I Love the Zoo

Today I went to Como Zoo with Q. It was a warm day, but still nice enough and I took a few pictures, of course. I had a salad from one of the food stands, a salad being the only thing on the menu without wheat or gluten. It's sad. So very sad.



The diet has been an unmistakable success that I cannot deny. I feel better than I have in the last ten years. My eye sight has improved and even the knuckles in my fingers have decreased in size allowing me to wear rings I haven worn in years. Nice.



I am so tired of not having bread though. I'm ordering a hand powered grain mill so I can make my own rice flour. I killed the coffee grinder trying it but the bread was good and I need more. I really want a sandwich.



Tomorrow I'm meeting with Emily for coffee. We haven't been able to arrange that in forever and I am looking forward to it. It sounds so relaxing.



Then it's back to making the basement room acceptable for company so my friend from Arizona has a place to stay when she's here for three days this week. I won't see her much though. She has classes and I have rehearsal. Oh well, I'll take what I can get.

Zombie Wheat

Now I know that wheat can kill your brain. Lovely. And it wants to kill mine. Luckily I figured it out before permanent damage was done. Well, I think so anyway. I might be too brain damaged to know, right?

My adventure started with wanting to decrease pain. I had recently read that wheat increases swelling and I knew that swelling increases pain so I thought, why not give it a try? I gave up wheat and in a week dropped 8 pounds of what was probably water weight. But alas, after much more time, no pain relief. I went back to wheat for one night. My brain fogged up and I couldn't remember what I was talking about. I really can't describe well enough how bad it was, I thought, wow, this hasn't happened to me in a long time. The next morning when I woke up with a clearer brain I remembered just exactly how long it had been since my brain played tricks on me and my ability to think. It was before I had given up wheat. Now with 2 months of a wheat/gluten free diet I could see a huge difference in my ability to think and concentrate. My depression has cleared up a lot too, but that can be attributed to sun and taking vitamin D every day as well as the diet.

So the short of it is I was lucky to find out now. Onset of Wheat Ataxia hits most of it's victims at about 54 years of age. (Although I know someone who is 30 and has the allergy.) Many times it is permanent damage. I was soooooo lucky. Or at least much luckier than those poor people who are having problems with wheat and blaming it on old age and the diseases that come with it. I really find it amazing what physical problems we put up with and struggle though on a daily basis, just trying to function. Some of us never find out it doesn't have to be that way.

I'm still trying to figure out the path through this minefield of wheat and gluten in our daily diets. It's much harder than it should be. I've even found wheat hidden in meat sticks and sprinkled on fries. I read the ingredients on everything now. I'm good and terrified of losing my brain.

The other day I went to Pizza Luce' for lunch with E and Q bracing myself for yet another salad. The host asked us it we needed a gluten free menu. I blurted out, "I love you!"

Lazy Days

Just a quick post to say I'm still alive, just a bit unmotivated with a lot to do. Rehearsals have started and I'm loving it, but it wears me out. They make for long days. This weekend I spent my time watching movies and crocheting a sweater. It was nothing important and it was relaxing. I should have been doing a billion other things. I am in a lazy mood.

So, off I go to get some stuff done that I have been avoiding. :-)

The List

Eric is the only person I know that is harder to get a good picture of than me. Maybe if I super glued his face in a normal expression... Anyway, this is the costume I made him for his Steampunk Scottish Ball. It looked much better on him than in the picture. Leather tailcoat. Leather top hat with magnifying glasses mechanism in the headband. Brocade vest matching the hat band. Tie. Cane and spats with antique buttons. I bought the shirt and pants at Savers and he wore his dance shoes.

The Etsy site is up, but only one person has their stuff up so far. I did take the pictures of her home spun yarn though. Does that count? Now that the site is up I haven't decided what to make. Figures. And of course I've booked myself silly this month. Check out the store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/Trellised?ref=pr_shop_more

Ann Compton has come and gone. She was very nice, but I have my political issues. :-) Next up, Sigourney Weaver.

We filmed a bit for the non-profit. I suck and really, really do not want to be on camera. Seriously. Ew.

