Posts (page 2)

Things that are fucking sweet:

• That dumbass contractor didn't show for the trial, so we won by default.  My lawyer made me take the back stairs out of the court room because, "If he shows, we have to go to trial.  This way, we win!"   I was all, "Stairs it is, dude!"   Now he's going to work on the collection part.  I took three xanax before the trial, and went to lunch with my friend patrick afterwards.  We drank beer, and the minute we got back to my house, we both passed out on the sofa for like 2 hours.  TEAM NAP FTW!
• I never, ever, ever have to go back to the plantation.  It just hit me yesterday.  I am fucking PSYCHED.
• I start my new job today!  I have an aeron chair!  I made homemade cinnamon rolls!  Shit is sweet!
• Do y'all remember a website called The Safeword?  Well, the awesome lady who ran that site emailed me today, and it was awesome to hear from her.  I'd thought of her recently, and tried unsuccessfully to hunt her down.  It's always awesome to hear from old pals.  High-five!

All right dudes, PEACE OUT.  (As Erin once said to me in the desert, after taking another pair of Tylenol PM at 6 in the morning.)

Today's my last day at my old job.  I feel like I'm being freed from the plantation.  In fact, I'm going to start referring to my old job as The Plantation.  My boss gave this ridiculously insincere card and this gift that obviously came out of her "gift closet."   In my exit interview, the woman asked me why I was leaving, and I said, "Well, there just really wasn't any room for career growth here, I tried to stay but I didn't get any of the jobs I interviewed for, so my only real option was to, you know, leave [The Plantation].  So you know, it's been a fun 8 years, but uh, I guess it's time for me to peace out!"

Her eyes bugged out of her head when I said "peace out."

I accepted a new position.  I am super excited about it.  My last day at my current crummy old job is July 7.  I feel like running laps around the building and high-fiving everyone. 

I ESCAPED!!   I'M FREEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Last night I made such a good dinner that I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to make it once a week until I am sick of it.

Tacos de Carne Asada

I marinated a 2 pound sirloin roast over night in a mixture of:
Worcestershire
Tabasco brand Chipotle sauce
Juice of 1/2 fresh lime
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

Then I made some pico de gallo before I started cooking the steak:
two small tomatoes, diced
1/2 a sweet onion, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
juice of 1/2 a lime
salt & pepper

I grilled the beef over medium heat about 5 minutes a side, turning twice---check for your desired level of doneness, my steak was very thick.  I brought the steak in and let it sit for a minute to seal the juices further, then I thinly sliced the beef against the grain and chopped the slices into half-inch pieces, TACO SIZED!     Then I tossed the beef with a little more worcestershire and chipotle  sauce.

Warm CORN tortillas. (Flour tortillas are for gringos.) Heat a cast iron skillet and heat corn tortillas on both sides for 10 seconds each side. 

Spoon the carne asada into two corn tortillas (one is too tender and will tend to rip)
Liberally top with pico de gallo.
Lose your mind at how delicious it is.
I ate three, which was one too many, but I wanted to eat six more and explode with deliciousness.

So, it's been a week and a half on the probiotics / Tums diet.  And so far, so good. I've been RIDICULOUSLY gassy, but I am cautiously optimistic.  I have not been as strict about the diet as my father would probably like (dairy and starch are hard for me to avoid) but I have been religious about my supplements and the antacids. I had to quit taking the Fish Oil in the morning because the ungodly fishy burps were making me suicidal, but I just take 2 at night instead.  I have also added 2 Fiber Choice tablets twice a day, once between breakfast and lunch, and one between lunch and dinner.

Anyway, Sunday night we went out for Mexican.  Usually Mexican is a risky proposition for me, the salt, spice, cheese, all of it is a guaranteed emergency in my future.  Sunday I ordered the carnitas tapatias, which were really unreasonably fatty, and I was concerned.  But I was OK in the restaurant.  And I was OK on the drive home.  And I was even OK when we got home.  In fact, no emergency at all.  I was totally fine.  I was still super nervous.  But ... I don't know.  I'm still nervous.  I still am so afraid to trust my stomach with anything after so many years of KNOWING that I was going to have an emergency.   But I am cautiously optimistic.

I'm going to continue to take the Rolaids 4x a day for another week, and I'll continue taking the VSL #3 twice a day, and I'll continue taking the leicithin and fish oil at night, and the fiber between meals for a few more weeks.   I'll slowly taper most of the supplements off over the next few months and see what changes, if anything, with the removal of the supplements.  I might actually keep taking the supplements and VSL until it runs out, and just drop the rolaids for now.  I dunno.  I haven't decided.

Anyway, that's the update.  I have not had emergency poops since I quit the Rifaximin and started the probiotics. 

Have you heard of this new-fangled thing?  You can order ICE CREAM on the INTERNET.  You can make ANY FLAVOR COMBINATION YOU WANT.

So of course, I made:
Flavor: Root Beer
Flavor: Habanero
Mix-in: Sour Gummy Worms
Mix-in: Parmesan Cheese

NOM!  The best is, it's only $120 a gallon!   AWESOME!  (Lulz, j/k.  That is a car payment for me.)

Thanks to Andrea for pointing this out.  We grossed each other out with disgusto-combos for like an hour, easy.

