Queen of the Cat People

So I've lost about 8ish lbs off my average weight since early February, which *might* indicate that the no-dairy rule on my current diet plan is helping deflate some inflammation.

From now on, I'd rather not use the term Paleo b/c it annoys me. It is now the Inflammation Diet. The "My Insides Are On Fire Diet" was too long and the initialism was clunky. MIAOFD? Meh.

( Viruses get die-offs too? )

Sleep is still f'ed, but not sure if that's due to bodily weird or Impending Spring Syndrome. Very annoying tho. Impending Spring Syndrome has also encouraged me to buy new makeup, and make new clothes, but then the latter actions are stymied by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which claims it was here first. *sigh*

Current plans, try to settle down my accursed FOMO, get more sleep, take more epsom salt baths for skin weirdness (you finally cleaned the darn tub, now f'ing use it pls). The whole city + dayjob will be shut down on Tuesday b/c snow (french toast alert level at 4), and would like to do some sewing for a project, but will settle for more coma-time.

Not sure if I'll be running my tabletop game this month, or going to the MES NYC Feature Game this weekend, b/c apparently I need my weekends for coma time this month :-P Not sure if I should call it now, or wait until the last minute.

<3 Chrysilla

O wow, two weeks with no proper update. Tho I did use Dreamwidth to take notes on my tummy history, b/c I finally saw the new GI last week, yay! After losing her number and forgetting to call since late January. Dumb brainfog.

Not much happened the week before my friend's wedding (weekend after my last update) b/c I was busy prepping and overall being stressed about travel. But it ended up really nice :-) ( WeddingCon! )

Last week was ... mixed. Was high on wedding goodwill, but because of the skin irritation the rest of the week put kindof a damper on me. And I had to make a trip to Wallmart for Rich Ppl Whole Foods to get gluten free body lotion and shower stuff. But at least the SoHo location keeps that in its own little area away from most of the annoyingness.

Wednesday I took a half day off so I could finally see my GI, and she is very nice. Didn't dismiss my "oxalates" discovery out of hand, and wants to do the standard list of uncomfortable diagnostic tests. She was actually pleased that I already knew a lot of what she was talking about (other doctors have gotten annoyed with me about that in the past). So the first uncomfortable test is next Monday, before Thanksgiving, b/c I just want to get it over with.

As for oxalates, ( Adventures in Research )

After the GI I had a therapy session scheduled, but I had a big block of time and there was an urgent-care facility between the offices, so I got my skin problem checked out. ( Probably TMI ) My one concern now is that if this is/was viral, and I was just at a *wedding*, I REALLY hope it wasn't contagious :-/ But at least it was short lived. And it wasn't bedbugs, phew.


Thursday I still felt skin-yuck, but teh Pooka managed to get me out of the house for the evening with another new friend. Leading to a WTF? moment at Bareburger on Laguardia, where there was a string of mixups about whether or not my *salad* was actually gf. And the confusion started *after* I'd eaten some of if. In the end, they comped my certified GF salad b/c of all of the freaking-me-out that happened. Not as bad as the dead-grasshopper-salad incident, but still, wth Bareburger? And then we went to a nice cafe in the East Village, where the server was very kind about all my food issues. Ironically, feeding me gets *more* complicated in a vegan place b/c of my issues with dates, soy, and gluten. But overall a nice evening out :-)


This weekend started out OK, but kindof sputtered out. ( Forecast: BRAINFOG )

So today I'm still in zombie mode, but with a shiny new necklace at least. And somehow I made it to therapy on time which is not normal. Does not compute. I think the prednisone I was RX'ed is making me feel weird, but I want to finish out the bottle (Wednesday morning) to make sure the skin problem doesn't come back.

Its weird how I feel like I've come off a really rough week of something, and I really haven't. Its not even been a difficult Monday. Meh.


Realized I should start picking up Xmas gifts for teh fam while I'm having a fiscally responsible month with an extra payday. So that should be fun once I waketheFup. Tho it may be mostly gift certificates, b/c low spoons. If that changes right before Xmas I'ma feel like a jerk tho. Just trying to finish that necklace for *me* was a huge chore, I don't even want to think about making shinies for other ppl these days. Tho maybe that's the Rx talking again?

