World Chocolate Day!

I love chocolate! Great to have a day to celebrate it around the world. The most chocolatey thing I had lately was a mocha cookie crumble frappuccino yesterday. It was one of their new seasonal ones. Even the cookie part was chocolate based. It was like a shot of different types of it. Good stuff. I've been getting iced mochas when I go there through their drive-thrus for the past few months. Hasn't been that often. I've noticed it helps with some of my headaches and weird skull cracking. My old go-to was iced chai or iced matcha green tea when it was seasonal. I'm not a big fan of coffee, but the bit that I do get plus the chocolate, is apparently helping me health-wise. Maybe I need to start drinking coffee on a regular basis? I know I'd have to doctor it a bit, though. Like, add creamer, sweetener, possibly chocolate, etc. 

This is my wallpaper for July. As it says, it's Law from One Piece. Another one of my fave characters. I like his look, too. Cool design. He's the captain of the Heart Pirates, and their Jolly Roger is in the background and on his coat. He's an exceptional surgeon and was a Shichibukai. The Shichibukai are 7 of the most powerful pirates that are allied with the World Government. They basically get immunity from the government. Some translate it as pirate emperors.  

The month-long holidays for July are: National Grilling Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Ice Cream Month, National Blueberries Month, National Picnic Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. 

Managed to finally get the back brace a few days ago. It's for my fractured vertebrae. Specifically, the T8 one. That's just a little lower than halfway down the spine. I'm at risk of breaking another vertebrae, having more pain, and/or being paralyzed if I don't wear the brace. Also, at risk because of the bone lesions, but with the brace it cuts it down a bit. Went to the 1st place I was referred to through my insurance, and they couldn't give me one or fit me that day. They felt it was an emergency, and then called another place I went to for my sling previously, for me. That place called Master's was able to see me, fit it for me, and give me it. The doctor that prescribed the brace didn't put her name on the paper, so I had to search for it. I've seen her before, but she's an Urgent Care doc. Not like I see her on a regular basis. Managed to find it through looking at the antibiotic she ordered that same day. With that, my insurance was able to cover it. I think it was free to us. 

It's a bit to maneuver. Every time I sit or stand, I have to adjust the area near my sternum (collar bone). When I sit, I then have to let out a button and push down a certain amount, then click the hole in place. When I want up, I have to first let out the button, pull up, then click the right hole into place, get up, and push it into place. That hole's actually marked so I know how high I really need it. I have a hard time seeing it sometimes, though. Then, I also have to adjust to make sure the rest of the brace is even. There's a pulley system in the back. When I get into it, I have to pull back on something far while inhaling and then wrapping it around me to a certain point. I thought I wouldn't be able to put it on myself, but I can. It's a little awkward. Feels like a mix of things while on. A giant hug, restricts my movements, a bit more protected, and more. After a while, my spine does feel a bit sore. My chest feels fuller, too. It's a bit difficult to eat with sometimes, since it's so stiff. I have a feeling it's not going to last very long. The person who helped with my fitting said most of the time it lasts around a month. 2 months is stretching it. Not sure how long it takes to heal vertebrae or how long I'm supposed to have something for it. Hopefully, it's for long enough. 

On July 4th, we went to Elmer's for brunch. I haven't been there for brunch since March. It's a brunch-type place. We did go not long before that for dinner for the first time since then, too. It was nice to be there again, and to have the stuff they're more known for. I got their fresh fruit waffle special, which seemed appropriate for the 4th of July. It had blueberries actually inside the waffle along with on top, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, powdered sugar, and cream cheese icing. Got their hash browns and a biscuit instead of eggs and a choice of meat. The waffle was messy, and I was worried I'd get it on the brace, but I didn't. Yay! No one asked or stared at the brace, either. That was great. 

Went to World Market after that. I had wanted to go since March, and they just reopened. I love looking at their international foods. Got some of my faves: roasted garlic cheddar, tuna and potatoes in olive oil and rosemary, dill pickle mustard, and red cabbage and apple salad. Feel a bit more normal with getting these. Went to Barnes and Noble right next store, since they just reopened as well. They're both connected to the mall, but only B and N has an opening to it. At least, they did. That's closed off now. You have to go through the main mall entrance if you want in. Apparently, 80% of the mall is now open. I was curious about that while we were there, but was starting to get really tired and sweaty. So, decided to go home instead. I also read that many of the restaurants around the mall are now open for dine-in, too. Good to know for the future. I'm happy, yet hesitant about so many places that are reopening now. 

On Sunday, I placed #2 in the Amethyst League on Duolingo. I got a hefty amount of gems from a reward chest for making it there. I don't make it in the top 3 that often. I'm now in the Pearl League. #4 last time I checked. It seems they're a little more competitive in this one. I'm still not used to being that high up on it, though. I'm breezing through their Welsh course. Hardly getting things wrong. A lot of it just makes sense so far. 

I've gotten back into my author instagram account lately. Hopefully, I can keep it up. The only way people will get to know me is through something like that. I've already had some more follows the last couple of days. Sometimes it's hard to decide on content to post, but there's always something. 

I recently went to Costco. I haven't had an eye exam in roughly a year and a half. Not good when you have contacts and your eyes are getting worse. So, I finally made an appointment at Costco for it. I actually have vision insurance now, so it should be covered. Hopefully, the prescription will be updated and better. It'll be the first time I've used Costco for the eye exam part. I've ordered contacts through them before. By the way, I'm only down to one more pair of contacts. I've been using my current ones for a couple of months. It's recommended to use them for 2 weeks. Not good. The soonest appointment they had was for the end of August. Kind of a ways away. At least, it's happening. At some point, I should look into seeing a dentist since I'm covered now. I haven't seen one in around 14 years. 

I've been reading the shortest of the 2 books I got through the My Thrill Club, called Shadow of the Lions. Going through it faster than expected. Not reading it as often as I'd like, though. It's been interesting. It's about a missing boy from a prep school. Been missing for roughly a decade. No one's found a body. I like mysteries like that, and there's quite a bit of suspense. 

For the last couple of days, I've been trying to read a little of Daf Yomi (lit. page of the day) a day. It's learning a page of Talmud every day. The Talmud is so big that it takes 7 1/2 years to read a page a day. That 'cycle' restarted not long ago (I think it was back in February), and I've wanted to join it occasionally. So, why not? Right now it's on what you can move on Shabbat. There are a lot of prohibitions on Shabbat or our Day of Rest. They go into a lot of detail and argue on seemingly minuscule things at times. It's still interesting to read their reasoning for things. Some have stories behind it. 

Yesterday, I almost didn't have a shower. With only getting 2 showers a week normally, it's not much. I don't feel as clean during the week as I used to be. Anyways, my home aide had the day off, so another one took over for her. She called me twice before 9am. I was asleep. At the end of the last voicemail, she said since she called twice, she's cancelling for the day. That made me panic a bit. I called the Home Care hotline and was able to get in contact with the person filling in for my home aide. They were able to reschedule for that day. Thank goodness. She did more than my regular one did. She even asked me if I needed anything more than just the shower. I think she felt bad about that morning. I was just happy it worked out. 

Ordered more things from Amazon. A nightshirt for when the weather gets much warmer. It's unusually cool out right now. The past few years, it's been really warm this time of year. I'll be prepared, at least. An adult color-by-number coloring book that's based on cats. Thought that would be fun. Maybe more fun than the coloring book I got last month. That one's just one color and in lines. Thought it was creative, but ended up tedious. A book called 1001 Movies to See Before You Die. That might be a good one to go through. It'll be interesting to see how many I've already seen. Making somewhat of a dent in the classical recordings one. The movies one might grab my attention more now, though. The next Try Treats subscription box is on its way. Should be interesting to see which country it features this time. 

