly-filled donut on Saturday. It was raspberry-filled. These are popular to have during Hanukkah, especially in Israel. It's an oily food, and we usually eat oily foods during the holiday. Normally, I get a powdered sugar one, I think this one just had a regular sugar coating. It wasn't actually called that at that local bakery. The same place I got the cinnamon roll last month. They also had one other jelly-filled donuts called Angel Creams. It didn't list what it was filled with. Looked like apricot, but who knows? I like lemon-filled ones. Sometimes cherry is good, too. The raspberry one was pretty good.
Also, had potato kugel that came from a box the first night. I had wanted to make latkes, but didn't have the energy and didn't want to make them from scratch. Kugel essentially is a casserole. Some say it's like a pudding, but that really depends. A lot of people think of the sweet kind when they hear kugel. I hate the sweet kind. There are noodles, raisins, cinnamon, sugar, cottage cheese, usually sour cream, etc. I really don't like those last 2 ingredients. Even if I did, it's such a weird combo.
Potato kugel is basically a very simple potato casserole. Potatoes, sometimes onions, garlic, salt, eggs, and more. For someone who loves potatoes, it's usually amazing.
They only had me add water, oil, and eggs to the mix. It has to sit for about 15 minutes, and put in the oven for an hour. That's the hardest part, especially with that smell. Came out pretty good. The box was very old, and it said best by April 2015. So, maybe that's why it seemed slightly stale. It stuck to the bottom of my tongue, too. I was sick, and still am, throughout the entire holiday. Kind of sad. I've been trying to eat bland, but tasty, food lately. Also, have had a hard time eating at least 1200 calories. (From around the 29th until today it's been different. But, I think that's because of holiday stuff.) Not much in the way of tomatoes, heavily spiced things, less fried things, etc. Stomach has felt really horrible during that time. A very fiery stomach, feeling like I need to throw up every other day (not just my 'norm' of nausea), temp fluctuating greatly throughout the day, and more. I'm getting really tired of this stuff...
My colonoscopy's on the 11th, so I have to wait until at least then to see what's going on. Probably won't have word of what to do next for a while after that. I have this feeling that they'll find something. I hope they do. I've had dreams where they tell me they couldn't get through half of it, because it was blocked up with something. Like a thick viscous liquid, or some unknown hard substance, or there was overgrowth.
After their nurses got my email, they mailed me a grocery list, a schedule for when to start the liquid diet, and then for when to start the laxative. Turns out I can have Miralax for it. They want me to mix basically 2 weeks worth of the Miralax with 64 oz of Gatorade. That's a lot of both of those.
I'll have half of it the night before it, and the other half the morning of. They want me to take dulcolax, too. 2 of them with the night Miralax mix, and 2 in the morning with that mix. I think the procedure's in the afternoon. I probably won't be able to eat or drink until then. (After taking the laxative stuff.) That's a long time. They give suggestions for the liquid diet. They stress not having anything with a red dye in it. (Makes sense.) They suggested things like chicken broth, popsicles, jello, and tea. Got some root beer float popsicles. They sound interesting. Also, got lemon jello. They didn't list pudding, so to be on the safe side, I didn't get it. Lemon jello's good, though. Also, got some vanilla chai for one more tea option.We were going to celebrate NYE at our friends' place. The same people that invite us to Thanksgiving and their Passover seder, too. Apparently, both the other guests and the hosts were sick, so they called it off. That's ok. It's sometimes nice to celebrate at home.
I got a salmon onigiri or rice ball for dinner that night. Also, a slice of warmed mincemeat pie for dessert with whipped cream. Good stuff, too. Later, had some beef in blankets (a kosher version of pigs in blankets), plain potato chips with chipotle salsa (painful later, but I didn't want to care about it for at least one night
), chocolate raisins, pickled herring on crackers, and red bell pepper tapenade (also on those crackers). Also, had tea and sparkling apple cider. We watched the local fireworks on TV. People were setting off their own in or around the neighborhood. It was really loud. I don't remember that many fireworks going off around the neighborhood during NYE. I know they do it during the 4th of July, but usually not as crazy now. Today's been colder than normal, and the next couple of days will be, too.
The forecast keeps pushing the snow later and later during the week for the past few weeks. It hasn't done it yet, and it feels eery to not have it, when it gets so cold. I decided to wear my Hillel pullover sweatshirt hoodie, because of the cold today. Haven't worn it in a long time. It was really tight/small on me when I first got it. Now, it's huge. Actually, covers my butt, unless my jacket makes it ride up. It has stylized writing (like Hebrew letters, but it's in English) on the front upper left corner that reads: WSU Hillel. Yep, I went to WSU. There's the WSU cougar logo on the back next to a big Star of David. It also has WSU Hillel in bigger letters below the cougar and star. I'm being very open with my religion if I go out with it. I did, and no one said anything. Which was great. It always makes me at least a little nervous, but I should be more out with it.
Went to my dad's hair appointment. I thought since I haven't had a haircut in a while, I should try and schedule one. I think it's been since April 2015. They told me never to wait longer than a year between haircuts. I've been bad about that.
I think before that it was maybe early 2013. Between that haircut and the one before that, it had been 7 years. At least, I'm not waiting that long. I was trying to grow it out during that time. Anyways, the receptionist suggested that I get a DevaCut. Stylists who have gone through the training of that, specialize in curly hair. They apparently cut each individual curl. I had a free consult for it. She said it will probably take 2 hours for my hair. It sounds like it'll be really pampered.
It's only a little more expensive than a regular haircut. She said she'll have to cut at least 2" from the ends. That's how damaged it is. It's ok as long as I can keep it somewhat long (which I think it will be), same style, and it's just really a trim. Sections of it are uneven. Some parts are really long, and some really short. Most of it goes to midway down my back. The before and after pics I saw online of the DevaCut were really impressive. The curls looked healthier, and more pronounced. Should be interesting to see what mine will look like. I'll have it done in February. I got compliments at a restaurant afterwards, and hadn't done anything with it yet.
She gave me some samples of the Deva products. A 'low-poo', conditioner, mask, and styling cream. They say that regular shampoo is very harsh and damaging, especially for curly hair. So, they have a cleanser to replace it with that doesn't have that harshness. Normally they recommend 'no-poo', but they start people off with 'low-poo'. No-poo doesn't lather, and low-poo has some lather. They feel that people might need something in between to get more used to it, and then move to the no-poo. This 'poo' thing sounds really gross to me.
Why not call it something like: 'no-sham' or 'low-sham'? I think I read that it's mint based. The conditioner is olive oil based. I've heard that's really good for your hair. I'm not used to masks, so that might be interesting. I've already used the low-poo and conditioner. (I used my regular calming spray and styling mousse after that.) I think it feels softer, there aren't very many hard flakes, and it has kept its shape. Not as frizzy. I plan to try all of them tomorrow. They told me that the amount I was given was enough for one use, because of my hair. Knowing how little I ended up using of the low-poo and conditioner (I really tried to use as much as I could), I think they gave me about 4 uses. Maybe they think my hair's bigger than it is?
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