International Cat Day!

Mood:

This was actually on Saturday, but every day should be Cat Day!Or, at least people should appreciate them each day. I've had a certain affinity for them probably since I was born. I've always been around cats. Most of them were rescues, and definitely deserve a lot of love.Yesterday was National Banana Split Day, and National S'mores Day. 2 of some of my fave desserts.I rarely have a banana split, and I usually feel like it's too decadent or something. S'mores can be fun. You can do them at home, too. I've roasted marshmallows over the stove, and put that between the normal stuff, chocolate squares and graham crackers. I like to roast the marshmallows to the point that they catch fire.Fun to blow it out afterwards. (I also use a fork to hold it over the stove.) I sometimes use Nutella in place of the chocolate squares. And, sometimes I don't roast the marshmallow I just microwave it all together. Have to be careful with that, though. The marshmallow can expand quite a bit if you heat it up for too long. Then, it becomes a gooey mess in the microwave that you'll have to clean up...

This is my wallpaper for August. It has Tsuna in his Hyper Dying Will mode and Reborn. Tsuna's doing one of his specific techniques. Only Primo or the 1st aka Giotto could do it before him. (Tsuna's considered the 10th or 'Decimo' generation boss of the Vongola.) And, Tsuna modified that version for himself. He named it Zero Point Breakthrough: Revised. He can absorb his opponents' flames, purify it, and add it to his own storage of flames. No one truly knows how much he can absorb and use afterwards. Simply because it increases the amount every time he uses it. He actually absorbed a character named Ghost, who was from a parallel universe and was a huge giant like being. (He almost seemed to be made entirely of flames.) I think he was a failed attempt Byakuran had when he tried to bring another version of himself to this world. He kind of mutated on the way. But, he was incredibly strong, a loose canon, and didn't speak. So, basically after absorbing him, Tsuna powered up quite a bit. Reborn was the one who trained him to get that technique perfected. 

My Paris calendar features Jardin du Luxembourg, or Luxembourg Park. It's a large park that tends to be crowded with students, neighbors, and tourists. Yet, it can be a relief from the busy Paris streets. There's a large octagonal pond, known as the Grand Bassin, that's in the middle of the park. You can rent small boats for children, there's a puppet theater, pony rides, a merry-go-round, and a large playground. Between 1615 and 1627, the Luxembourg Palace was constructed at the northern end of the park for Marie de Medici, who was nostalgic about growing up at the Pitti Palace in Florence.

My Jewish calendar's main pic features a Torah mantle made out of velvet, silk, metal thread, and chenille; Netherlands; after 1735-1737. Like it implies, a Torah mantle goes over the Torah like a cover. This one actually looks old.Some of the really old stuff they've featured, doesn't look all that old. But, this seems to look more its age. Interesting floral patterns. Odd that they didn't list who made it, or even have it as 'anonymous' or unknown. This probably has a story behind it.The 2nd pic features a dress, unknown maker, made out of cotton; Netherlands; 1930-1940. It looks like it's faded and has a floral pattern. I can pick out that it has pinks, reds, and tan colors. That's all that's visible. Looks like it's a little girl's dress, unless the perspective of it is skewed. The last pic features a tefilin bag, anonymous maker; made out of textile, thread, and wire; Netherlands; 1870-1890. This one doesn't look that old. Tefillin or phylacteries are a small set of black leather boxes (that have long black leather straps for putting/wrapping it on) containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. They're worn mainly by Orthodox men. Apparently, men are obligated to wear them, but women aren't. Many have discouraged women from wearing them in the past, but are slowly turning around on that stance. (Ever so slowly...I haven't felt the need to wear them, but think other Jewish women in general should be able to have that choice.) It's worn during morning prayers. One is worn on your left upper arm (corresponding to the heart), and the other on the forehead (corresponding with the mind). I've read some people like to have pretty ornate looking bags for them. This one seems simple, but nice. It has a small red plant-like pattern in middle, and the rest is mainly beige. The border of the bag is kind of dark green or grey. Hard to see in the pic. 

The month-long holidays are: National Panini Month, National Peach Month, National Sandwich Month, National Goat Cheese Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.