9th of Adar

This is my wallpaper for March. It's Zoro from One Piece. One of the coolest characters in the series. Also, one of the strongest, despite not having eaten a Devil Fruit. Devil Fruits give people powers. For instance, Luffy, the captain of the Straw Hats and main character, ate a fruit that turned his body into rubber. Brook ate one before he died that brought him back to life many years later as a skeleton. He's essentially immortal. He can also leave his 'body' as a ghost to explore things. The downside to eating a Devil Fruit is that the user will never be able to swim again. If they land in the water, their power gets drained, and they start drowning. Being pirates, that's a pretty big downside. Luffy has had to be rescued at least a few times because of this. Zoro does have a possessed sword, but he'd still be powerful without it. He fights with 3 swords when he's serious. It seems one of the few weaknesses he has is easily getting lost. He's horrible with directions (even his own), and ends up walking the wrong way. In fact, in the current arc of the anime, he went the wrong way and is getting to know more of the people of Wano on his own. He was supposed to meet up with the others. He found a boat (I guess he thought going by boat would be a shortcut?), people on the boat gave him free food (big deal, considering so many people are starving to death outside of the capital), he gambled for a while, saved someone, and that someone showed him the way to his village. Pretty big detour. 

The month-long holidays for March are: National Frozen Food Month, National Noodle Month, Irish-American Heritage Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. 

Purim starts Monday night. Depending on how people follow it, it ends either Tuesday night or Wednesday night. We retell the story of Esther, usually in a fun way. Sometimes with skits. Each name has a certain thing the audience can shout out. Like, Haman, the villain, gets boo'd at and we use groggers (noisemakers) every time he's mentioned. Some cheer when Mordechai and/or Esther's names are read. Some make fun of how clueless the king is. It can get pretty rowdy. Especially, when you throw in that the adults are supposed to drink until they can't tell the difference between the villain and the hero. Plus, there's candy and hamantaschen (triangle-shaped jam-filled cookies), and usually a carnival. Dressing up in costumes is a big thing, too. Some have likened that part and the candy to a Jewish Halloween. There's another tradition where people hand out goodie bags/baskets (mishloach manot) to family, friends, and neighbors. Usually filled with food and/or drinks. People also give to charity. It's a fun holiday. Haven't attended a service or carnival for it in a very long time. I think they actually have hamantaschen now at our local market. I might try those, but they're vegan and use soy-based things...I'd rather it be the normal ones. 

With Purim coming up, that means there's roughly a month until Passover. Not much time. It's an even bigger holiday, especially because of the dietary restrictions. It has to be planned. I think this year I might try to get things online again. As long as I do it early enough, that should be fine. I ordered a little too close to the holiday last year. It looks like I'll be alone for both of the first nights. (It lasts for 8 days.) So, I'll have both seders (ritual dinners) all to myself at home. That's not too bad. Less food to think about, and don't have to bring something to another person's seder. Plus, I can eat what I like at both. 

Since Sunday, I've been having severe back, shoulder, neck, and hip pain. Stiffness, too. Really awful along my spine. It's actually gotten so bad, I'm having trouble moving around. Really having a hard time getting up from lying and sitting positions. It's like my body just doesn't want to do it, not only because of the pain. I've come close to not being able to get out of bed the last couple of mornings. Looking at my back yesterday, I noticed 2 huge lumps. One over my spine, and one over my left shoulder. I don't know if I simply imagined them, though. If I didn't...that doesn't sound good. Sometimes it hurts just to breathe. I thought it might be related to being constipated, but after 'fixing' that, it seems to have gotten worse. I'm really nervous about it now. However, I can't do anything until I've gotten approval to be put back on my health insurance. As soon as I do, I'm going to Urgent Care for this. I'm not sure how long I can wait after that, if it doesn't go away on its own. I do plan to get a new primary care doc, too. If this gets much worse while I'm waiting for that approval, I may need to go to the hospital, even though I really don't want to unless I'm covered. 

There might be hints that I'll be approved soon, because of getting 3 (I think) checks of a sizable amount recently. They did say they'd back pay it, however I haven't really done much since I've been off it. I only saw my primary, which they billed as a phone visit. That's not much even when you're not insured. Certainly not as much as what's on one or two of those checks. I'm not sure why they paid me so much. Oh, and my current med is the same price it would be if I were covered, so it doesn't seem related to that. It's nice, but weird.  

Despite the pain, I managed to make a dinner and dessert on Monday. It had been a while since I felt like I actually cooked. Made Philly Cheesesteak stuffed pasta shells for the dinner. Found the recipe on Pinterest. I had been wanting to make it for a while. Sounded so good. I cooked the 'filling' the way I normally would for something like a ground beef, onion, and green bell pepper mixture. They wanted me to do it in a weird way that would create even more dishes. I did add a little margarine (I used that instead of the butter that was listed) into the mixture. That filling is seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, salt, and pepper. It was my first time dealing with jumbo pasta shells and stuffing them. That was interesting, and kind of a fun part. After they're stuffed, cheddar is sprinkled over them. The cheese sauce was made in the same pan that the beef mixture was in, so it picked up those flavors. On top of that the sauce has more cheddar, beef broth, milk, and some corn starch to thicken it. They have you pour half of that between the shells before putting it in the oven. Then, you add the rest to individual portions. It was more of a to-do than I thought it would be, but it was really worth it. It turned out amazing! Made a lot, too. Since I'm the only one eating it, I've been having it for meals throughout the week. 

I also made a cherry cheesecake. Recipe came from my cookbook, My Mother's Treasure Trove of Recipes. I haven't done many things from it, so I thought I'd explore a bit. Plus, it let's me, and others, see what things look like. There are no pics in the book. This was one of the first dessert recipes in it. Seemed really simple. I think it was from the 80's. They have you mix cream cheese and powdered sugar together, then fold in Cool Whip, pour that into a graham cracker (or shortbread) pie crust, top with a whole can of cherry pie filling, and chill it in the refrigerator. It ended up making a little too much filling/cheesecake for the crust to handle, so I had to throw out the excess. I got more of the cherries on there than I thought I could, but still had 1/4 of a can left. Oh well. The finished product was awesome! Tastes even better than Safeway's cheesecakes. It ended up really thick with the filling, too. Feels like I get a substantial amount with each slice. 

I plan to go back to doing a Pinterest recipe every week, along with one from my cookbook. I'll switch the types around, as well. For instance, next time I'll make a dessert from Pinterest, and a dinner from the cookbook. I do have drink and snack recipes for both, too. I suppose I could just do a different combo each time. Doesn't have to be a dinner and dessert. So, I'll see how that goes.

Since I'm in so much pain, I feel like not eating much today. Last night, things filled me up more than they should have, and I had a weird feeling of my stomach creating bubbles. Had hiccups when I tried to sleep after that. So, all I plan to have today is a little of the pasta thing, and maybe cheesecake for 'dinner'. Enough to take my med and have it regulated. Plus, at least I won't waste what I made. This isn't a good thing to do when you have colitis, though. I try to have 5 small meals a day (I splurge a bit during the weekend and some Wednesdays), so things are balanced. Keeps me from being too nauseated, oddly enough. Also, I already have issues with absorbing certain things like protein. Eating the way I am today for a longer period of time, will cause a lot of issues. Could even spark a flare. I suppose it's ok every once in a while to eat like this. 

Youtube:

Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer):

One Piece:

Election Day!

I voted through the mail last Wednesday. Some of it was difficult, because I didn't recognize some of the names and they weren't affiliated with certain parties. I tried to make an informed decision on those. 2 of the candidates running for school board, one of them I was familiar with beforehand, would be awful if they won. One that seemed a little too into 'loving kids', and the other is a big transphobe who probably hates anyone else in the greater queer community. I think I also recognized another name that was a member of one of the local synagogues. That'd be cool if she won. Some candidates seemed overqualified, if that were possible. Others essentially said vote for me since I'm running for another term. Nothing on their background or education. One initiative seemed like a no-brainer to be for. Unless you weren't for diversity...Another one was easy to vote against. It was put out by someone who tries to get ridiculous initiatives to pass every year. Usually harmful in some way. I didn't really like that there were so many advisory votes this time. Sure, it's great to get the people's opinion, but you've already voted on them. If there were like 2 or 3, that would have been fine. It seemed like there were around 8 of them. 

