Happy Belated 4th of July!

Mood:

Hope people who celebrate it had a great one!To people from everywhere else, I hope it was still a good day! I marched in a local parade with the LGBT section as an ally. They lumped both the Pride and Trans groups together. Kind of nice. Seemed more inclusive this way.I was one of the designated candy people. My job was to hand out candy to little kids. Specifically Starbursts. One of my faves, too...(I was able to keep some for myself.) The kids were going nuts over it. I might have been a little too generous with it at the beginning. Probably another reason why some of them came running over. The crowd cheered for the group loudly. It was really cool sounding. By the end, I was extremely sweaty. Didn't help that it was really hot out...It was nice seeing people I knew in the group, and others I saw along the way. It was pretty fun, and an interesting way to celebrate the 4th.

This is my wallpaper for July. It features the first generation boss and guardians from Hitman Reborn. Kind of a chibified-cat version of them. Giotto aka Primo or the boss is the one with the yellowish hair. G, he's their Storm Guardian, is to the left of him in the front. Ugetsu, the Rain Guardian, is to the right of Giotto. Knuckle, the Sun Guardian, is right behind G. Daemon, the Mist Guardian, is to the right of Knuckle. Lampo, the Lightning Guardian, is next to Daemon and is the last one in the box. Alaude, the Cloud Guardian, is outside of it. Makes sense, because the Cloud Guardians are known to be aloof, hate crowds, and tend to help the family out on their own. Almost like they're outside parties, helping only when it interests them. The text on the box translates as: Please pick up. I needed something cute as a wallpaper with what's been going on with me lately.

My Paris calendar features their summer fair. There's a garden that stretches from the Louvres to Place de la Concorde. There are green metal chairs scattered throughout for people to relax, watch the fountain, or people watch. There are sculptures, fountains, and many different kinds of flowers and trees there. From the end of June to the end of August the garden is host to a summer fair. Which is complete with rides, games, barbecues, a climbing wall, trampolines, merry-go-rounds, and cotton candy. Sounds like it'd be fun to go to.

My Jewish calendar's main pic features 4 spice boxes, made by J.M. van Kempen & Zn. Silver; Voorschoten, Netherlands; 1920. We use spice boxes for Havdalah. Havdalah is a short ceremony marking the end of Shabbat every Saturday night. They look like they're made of silver, and I can't tell if they meant that with the 'Silver' part.It's not the normal way of writing it out. Anyways...they're pretty and 2 have Dutch written on them, and the other 2 have Hebrew on them. The 2nd pic features a Shabbat lamp, made by Hendrik Dauw. Made out of silver; Leeuwarden; 1783. Kind of looks the same as the one from last time. Cool to see one that old, too. The last pic features a circumcision chair, made out of wood and velvet; Utrecht, Netherlands; 1820. To be honest, I didn't think they had a special 'chair' for it. I haven't gone to too many bris ceremonies, though. I think I've only gone to one or two when I was little, and nearly passed out while they were doing it.It can be controversial, as well. (Even within the Jewish community.) There's a blessing written out in gold Hebrew letters on the chair. It doesn't look like they know who made it. It's cool that it looks like it stayed in relatively good shape over the years. 

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

Wow. Last month was really dismal with the amount of posts here...Again, I hope to do more in the future. The heat the last couple of weeks has been oppressive. Hard to go on my desktop in such heat.Or, much of anything. It's been averaging around 90 degrees. Sometimes going into the mid 90s. (There may have been a couple of days where it hit 100, but I wasn't sure if I should trust those sources...) That isn't normal for us. I could see it maybe being more common in someplace like Arizona, not here. Looking at some of the international temps, we were hotter than places like Rome at times. 

Another reason I haven't been on much is because my health stuff got worse.It got so bad that I had to go to Urgent Care. They ran a few tests while I was there. Then, the next day they scheduled an ultrasound for my leg. Good news is I don't have clots.The other test results have not been so great. 

The doctor that saw me at Urgent Care gave me some antibiotics, since he wasn't sure if I had a UTI. Those antibiotics made me incredibly sick. I was throwing up, had a fever, dizzy, etc. Made me more miserable than I already was.Luckily, after calling the nurse hotline, they told me I could stop taking it. I was fine after a day without it.