Also considering a BPAL order, but not a gigantic one. Maybe for Turkey Weekend. At first I thought it was stupidly crazy to type up my full collection into a .doc file, but it's actually been pretty useful for the last week. "That sounds nice, but do I have something similar already? Was that a note I didn't like?" Helped me whittle a list down to two items instead of six. Yaaaaay. I will take any excuse to feel clever these days.



Overall I think I've become steadily less stuff-oriented this year. ( Hail Discardia! )

I did manage to purge some old but pretty jewelry displays to give away (they just don't fit my style anymore), will photograph them for ppl to look at ... eventually. And I still have boxes of books and equipment to ship to friends who called dibs in *March*, so I really need to haul my butt to the post office. Ugh. My mail-scale still isn't working right, so maybe they'll be OK if I send them an invoice for s/h instead of checking with them first :-P


Last week I had new inklings for a puppet/video/youtube project but ... ugh. I really don't want new projects. I wanna finish the old projects. So am keeping this under my hat for now, tho I'll happily take notes in case I ever have that much energy again.

This week's tarot is very OMG BOOM DRAMA CHANGE OMG!( See? )

Despite tarot forecast, I kinda just want to take it easy now. Tho that could still be the short-term Rx talking. I have my GI diagnostic next week, for which I'll have to spend the weekend in preparation (ugh), and then Turkey Day after that, and probably not much happening that weekend either. So there's still a part of my brain that's going 'OMG HAVE ALL THE FUN AND CREATIVE STUFF OR ELSE' but really... I just want to chill. I won't *know* anything new about my tummy until December anyway, so not interested in doing more dietary research.

I was hoping November would be a lot more productive in terms of projects and socializing after WeddingCon, but I couldn't help being sick, and now I want to get this medical stuff over with, so its being productive in its own way. I'm trying a controlled, temporary measure of "F#$% it, I give up" for a couple weeks until then. If I socialize or write stuff, awesome, if not then whatevs.


Unfortunately, I'm also starting to rethink my '2014 MOAR CONS' plan, ( Con = tired )

Now that I think of it, taking a couple of weeks off from actively trying to restart my life may be the change I actually need. Then I can start fixing things again if I feel better after that. But then if it takes me *this* long to recover from a trip to PA, maybe more cons isn't such a great idea afterall.

<3 Chrysilla

Yay! I am awake today! This is amazing! Not quite as good as last week (before the late nite phone spam) but better than earlier this week. Also, today I got the barest hint of migraine this morning before it went away on its own. Woot. (Have had to take migraine meds Weds & Thurs, not woot. What is it about June that makes my head hurt???)

Noticeable factors: Over the weekend I went to CC and picked up a variety of GF snacks (not nec paleo). Since Saturday I'd been snacking on 'veggie chips', which include corn but also do that veggie puree thing. Wednesday I switched back to corn chips, Thursday & Friday are noticeably better. So apparently corn chips are magical. Or something. Yesterday I stopped by the overpriced local shop to get organic corn chips, and they're not giving me a tummy ache like they used to. So yay, I can at least have the organic version of a thing that probably isn't very good for me, but is still having an oddly beneficial side effect. *shrugs*

( Sewing= time budget success! Money budget... not sho much. )

Will also try to be a bit more careful with grocery budget for the rest of the month, ( Adventures in Noms! )

On Tuesday I went for needling, and told my needler that I wanted to take July off. B/c a) want to save some extra cash for DCon, b) not sure if acupuncture is really working as well as it used to, and c) I can always get back to needling in August before DCon. If I turn out to be wrong about b, I can always call them and set up another appointment. She totally understood. I asked if I might be building up a tolerance to needling, or if my physical problems are more-fixed so now its the mental/habits problems that need more work. She thinks more likely the latter than the former. But we'll see. Definitely going to be a bit more social in the next 6 weeks, we'll see if that shakes anything else loose in my headmeats. Much as I like my needler, my budget is a bit strained these days, even when I'm not buying fabric.