This is my wallpaper for November. It's one of Luffy's wanted posters from One Piece. He is a pirate after all. His current bounty is much higher than this. The higher the bounty a pirate has, the higher the notoriety and standing they have in their world. The Marines consider them more of a threat and dangerous the higher the bounty. Sometimes they don't get the right picture of the person, and others are mistaken for them. The currency that most of their world uses is called the Belly or Berry (the English version can't seem to decide, the romaji is berii). There are some islands that have their own currency. Like, Extol for Skypeia and Gor for Amazon Lily. Wano's currency is: Gold, Platinum, and Silver. Wano is where they are in the anime currently. It's inspired by Feudal Japan. The art, isolation of the country, dialects, fashion, culture, having a shogunate, etc. are all based on it. It's interesting how detailed it is. Seems to be like an homage to that time. Not glorifying it, but more like showcasing it. Some of the designs of the characters living in Wano look like they walked right out of some famous art pieces from back then. A different style than most of the series. I think it also shows the hardships of the poor of that time. The creator of the series doesn't shy away from tackling topics like slavery, bigotry, corruption, gender equality, genocide, grief, etc. in general. In Wano, most people are starving and can't afford things like good health care. The water around them is completely polluted and toxic. The animals drink the water and therefore are poisonous to humans. Meanwhile, the capital and major cities are living lavishly. Anyways, I thought this looked fun and cool. Not really birthday related (my birthday's on Thursday), but nice. Luffy is also aro ace, according to an interview of the creator. Pretty awesome that the main character of one of the most popular manga/anime is aro ace! So, somewhat related to me that way.

The month-long holidays for November are: National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, National Pomegranate Month, Banana Pudding Lovers Month, National Memoir Writing Month, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. 

Last Wednesday, we had a local trans meeting. There were only a handful of us. We had moved to a much bigger room. Seemed funny almost with such a small group of us. Most of the people that were there were non-binary, which was great to me. Not the usual. They wanted to have the same type of top surgery I wanted. People get weirded out when I bring up that nipples cause dysphoria for me, too. It's not just my chest. So, I'll need all of it to go. No masculinizing or feminizing. Simply flat. A member tried to talk me out of it a few months ago. That it seemed too out there. Seeing the pics that people share in fb enby groups of their after nippleless top surgery looks amazing to me. Looks more like how I'd want to see myself. 

We all went to Shari's afterwards. I got their new simple pretzel cheeseburger. The burger seemed like a veggie one. I expected beef. It looked weird. Got their new graveyard shake for dessert. It's supposed to be a s'mores galore pie shake (they blend an entire slice with ice cream to make it) with added chocolate syrup, Oreo crumbs for the 'dirt' part, and gummy worms. They were out of the 'worms', didn't have much of the 'dirt', added a little piece of chocolate on top, and there didn't seem to be any extra chocolate syrup. There was a huge glob of what I think was a concentrated graham cracker ball. It was disappointing and bizarre. 

I felt a little uneasy when one of the new members said that all trans people are autistic. Many trans people are, but many aren't. I think it seems like it's an unusually high percentage because trans people are often tested for it more. Often they, or other people around them, feel like something must be wrong with them for being trans. It's also this way for the rest of the LGBTQ+ community. It's more common in the cis/non-queer population than people think. Many of them go undiagnosed. There's nothing wrong with people who are autistic, but there is something wrong with saying all trans people are. What about cis autistic people? Are they really trans and don't know it? What about trans people who aren't? It might feel invalidating to them to hear that all trans people are. Correlation does not equal causation. I'm not autistic. However, I'm not exactly neurotypical, either. I have a lot of mental health stuff (bipolar 2, anxiety, agoraphobia, PTSD, etc.) and physical chronic illnesses (colitis, possibly another autoimmune disease, Eustachian tube dysfunction, multiple skin issues, etc.). Both have an impact on the way I think that would be different than someone who was healthy mentally and physically. Since I have these things, does it mean all trans people do as well? No. Not at all. I have a different perspective as an aro ace agender person as well. (Compared to allo cis people.) Being trans simply means you have a gender that doesn't match the one you were assigned at birth. That says nothing about mental health, being autistic, or other aspects of who that person is or what they have. Are all cis people the same? No. Thank goodness we're all different. The world would be boring if we were all the same.

We also talked about possibly having a potluck for my birthday at the next meeting tomorrow. Since it's the day before it. We don't celebrate birthdays as a group often. I can only remember 2 times in the past. It might be a fun thing to do in the future for members, though. My parent suggested she'd bring a cake and others could bring snack-like stuff. That sounds good. Not sure if it's actually going to happen. I might forget about it tomorrow until right before the meeting starts. 

Someone on fb friended me that same day. I didn't recognize the name, but their profile mentioned they graduated a year ahead of me at the same high school. Although, they graduated from another high school at the same time...That seemed fishy. They had many mutual friends, so I thought maybe I didn't remember them. He seemed really nice on messenger that first night. Although, he insisted he'd find a way to make me feel better. That seemed questionable. On Halloween, he asked what I'll be doing. Seemed innocent enough. I said probably not much other than watch a horror movie and have dinner out. He asked about wearing a costume. I didn't wear one this year, but I did wear skeleton earrings. He said he'd like to see them in person. He said he doesn't get any trick-or-treaters, and his camper is so cold. He'd want someone with him. According to his profile he's either bi or pan, which I thought was cool. Not cool that he seemed like he was trying to flirt with me, get 'romantic', and creepy. Being aro ace, it takes me a while to realize someone is flirting with me, unless I'm hyper-aware. People tend to think I'm flirting when I'm just being nice, friendly, and polite. I don't want another romantic relationship. I had a boyfriend and that part was suffocating for me. He was all over me trying to be as romantic as possible, and often sexual which I wasn't that into either. I put up with it, because I felt I had to. (Silly society...) I was very attached to him emotionally, and strongly attracted platonically (I guess queerplatonically would be a better word). Because of this, it really hurt when we broke up. Anyways, I would love a queerplatonic relationship instead. It's hard to find that, though. This exchange creeped me out. I also wonder how people can flirt with others when they barely know the person. I understand after knowing the basics of who they are. Why not become friends first? I blocked this person, by the way.

Went to Red Lobster on Halloween for dinner. I was surprised to see any kids there. It was a way to get away from trick-or-treaters for a while. We live right in the middle of the neighborhood, right at a 3-way stop. It's a popular spot to go. It was like that even when I was kid. For the last few years we haven't been handing out candy. It's been nice that way. We just turn out the lights and usually go somewhere else for a while. I got steak with mashed potatoes and a caprese salad there. It comes with a choice of soup or salad. I didn't get either. All their soups now have shellfish or pork products, and the salads upset my gut, particularly the greens part. So, I got none of that. The caprese salad is perfect for me. I don't have issues with tomatoes. I don't eat the onions. The mozzarella is good for protein, and basil is healthy too. It's all in balsamic vinegar, which is oddly good for me. I don't normally get steak, but it was done right. It's a perfect form of more protein. All together, it was one of their lower-calorie meals, so I managed to eat most of it. Had their vanilla bean cheesecake for dessert. One of my faves. I'm never able to finish it, since it's so huge.

I don't really have plans for my birthday. Probably would celebrate it more this coming weekend. I do want brunch at the Oak Table. Went there last year, too. I'd like to go somewhere for a dinner, but not sure what really speaks to me for that. Might be at a Japanese steakhouse, but I also like a lot of other restaurants. Last year, we went to the Cheesecake Factory, I think. I went there not that long ago, so I wouldn't want that. Went to a zoo last year and got a mani/pedi. Not really feeling those this time. Maybe some museums? Not sure which ones, though. 