I also suddenly had a nasty looking rash on my heel that was spreading, and there was a lot of swelling around the area. They immediately made an appointment for someone to look at it as soon as I called the nurse hotline, again. He looked at the rash and swelling, and was very concerned. He took pics of the rash, and gave me a better antibiotic. One that didn't have the horrible side effects I had with the other one. The rash is gone, and the swelling is nearly gone. The area that was swollen still feels like it was badly bruised, but at least it's healing up.

My new doc was so worried about the test results, she immediately called me over the phone about it. I like how 'involved' with it she's been with it so far. Seems like she's doing everything she can to help me. She recommended that I start a no dairy, limit wheat, and no soy diet. Then, she referred me to a gastroenterologist. The gastroenterology department called me early the next morning to schedule an appointment. I didn't even get the chance to call them yet. They were quick.I tried the diet my doc told me to do, but it made me feel worse after 2 days. So, I stopped it.

The gastroenterologist who saw me was very nice, honest, and listened to everything I had to say. The only problem was, since she had such a thick accent, I occasionally had a hard time hearing her. Not all that often though. She ran a few blood tests, and ordered an endoscopy and colonoscopy for me. Endoscopy is going in from the mouth end and going all the way down to part of the duodenum. It's just after the stomach. The colonoscopy is going in from the butt end and going through all of the colon. That leaves out the small intestines, but that's harder to get to. I think they have to do some sort of imaging, like x-rays in order to get the small intestines. They wanted it done right away, and the closest opening was 2 days later. Which means I had to start their special diet right away. Which later made my stomach feel horrible what with throwing up so often with the antibiotic that didn't agree with me, my regular doc's diet recommendation, going back to my normal diet, and then this. It felt like I was all mixed up, dizzy, and irritated.

They wanted me to start a low-protein diet right away. The next day, I could only have clear liquids. I also saw my new doc for the first time that day. She seemed overwhelmed. Totally understandable. After my appointment, I had to grab the 'gravilyte' from the pharmacy. It's a very strong laxative. Huge amount of it, too. 

I was told to drink half of it the night before, and the other half in the morning a few hours before the appointment. My appointment was for pretty early in the morning. I was cool with the first glass of the stuff. Then, I suddenly threw up while I was just starting the 2nd glass.Afterwards, I tried to continue, thinking maybe after I got rid of some of the nausea I'd be fine. I threw up again. Not knowing what to do, I called the nurse hotline again. The doctor on call there ordered one anti-nausea pill for me, and said after a half hour of taking it I should continue trying to drink the laxative. I felt a bit better, but still had a very hard time downing that stuff. I stayed up until 3am trying to drink it all.Thought if it was going to take me so long, what would be the point to stop and continue only a few hours later. I got to just over half of it, and couldn't keep my eyes open. 

I was worried that they wouldn't be able to do the procedure, because I didn't finish the laxative. Turned out having about a month and a half of diarrhea, going on a clear liquids diet, and having half of the laxative was more than enough. I was so clean my gut was making a lot of noises.They said it does that when there's nothing there to work on. It was funny and a bit painful at the same time. I was put under for it. There's no way I was going to stay awake for it. I started to wake up about halfway through, but they just increased the meds for me, and I went under again pretty quickly. I wasn't very aware of things, just lots of machine noise, some talking, and feeling like I was in a jet. 

They said my stomach and duodenum were mildly irritated. My entire colon was very inflamed. They took several biopsies of each area, too. They gave me an anti-inflammatory med for the time being until they know more. I have to take 9 a day for at least a month. They're huge pills. At least they don't smell.The doctor who worked on me, said I could take all the pills at once or space them out. It won't matter. So, I've been having 3 of them 3 times a day like it's suggested on the bottle. Much easier for me to handle. The bottles are huge, too. Kind of like big towers. I've felt quite a bit better with them already. I still am having problems, but it's not as bad as before.

My gastroenterologist called me about a week later. She said from the biopsy results, and the notes by the other doc, it looks like I either have Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's Disease. To narrow it down, I have to do another blood test. She doesn't want me to do it until a couple of days before our next appointment. And, she wants that appointment to be scheduled for the end of this month. So, I have to wait a while. Plus, she'll be able to better see how the test result values have changed over time this way. At least we know it's one of those. She's leaning more towards Crohn's, because I have a family member who has it. Although, he's somewhat of a distant family member. Apparently someone else in our family history had it a while back, but I didn't hear about it before. Plus, having my stomach and duodenum be mildly irritated is another sign. Some of the symptoms would make sense for it, too.

