Twitter puts windows where there were walls.

Darn! That's not what I meant to paste! Let's try again. (That paste was from @pistachio, a tweep I adore.)

Week 3
Day 14 (or ovulation) to Day 22
Today's hormone-cast: Even if you get your recommended seven to eight hours of sleep, it'll be hard to muster a lot of energy today. No, your co-workers aren't sneaking sleeping pills into your Yoplait. The slow-down is simply a side effect of rising progesterone, which is a hormone that has a sedating, sleepy effect on you.

Thanks Gabrielle!

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Last night I was ready to think about bed by 9:30, and in bed by 10. And it took me at least an hour before I left the house for my walk this morning, and I dawdled. And somehow it is now almost half past eleven. It's good to know my hormones are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Now if I could convince myself to fight nature and get some work done...

Pushing past PMS

Week 2

Day 8 to Day 13
Today's hormone-cast: You may be thinking of ways to get ahead at work, come up with a new source of income or get voted into some kind of elected office. That's your testosterone pushing you to gain a little more power. As it rises, it increases feelings of ambition and competitiveness!

from Hormonology.

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Ha ha, that must be why yesterday I came up with some idea to make a DVD for library users about how to take care of DVDs, books, etc. Yesterday almost kicked my butt, so it's a good thing I had extra hormones going on!

Dreams n'at

Today's plunging estrogen isn't all bad. Anecdotal evidence shows that when this hormone descends, it helps boost your creative thinking! So if you have a problem you need to solve, it'll be easier to find an imaginative solution. If you have a gift to give, you'll find it easier to make one by hand. And if you have a blog entry to write, you'll find it easier to wow readers with your colorful tales! (from Hormonology.)

I had two bizarre dreams last night. They both had to do with having my period, in excess, and being in bathrooms. The one was a public bathroom that had the definite ew factor plus the fact that I had to trip over some sort of stairs to get to it. The second one was that at work I was really on (which is funny, since I've been really "off" the past coupla weeks and yesterday at home was "Little Miss Homemaker.") But then I had to go into the bathroom right off our department, and the lock was broken. So while I'm dealing with blood, blood, blood, I had at least three people try to get in. There were reviews of children's books on the walls of the bathroom, talking about how to tell if a particular picture book was good by amount of times the adult could stand to read it. (Which I think is a good way, since the adult is the one who will be doing the reading, most of the time.) In the first dream, I was meeting my aunt for lunch. She's been dead for almost ten years. This is the second dream I've had with her in it. I wonder if part of it is that I'm now more in contact with her daughter, one of my favorite cousins (Kiki), or if...I don't know. Dreams are such strange things.

In other news, I've started another blog. I haven't written anything on it yet, but it's going to be more political, which doesn't really fit with the tone of Pink Sneakers N'at. The first post will be a bit from an email I wrote to a friend today.

Your Hormone Hormonology for Today...

Week 1

First day of period to Day 7
Today's hormone-cast: Keep your eye on the clock this morning: you may be running late around 8 am. The reason? Japanese scientists found that your hormones make your internal clock run more slowly at certain points in the day, making you feel like you have more time than you really do! from http://www.myhormonology.com/

Interesting...I have been running late this week. Not by a lot, but I have had to reschedule morning chiro appts 2x. So I'm going tonight after work. And last night I got a bit of a surge around 8pm so on the way home had Bell Grande Nachos at Taco Bell. Scarfed them down. Came home, went STRAIGHT to bed. So great, I'm dealing with the infection that won't go away AND UMS symptoms (ugly mood swings, the thing that happens after PMS).

And my font wants to change every single paragraph. Wonderful.

In other news (font remained the same...)

But I'm changing it back...I'm getting rid of the sofa that has been my companion since I moved to my 3rd floor walk-up. I think it probably could use a good steam clean and basically, I'm too cheap to do that AND I have the twin frame and mattress waiting in the basement. Soooo...I'm hoping to entice men from church with beer.

Can I take a nap now???