Weather's been a bit weird lately.We'll have a day that's pretty cold, then a warm one, and back and forth. It finally rained yesterday, though. Hasn't really rained in this area for a long time, and we really needed it. Still, most of the rain happened during the morning, and by the time I went for my night walk, it was pretty dry again.The grass has turned yellow and straw-like. The blackberries are starting to come out at least. We have a lot of blackberry bushes in this area. On Friday it's supposed to be cool and rainy. That might be nice. 

Tried to do both my walks yesterday, but I didn't want to get stuck in the rain that morning. I pretty much have kept up with doing 1 walk a day for the last 2 weeks. I need to get my other one in soon. Hopefully, I'll get to it tomorrow.I started getting back into doing my sit-ups twice a day on Sunday. I'm starting out with 5 of them each time. Really basic, but I think it's good to start small with it. I might change it up in a week or 2, and do 10 twice a day. The most I had gotten to before was 90 twice a day.I don't think it'll be wise to work up to that again, but we'll see. 

I've been having more issues with eating lately.Things seem much bigger than they are. Half the time, I'm starting to forget or just want to skip meals. I've never felt like that before. I like to keep my calorie range to 1200-1600 each day, and break that up between 5 small meals. I don't think it's good to be at 1200 too often, but I use it as the least I'll do. If it's a touch above 1600, it's fine. It's just a reference point. I might need more calories in the future, with my IBD, but I'll do this until my doc or a nutritionist tells me otherwise. I made it to around 1400 yesterday, and I felt like I ate a lot more than I did. I'm writing down the calories as well as what I eat in a small notebook now. To stay on top of the calories, to see what I eat, and how it affects me. I've felt nauseous lately, too. So, it just adds to the feeling of not wanting to eat much. Even Rosie, my cat, is trying to get me to eat more. When I usually eat those meals, she finds me, acts like I should follow her, looks at her food bowl when I do, rubs against my legs, meows repeatedly, and then stares at the refrigerator. She has plenty of food. She just is trying to give me a hint that I should be eating. Sad when even Rosie is picking up on it.When I start preparing a meal, she gets really excited, happy looking, gives me long cat hugs, and starts eating her own food or sits calmly close to me on the hard floor. As I eat, she's been kneading her paws, lying down (on the carpet near my feet, not on the chair) next to me quietly, etc. It's weird. Not really the norm for her. 

Finally got the last lab test from the blood draw that was done at the end of last month, today. But, (before I got it) my gastro emailed me last Friday saying that it 'suggested' that I have Ulcerative Colitis instead of Crohn's. All the other tests, symptoms, etc. seem to point towards Crohn's.She said as a follow-up, I should get another blood draw that day. I also know that the other test results are good indicators to see how my system is taking the new med. This feels like some weird adventure I didn't sign up for. 

I met with my gastroenterologist on the 31st. She was pretty positive that I had Crohn's, and said that the final test result might make it more definite. It didn't really...Although, seeing the results today, yeah I might have UC instead. But, I've read that they may have to do more tests to truly determine it, if it's like this. I don't have the common characteristics of UC. Visible bleeding is the main one, and I don't have that...Even the guy who did my colonoscopy didn't see any signs of bleeding. At the appointment, she gave me some papers on Crohn's and some on IBD (Inflammatory Bowl Disease) in general. There were also some papers on the med she wanted me to start with right away. I'll probably have to get blood tests done at least every 3 months in the future. I mentioned my hair was falling out, and she told me to try and eat more protein. It's still coming out, but it doesn't seem like so much that it's visible to everyone else yet. Just looks 'thinner'. 

On our way back home, while heading to the ferry, a guy, who clearly had road rage, yelled at us (Dad and I) for about an hour. I thought he'd just verbally attack Dad (which was bad enough), but he eventually directed it towards me. It was half scary and half amusing, because he seemed to not know how to sound hurtful. Calling us Canadians, because he thought they were rude. The stereotype is that they're very polite. He didn't swear at us. Said there was a mob of 100 angry people around us. No one was out of their cars, and most just looked like they were scared of him than anything else. He gendered my dad correctly, and referred to her as 'miss'. He could have used better words/examples to be a lot more threatening. His voice just sounded scary, and he kept going on and on. We weren't sure if he was going to get out of his car and attack us.We didn't say a word to him. It added to the stress I felt for that appointment, and when I finally got on the ferry I fell into a deep sleep.