I've been in even more pain lately. Especially in the right side of my abdomen and more intense patches in my right arm. I also passed quite a bit of blood recently. No #2, just blood. (Not related to a 'monthly friend' I would have if my IUD wasn't working.) That was fun. Had a slight reaction to that. I think my colitis might be flaring, although I've never had blood come out of me like that. I did have occult blood in a test, but none that was visible. It's common for people with Ulcerative Colitis to bleed a lot. I've had symptoms resembling Crohn's Disease more. Crohn's also can affect the colon. I think the pain on my side might be from my colon. That blood might have been from that area. (It hasn't bled since.) It's a constant cramp-like pain. Lying down makes it feel like it's oozing out and it twitches a lot. Not sure about my arm. There's resistance to both arms when I move them. The right one feels like it's been beaten up, someone's pushing on it in certain areas, and it burns. I have to wait to see what goes on with my insurance before I can do much about this stuff. It's just a pain to deal with. Still haven't gotten those 3 other test results back. I don't know if they take a while to run. It'd be nice to know those results already, though.

Youtube: 

One Piece:



Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler):

Fairy Tail:


Ao no (Blue) Exorcist:

Boku no (My) Hero Academia:

One Punch Man:

Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (Assassination Classroom):

Black Clover:

Bungou (Literary) Stray Dogs:

30th of Sivan

This is my wallpaper for July. It's the Heart Pirate's Jolly Roger from One Piece. It's very similar to the Donquixote Pirates', but there isn't a slash through the smiley. The other one doesn't have the 6 things coming out of it in different directions. The captain of the Heart Pirates (and their doctor) is Trafalgar D. Water Law. He was once a member of the Donquixote Pirates, so that's probably why it's similar. It's also a smiley because Corazon, who was like a mentor to him and brother to Doflamingo, wanted to always be remembered as smiling. Doflamingo hated him, so it'd make sense that he'd put a slash through his. Law is one of my fave characters. He's considered as one of the 12 pirates of the 'Worst Generation' along with Luffy. He's known as the Surgeon of Death. He ate the Op-Op Devil Fruit which gives him the ability to 'operate' on people/things.

The month-long holidays for July are: National Grilling Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Ice Cream Month, National Honey Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.

For the Jewish calendar, there are a couple of pairs of Torah finials. Ones from around the 1920s, and the other's from the late 19th century. The older one still looks somewhat new. Must have been well taken care of. The elements calendar features iodine this month. The main pic's of it being gently heated to slightly melt. It gives off a purplish liquid as it's melted. They mentioned a few of it's uses. 

Recently started taking a non-gendered gummy vitamin. My previous one was Women's One-A-Day Vitacraves. I got tired of misgendering myself everyday. I like the gummy version of vitamins. They're kind of fun and I don't have to swallow another pill. The gummy versions of their multivitamins are for men, women, and adults. Like many brands. I find it funny that it seems to imply that men and women aren't adults...Or, that adult is a gender. Anyways, their 'adult' version is much more expensive than the others. So, I looked at another brand's. Plus, I was tired of their flavors. Got VitaFusion's adult version. All 3 (men, women, and adult) are the same price. Seemed more balanced with the vitamins than my previous one, too. I'm glad I now have vitamins that aren't gendered. I know it's a small thing, but it does feel a little better.

I've been using Selsun Blue, and I'm surprised at how well it's working. I don't have as many flakes and they're drier/much smaller now. The scalp oil stuff arrived in the mail on the 1st. It's aka Derma-Smoothe Scalp/FS or Fluocinolone Acetonide. Scalp oil just sounds funnier and darker to me. It's an oil-based steroid that helps with seborrheic dermatitis and other skin conditions. It's supposed to help with the 'scale', redness, itchiness, possibly with hair loss, etc. 

Tried it that night. It comes with 2 clear plastic shower caps. (Pretty flimsy looking ones.) There are 2 options of caps for the bottle, too. You're supposed to wet your hair, apply a 'thin film' on the scalp, massage it in well, put a shower cap over it/your hair, sleep with it on, and wash it out with shampoo in the morning. It says it should be every night until it clears up or a certain amount of time. I was going to take a shower anyway, so instead of covering it up with my regular shower cap I went in without it and let the water soak in. I normally wash my hair once every 3 days in the morning, and shower every other night. My hair gets in the way while taking showers, and I normally can't do my hair that often. I coudn't really do a thin film of it. I poured some into my hand, took some in the other, and rubbed it in. Tried to cover as much of it as I could. Hard when I still have such long hair. It did feel a little greasy, but not bad. The shower cap seemed way too loose. Luckily, I managed to get most of my hair to stay in. It stung a little in some patches for a short time. Wasn't too bad with that. I can't tell if it did anything more yet. I've decided to not do it every night. Only the night before I wash my hair. That way I'll already be washing it the next day, and I won't dry my hair out too much. I think she mentioned that it'd be best to not do it every night, yet her instructions for it are different...

I've managed to keep up with doing one of my 2-mile walks a day, and 5 sit-ups twice a day this week. Yay! Hopefully, I can keep it up. With the sit-ups, my plan is like it was when I did them regularly: adding 5 to both times each week. So, next week it'll be 10 twice a day, in 2 weeks: 15 twice a day, and so on. If I don't do it for a day, I'll either start at the beginning with the 5s or go back to however many I was doing the previous week. Just like before, I'm also doing them when I wake up and when I go to bed. It's a good way to remember. 5 of them both times feels more like a little warm up for the 'real' ones. If I keep up that walk every day for a month, I'll add another one in. I think that'll be a wise way to do it. Have to get used to it again first before that. If I skip a day, I'll start that month over. It seems strict, but it might be a way to motivate me, too. 

I've also been walking with my iPhone, which I didn't do last time I did this on a regular basis. Interesting to see how many steps it takes me. Also, I've been trying to have it on me during the rest of the day just to see how many steps I've taken in general. I think I've actually been doing that more this past month. I normally just leave it charging most of the day or sometimes forget. Anyways, it was interesting how many steps and flights of stairs I got in yesterday according to it. That was just over 9,000 steps and 6 floors. On Monday, I did 13 floors, but 6,318 steps. I'm not trying to shoot for a number of steps, like some try for 10,000 a day. Some medical professionals say for some people that might be too much. A better one is 5,000 a day at the very least to start with. Everyone's different. 9,000 steps was one of the highest it's recorded for me. I didn't have it track me well during trips and such where I most likely walked more. (Like Montana.) I go up a lot of flights on Mondays and almost as much on Fridays. It's mainly because those are my laundry days. I'm going down and up a flight of stairs constantly those days. (I use them a lot regularly, too.) I think the most it had for flights on there was actually 16. 

I've been trying protein bars. Just recently finished a box of Special K chocolate chip protein bars. Felt like I was eating a candy bar every time. I noticed it had a little too much sugar for me, so I wanted to try something else once I finished it. Started eating Power Crunch French vanilla protein bars last night. One bar is humongous! It's coated with what looks like white icing and that easily melts. There are wafers with a vanilla cream in between the layers. It feels like a giant iced cookie. It only has 5g of sugar, which was really surprising. There isn't any nut products in it, either. The protein mostly comes from whey. The other bars had nut powders. That's ok, but I do have to stay away from whole or pieces of nuts. That can make it difficult when looking at protein bars in general. Most of them rely on nut protein. I'm glad this new one doesn't have any. The only downsides I see are the messiness with it melting easily and how big they are. It has 14g of protein, while the other had 12g. Another plus. 

