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.