I started the new med the next day. It's called azathioprine. It's used both as a 'mild' chemo med and an immunosuppressant. Some use it for leukemia, some for organ transplants, and others use it to treat their IBD. The med itself sounds a bit scary. If you use it for a prolonged amount of time (like, for several years), you have a higher risk of getting lymphoma.Since it's an immunosuppressant, I have to be extra careful around people who are sick, cuts, hospitals, vaccinations, etc. Which is lovely, because I'm normally pretty healthy and don't think much of that stuff.I started having one of the smallest doses for a week first. After that, the doc told me to take 2 of those pills. That first week, I noticed I was feeling more sleepy after taking it. This second week has felt weird.I do feel sleepy right after taking it. But, I also feel weaker, semi-nauseous, noticed I have a bruise I don't remember getting, feeling like I'm much heavier than I am, etc. I've also read that it can have a side effect of anorexia (I didn't think a med could induce that...), making you not want to eat. I have to watch that closely, too. It's scary, because I don't know what's really going to happen in the future with this, if it's the right one for me, etc. More unknowns. It accidentally stuck to my tongue about a week ago, and it tasted and smelled like exhaust to me. It doesn't have a plastic-like coating like balsalazide does. So, now I'm nervous it'll stick every time I have it. I decided to space out those 2 pills in order to make it easier on my system. One with lunch and one with dinner. The other meds I've read about, aren't exactly easy on the system either. 

I just emailed my gastro about the test that suggested I have UC yesterday, other questions I had, and some of the new symptoms I have. The email from her on Friday asked me how I was, so I took that as a reminder to tell her what's been happening so far. Haven't gotten a response back yet. Although, I did notice that she seems to do a lot on Fridays, so she might respond this Friday. We'll see. Hope I didn't sound like an idiot, but they did keep telling me to use it for any questions or 'concerns'.

Along with trying to learn the most I can about IBD (it was more about Crohn's for a while), I've been trying to get back to my normal 'stuff'. It feels good to get back to some of it. Like I'm more 'human'.

Hopefully, I can figure out the title to my nightmare anthology soon, and get going with the rest of the stuff I have to do before I publish it. Can't wait to really get back to playing my clarinet!I only played a little on it when I got it back on the 1st, just to test it out. Getting back to drawing would be nice, too. Hopefully, I can finish editing that meme with Junko in it, put it together, and post it on dA soon, too. It's taking a while, and I'm not doing the editing on it too often. I can move on to other drawing memes afterwards. Plus, I have some writing memes that might be nice to do, too. Really getting back to learning my Japanese on a regular basis again would be good, too. I might have come up with a better 'schedule' in order to get to everything including the 'extra' things. 

Hoping to go through more of my closet soon. I stopped about a year ago. I think I got through about a third of it. Many of the stuff in there is unwearable (full of holes, tears, etc.), some I'll never want to wear, some are too big or too small for me (many of the things that are too small are from when I was 11 or 12), etc. I had to take a lot of it to the dump last time. Mom was the one that tried to encourage me to keep a lot of it. Some of the stuff in there, I think, were originally hers. I also have a mountain of beaten up ratty looking shoes that fill up the left side, along with things on the hangers above. It's a mess there. It'd be cool to see more of the floor on either side of the closet...

I'm putting together a list of easily digestible foods. Just for reference. I might try to eat more things from it. I won't change my entire diet, but it may make it easier on my digestive tract. Again, food doesn't cause the disease, but certain foods can make it feel worse during a 'flare up'. It's like treating a side effect rather than the disease, if you decide to drastically change your diet that way. Doesn't prevent flare ups or anything. Just might calm things a bit. Kind of like giving it a little break from having to digest complex things along with what the disease is doing to it. I already have bananas, leafy vegetables, oatmeal, yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, salmon, chicken breasts, eggs, porridge, and more on my list. I didn't think sauerkraut and kimchi would be easily digestible. But, I know they're both fermented. I used to like kimchi, but stopped eating it, thinking about how spicy it was. (After being in the hospital twice, most of my flora and fauna in my gut were wiped out. I was told to stay away from spicy food because of this. I love spicy food...Turns out, it's usually not good for IBD, either.) Might try it again? I love sauerkraut, too. So, that might be good to get back to.

National Milk Chocolate Day!

