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.

************

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!)

*************

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.

still sick, sick of being sick

Major victory: for the first time in, a long time, I washed my face before bed. AND I exfoliated. And I put on night cream.

But you know what, I still woke up coughing and creating too much mucous. And pink Kleenex litter the floor of my apartment.

Ugh.

Lifestyle tips from Sarah Louise...tip #28

Not allowing yourself to grieve: not a good idea.

Telling yourself you are stupid to be so thin skinned that a single email can start the tears again: give yourself some grace.

But I do need to get out of this "me, me, me." Oh help.