Gluten Intolerance

So. Apparently one can suddenly display signs of gluten intolerance. Obviously, I'm not a doctor. However, I've found recently that imbibing the following leads to unpleasantness:

• Pizza
• Cookies/Crackers
• Sandwiches (healthy or otherwise)
• Chips

To preclude any snide comments about shitty eating, I would like to note that that is something that I've been experiencing for a couple months now, and that sandwiches and chips are the main culprits. I am also not overly fond of beer, but I don't drink that often enough for that to be an issue. In fact, beyond occasionally sipping Gon's or trying one I've never seen, it's very difficult for me to go near beer with a ten-foot pole. Thank goodness.

Anyway, so for awhile, I thought it was lactose intolerance. Pizza absolutely incapacitated me, as did a swiss and mushroom veggie burger. I didn't feel fabulous after a celebratory ice cream cone with Tyler. But since spontaneous lactose intolerance is much more popularly written upon (at least on the internet) I attributed it to that. It wasn't until chips last night, as well as some tea cookies later, which made me question whether it was in fact lactose products, but in fact maybe wheat/gluten, so I experimented today with some cheese and avocado and pesto and celery and peanut butter (all things which have the potential in some way or another to bring about the symptoms). After having waited about half an hour, I had some of the tea cookies, and there was my answer. The cookies, not anything preceding, led to unpleasant symptoms, and after I looked around on the internet, I've found that gluten intolerance could explain not only that but a couple other things I've experienced of late (such as the sudden onset of shortness of breath).

According to the Academy of Finland, there's actually a bit of a trend of growing percentages of gluten intolerance in the Finnish demographics; according to the same study, this can go unobserved for quite awhile as the symptoms can set in later. Which was something I didn't know.

And it's definitely not something I'm particularly happy about. I like my breads--I always have. And I like thick soups (oh my god...that tomato bisque...that's why I almost died afterwards...) and just about everything else wheat has ever been added to or used for. That's super unfortunate.

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Playlist of the week: Ω


Topic of the week: ©


Book of the week: œ

Recipe of the Week: Vegetarian Yummy Sandwich

Ingredients: Two pieces of whole wheat bread, pesto, avocado, swiss + provolone cheeses, white onion.
Instructions: Cut half the avocado into pieces and cover one piece of bread. Add onion pieces (not too much). Add cheeses. Slather a layer of pesto on the other piece of bread. Plop them together. Toast the sandwich until the cheese is melting. Cut in half for easy eating. Die from yumminess. Read this article about the health benefits of being a vegetarian.


Russian Swear of the Week: Пиздец. Means "fuck." Or it's the equivalent, anyway.


Regret of the week: I'm back on Facebook. Пиздец!


Phrase of the week: Allons-y!


Person of the week my life: :D

Dear Spain:

It has come to my attention of late you are rather far away.

Stop that.

Should you, however, decide to remedy this, great rewards will be yours.

Think about it.

Yours, ever so very sincerely,

Elle

Keep it secret: keep it safe.

I love books with lots of sin,
Our wicked joke, his crooked grin;
Windy days indoors with tea,
Chocolate hidden, left for me.

Peanut butter--banana, too,
Saturdays with "Doctor Who,"
Subbing milk with almond juice,
And "Meanwhile, in Belarus."

Beliefs collide--ten-hour date,
"A Game of Thrones," this is fate.
Seven hours behind the wheel,
Lattes follow every meal.

Break seemed like the longest year,
But I still love the smile you wear;
The way you walked, seeing me,
Confidence that made me weak.

I'll still hold a torch for you--
With batteries to keep it, too.


∆

Hey. Hey you.

I love you.

I miss you.

August couldn't come sooner.

You are everything.

You are brilliant.

I miss you.

The ice queen likes to melt.

Galiza is so far away.

I love you.

Vom[This Party Is So Fucking Dank]

Saturday night
Out with a friend
[This party is so fuckin dank]
I tell myself a few hours before
As I dress
Cuter than I would
I'm getting shit-faced
Or else spend
This entire night
Mourning the loss of an
Other existence

And my friend
He enables me
[This party is so fucking dank]
He enables me, doesn't he?
And I'm not thinking
Not thinking of my
Loss
Not considering my
Death


So here I am
And I drink
And I black out
For the first time,
[Believe it or not]
There is the prettiest
Frenchman
He is cool and collected
And I'm not thinking
I am NOT considering
LOSS DEATH

Welcome to you are a sad fuck

And then I black out

And I begin to shout

I say your names
Again and again
I shout
That I can't do it without you
Because that's what my
Subconscious believes
Against the will of my
Conscious
And when I puke
I'm puking without you
And when I sob
I'm sobbing about you
And when I pass out
I don't think of anything
Because I'm dead to the world

Thank fucking god: mission accomplished.

Fail.