Mood:

This was yesterday. My favorite type of chocolate!I like dark chocolate in recipes, but not so much by itself. I can only take a little at a time if it's by itself. Milk chocolate isn't as bitter, and has a nice smooth sweeter taste. To me, at least. Not as rough a flavor. Parents' Day was this past Sunday. I didn't realize it until Monday...It became an official holiday in 1994. They should advertise it more or something. Especially with how I've felt about Mother's and Father's Days.Nice that there is a 'Parents' one. In South Korea, they've had a Parents' Day since the 1930s. Interesting. Video Games Day was this past Saturday. I still have my Sega Genesis and several games for it. They're still in pretty good condition. I should have played my first game on it this past weekend...Oh, well. My first game was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Maybe I'll play it sometime soon. I have Fate (which I haven't played in a while) and the Sims 2 (I play this one a lot more often) for PC. In fact, I recently got the Seasons Expansion Pack for the Sims 2, as a present back at the end of January. It's made it even more enjoyable.2 of my other fave video games: Morrowind and Fable. I miss them.Last Friday was Cousins Day. I have so many cousins! I've lost track of how many.That's including the kids my first cousins have. I have around 20 first cousins. And, there's a wide range of ages. Oldest one is around 50. Old enough to be my uncle or something. I think the youngest first cousin might be in their late teens or early 20s. Of the first cousins' kids, there are several that are newborns right now. Not sure how old the oldest one of my cousins' kids is. But, I know that many of my first cousins have more than one kid. It's crazy! Would have been even more interesting if I had lived closer to them all. 

The weather's been nice and cool. It's rained a couple of times. Everything's been so dry, so it was a more than welcomed sight. Today and throughout the rest of the forecast, they're saying it'll be in the low 80s. Not too bad. Nothing like that long heatwave streak we recently had. 

I've been getting back to doing both my 2-mile walks this week. Monday morning's was really muggy. I was sweating like crazy halfway through.That night and yesterday's walks were a lot better. I'll probably only get to one walk today. But, at least it'll be one!

I'm also trying to get back to going to bed early and getting up early. Feels like I actually get my mornings back this way. Also, I'm more in tune with the natural rhythm of things during the day.Monday, I wanted to get up at 7am, but I was wide awake at 5am. Yesterday, I slept about a half hour longer than when I wanted to get up, but that's not bad. Today wasn't too bad either. I'm trying to go by 8 hours from when I go to bed. This way I get roughly the right amount of sleep, and still get up early. Before, I was always trying to get up at 6am no matter the time I went to bed at. Wasn't very bright.But, this way I can feel more rested and normal about it. Also, means my days might vary as to when I wake up. That might be fun. This new 'system' might be good.

Had my blood drawn Monday for the multiple blood tests my gastroenterologist wanted, and one my primary care doc wanted. Apparently, my gastro ordered so much that the lab tech had to draw several vials worth.Lots of labels for them, too. My primary just wanted to make sure one of the meds I've been taking for years isn't damaging anything. Haven't had that specifically checked on for a while, so it's probably a good thing to do. I was nervous and didn't want even the hint of passing out I got last time, a month ago. The person who was there this time was able to get me into chatterbox mode, and I barely noticed things were happening. She also kept asking me questions. Probably mostly to keep me distracted. It took a while to fill all of the vials up. Longer than what I'm used to. She bruised me pretty badly, too.

I got 5 of the tests back that night. One thing seemed unusually low for me, but within normal range. The rest of those were normal. Which is good, but I was a bit discouraged because I didn't/don't feel 'normal'.I got another test result back this morning. This time it was about my red blood cell sedimentation rate. (Or 'sed rate' for short.) It measures how fast the blood cells drop in a test tube. They drop faster if they're sticky and clumped together. It's one of the indicators for inflammation. Many who have inflammatory diseases use it to check on the progression of the disease and to see how well treatment's going. The high end of normal range is 20 mm/hr. Last time mine was 44mm/hr. This time wasn't much better with 40mm/hr. I'm oddly relieved it's still not normal.Probably because, like I mentioned before, I don't feel like I'm back to normal. This might also mean I'll have to go on more meds like my gastro started to talk about over the phone towards the beginning of the month. But, they may help me feel better. Other stuff I was really 'off' on last time were my eosinophil count (it was through the roof! Even PatientsLikeMe online kept warning me about how it was beyond their scale), vitamin B12 (it was very high too), sodium was a bit low, and a few other things. I have my appointment with the gastro early Friday morning. That should be interesting. I have quite a few things to ask her that I hope I don't blank on.Luckily, I did start a questions list.