Yesterday, I got breakfast chicken sausages from Costco. The same ones I used to get a long time ago. They're handy and add another boost of protein. I don't normally get much protein with my breakfast. They're not bad in calories, too. They're a savory maple flavor. I think the only reason I stopped getting them was because I was tired of them. With this and the protein bars, I should be pretty set with getting enough protein. At least, closer to what the average healthy person's supposed to have. Having 2 conditions that make me need more than that makes it difficult. I don't think I can stomach more, and this is a very big step in the right direction. I still get it from my normal stuff like lunch meat, meat and/or pasta meals, a little from cheese, a little from certain breads, some from beans, etc. Another one I might need to focus on more is potassium. I'm usually very low on that.

Went to World Market yesterday, too. Found more cool things to try. My parent and I will share a pack of Indonesian stir-fry noodles called Mi Goreng. I think there are 4 or 5 single serving packages inside it. It sounds good. They have another one that's labeled hot and spicy. I'm glad they give an option. Despite eating quite a bit of sodium normally, I'm usually low in it with blood test results. (Still within normal range, but very close to the minimum every time.) I've heard many people have a hard time with eating too much of it, but I never have. So, things full of sodium aren't that bad for me. A lot of instant Asian food is like that. The noodles don't seem too high in sodium, though. I also got a type of instant udon that has bonito and sardines. It sounded great. The sodium is a little higher, but not too bad. I have to remember that it doesn't really matter for me personally. Although, I should still not go too overboard with it. It looks like the container has a huge amount. I expected a serving to be half of it. It's actually the whole thing and it's pretty good with the amount calories, too. 

I plan to try one of Central Market's quiches for a small dinner before the local trans meeting. It's a single serving mini goat cheese and onion quiche. Sounds amazing! I think there's one other flavor I can try there: spinach and cheese. The others have pork products and/or mushrooms. I don't usually think about things like quiches. They're another way to have some protein, since it's egg and some of them cheese based. 

Finished the Imperative, Demonstr., and Geo units in Duolingo's Dutch course yesterday. I'm breezing through it. The Geo unit was the most interesting to me. A lot of the terms were similar to what they are in English. Rivier is river, kanaal is canal, zee (actually pronounced as zay) is sea, etc. I made it to the top 15 of the Ruby League. 

Edited more of Alliance yesterday. With the ebook, there are only 8 pages left. With the print version, 10 pages. Not much. I might still go over the beginning stuff again after that. Then, I'll start editing Alliance: Dawn. I want to put out both revised versions at the same time. Smashwords has a 'new' thing with highlighting a series of books that I want to try. Amazon will also have the revised versions. I can't decide if I want to edit what I have of the 3rd book (I don't think it has a title yet) in the series then continue writing it, or edit/go through Sweet Endless Terror after that. 

I'm going to draw a full body of Junko next. Decided to plan and get ideas first. She's the 2nd character introduced in the series. I could go in order of appearances for the others, too. She's a cat demon, so there will be cat elements. With Shadow being human, there wasn't much 'extra' to figure. Plus, I'd like to draw what her previous (non-humanoid) cat form was next to her. The demon-type characters sound like they might be more fun/detailed to do. 

Finished watching High Seas on Netflix. The cinematography was stunning and definitely gave off that 40's feel. It seemed that they really tried to be true to the time period with lots of things right down to hairstyles. I didn't expect the World War 2 angle, although it makes sense. It was overacted at times, but that seemed more like a Spanish cultural thing. I liked it for the most part. The ending left it on a huge cliffhanger. It didn't seem like there would be a possibility of a 2nd season until the last few minutes. I suppose they could continue it until the boat makes it to Brazil. I'll start the 2nd season of Dark next. It's a pretty complex German show. 

28th of Nisan

This is my wallpaper for May. It's Luffy from One Piece. Seemed to somehow fit the 'mood' of this month to me. It's a tough one, since the 7th anniversary of my mom passing away was on the 1st, there's Mother's Day, what would have been her birthday, and my parents' anniversary. All in one month...I didn't want something depressing, but also not something too upbeat, I guess. I found that the way they portray grief in One Piece is probably the most accurate I've seen. Especially with Luffy when he lost Ace (an adopted older brother). His initial shock (and what he felt/his behavior right after) seemed to hit close to home for me. It seems every character that has gone through it in the series copes with it differently too, which is more true to reality as well. I've realized there's no right or wrong way to grieve and everyone's different.

The month-long holidays for May are: National BBQ Month, National Egg Month, National Hamburger Month, National Salad Month, Jewish-American Heritage Month, National Pet Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.

For my elements calendar, it's on xenon. Apparently, it's used for IMAX movie projectors. It's sometimes used in incandescent light bulbs, which burns hotter and brighter than others. It gives off a pale purple color. The main pic's of lights spelling out Xe. (Obviously filled with xenon and lit up.) The other pics are of various different types of xenon light bulbs and lamps.

Hopefully I'll post a lot more often this month. Been a bit more difficult with the health stuff, Pesach, and trying to get other stuff done at the same time. 

Ended Pesach (or Passover) early on the night of the 25th. The holiday ended last Saturday. My gut was acting up with that diet, I was already stressed out with my health stuff, and it felt like it was long enough. I had one of my fave dishes at JJ's: smoked salmon linguine. I think that was perfect to end it with. They give you bread at the beginning, and then there's the pasta...Lots of chametz right there. Chametz is anything leavened, which we can't have during the holiday. We try to have 'chametz fests' when we end it. Being Ashkenazic (Jews of German and eastern European descent), I couldn't eat kitinyot either. That's legumes, rice, mustard, corn, etc. Takes a lot out of my diet. I think next year I'll eat the Sephardic (Jews of Spain and Mediterranean descent) way. They don't omit kitinyot. It seems like it'll be healthier for me. 

I'll see a rheumatologist for the first time on the 21st. Not sure if I can stand to wait that long, but that was the soonest they had. The receptionist was really nice and understanding. She put me on the wait-list, just in case. It'll be on what would have been my mom's birthday. That'll be interesting. She'd definitely want me to take care of my health stuff, and possibly have something good for dinner afterwards...It's all the way in Tacoma and in the late afternoon.

Saw my primary on the 25th. She was actually pretty good this time. Not flaky or blase about things. Maybe my massive amount of symptoms made her take me more seriously. Went well over the allotted 30 minutes for the appointment. (They don't give you much time unless it's for a physical.) Probably was there for twice as long. It was just so much to go over, and I didn't get through all of my symptoms. 

I told her my theory of what it is, dermatomyositis, and she agreed that it sounded a lot like it. I seem to be having most of the common symptoms. Since it can affect the muscles in the esophagus, it can cause dysphagia. So, even my dysphagia is common with people with dm. (As well as a lot of other muscle-related autoimmune diseases.) She told me that many people end up with more than one autoimmune disease, so it makes sense that I'd have something like that. 

She referred me to rheumatology (they were really fast in contacting me), ordered blood tests, and prescribed something for sleep. She can't prescribe much for the pain. Extra Strength Tylenol takes the edge off, but sometimes that's not enough. It's getting harder to live with. Especially, after about an hour of being in bed at night, my upper arms suddenly have extremely sharp pain. I don't know if it's my position or what. It's like the worst pain I've felt, but I can't do anything about it. No matter what position I turn to, it doesn't help. Even propping myself up or massaging it doesn't do a thing. The thing she prescribed for sleep doesn't help with something like that. It used to only be in one arm, but it's in both now. Usually, that pain goes away in the morning when I get out of bed. 

I've gotten all the blood tests' results. The general blood panel (things like blood cell counts) were all within normal range. However, some were the lowest recorded for me. They were really close to going below the minimum. I'm a bit worried about that. My TSH was the lowest it's been, but still within normal range. 

My CRP or C-reactive Protein was flagged as high. It measures inflammation. I'm more used to the sed rate test for that. The range is 1-7 mg/L. When I knew I was flaring and at my worst with the colitis it was 7.1. So close to the norm it probably could be considered that. My sed rate at that time told a different story. I was a little more than twice over the high end of normal with that. About a month and a half before my most recent result for the CRP, it was 2.7. The current one is at 12. That's a pretty big jump in such a short amount of time. It's concerning that it's almost twice as much as the high end of normal, too. I'm more inflamed, according to this, than I was with that first colitis flare...That's saying something. Makes me really curious about what my sed rate is. 