I had a startling revelation today:

The people I care about show a terrifying resemblance to Lenin.

Fuck.

In Other Words, How Cruel

[2/10/11 9:56:22 PM] Elle: *sigh*
[2/10/11 9:56:24 PM] Elle: I don't know.
[2/10/11 9:56:29 PM] Elle: I think I should just go to bed.
[2/10/11 9:58:56 PM] Kelly: Awwww!
[2/10/11 9:58:56 PM] Kelly: Why?
[2/10/11 10:00:38 PM] Elle: I don't want to swell your ego too much.
[2/10/11 10:01:47 PM] Elle: But when you guys were around--that was life. That was living. School was just something I did on the side, or it was like work. Something necessary and unpleasant. But when I was with you guys--and it's because you got it and because that's what shit was about--I was actually living.
[2/10/11 10:01:54 PM] Elle: For the first time since...I don't even remember.
[2/10/11 10:02:33 PM] Elle: How depressing to wake up one morning surrounded by dead people.
[2/10/11 10:03:14 PM] Elle: Dead people sheltered by cushioned coffins, outlined in steel, and protected by crosses or textbooks.
[2/10/11 10:06:45 PM] Elle: And it's okay for you two because you have things to do, and other people more important, and a whole new environment to adjust to.
[2/10/11 10:07:09 PM] Kelly: Kiddo... I'm sorry.
[2/10/11 10:07:24 PM] Elle: You shouldn't be sorry. Especially since I feel shittier for it, LoL
[2/10/11 10:08:07 PM] Elle: Pity is ugly.

In other words: I'm dying.

Lonely Hearts Go Home to Play (Or: How Easily They Forget)

I am trying to navigate the incredible pain of my loneliness.

I have to understand that there was nothing I could do—no one was going to understand my strange love for them, nor my strange desire to be around them. Not when it seemed they were always hurting me, always rejecting me, antagonizing, neglecting, and destroying me.

None will understand the smallest of things and looks, nor that without the sharpness, harshness, or conflict, it would have none of it been worth the time. Dare not tell me I “just didn’t want to be bored.” Dare not tell me, “It will pass in time.” Don’t insult them, don’t touch them, don’t even say their names to me. I don’t want to hear you sigh with relief, now they are gone. I don’t want you to think, Finally I have her alone. Don’t think I have more time now they are gone.

For what time they have left completely open, I will compensate with long hours of work, with a restless desire to consume knowledge and become better. I will exercise, I will read, I will write, I will learn. I will get three hours of sleep every night to do so, if need be. I will do anything in my power to occupy my mind and dull the throbbing pain in my head and in my soul.

Don’t you dare think now you will have more influence over me. Don’t you dare think now I will be more wholly under your thumb, that suddenly they will no longer be pulling me in their direction, so I will thusly slingshot in yours.

I’m terrified to sleep, and I’m terrified not to sleep.

I’m terrified to sleep because then the terror and the sadness and the loneliness will swoop in when my mind is unoccupied and defenseless. They will crawl in through the orange light, seemingly harmlessly alighting through the windows. They will emerge from the notes of a song, from the words of a ballad. And when I am almost asleep, lured to the edges of my subconscious by the forced retelling of an old tale, or perhaps by the hypothetical of what might someday be, they will force themselves down my throat and up through my nose, where they will drown me in their contempt and their rage. And I will die slowly, a little more each night, as they fill up my lungs and keep me from breathing.

But I’m terrified not to sleep. I’m terrified what my sleepy brain will do when I drift away in class, terrified that something will set me off and suddenly I’ll be panicking—where are they? Where have they gone? Where is my light? Where is my music? And I’ll be standing there, exposed: Here I am, I’m human! I am very much alive, for I suffer, you see. I suffer more than any of you ever will.

I remember the things I’ve said of them.

I wear your contusions like bows.

You are the essence of genius. You’re creative with your knowledge—and that makes you a genius.

Oh my beloved ones:

Neither of you is held higher than the other, you see. Sure, I go through periods of great frustration, where the other is much easier to talk to, the other will more easily sympathize with my plight. But in the end, you are equals in my eyes. Yes, true, the loves operate on different planes of existence, their essences essentially different, because you are both different, and you both fulfill different positions in my life.

But I will hold you both equally forever. Will be there for either of you, will hold you in my arms and sway you back and forth like a keel on the tide. I will be there to whisper, “I’m here. I will always be here. I love you.” And even if you turn and spit in my face, I will stand there and accept it because that is what is required of me, because you two need it more than anyone else in the world. It’s unconditional, I promise you. No matter how many times you slap me, I will let you ice the bruises.

And maybe some day you, too, will feel this unconditional desire to love, this unconditional desire to aid, whether you receive anything in return or not. Maybe some day you, too, will see the loveliness in another human being—such as myself—and that loveliness will flower into compassion in you, and you will lay down your life to make such a love matter.