The music store called recently saying they're done with looking at my clarinet, and I could pick it up at any time. I realized I won't be able to get there until the 1st. So, I called them back asking if they could hold onto it until then. The response was so quick, I almost didn't hear him.All he said in response was: "That's fine." So, just to be sure, I rephrased my question. He still said it was fine. I thought they would need to get my name at least, and make a note that I won't be there until the 1st. Just in case they would've thought I had abandoned it or something. Hopefully, they didn't have to do a lot, and it'll feel like new. I keep getting that 'itch' every so often to play. It'll be nice when I do get it back and start playing again. 

I've been getting more into Netflix's Instant Play. I can watch anything in that library on my phone, or project it onto the Apple TV. It's pretty cool. I've watched a couple on my phone before, but didn't actually look much into it until now. The ones they recommend for me are actually interesting. Some I would never watch, some I haven't heard of before, and some I've been hoping to watch but didn't think they'd have. I didn't use their 'My List' feature before. I would just search around for a while seeing what I felt like watching at the moment. A lot of the time that search was fruitless.But, now whenever I see something I want to watch, I can add it to my list. That way in the future, when I feel like watching something immediately, I can just look at that list. 

They have a surprising amount of Korean, Chinese, British, Spanish, and French stuff. Not too much in the way of Japanese movies/dramas. They seem to think that most Japanese movies/dramas are from the horror genre. That seems very lacking to me.I love watching international movies and shows, so it's still cool to see the ones I found from the countries I mentioned before. I saw The Host before I started the list. It was a surprisingly good Korean monster movie. A lot of the movies from Spain and France are food related. I might be hungry after watching those.Although, there's a French movie I heard about before called the Rabbi's Cat. I think one of the Jewish newsletters I'm on mentioned it when it came out. It won quite a few awards. It's an animated film about a rabbi's family from Algeria. His cat, after swallowing the family parrot, suddenly gains the ability to speak. He's skeptical of Judaism at first, and starts talking more to the rabbi. The more he learns, the more he wants to convert. Sounds...unique. There's an English detective show called Happy Valley that looks interesting, too. There's an Irish movie about a monster who only attacks sober people. I'd be in trouble, then.I can't drink alcohol because of my meds, and most of the time I have no interest in it anyways. Maybe for cooking, but not actually drinking it. (Looks funny, but in that sense, it might be scary to me...) Some of the Chinese ones I want to see look beautifully done or I like to say 'artsy'. Like the costumes, scenery, etc. Some of the ones I have seen in the past have a similar feel. Very interesting. All the ones I've found so far sound really interesting, have won at least one award, and have somewhat good reviews. So, that should be a fun adventure as I go through the list.

I managed to narrow down the possible titles for my nightmare anthology. Apparently, this sort of anthology is rare. There are few 'horror' anthologies out there, and not many of those are actually based on nightmares. I find that interesting, and slightly intimidating. But, I went through my long list of possibilities, and checked out if there were any novels that had those titles by doing a Google search. Surprisingly, I didn't eliminate too many this way...But, going over and over it, I finally narrowed it down to 2 possible titles. I'm still a bit stuck on which of those 2 I want to use. At least I narrowed it down by a lot.

Finished reading the manga version of Hitman Reborn. Didn't really like the last couple of chapters. They were kind of pointless. They left so many things hanging and unexplained. Maybe there'll be a sequel in the future? I really liked it, besides those last couple of chapters. It seemed to have a lot of unique characters and situations. Kind of wished Chrome was able to really show her own power more. They were just starting to towards the end of the last arc. I didn't like that Tsuna still, after all he's gone through, denies that he's rightfully the 10th boss of the Vongola. Even the previous generations have accepted him. He basically already is, whether he likes it or not. He's even won trials that are specifically about determining who will be the next Vongola boss. Reborn even suggested changing the title to Neo Primo of the Vongola, which actually makes a bit more sense in more ways than one. I think Tsuna's just kidding himself, and doesn't really get it. I liked that they were able to lift the curse at the end. Lal was able to turn back into her adult self, because her curse was the weakest of the group. The others have to physically age over time from their baby forms. Which kind of sucks, if you have an adult mind still. But, at least they'll live and eventually be who they once were. Hopefully, they won't die once they hit the age they were before they were cursed. That'd be horrible. But, then again, we'll never know if there isn't a sequel.