Also, since it sprung up suddenly and with the symptoms I've had, it most likely has nothing to do with my diet. Nothing's changed with it, and I try to eat relatively healthy. I was even more so before it all started. (It changes a bit when I'm sick and nervous, but the diet itself has not changed.) A lot of people were suggesting diets to me when I posted on facebook, at the time before my doc called me and we knew there was a form of colitis. The people on facebook that suggested those diets had just the colitis issue pop up, and it was brought on by eating certain foods. So, it's understandable that they'd try to help me. But, looking online on info about what I might have (either UC or CD), those diets may have harmed me more.I'm glad they found something that helps them though. 

Since I've been losing weight pretty quickly with what I have, I might have to add more calories to my diet. Not to mention add more nutrients to it, considering a lot of them are just going right through me. I might have to have more salts, in order to balance what I lose and absorb. (Already having at least 1 low-calorie Gatorade bottle a day. 2 if I sweat a lot, or my gut's really bad.) I'm losing proteins and fats, too. So, in this way I might have to calibrate a bit in order to keep being healthy. I don't think I should take away too many things, or limit things more. Like I would have in any of those diets. I always try to have a balanced diet, so this shall be interesting if I want to continue that. I'll ask the gastroenterologist about it, and I might need a nutritionist who specializes with people who have it. I'm kind of glad I'm losing weight with it. It's just going too fast, and not in the best and most balanced way.I'd get really nervous if I dip below the low end of my average body weight. 

She said I'll have to be on more meds in order to feel 'normal' again. I most likely will have to for the rest of my life. I already take one that's like that. I just don't want to have to take a lot of meds. I realized recently that I might not need to take my omeprazole, but I should go through that with one of my docs and ease off of it. Stopping it suddenly won't be good. She said some of the meds for either UC or Crohn's have a lot of side effects. She said we can go over them in detail during our appointment. She mentioned one of the meds only had a couple of side effects, and I might try that first. I've read what sort of treatment people have to use when the meds don't work, and it's kind of scary.I really hope mine's easily controlled with the meds. 

She also said that she'll give me more info on what I have during that appointment. Plus, she'll hand me some brochures about it. Seems like it's going to be a lot of info thrown at me all at once. Yay! 

Finished watching Magi, and Ansatsu Kyoushitsu or Assassination Classroom. I really liked Ansatsu Kyoushitsu! I don't think I liked it much at the very beginning. But, it certainly gotten better over time. Another season is scheduled for the Fall (I think). Yay! There's more!Magi was just ok. I had a hard time finishing it. I had put it on hold for a while, because it was getting a bit stale. I'm glad I went back and finished it, though. There's apparently one or two other seasons. I most likely won't watch them. Kind of felt like I was being dragged through the mud. I really liked the concept, though. 

The finale for Kekkai Sensen or Bloodline Battlefront is coming up soon. They've postponed it for about 2 weeks now. I want to know what happens!They left at such a cliffhanger, too. I've really liked this show! I hope it gets another season. It's rivaling Gintama for me. That's saying a lot. Gintama's still my top fave anime, but KS is getting close. KS's funky, hilarious, has awesome fights, emotional, plot seems pretty unique, each character has such personality, etc. I'll miss it if this will truly be the end. 

I also finished reading Sacred and Profane by Faye Kellerman. Started the next book in the Decker/Lazarus series we had, which is technically the 4th book not 3rd. This one's called Day of Atonement. The beginning is apparently centered around the High Holy Days. That starts with Rosh Hashanah and goes through to Yom Kippur. (Yom Kippur is aka the Day of Atonement.) The biggest holidays on the Jewish calendar. I love that she has Jewish elements along with the detective/mystery aspect. It's not a 'religious' book, but it tends to center around an orthodox community. Even if the case doesn't involve anyone from the community, Decker fell in love with Lazarus who is Orthodox and the more he knew about Judaism, the more connected he felt. He's technically Jewish since his 'birth' family was Jewish and they were apparently Orthodox too, but he was adopted by a Baptist family. His birth parents wanted him to go with another Jewish family, but the paperwork got mixed up. Anyways, apparently in this one it starts off with Decker and Lazarus' honeymoon. He apparently hasn't officially converted yet, but has become observant and is studying with the head rabbi from Lazarus' community. Apparently, there's going to be an Orthodox guy who joins up and learns about killing from a serial killer. He ends up becoming more secular too. The first book was about a rape that happened at a mikveh or ritual bath house. The second was about 2 girls who were found in the woods burned alive and put out in the open. Lazarus' sons had found them and were scarred by what they saw. They were a pretty complex case, and Decker was under a lot of pressure. It's usually pretty heavy, but the way it's written, keeps you guessing and there are some funny moments. It's rather 'earthy' too. 

