Jul 31, 2013

Stealing Other's Ideas

This is sometimes how it goes.


Loving lifted from the Oatmeal - you can view the whole pannel in all it's amazingness at Some Thoughts and Musings About Making Things for the Web

I have been writing more fiction lately - not really blogging more. And, you know what, I'm ok with that!

Be Part of the Adventure
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestions.

Jul 10, 2013

Nada. . .

Sorry guys, I have no current adventures going on.

The most exciting thing is my trip to Canada – I leave on Sunday!

Bike training is starting to happen, unless my body gives out.


Otherwise, no adventures. No suggestions have been coming in. 

Be Part of the Adventure
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestions.

Jul 8, 2013

Conquer my Food Issues

No, I don’t have an eating disorder. I have a disorder with eating. I did have a food allergy/sensitivity test done about a year ago and through my own denial. .well. .that’s a strong word. Ignorance? Forgetfulness? The feeling is between denial and ignorance with a dash of forgetfulness.

Let’s review what I need to avoid at all times. The scale is 1-5, 5 being the highest.

Oh. Right.
Moo-ve Over
Anyhow, I have been eating a lot of dairy. A lot of dairy for me is about a tablespoon of Greek yogurt a couple times a week coupled with cheese at least once a week. I was getting into Greek yogurt as a way to get some more protein into my NutriBullet shakes and totally forgot I needed to avoid dairy.

Why? Because I normally don’t do anything with dairy - I don’t drink milk or eat cereal or use a dairy creamer in my coffee. I only like to snack on artisan type cheeses with wine, so, I don’t put cheese on any foods I make. Unless it’s really a slight amount.

Enter the issues.

Weed-whacker in my tummy plus fun-runs to the bathroom, brain fog, body pain - all this had me worried until I double checked my card and realized I was doing it all to myself.

Reasons
Most of this is my fault. I actually just went off living as a normal person because I thought I could.

I evaluated why – you know, in my brain. Since, in my world, a lot of people make fun of whatever health issue I am going through or look at me like it’s impossible I have the  issues I have, it becomes very easy for me to convince myself I’m completely normal and nothing is wrong. A lot of this has to do with making other people feel ok to be around me and the other half is people trying to be “supportive” and telling me I can do anything. The truth is, I can’t. Sometimes, when everyone is convinced nothing is wrong with you, you start to believe it since no one is actually looking out for you.

I do my best to keep my sense of humor about being difficult but I know I’m a major bummer.

The Test
Not completely convinced – I did an experiment.
This is about 1,040 calories

I should add, I thought maybe I was lactose intolerant even though my symptoms do not match up with it. My brother is lactose intolerant and responds to the tablets. I did not take any tablets. Some of this is because my blood test shows the issues with milk as a whole which is not the same as a lactose intolerance.

Anyhow - for science I ate an entire quart of Zhwahels Ice Cream – which is some of the best ice cream around. Additionally, it was the Black Raspberry Krisp that my friend Tee and I feel in love with 5 years ago that was never produced after. It delicious blackberry ice cream with these chunks of sweet oatmeal crisp clusters.

*drool*

I communicated to Zwahlens Twitter that I missed Blackberry Crisp and they said they can’t make it because of the lack of blackberries. However, black raspberries are pretty good, too, and Tee bought us like a gallon of the Black Raspberry Krisp.

So, I ate my quart.

Aftermath
I do not want to eat dairy anymore. Ever.

I think that was the fastest anything has ever moved through my system. Parts of my dinner didn't even get their full time in my digestive tract. I even had the awesome green stuff coming out my back-end - which is actually bile - proving:
  1. I eat a lot of greens (less likely, by the way).
  2. Gastrointestinal Malabsorption: Cow's milk being one of the causes.
Eww, Manda, that's so disgusting. You wrote about poop!

You know what, padre? Everyone poops and those who do not poop probably wish they did. People are all supportive and happy about what goes in the front end but never pay attention to the back-end. I am here to educate you - your body can send you thousands of signals through poop in how it is processing food, using food and if you have anything from dehydration to an allergy to cancer.

Ever seen undigested food in the bowl, paco? That means your body is revolting it back-end style and can't digest it. That tells you a lot.

Respect the poop! Learn about your body. Make poop you are proud of!

Anyhow. . .

Lucky, my foster cat, summed up how my soul felt the rest of the night and into the next day.

Shame
Future Plans
Cheese will have to be sheep's milk from now on. It's ok, I like cheese and sheep's milk cheese. I just have to be careful and check it to make sure.