I've been going to a gastroenterologist to try to figure out what is up with the chronic diarrhea I've had for years.  So far we've done the following:

--stool sample:  came back normal
--colonoscopy:  came back normal, slight inflammation, probably from the sodium preparatory solution I had to drink
--celiac blood test: came back normal
--amitriptyline anti-depressant off-label use for IBS:  Did not like side effects of drug, stopped taking it after 3 days
--Rifaximin antibiotic: worked like a charm, 400mg 2x a day for 10 days.  Only one episode of "emergency poops" and I was testing every dietary boundary there is. 

I stopped taking the Rifaximin last night, and this morning I started my new diet, which is, essentially the following:

Daily supplements: 
--Rolaids 4x a day, particularly first thing in the morning and last thing at night (there is a chemical reason for this)
--Fish Oil between meals, 2 capsules / day, one between breakfast & lunch, one before bed (also a chemical reason for this)
--Lecithin tablet before bed (to restore gut lining)
--Probiotics, particularly VSL #3.   I'm taking 2 in the morning and evening with meals for the first week, and then down to 1 with each meal for the second and third weeks. (to repopulate gut with beneficial bacteria.  This is a really good blend, from what I can tell.  I will have it analyzed in a secret lab and report back on the purity.)

Diet:
--Absolutely zero soda, especially those with phosphoric acid  (coke, especially)
--Low-starch
--Meat
--Fresh vegetables and some fruits
--Nuts, especially almonds and walnuts
--High soluable-fiber diet, including but not limited to Fiber One cereal.
--Lots of Activia brand yogurt
--Limit dairy products other than yogurt, I switched to soy milk for now, although long-term that will aggravate my uterine problems because of the phyto-estrogens.

Today I'm pretty miserable, but I think it's the change from the bacterial holocaust from the antibiotic, and now the bacteria are all down in my gut having a bacteria party, duking it out for the primo spots in my gut.  I want the good guys to win, thus the specific diet and careful preparations.   Today I am incredibly gassy and my gut is rumbling so loud that it is audibly upset.  I have had diarrhea, but I think that is a holdover from the last days of the Rifaximin, where I was not careful at all about what I ate: even Allen had diarrhea this weekend from eating waffles, fried chicken, junk food.   I was stocking up on crap because I knew that for the next few weeks I was going to have to be very careful about my diet.

Anyway, I'll keep this blog posted.  My diet is specifically tailored to inhibit growth of bad bacteria in my gut, and to promote good bacterial growth. I could get all technical and list all the microbes that are duking it out in my system, but I suspect that's not of much interest to anyone except maybe Angela, and even she probably doesn't care.

So that's that.  That's how my gut is doing.   The Rifaximin was pretty awesome while I was taking it.  I was able to go eat in a restaurant and go for a walk afterwards.  I did not have "emergency poops" at all while taking the antibiotic, which seems to confirm my suspicion that my problem is not a physical gut problem, but a bacterial imbalance problem.  I'll keep this updated with news.  I know  a lot of people suffer from IBS, and I hope to be able to cure myself.  I am hopeful.

Thanks to Casey for this one:

Good:
I have another interview today!  Whee!  I am buddies with the spouse of one of the people on the hiring committee and they are apparently "excited" to interview me!  WHEEE!

Bad:
I did not get the job I interviewed for 2 weeks ago.  Oh well.  I hope they got somebody awesome.  I might send them a consolation cake, just as a "no hard feelings" gesture.

Ugly:
Two of my foster kittens were adopted to a woman who told me that they were going to be outdoor-only cats.  Her story kept changing depending on who she was talking to, but the fact remains that somebody rescued these outdoor feral kittens, and I hand-tamed them and loved them and made them pets, and now they are going to live outdoors again, which I don't think is the ideal situation for two 8-week-old, hand-tamed kittens.  (Or, live on a screened-in porch and be allowed in the garden on occasion?  The woman's story changed every 10 minutes, but because her "references" checked out, they allowed the adoption.)   I think we could have found those kittens a better indoor-only home. 

The shelter recently changed their rules to allow indoor-outdoor adoptions, as well as adoptions to people with the intent to declaw.  I disagree with both situations under most circumstances, although I'll admit that certain behavior problems (spraying, for instance, or aggressive behavior with scratching) might warrant one or the other in adult cats only, and only in certain behavioral problem instances.  I am not so high and mighty as to say "I would never," but I think the shelter has a responsibility to evaluate those behavioral situations, and find the BEST POSSIBLE homes for our animals, and I did not feel that this was the best possible home for two 8-week-old kittens.  

Anyway, I had the shelter manager find another foster home for the kittens I was raising, and I gave my notice as Crew Leader.   Of course, all the volunteers are devastated to lose me, and I am devastated to leave them and all the animals.  But I feel like I have to stand by my beliefs, and in this case, I believe that we are possibly compromising the happiness and safety of the animals we are rescuing by not being more specific in the adoption criteria, and I won't be associated with that. I volunteer my time and energy and love there, and I can't pour those resources into something that I no longer believe is doing the best possible thing for the animals.  It was hard to quit, but it was harder to stay.   It was, for me, the right choice.    I start at the SPCA the week after my last shift at the old shelter.