National Egg Day!

Mood:

I love eggs! They're very nutritious, too.I don't have it as often as I used to. I think I tend to forget about them...We still have 2 of the brown eggs someone gave us from her own chicken coop. I think she gave us about a dozen of them, and it might have been in February or early March. Used a lot of them for cooking Passover food. So, it wasn't my normal consumption of it, and most of the time it wasn't by itself. I love scrambled eggs with a bunch of things mixed in. Cheese, spinach, dill, garlic, carrots, etc. whatever I feel like. It's a bit different than an omelet. I think Mom occasionally used to do them this way when we were both having eggs. It's like all the flavors are much more evenly mixed.I like omelets, too. It has to have cheese. But, it doesn't matter what kind. Vegetables are good in them. I don't like omelets that are too plain. Sometimes when I order a vegetarian omelet, there isn't much to it.Hard-boiled eggs are awesome, too! I could eat those by themselves, although a little salt makes it even better. 

This is my wallpaper for June. It features Tsuna in his Hyper Dying Will mode (far left), Giotto aka the 1st or Primo boss of the Vongola family (to the right of the Hyper Dying Will Tsuna, he's also in that mode), Reborn's original adult form (far upper right corner), and the way Tsuna normally is (just below Reborn). All from Hitman Reborn. Tsuna is technically the 10th generation boss of Vongola. Or, sometimes called Decimo. Everyone recognizes him as such, even though he doesn't want to be. As far as I've read in the manga, they haven't formally gone through with the ceremony to make him the next boss. That ceremony was interrupted halfway through. The previous bosses that had passed on (he was able to communicate with them through one of his 'trials' during training), the current 9th head (he's always accepted him, even before anyone else knew he was a 'candidate'), the families allied with Vongola, and others have accepted him. In a way, he seems to be like a reincarnation of Giotto. The 10th Guardians seem to be that way with the 1st's ones, as well. They have somewhat similar personalities, views on the world, and they all look similar to their counterparts. Tsuna's been the only boss to be able to use Giotto's 'gear' or weapons. Same with the 10th's Guardians and their counterparts. Reborn is normally in a baby form. He was cursed into being one, and I'm still not exactly sure why. In fact, the current arc I'm on is all about the Arcobalenos' curse. Arcobaleno is lit. 'rainbow' in Italian, and each Arcobaleno has a different colored pacifier. Reborn's is yellow. The only one that wasn't turned into a baby was Yuni (and others that were previously in her place), who's the boss of them. Her curse is that she'll have a short life, just like the previous Arcobaleno bosses. Next to Reborn is the Vongola family crest. Vongola means 'clam' in Italian, so there's a clam at the top. 

My Paris calendar features the Latin Quarter. There's a lot of bistros, restaurants, museums, shops, and galleries. It's split up by the Blvd St Germain and the Blvd St Michel. The pic is of a corner on St Germain looking at a bistro across the street. There's a pic of a scenic view from one of the many streets in that area. 