The only illness where you don't get a covered dish.

Am watching (while purging my magazines, because it's too painful to sit and really watch) Shadow Voices, a video put out by Mennonites about Mental Health. From the video:

it's okay to have AIDS, diabetes, cancer: yet the stigma for Mental Health exists.

Man, speaking of his brother: He'd rather tell me he's on crack than he's got schizophrenia.

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When I was depressed, no one thought I might want a covered dish, or someone to come wash my dishes. (God bless Sally, who feeds me when I show up at her house and sometimes gives me food to take home.)

But when I think of the people that get months of meals when they give birth--a happy event that generally gets a lot of support. And when I send out an email saying that I am depressed, I get asked if I'm okay, awkwardly. I got more support when I broke up with Max than any time I have asked for help from depression.

If you know someone with depression:

• offer them a meal, either in a restaurant or at your home, or take home.
• If you have time, call them. See if they need help around the house.
  
• YOU DO NOT NEED A DEGREE (even a GED) to be a friend to someone who is hurting mentally.
  
• If you don't know what to do, talk to someone who might: your pastor, your mom, a friend who knows about mental health.
• above all, REACH out. Send an email, a card, flowers. Prayer is great, but let that person KNOW that you are praying for them.
  

In which SL gets the armband...

Dear reader, the ridiculous-meter on taking a pregnancy test while one is menstruating was not lost on me, but it's part of the study,* so there you go.

I also got a "life assessment" which is basically how were your moods lately, etc. I had to fill in a questionnaire concerning how much activity (as in physical, lifting, walking, home repairs, etc.) I'd done in the past week. Fortunately, since Katy and I did a LOT of walking on Saturday, I could answer that I'd walked for 2-4 hours last week.

The armband has a sensor that measures caloric output, my movements, etc. I wear it for the next 7 days except in the shower or swimming. Yes, to bed. For this, I will get paid $20 at the end of the week. Sally said, ooh, I want one. Do you want to be bipolar? No, I think we established that I'd like to be boring.

(*This is all part of an exercise study to see if folks that have bipolar feel better if they are exercising regularly. I know that to be true, so if you need me to be a part of the hard numbers and you'll pay me, I'm in!)

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I have quotes adorning my desk. This morning whilst getting up, I thought, I need to start writing again. REALLY writing, working on my novella. This would go along with the quote, "There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you." (Maya Angelou) My dear father has been trying to send me Valentine's flowers for almost a week (did I mention he broke his arm?) which goes along with the quote, "Send me flowers while I'm alive. They won't do me a damn bit of good after I'm dead." (Joan Crawford.) Taped next to it, a new addition, cut surely from an issue of REAL SIMPLE magazine, are the wise words of William Morris: "If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

To which I will point out I recently re-found the piece of Jerusalem stone my father sent me once that merely has two footprints and says "...it was then that I carried you."

Be healthy!

Eggplant Parmesan (no I'm not cooking, I'm going through files)

and it seemed silly to have an entire "My Documents" folder dedicated to "Recipes." I made this last summer.

Eggplant Parmesan (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Eggplant-Parmesan-II/Detail.aspx and Kitch survival guide)

2 medium eggplants, peeled.

2 cups seasoned bread crumbs

2 cups grated mozz cheesse

spaghetti sauce

1 cup grated parm cheese

2 eggs

1 tsp. Salt

½ tsp. Pepper

Salt the eggplant first, let sit for 20 min, rinse in cold water, THEN dip in egg.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Dip eggplant slices in egg, then in bread crumbs. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes on each side.

3. In a 9x13 inch baking dish spread spaghetti sauce to cover the bottom. Place a layer of eggplant slices in the sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with the cheeses. Sprinkle basil on top.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

sleep...

Um, isn't the point of sleep that you wake up refreshed? Instead of exhausted?

Many dreams (I dreamt that the Emmys were unscripted and bizarre and more bizarre stuff...) and awaken to slam, slam.

Off to shower, off to work. Ugh.