The ANA screen test was also flagged. It tests for autoimmune diseases. I think specifically for rheumatic (connective tissue; like muscles, joints, etc.) ones. The titers were 1:320, making it a positive result. It's positive when the 2nd number's above 80. This means I do have another autoimmune disease (or disorder). The pattern was homogeneous. This may help narrow down what kind, but many of them overlap. This is apparently just the first step in figuring out what it is. Knowing it's positive, I've read they run a bunch of other blood tests. For dm, I also read that they'd need muscle and skin biopsies, MRI, and possibly an electromyogram. I'd be ok with the MRI. Not so much with the other things. I guess I'll just see what happens. If it's not dm, that seems scarier. I have less of a clue as to what's happening if that were the case.

Close to a week ago, I noticed my hair was falling out while I washed/styled it. It's normal to lose some, since I try to do it every 3 days. (If it's a longer time, more hair comes out.) Loose hair builds up during those 3 days (a small portion falls out on its own), and most of it comes out during washing it. It had been slightly longer than 3 days since the last wash before that. However, it came out in chunks. There's usually a point where it stops coming out as I comb it. It didn't. It didn't even stop after the last step of styling it. My bathtub was full of it, since I stand over it while styling. It was worse when I washed/styled it on Wednesday. So much it scared me. It's coming off of me throughout the day more often, too. I'm ok with having it thinned a bit. I often feel it has too much 'volume'. However, I don't want it all falling out. I was so happy to be able to grow my hair out to as long as I wanted it (and style it) this past 6 or 7 years. To lose it would be very difficult for me. I hated it when it was short. At least it's not noticeable right now. 

I also can't seem to bend my left pinky finger much. It hurts if I try to push it. I can't grasp things with it. Of what little amount I can bend, it bends towards the right, not straight. It's also cold. My other pinky finger's slowly losing it's flexibility, too. The left one's not only painful, but annoying. Feels almost like it's just an extra limb that gets in the way. I joked that maybe I need to chop it off, but that sounds tempting in reality now. I know I'd be in more pain. Maybe with treatment it'll go back to normal. 

Wednesday, we (my parent and I) visited my mom's grave. Oddly, I was in the least amount of pain for the week that day. Maybe that was because mentally it put me in a different place? I don't know. It was a nice sunny day. After going to the cemetery, we went to a cafe that my parents would go to while I was at Sunday school. I hadn't been there in a long time. The brownie I got there was great. The iced chai was a little weird. Tasted more like apple cider, but was still good. There was a guy who tried to hit on me. He was very subtle and super awkward. Came off more creepy than anything. He sat next to me on the couch, talked to himself a lot, got up to talk to the staff and pointed towards me, stared at me occasionally while I drank, etc. I just tried to ignore that weirdness. Also, went to a market near it that Mom liked going to. It's owned by the same people behind our local market, only there's a lot more of a selection. We went to SuBI (short for Sushi Bainbridge Island) after that. It's been a while since I've been there as well. Mom liked that place, too. It was decent. They did the teriyaki a little oddly. The sauce was under the nicely cooked sliced steak, along with vegetables. It would have been better with the sauce over it. The staff seemed happy, which was nice to see. 

Went to the local trans group's meeting that night. I think she would have loved it. Would have tried to help as many people as she could. I'm not sure how she would have taken me being agender. It's one thing saying you're another binary gender. She'd probably 'get' genderfluid more than agender. Not having a gender can be too out there for some people. At the very least, I think she would have taken a while to mull it over. After that, I think she'd probably be very supportive and accepting of it. She knew I had 'gender issues'. That was her phrasing when I started to feel so weird in the lingerie department, and about certain fashion stuff. Maybe it'd be more of a: I knew something was up! Or: That makes so much sense! Wish I could come out to her, not just as being agender, but as being aro ace too. Went to Shari's after group. Everyone from that group managed to go there this time, too. I like when there are more people. I think she would have loved the slice of pie I got: s'mores galore. It's one of my faves. It's like a party on a plate. Teddy grahams, mini Hershey's chocolate bar, mini marshmallows (outside and inside), chocolate marshmallow fluff layer, whipped cream, and a graham cracker crust. 

Finished watching Mind Game, which was a Malaysian/Singaporean detective show. I think it was a joint project between the 2 countries. There were things I really liked about it, and some really not so great things. They seemed to be constantly drinking, in and out of hospitals, everyone ended up hypnotized at some point, Anni was the only one who didn't keep secrets (I think), the fight scenes were awkward looking, Anni's mole on her lower lip was really distracting, there ended up being way too much drama towards the end, and the cut scene music came in at the worst times (not during a transition to another scene, it would just happen). I did like that they made the characters feel like you were with family or really close friends, there seemed to be a lot of cool feminist overtones, Anni being the lead detective of a mainly male team was nice to see (she was tough and intelligent), it wasn't as predictable as it seemed at first, the cinematography was great, and more. So, I can't say I loved or hated it. It was decent. I certainly don't regret watching it.

Finished the 3rd season of Santa Clarita Diet. It was probably the best season. They left it off on a huge cliffhanger. The awful part of that is the show's been cancelled by Netflix, so there won't be another season. At least, not for a long time if at all. 

I started the new spring anime season last month. There's Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon-Slaying Blade). It's been great so far. The animation is outstanding. Looked 3D in a few of the scenes. It's essentially about zombies (they call them demons in the show). The main character's sister was turned into one, and he's trying to find a cure for her. To keep her from biting/eating him or others, he put a stick-like gag in her mouth. So, if she gets hungry, she just ends up drooling all over the place. She is more 'aware' than most, too. She's saved him numerous times already. Sometimes in really brutal ways. (She kicked a zombie's head clean off with one kick at one point...) I got to the point where he finished his rigorous training to become a demon hunter. His sister slept the entire time. That's 2 years. He was worried that she wouldn't wake up.

Gunjou no Magmel (Magmel of the Sea Blue) has been good, too. Reminds me of a couple of other anime I've seen. Magmel is a totally new continent that just appeared one day. It still hasn't been fully explored. People go there for many reasons, and a lot of them don't make it back home. Inyou mainly helps rescue people on request or carry out missions with them. The series is really dark and violent, and often there isn't a good ending for the customers. Zero helps Inyou by piloting a flying robot remotely. She's basically his eyes on the ground. Her robot can fight as well, but often doesn't need to. 

Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin (Midnight Occult Civil Servants) has been interesting. It's basically about detectives protecting 'Anothers' and humans living in their jurisdiction. Anothers are like demons, fairies, angels, etc. All mythological creatures from around the world. The main character, Arata, is the only one that can hear and communicate with the Anothers. It's changed the way the detectives used to work already. Arata is recognized by many of the Anothers as Seimei, who was an ancestor of his. He apparently could communicate with them, too. One of the ones that knew Seimei (who now helps them with cases) is an Aztec coyote G-d named Huehuecoyotl. (Seems to be based off of the actual mythology of it. Interesting.) He's a huge trickster. He also seems not to care about if his clothes will be seen as masculine or feminine, which is an interesting side thing. There's a demon cat that's an old friend of his who also helps them.

Kenja no Mago (Wise Man's Child) is another. It's better than I expected. The main character, Shin, was reincarnated into a world with magic after he was killed in a car accident. He started life from birth in that other world, so he has vague memories of it. He was found and raised by Merlin, and once he got old enough he went with him to a magic academy. He's never gone to school before and lacks common sense. He's light-years ahead of his peers, though. Super strong. He just has to imagine things in order to create it. Even Merlin was surprised. He killed demons when he was little. In their world any animal (including humans) can be turned into a demon. They're supposed to be incredibly strong when they turn. He just killed a demonized human that was a fellow classmate. What was different was that that student was conscious. He could talk and feel. It'll be interesting to see where they take this.