My Jewish calendar's main pic's of a painting called: Life? Or Theater? It's by Charlotte Salomon. Several other people helped out and contributed to it. (Pretty long names...) It's from France; 1940-1942. The painting's of a bride and groom, assuming to be on their wedding day. Does that mean they're playing around and not actually getting married? Or, will their life together be theatrical? Interesting. The 2nd pic's of a groom's glass, made by someone anonymous and Meijer Goudsmit, made out of glass. From Amsterdam; 1775-1789. The 'groom's glass' is what the groom stomps on at the end of the ceremony. After it's broken, some people collect the shards and either put it in a decorative pouch, or put the shards into a work of art. Nobody really knows how the custom came to be, but there are a lot of speculations. It's kind of fun to see, though. This one's beautiful and has a blessing on it. I wonder why it was never used? That's kind of sad. Especially considering how old it is. I love seeing stuff that old, though. It's interesting, and fascinating how some things can still look untouched after that amount of time. It's a glimpse at what life was like back then, too. The last pic's of a painting called: Wedding with Klezmers. It's by Abraham Yakin. From Jerusalem; 1988. This one looks like they tried to make it kind of old style. Like some of the illustrations I've seen through this from the mid-18th century. The way it was done, isn't my style...It has scenes from a wedding with a klezmer band. Klezmer is sometimes described as Eastern European Jewish Jazz. They often play at weddings and Bat/Bar Mitzvahs. But, there can be quite a range within the genre. Some songs are happy, party-like, dances, sad, niguns (vocal music- usually with just the voice), some religious songs' melodies came from klezmer, etc. It's a lot more than 'party music'. I like to play it on my clarinet. It's one of the central, most recognizable, instruments in a klezmer band. The violin is about equal with it. Although, any instrument can join in. That's also one of the joys of it. A lot of it just flows for me. It can be very soulful, too. In the future, it'd be interesting to play in a klezmer band. I think I need more klezmer books to practice from, though.

The month-long holidays are: National Candy Month, National Dairy Month, National Iced Tea Month, National Seafood Month, National Camping Month, LGBT Pride Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.

Hoping to post more often here than I have been.Lately I haven't felt too good. I think since February, I've had some weird gut issues. It got bad enough at the end of February that I went to Urgent Care. They basically told me to wait it out, and to drink plenty of fluids. I might have gotten something for the pain? Can't remember, but that only helps for a short time. I've been bouncing back and forth from a laxative to Imodium ever since. (There have been times where I've been fine, too.) There have been times where I've tried my best to stay away from both, but eventually it gets so bad I have to take something. This last bout was interesting. I was seriously blocked up, but didn't want to use a laxative unless I couldn't breathe or something. It got pretty bad, so I took 3 pills in total over 2 days of the laxative. 1 dose is considered 1-3 pills. It was successful after a couple of days. A little too successful after that...I tried to stay away from the imodium as best I could, but I've been losing a lot in the last 3 weeks or so. I took one pill which was half of the '1st' dose on Monday, thinking maybe easing into it will change it. Not much of a success since. Gatorade has helped in making me feel better, though. Also, found some rashes...They seem to be going away, though. It just all feels weird and kind of suspicious to me.Also, haven't heard a thing from my new doctor about the meds...

I'm still brainstorming a title for my nightmare anthology of short stories. It's funny because with the 1st novel, I thought up the title only about a paragraph into it. Really early on. Not even sure why it popped into my head, but it certainly fit the story. I have all the individual story names, at least. The titles I've come up with for the whole thing, haven't truly struck a cord with me.I'll have to go through them again to see if either I like one of them more than I thought, or it might get me to come up with better ones. After this, I'm putting them all together, reformatting it all, adding the 'extras' (contents, acknowledgements, etc.), figuring out the cover art, and then finally sending it off to Smashwords to publish. There's still quite a bit to do.I kind of like everything, but the coming up with a title and the cover art parts. They can be fun. 

Saturday night, we went to a local paella/tapas bar. Paella is a Spanish dish that's a rice mixture that tends to have seafood (specifically a lot of shellfish), some pork, and is kind of smoky. I think I've read it technically just has to have rice, meat/some sort of protein, and the smoky sauce. I think I've had a version in the past that didn't have shellfish or pork, and it was pretty good. Tapas are like little snacks or appetizers. You order a variety of them in order to make it a meal. A lot of people share them, too. We were celebrating Dad's birthday a little early. She wanted her birthday dinner to be paella, so we went there. I also was kind of celebrating that I had recently finished writing my 2nd novel, and finished rereading/reediting the whole thing a couple of days before. The tapas I got were: lamb meatballs, potato tortillas with artichokes and aioli, and piquillo peppers stuffed with goat cheese and roasted pepper coulis. It was all very good. Even though they're supposed to be 'snack' sizes, I couldn't finish them and had to take some home with me. Oh well, meant more awesomeness for later! The only problem I had with this place was how warm it was. I was sweating like crazy.It felt warmer than my room gets at home during a hot day. It's like the hottest room in the house. (Even without my computer on.) They apparently don't have AC, and said they'd only open the windows when the outside was cooler. They had fans going, but it wasn't really helping. The fans were kind of slow at that.