I will miss ice cream (not for a little while, though) so my friend Tee gave me tons of thoughts about coconut milk ice cream, sheep's ice cream (I wanna try it, but, hard to find) and other types of ice cream. I might have to give them a go.

Anyhow, lesson learned.

I will be sticking to my little chart and avoiding those things that bother me. I have a feeling I will be much happier in many ways. Since my totally desirable man-friend, Bob, also needs to avoid some food after he had the same test done, we can do this together.

Be Part of the Adventure
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestions.

Jul 5, 2013

Happy Birthday, America

The birth of our county was not a quick thing - it really took a couple days to get the whole thing out and all that. So, you know, you really can celebrate America from like June 14 to July 5.

Anyhow, yesterday, I celebrated my country with family, friends, steak and beverages. Today. . .I am the only one who made it to work in my department.

Holla at this hard-working American lady, here.




Be Part of the Adventure
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestions.

Image Credit
Decal from 123rf.com

Jul 3, 2013

Learn to Play Dominoes

Bob, my hot tomali man-friend, and I journeyed to his brother’s house for dinner on Saturday night. I did not pass any United States Post Offices. I should also make it clear that it was Bob’s brother’s finance who made dinner. And it was fan-damn-tastic.

If you don’t know, I love me some good chicken and rice. And it was a strewed chicken over rice and I was the only one who ate two platefuls. I actually have traded out the rice in my diet for quinoa because I don’t @#$% it up as much so some good ol’ rice was super delicious.

The Background
Bob’s family play games. This is very alien to me because my family does not play games. Traditionally, we hunt and drink. And shoot guns. And eat. Debate. Mostly drink. Before I met Bob, I think the last time I even played a game was Apples to Apples in 2003. Before that, it was probably when my age was a single digit.

In college, when people wanted to play drinking games, I would totally laugh at them. Why am I playing a game to dictate when I drink? I’m just going to finish my beer like an adult.

Anyhow, Bob’s world is all about games.

This isn't a bad thing – he taught me how to play Rummy 500 and pinochle. I love 500. I do not love pinochle.

[Sorry babe, I love you a great deal but I don’t think I will ever enjoy pinochle.]

The Game
I only played dominoes once. It was a long time ago and there was also food around so I was really more interested in the food.

My first thought was there were a lot less dominoes than I remembered. I think we were playing some other type of game. I also remember in kindergarten was had a big box of dominoes  o build things with. I assumed that was the game.

The game was pretty fun. We played in teams and the game involves strategies like counting and suits and stuff. I didn't really pick up on that. As with most games, at certain points someone would call out how they knew what everyone had or how my love or I screwed someone. I couldn't figure it out too well. But, with good people, it was fun.

Future Plans
I bought a pack of dominoes.

For reals.

Since I spend Sunday mostly alone, I tried to get the cat to play with me.

Your move, buddy!

Then I learned how to play Castle Rock. I found trying to read the instructions more confusing for other games. Ahh well, it will be something fun my man-friend and I can play.

Be Part of the Adventure
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestio


Jul 1, 2013

Take a Picture a Day – Follow Up

Mission level: General fail

Background
Back on the last day of May, I took on a lengthy challenge, which you can read about, know as Take One Picture A Day.

How hard can this be? Oddly enough, it sort of moves between being hard and being easy.

I take a lot of pictures of Lucky – my latest foster cat. Because he’s just so damn cute and he does funny things.

I wanted to take pictures that were really “deep” or “meaningful” and came to the conclusion, the mundane can be quite significant. Sort of like when I was in this second-hand/vintage shop and there was old yearbooks and autograph books – many with mundane pictures of people doing mundane things and writing about mundane events – and I realized I was holding someone’s lost item. Someone’s autograph book filled with signatures and happy notes. The notes, the people and the time was unknown to me but it felt significant that here I was holding it. Who could have ever imagined?

Progress
I set up a separate folder in my DropBox for photos for this mission, and, well. . .I sort of took the same amount of photos I take on a normal basis.

Anyhow, here are my first 30 pictures! And by 30, I mean 18.

My life is boring

True story. Boring life. I don't have many things to take pictures of except for myself and my cat. Bummer.

Future Plans
I am torn between trying this again or giving up. I think it ties back into wanting to find or see something meaningful or dramatic. I guess I have a lot of friends who sort of do that. Then again, they are far less structured and seem to always be going to the beach or hanging out with friends.

Since I am an introvert who works a normal 9-5 job and who doesn't like to take a lot of pictures of other people, either, I don't have a wonderful canvas.

And, with that said - I feel it is even more important to try this again. 

Be Part of the Adventure
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestion.