Desert Magnolia

To say I'm extremely healthy would be an understatement. I am blessed with strong genes, which means, naturally, that I take my wellness for granted. But not now. For the last five days my life has revolved around trying to get comfortable enough to not want to crawl out of my own skin. The aches, the low grade (but fucking persistent) fever, the mucous...good lord don't get me started on the number of kleenexes that have given their lives so my nose can be dry for about fourteen seconds - all of these things are part of this year's flu virus, and I'm not happy to be experiencing ANY of them thankyouverymuch. Things that have helped so far include several Chinese herbal formulas that are working at a deep level to rally my immune system to kick this goddamned virus' ass, Advil (I broke down..I tried for the first few days to just do herbs and they weren't enough. I figured if, in ancient China, someone had the flu and had Advil and didn't take it, the...

Happy New Year!  I hope you are all in a place where you feel ready to press on after the holidays, and that your year will be filled with much happiness and enough adventures to make it interesting! I don't know what ours holds, yet. I mean, there's the whole school thing, which goes on and on and on, though at some point I will be launched from the academic coccoon (they tell me at the veeeery end of 2016...) and into the world of board exams, licensing, and heaven forbid, practice building. But there is still so very much to learn, so very much to do, so very much to help begin to pull all the pieces of this very complex education together before the launch happens that I dare not even think about the end. Yet. But at some point, I will. We joined a gym. Or I should say my spouse rejoined, and I joined. And so far I like it. I like the machines. I like the choice of treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes. I like getting there, getting into a zone, doing sets, wiping down th...

This whole vacation thing is growing on me. Today my big accomplishment (everything is relative), was getting out of my pjs, into yoga pants and a sweatshirt, picking up takeout salads, then coming back home and getting back into my pj bottoms. Seriously. Yes, I worked a little. But in my pjs. And son and I watched the new Spider Man movie, which was a terrible waste of almost 2 hours and we're sad we won't get that time back. And then he and I watched several episodes of Ally McBeal, though we both fell asleep during the 3rd episode so we'll have to rewatch that I guess. My face is washed, my teeth are brushed, and I am violating no personal hygiene rules, but I have to say, this whole hanging out in one's pj's for ALL DAY? Is a wonderful way to go.

It's the morning after. Not of a steamy love connection (unfortunately), but the morning after two weeks of intensity the likes of which I hope not to experience again any time soon. Let me explain. I already talked about finals, and wow, after my 9th round of them (yep, I've done this 9 times now!, only 6 to go....) I'm as used to them as I'm going to get. In other words, they're crazy hard and there's a ton of pressure to do well, as we would expect. Part of the trick, I think, is knowing what's coming...again and again and again....sometimes that can be harder than walking into something blind, don't you think? So there were finals, and now they are done. Because life wasn't already full/intense/stressful enough, a hot water pipe decided to burst under our living room. Which is, of course, on a concrete slab. Which needed to be, yes...jackhammered up. Again. (This happened once before, a mere 6 days before daughter's 18th birthday, ...

This week is the second week of finals, and I have two more to go. Thursday's is my Herbs II final, and I expect it to be a bear. Friday is Public Health and Epidemiology, and I expect it to be full of facts but manageable. The PH and Epi final has one thing over the Herbs II final in that it's all English, or mostly even though public health jargon is replete with acronyms, as one would expect from an area that deals with many government departments. But this Herbs final is going to take some finessing to manage. See we learn herbs with both their Pin Yin name (ie Chen Xiang) and their Latin name (Aquilariae Lignum resinatum). And then we learn about 20 details about each, and then we learn to distinguish between herbs in categories, ie which one is best for which condition but still good for other conditions, and so on. This semester we've learned 121 herbs in 17 categories. So far I've completed the study guide/take home quiz that our prof provided us. I feel ...

My mom has been visiting. As I mentioned before, she hasn't been here for a long time, so things felt awkward, and in many ways I realize I don't know her anymore. Conversations started out a little stilted, and there was a lot of qualifying and backfilling of information and such. There are many gaps in the information continuum, and we had to make sure the stories made sense. During her visit I realized that she is, and always will be, a very gifted artist. She is just one of those people who would rather be engrossed in a complex project (she does amazing reverse applique using silks and wonderful wild fabrics and she has a fabulous eye and creates works of, yes...art...with ease). Living with an artist isn't easy when you're growing up. She loved me deeply, but her compulsion to do her art was that - a compulsion - and if she didn't get enough time, a lot of time, to create, she'd go a little crazy and feel very much like a rat in a maze instead of a ...

A few months back I played with adopting the Mediterranean Diet. In principle, it seemed like a really good choice. I am, after all, half of that region of the world, and felt like maybe I needed to expand my horizons while reducing my animal product intake. Huuuuuuge personal mistake. (I know, Dr. G, but I am what I am.) In the time I opted for chickpeas and legumes as primary protein sources I noticed a need for much more on my plate or in my bowl to satisfy my nutritional needs. I didn't mind that, and just increased what I ate. Lots and lots of veggies, etc., but I was always hedging what felt like a sugar crash, and given my history with that, I didn't like it. I felt bloaty most of the time. I felt less sharp, a little more on edge, and spent what I deemed to be way too much time thinking about my next meal. I had terrible PMS. Terrible. I won't elaborate, but really who wants to worsen that little monthly nugget? Not me... I gained almost 10 pounds, pou...