Yesterday I went to the Art Crawl with Kevin. It rained as usual for the crawl and I opted not to risk the camera by bringing it so, no pictures unfortunately. There were some really great artists with some very inspiring stuff. You'll just have to trust me. ;-D

Last night I worked a comedy play, running the second camera. Fun play, but I really couldn't pay attention properly and keep people in frame. I still wasn't feeling well from last week's nasty flu so I didn't stick around for the opening night party. My ability to carry on conversations had been reduced to saying, "Nice job."

Today (boy, this blog sounds more like a list than a blog. Hopefully I'll get better at it.) I went to May Day brunch with some Scottish dancers and then a psychic fair with my friend Julie and her mom. I really just went to see Julie's mom and some friends who work the fair. Even though my friends ended up missing the fair it was still nice to see Julie's parents again.

Tomorrow I begin shadowing a local director. I'm really excited to see how he works. Auditions were a blast. I really like seeing how things work from this end. It will eat up most of my evenings this month but it will be worth it I hope.

Busy, Busy.

Buck and Guinness sleeping together.

The last few days I have been living in the basement working on Eric's costume. Well, maybe not living in the basement but I have been spending hours down there in my art/craft room coming up only for food and caffeine.

So far I'm almost done with his leather tux coat with tails. Just need to get some more of the lining sewn in and I'm done. I've finished a gold/copper/bronze brocade vest. The fabric is oh-so-pretty. And I've started work on his cane. I still need the top hat, tie and steampunk embellishments all done by Saturday, even though I have two solid days of work and one evening where I can't sew. I have visions of working until the last moment.


Coffee at Anodyne with Emily S.

Saturday I met with another Emily about running the business end of an Etsy site. This is the first time I've tried creating a business that I want to work at, then finding someone else to run it. :-)

Tonight it's Ann Comton and the blog I write for Smart Talk and then daycare tomorrow and Wednesday and work on the non-profit both nights with Emily K. I will be tired. I hope I'll have a brain left...

More

It can be really hard to get back to blogging when you haven't done it in a long while. I can't believe I used to do it every day for two years! Can I get back to that? I don't know. I find that I've shrunk back from public view, probably to protect myself, but in reality, it's not a good thing. So. Here I am. Again.

These days I'm working on doing things that are not stressful. I realize that after saying that you're going to think I've gone completely mad when I tell you what I'm up to, but these are things I don't find stressful. At least not in a bad way. So here goes;

I'm working on finishing up my zombie book. Half of it is art so it's taking me a while, but boy, is it fun to work on. And gross. And I love it when someone sees what I'm doing and lets out an "Ewwwww!"



There are two steampunk costumes I need to finish up. One is for Eric and his steampunk Scottish ball. That is coming up next weekend. The other costume is for me at the Convergence convention this year. The convention is in the beginning of July so I have a little time for that one. I'm also working on a portable video camera monitor and two way communication so that I can "bring" someone with me to the convention and they can see what I see and do in realtime and I can talk with them as well. If it works it's going to be sooo much fun this year.



Pam has needed graphic design work for her business card and "Chico" bags. That's almost done.

I'm working on a steampunk chandelier for the dining room.



Working on an Etsy site and getting someone else to run it. I would like to just be an artist for once. :-)



Genealogy, of course is not forgotten and I'm working on a website for it. It's hard for me to know when to start throwing things up on line. It's an unending project so...? I should just bite the bullet and do it as is. Maybe after the weekend. Yeah...

There is more, always more, but for now, I'm done.

Joco

Joco has comforted me through two marriages, three deaths and was my first thought in the morning when I woke. Most of my friends brought him treats when they visited or knew where the treat jar was and would give him one as soon as they entered the house.



Strangers would stop us on the street to tell me what a pretty dog he was and would often have treats on hand they would give him. That happened so many times I lost track of the numbers. One woman actually stopped in the middle of an intersection to give him one. One of my neighbors at the old house would buy him a bone every time she went to the store and threw it over the fence on the way back home.



Then there were the "manly men." You know the type; pickup driving, hunting and fishing men would would light up when they met him, usually saying "He's so big!" with envy in their eyes. Joco inspired love.



When I say Joco was the best dog ever, it's not just me. I have a lot of believers in that statement. With Joco gone I feel like I've lost part of me.