Also, a DCon friend has offered me a Reiki boost while we're there. Still very Reiki curious, but my attempt at going to the 'student practice session' failed b/c Hurricane Sandy. And then I just got distracted. *shrugs*


I'll probably put off all the grocery shopping (which isn't really that much) until tomorrow, b/c this evening a friend is in town and we might go hang out for a little while wit another friend. Possibly with fancy GF french macaroons. Which I probably won't try baking myself this weekend, since I'm doing other kitchen stuff. But some day, macaron. You too, meringue. Tho the last time I had macaron I got super dizzy, so today we'll see if that was a fluke or if almond flour hates my brain (I use almond *butter* in banana bread & brownies). A lot of gf-baking mommy bloggers are against almond flour, but I don't remember why. *shrugs*


I think I'm more or less off the strict paleo thing now, if that wasn't clear before. I can't keep up strictly with a crazy-rich-ppl diet. I'll happily use their recipes, but with ingredients and equipment that I can actually afford.

And don't get me started about "OMG THIS RECIPE IS TOTES PALEO EVEN THO I FRIED OR BAKED EVERYTHING IN EXPENSIVE BUTTER NOW BUY MY COOKBOOK!" *sigh* Luckily I can usually sub in bacon fat or coconut oil when something needs a room-temp-solid fat. But when they're using full fat cow cream to make ice cream... wtf.

Mind you, todays macarons will probably have dairy in them, but at least the pills fix the tummy ache problem, and it doesn't mess me up for days like gluten (or we'll find out today). The shop also isn't claiming to be Paleo :-P

<3 Chrysilla

Today's been... weird. I'm back up to a '2' now, but at the beginning of the day and before lunch I was all the way down to '1' as in "Should I use a sick day? No, not actually symptomatic of anything. *SIGH*" Low energy, high brainfog, and an annoying behind-the-eyes headache (migraine?) all day.

I went to bed at 11pm-ish, and my alarm went off at 7:30am. But at 5am some random noises woke me up for a while. Eventually I got back to sleep, but by 7:30 I was in a very intense kind of dream cycle, so I felt all kinds of f'ed up when the alarm went off. This morning it felt like I hadn't slept at all, except that I think I got about 7 or 8 hours at least. Srsly? I wonder if I'd be feeling better if I'd just gotten up at 5am. Wth, brain? But this doesn't happen when I wake up at 4am and fall right back to sleep. On the other hand, a rainstorm also rolled in today (did I feel it before I could see it? meh, this is not a superpower I want), and I'm definitely in the PMS sector of my calendar. So Ima cross my fingers for sleep tonite and see what happens :-P



And this is all a huge shame, b/c all weekend I was AMAZING at being functional and productive. OMG. ( All the accomplishments!! )

So after cleaning the balcony on Saturday (OMG YAY) I am still sore four days later. But after reading a blogpost about the wonders of magnesium I had picked up some epsom salts, and figured that achy Sunday nite would be a good time to try them out. My legs and back still hurt but I was more spaced out and happy-fuzzy after. At least I didn't feel worse? I *think* I slept a bit better, but its hard to remember right now. Definitely slept longer on Monday morning than I did on the other days. Srsly, I woke up at 9am on Sunday and couldn't really deal with that fact. I think that's what drove me to the sewing, internal confusion.


Also, my books from Amazon got dropped in the library mailbox Friday afternoon, so I got them this morning. Am trying out a book on the "Sedona Method" for my mental/emotional health. So far its mostly the author talking about how great he & his method are, and I'm having trouble concentrating b/c migraine, so... meh. I'm sure he'll get to something helpful eventually.

( Tarot forecast! )

Still not sure about when I'm going to ease off on hermitting. Astrological omens seem good for getting back out in the world starting this weekend, but I still feel like I'm missing something. Actually, right now I just feel like I have a migraine, so I guess we'll see how I feel tomorrow. Oooow.

I have figured out many things, but according to my newish energy-gauge my levels have gone down pretty steadily. But I'm getting more stuff done too. I don't get it.

<3 Chrysilla

My new health rating scale is still helping me keep things straight in my head, yay. 1-10 just didn't work, I'm too brain fogged to keep track of ten whole settings.



This weekend was ... varied. ( Successes and Fails )

( Nutrition is confusing )

Decided to take just a couple days off for my b'day next month, on the Friday before and Monday after so I can a) get a 4 day weekend, and b) miss my two 'closing' nights which tend to be more annoying when its finals week. And that leaves plenty of time off for DCon, a 'pillow' in case of extended illness, and an extra week off for winter break.

