Assuming it isn’t too late, that is. Assuming you haven’t abandoned ship given the eons since the last post. An explanation may be in order with a content warning for those who are tired of hearing me belly-aching about health problems.
I’ve spent the past 7 weeks or so undergoing a battery of tests — from EKGs to blood work, etc. — to try to figure out what the hell is wrong with me. Why I’ve been exhausted all the time, with little no energy for anything, including writing (which includes, of course, this blog.) Why my heart’s been doing some wonky antics. Why my metabolism seems to have ground to a halt, causing me to gain weight even when doing everything in my power to achieve the opposite effect. And why I have this baffling, first-time painful cystic acne on my chin, which will simply not go away.
What my doc has settled on is polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is a metabolic disorder that can account for all my symptoms. That means I’ve started new meds which will hopefully help resolve all those symptoms and, at the very least, will regulate my metabolism.
I’ve only been on the meds a few days so my upswing in mood and energy is likely not attributable to that. Part of it is probably the relief in feeling like I have an answer and a course of treatment. But the other part is a factor in my health that I keep trying to ignore: sugar.
I’ve blogged about my struggles with sugar in the past. I love it. I have what can only be described as an addictive relationship to it. And it makes me feel like crap. It affects my mood, my concentration, my energy level, my sleeping patterns. But I keep going back to the trough and trying it again.
The truth is that I really don’t want to refined sugar to be the answer to my problems. I’m being a bit of a toddler about it, stamping my feet and crossing my arms. But I guess I needed to feel as bad and frustrated as I did the past month or so in order to try to make a change again. And it helps. I don’t feel 100% by any means just by cutting out added sugar in my diet, but I feel a lot less despondent, I have some energy — enough to get back to the gym (albeit to work out very lamely) and to other things like, well, writing and blogging.
So I guess we’ll see how long it takes for me to forget about it again. In the meantime, I’m blogging! I’m blogging!
September 29th, 2008
Today, I received a catalog called — I kid you not — “Pecans, Plain & Fancy.”
Is that not the funniest thing you’ve ever heard? No. Must be me. Been laughing for hours over it. This one’s a keeper.
September 11th, 2008
So here was our logic: given the small turnout Obama got in Toledo yesterday, and given the fact that it was Labor Day weekend, and the fact that the gates opened at 8:30, we figured we’d be okay arriving in downtown Detroit around 7:45 or 8 am. We were wrong. Sure, there were complicating factors that may have swelled the crowd — the annual Labor Day Parade, the last day of the Detroit International Jazz Festival and a Tigers game.
But still.
At no point did we imagine that we — me, Chris, our friend Maggie and her friend Sarah — would take our places in line at 8:30 and would patiently snake our way around downtown buildings in the beating sun until nearly 11 am only to get nowhere near the entrance gates. And only to experience the entire breakdown of the crowd system after a volunteer told us that they simply didn’t have enough volunteers to control the crowd anymore.
The mood, at first, was pretty exhilirating. It’s an exciting time, obviously, in politics and we were buoyed by the notion of getting to see Barack Obama in person, if he only seemed a speck in the distance. The crowd was enormous and the mood pretty good, overall. But the whole thing seemed strangely uncoordinated. Given how many people were lining up and given how the line was looping around downtown, we commented repeatedly that it was a miracle that people were behaving in such an orderly fashion.
However, by nearly 11 am — the time at which Obama was scheduled to speak — we were nowhere near the front of the line and it was pretty evident that we weren’t going to get inside. It was as though most of the crowd realized it at the same time and there was a pretty big rush to volley for positions in front of a big screen and that was as good as it got for us.
We were hot, tired and thirsty and we waited until nearly 11:30 for Obama to take the stage following brief introductory comments by local labor leaders. It was still thrilling to see him on the screen and to know that he was somewhere, you know, over there. Obviously, today’s speech was supposed to focus on labor and unions and Obama did make a few remarks about supporting the American worker. Then he said that while he had planned a political speech, today was not the day for political speeches, given Hurrican Gustav’s approach to the Gulf Coast. Instead, he asked us to share a moment of silence and to remember the spirit of giving and togetherness and all that good stuff.
The AP says it was a ten minute speech, but only if you count the pauses for applause, some intro banter and the moment of silence. I think it was closer to five. Which, if you had rolled out of bed at 7, as I did, and waited for three and a half hours, could be a bit of a disappointment. Or if you had been in line since 5 am, which many of those who did get into Hart Plaza did.
And it was over. Just like that. The majority of the crowd seemed to be pushing their way over to the Jazz Festival. Some were headed to the Tigers game. Others, like us, were done for and just wanted to get home and hydrated. Am I glad I went? I suppose I am. It’s just not what I thought it was going to be. Maybe I was ridiculously naive in thinking I’d catch a glimpse of the man I believe will be our next president.
I will say that it was a particular kind of thrill to be among those throngs of people of all different ethnicities, ages, etc. And there was a lot of — dare I say it — hope floating around the joint. If those people are willing to come out and shuffle along in line for hours on end, then surely they’ll all make it to the polls to vote. In which case, I guess we’ll be seeing a whole lot of change, which will more than make up for not seeing Obama in person.
September 1st, 2008