2nd season of One Punch Man has been great. The animation's a little different, but it's still got all the other great elements. One 'villain', Garou, is trying to beat all of the heroes. He says 'kill', but none of the heroes have actually died when they lost. He had a chance encounter with Saitama, who he knows nothing about. Saitama thought he was trying to mug him and hit him so hard the ground gave way, he fell, blacked out, and barely can remember what happened. Saitama entered himself into a martial arts tournament in place of someone else. I think he mostly was curious about it and wanted to see if he could find someone stronger than him. That's essentially his whole thing. It's finding someone he could have a decent fight with. He's bored of fights that end so quickly. He hasn't done martial arts before, so he did mention he's curious about how they fight. He might end up fighting Garou in it. I don't know if he signed up, but he does use martial arts. That will be funny to see. 

Started watching the remake of Fruits Basket. It's going to follow much more closely to the manga than the 1st anime did. I loved Fruits Basket, especially the manga. That was much better, still had a lot of humor, but was more mature. The 1st anime ended when the manga wasn't even halfway through its run. It diverged from the manga early. I watched the anime first, but read all of the manga a few years later. The ending of the anime was odd. The Japanese voice actors weren't as great as the English dubbed ones. That's saying a lot. The design was slightly different compared to the manga. The creator of the series was really upset about how that 1st anime went. Nothing went the way she wanted. She was on staff as an adviser. She managed to get voice actors she liked, music she envisioned for it, have the design follow closer to the manga (including hair colors, and the eyes look more 'human' sized), and plans to have all of the manga adapted to the anime. They even list '1st season' on the title. It'll be great to see it all animated. I barely remember things from the manga. There were some cool characters I still remember that weren't in the first series. They also didn't accurately portray Akito and their story. I liked that they actually played around with gender and gender roles. Several characters are at least gender non-conforming, if not trans. Might have been another reason why I liked it so much at first. I rarely like shoujo anime. They're supposed to be aimed at girls, but many anime can merge into other categories like shounen (aimed at boys). I like shounen a lot more. This is different than many other shojo in the aspect that romance isn't a big element in the story, and Tohru seems more human and real than many of the other shojo protagonists. The story is unique in many ways. So far, I think it's doing better. Seeing the 'new' design animated took a little while to get used to, but I think it is better. I can already pick out some of the differences as far as the story is concerned. I think we're up to the point it diverged quite a bit from the manga. It was pretty early from what I remember.

3rd season of Bungou (Literary) Stray Dogs has been about Dazai and Chuuya's past. How Chuuya became a member of the Port Mafia, who he really is, how they got to know each other, etc. Also, gave info on what the previous boss was like. I think the next episode will finally be back to the current time. They did a similar thing with the 2nd season, which was on Dazai's past and how he became the person he is now. I don't know what the current story line will be, but it was nice to get a bit more background on Chuuya. He's a lot stronger than he seems. His main power's based on gravity, some sort of power related to Cthulhu, and another mystery power somehow related to the previous boss. He's not really human, either. 

27th of Adar II

This is my wallpaper for April. It's Zoro's personal Jolly Roger from One Piece. I didn't know he had one. I don't think they brought it up in the anime. The only personal one I remember is Chopper's close to the beginning of the series. They mostly use the Straw Hat crew one. This one's obviously based on him after the time skip. Something happened to his eye while everyone was separated. He keeps it closed, too. I don't think they actually covered what happened yet in the anime. He's one of my fave characters. He uses 3 swords when he fights, one in each hand and one he holds with his teeth. He seems to only put his bandanna on during serious fights. 

The month-long holidays for April are: National Garlic Month, National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month, National Soft Pretzel Month, Frog Month, International Guitar Month, Jazz Appreciation Month, National Garden Month, National Pecan Month, National Pet Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. 

For my Jewish calendar,  the main pic's a painting on linen from 1864 titled Gelila. Gelila is when the Torah is rolled up and dressed (sash, cover, crown, etc.) after reading the weekly portion during Shabbat services. It shows 2 kids doing it while a rabbi (I'm assuming) holds the Torah and watches them. There's a faint outline of another man in the background watching. It's a painting with nice, warm, and bold colors for the focus; everything else being very dark and distant looking. Not sure what type of painting it is, since it doesn't say. Might be oil? The other pic's of a printed Haggadah c. 1950-1960. It's colorful looking. One of the more recent stuff in that museum's collection. They don't say where it's from. A Hagaddah is the book that leads you through a seder (usually for Passover). Seder lit. means order, but it's also a ritual dinner that goes in a certain 'order'. Makes sense that they'd have something related to Passover, considering it starts at sunset on April 19th and goes until the 27th this year. 

For the elements calendar, it's on Plutonium. There's not much on it. They do bring up that it's extremely difficult to use in atomic bombs, because it's unstable. Hard to keep it stable enough until it hits a target. They used to make pacemakers with plutonium. It's illegal to get those now. However, if you have one in you, you're allowed to keep it inside until you die. They show an empty plutonium pacemaker battery, and shots of the outside and inside of an empty pacemaker that's made for that type of battery.

It's been longer than I'd like. Hopefully, I can get back to posting more often. Health stuff has been weird lately.

Had my upper endoscopy/colonoscopy on the 27th. I couldn't tolerate the magnesium citrate I was supposed to start with a few days before. Threw up all of that first 1/2 bottle dose. I liked it at first, because it tasted like a really strong lemon warhead to me. Then, for close to 40 minutes my gut was battling it out, then suddenly just couldn't take it anymore. After immediately letting them know that the magnesium citrate wasn't going to be a go, they let me use Dulcolax pills. I don't know why they didn't have me start with that instead. It's much easier and you don't have to taste anything nasty. For the liquid diet, I had chicken broth, lemon jello, regular Sprite, and water. Thought I could have some popsicles, but the ones I chose had chunks of fruit so that was a no-go. Not much to eat. I threw up again after the Miralax/Gatorade night prep. I thought I could have some chicken broth afterwards, and they said to continue taking fluids when I was done with that for the night. I think it was too much fluid for my system to take. I was ok up until then.

I had a horrible time at the clinic itself on the day of the procedures. The intake nurse didn't weigh me despite telling me she needed to do so. She ignored the wrist pain I told her about, and even asked me about it on the pain scale but never wrote it down. She was supposed to do a full physical but only took my blood pressure, oxygen intake, and temp. It says in the after-visit like report that she did and everything looked fine. My tongue was a grey-ish color, yet it said it was normal. They said I wasn't in distress or pain. I had numerous things going on, told them, and I certainly didn't feel that calm and fine. 

If all that wasn't enough of a tip off that it wasn't going to feel 'right' or professional, they didn't have hospital gowns. They told me to keep my shirt, bra, and socks on. The only thing that covered my front was a flimsy lukewarm blanket. They put a pad under my butt, too. Did someone steal their gowns or something? Most places, even if it's for a routine physical, tell you to get into a gown. 

My main nurse was nice, however she had a very hard time finding a vein for the IV. At one point I had 4 nurses on me. They twisted my pained wrist in all sorts of directions. Not to mention, my muscle and joint pain/stiffness was worse than before at the time. Felt like I was manhandled. They found a vein, but actually told me that they thought it would be too small and won't be able to take it. 

I know some of it did hit my system, but not nearly as much as I should have gotten. I wasn't at 'twilight sleep' stage. They were using the same things as my previous procedures. I remember I actually slept through those. Took a while for me to wake up afterwards. This time I was still very much aware, could see what they were doing, and felt things. I tried to keep my eyes closed at one point so I wouldn't see it. I choked on the upper scope, and they told me to relax. The nurse seemed to be checking my IV, and looked a bit panicked but didn't say anything. Really hard to relax with that stuff going on. At one point, I felt like I couldn't breathe even though I had the oxygen tube in my nose, then panicked. All they did was tell me it's ok. It was a bit traumatic. My new GI didn't talk much to me afterwards, unlike the other GIs who performed them. There's usually like an initial review of what they saw in it. I did get the pics and initial findings on paper before we left, at least. 