Am less sure about going on a spending spree for my b'day. Might lose control. But April would have been more in the black if not for being late on my sales tax and missing that one therapy session, so assuming nothing like that happens in May I might be OK? Maybe I'll just do a BPAL run, and get myself those new/old walking shoes, tho was going to do the latter anyway.

Unsure about the fancy chocolate, given that I live in NYC, but I dislike the fancy grocery stores where one gets the fancy chocolate. And not sure if I want to go to Chocolate Haven, b/c its depressing to get plain (tho nummy) dark chocolate bars when there's a counter full of bonbons you can't eat (dairy, possible gluten intrusion). But if anyone has any recs on dairy/gluten-free fancy chocolate, feel free to comment.


I still think the hermitting is helping me get things together. ( Anxiety and Projects. )

This weekend got eaten by jewelry (tho that's not a bad thing) so maybe next weekend will be writing. Oh, except for one event. Darnit, next weekend then. Or maybe some weeknights if I'm lucky and don't lose track of my motor functions again.

Tho there are also a ton of cartoons I'd like to catch up on via Netflix. Whups :-)

<3 Chrysilla

Last night I went to acupuncture, and while she didn't have any of the herbal supplements I wanted to keep taking at her Manhattan location, she agreed to needle me for anti-anxiety + pro-sleep rather than winding me up like a clockwork toy. Today I still feel kinda 'Ick' in the head, but noticeably less so than the rest of the work week.

Tho it seems like lots of ppl I know have been having a rough week sleep/dream wise. Srsly? Spring gets here and ppl stop sleeping properly enough to not be cranky all the time? I question this system :-P

Another weirdness, started eating rice again b/c I thought the accidental low-carbing was making me feel more run down. Started with brown rice, but too much fiber :-P. Then white rice, but this week I noticed it giving me some kind of sugar crash. So next week I'm back to low carb lunches with moar veggies, just to see what happens.

And I completely forgot to line up a new sleep doc this week. B/c I was too sleepy to remember all week. Damn you irony. But it was nice to sleep in this morning instead of going to see Dr.Jerk before work, yay.

( Teh life planz )

( Groceries, the new enemy of budgets? )

And in line with the resurrection themes of Ostara and Easter, Ima try making one of those vision board thingies this weekend. For the ideal life I want to have, the first step on the path being my recent Spoon-Saving-Manifesto thingie. If I don't space out and forget, and or run out of printer ink. I don't really use my cork board for anything productive (except hanging the paper calendar) so its worth a shot, right? All the pagans are doing it nowadays, or something.

Oh, and my NYS sales tax was due on 3/20, and I need to open some kind of online account to pay them now, so it'll be a minimum of $50 this year :-P. So this *should* also be tax weekend.

There are lots of things I'd like to work on, but just haven't been able to get it together for one reason or another. But I've had one better night of sleep, and now its the weekend, so *crosses fingers*. Also, I got that live Bway recording of Rent on DVD from Netflix, yaaaay something to look forward to.

<3 Chrysilla

So Wicked Faire was a mixed bag as always. In the good category, saw good friends, heard good music, learned a new kink thing, etc. As usual its best to focus on the community aspects of WF, b/c the business side is so hit-or-miss. Forgot to take pictures tho, I was very much in con-overload all weekend.

( Bad Wicked. Why do I keep coming back here? )

So yah, and then I was sick Mon thru Wed, tho luckily I had Mon off. ( Health stuffs )

( BEADS!!!!!! )

I did manage to get my con cash to the bank today so I can pay my bills this weekend. And from a cursory glance it looks like I was actually under budget for this month (in part due to the annoying deposit the WF hotel demanded in August, and I didn't know I was vending until December, yaaay). I have all of my necessary tax documents too, but I'ma wait until I can brain better after more flu recovery. Again from a cursory glance last week, it looks like I don't have to write the IRS any checks this year.

And that's pretty much my accomplishments for the week, a list that would be much longer if I hadn't been in con-overload and flu-land. Tho I guess surviving flu-land is an accomplishment.

<3 Chrysilla

ps, Happy Birthday Babylon 5 :-)