It was such an awful experience I'm planning to write a complaint. Write it so that I can have a copy of it, I have time to remember and write down everything clearly, etc. I wouldn't really trust just calling them about it. I also don't trust them with anything anymore. 

I got the biopsy results yesterday. It indicates that I have mild chronic gastritis and mild reflux esophagitis (this is GERD affecting the esophagus essentially). My throat had rings/ridges in the scope images, this usually indicates eosinophilic esophagitis (aka EoE). My new GI was leaning a little towards that. It looked very similar to pics of mild forms of it online. It didn't look like most pics of reflux esophagitis. So, there's something already to ask about. I'm cool if it's not EoE, but this doesn't seem right. I didn't have heartburn or any acid-like sensation. I know what that feels like, since I've had it really bad in the past. They say EoE is extremely hard to diagnose, and is often misdiagnosed as GERD. Some people do have both. It tends to be patchy, so some areas they take biopsies from might not have signs of it. Plus, you can have a really low count and still have it. There's a certain number they go by. I threw up twice before the procedures, which makes me wonder if it affected it. 

Gastritis kind of makes sense. I think I was diagnosed with that in college, but didn't show signs after that one incident. It made me so sick, I think I might have been rushed to the ER by my friends. I remember going to a Pullman hospital, not the on-campus Wellness Center. I wasn't admitted, though. They gave me some meds and ran several tests while I was there. My memories of it are a bit hazy. Why don't they treat that seriously, though? 

Before I left the clinic after the procedures I was prescribed pantoprazole, which is usually for heartburn. I've taken omeprazole in the past, and did it for a few years. It's a similar med. I was taking that because I had a weird issue of throwing up all day every day. I had no heartburn at the time, and omeprazole was just a let's see if this helps med. It did help, but it was like a band-aid for something we never found the cause of; similar to my IUD that saved me and stopped my mysterious 8-month long 'monthly friend'. I'm just a medical mystery, and I don't think doctors like that. Anyways, pantoprazole was apparently prescribed by my new GI and someone I've never met before. Funny thing is there's a different mystery person that referred me to that clinic in the first place. The whole thing seems fishy... The dosage I was prescribed (from what I've read) is usually what is used to determine if the person has GERD and/or EoE. If it clears up the dyshagia, it usually rules out EoE. If not, you either have EoE or both. 

I've been taking it ever since. I think my throat started to improve a little last night, but the night before was the worst it's been. I also feel like I have slight heartburn now. That's what it's supposed to treat. So weird. 

My new GI emailed me yesterday about the biopsy results. She seemed to not know about prescribing me pantoprazole, and when my next appointment was. She told me to use an over-the-counter heartburn med, and that my next appointment should be in 2-3 weeks. She also said after the follow-up I won't need treatment. Hmmm...I told her about being prescribed it twice, and that my follow-up is next week. Her response was just: sounds good. No surprise about a random person prescribing the same thing? No an 'I forgot' thing? These things are in your records. Wouldn't being on a med be a form of treatment? Don't I still need to be monitored if I'm in remission, like CCFA suggests? What about dealing with the scarring in my colon (it's still there, and they say it may never go away)? This just gets even weirder. I'm seriously debating whether I should even see her for the follow-up. If I do, I might not tell her about the increasing pain/stiffness of my joints and muscles. 

This also makes me wonder if I have a muscle condition. Some of them can affect muscles in the throat, too. It would make sense, but I'm not a professional. I might bring it up with my primary. Although, I might switch to a different trans-friendly one. It's hard to be my own advocate with this stuff. Feels like maybe I'm faking or something when tests look mostly healthy. It was similar to when I had the 8-month long 'friend' and most doctors thought it was nothing or in my head. Hard to ignore my current pain. It's not just the pain, but it feels tougher to move and twist/open things. 

After the procedures, I went to IHOP this time. Haven't been to one in a long time, and it was the 1st time at that location. I got their Tres Leches Pancake combo. Got turkey bacon, hash browns, and scrambled eggs for sides. I've always liked that they have good pork-free breakfast meat alternatives. They don't have as much hash browns as most places. That was pretty much the only downside. It was so good! Although, I'm not sure if it was because I was so hungry at the time. I guess I'll have to try it when I don't fast beforehand. I also used their bathroom often. I was having a scary reaction to what they did to me. The main part was the bleeding. 

Despite that, I have had some fun during the weekend and Monday. Had a good dinner at Red Lobster Friday night. Had a big shopping day on Saturday. Started with going to Starbucks and getting a blueberry scone and matcha green tea frappuccino for brunch. The matcha seemed like one of the most soothing things on my throat. My parent needed an outfit for her presentation/workshop in Indiana. That will be tomorrow. She's there currently until Friday or Saturday. Anyways, she found 2 outfits (I think) at Nordstorm. We got to look around Southcenter mall while they were modifying them for her. I found unicorn skeleton earrings, and a winged unicorn skeleton necklace at Fuego. They look really cool and seem to go together perfectly. Went to Bahama Breeze for dinner, which I haven't been to in a long time. I usually stay away from jerk chicken, since I've had awful ones in the past. Got their jerk chicken sandwich anyways and it was amazing! Seasoned just right and a little juicy. 

On Monday, we went to a local bakery downtown, and got a maple bar donut and my fave Norwegian bread (the name on it just means bread in Norwegian...). Went to Starbucks again to have the iced latte matcha version. It was just as good. Went to Crimson Cove, which is a smoked goods store (also has things like nuts, flavored olive oils, jams, etc.), and got my fave smoked cheddar and a new thing called Smoky Garlic and Mozzarella Dip. Just tried the dip today. Wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was still great. Tasted complex. Went to World Market, but didn't see anything new and exciting. Did get my pickled red cabbage and apple salad. That stuff is addicting. Then, did some shopping at both local markets. Another packed day of stuff. 

Finished watching Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken or That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. I liked it a lot. Seemed quite a different take on characters being sucked into a different world. I like that they made the main character, Rimuru, agender. He still used he/him because he was used to that in his previous life. He tried to be as genderless as possible when he was figuring out how his human body should look. Nobody questioned him on it, either. It was interesting to watch his city evolve from a tiny goblin village to what it is now. There are monsters of almost every kind living there. Goblins, direwolves, dwarves, lizardmen, ogres, orcs, etc. No humans live there, but they have visited. So has a demon lord. There haven't been other slimes, which is interesting. A dragon lives inside Rimuru, so he kind of lives in his city, too. Also, an interesting idea to have a monster that's considered extremely weak in most games as overwhelmingly powerful and the main character. Hardly anyone stood a chance against him. When they did, he would pull tricks like make them eat something delicious to distract them. He didn't want to fight most of the time, but he never slacked off when he had to. He created a few alliances with other nations. At the very end he summoned a demon named Diablo, originally named Kuro or Black. They had 2 extra stories after that, and one of them was a little on Diablo's past when he met Shizue (someone who was summoned to that world from ours right after World War 2). I like him a lot even though we barely were introduced to him. He reminds me of Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji, at least with his attitude. He seemed like a 'good' demon, unless he felt it benefited him more to be 'evil'. Characters like that are interesting. They say there will be a 2nd season in 2020. I'll definitely want to watch that. 2020 sounds so far away, though.

Finished Mob Psycho 100 II. It was even better than its first season. Mob really matured, but so did Reigen. While Reigen is like a parental figure to Mob, he realized that lying to Mob was holding him back. I like that they finally let Mob try to go all out with the fight at the end. I don't think he ended up at his most powerful level. The villain behind everything had the same powers, which we hadn't seen before. They definitely left it open enough for another season.

Youtube:

Boku no (My) Hero Academia:





Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront):


Mob Psycho 100: