The One with Some Food

I was going to talk about this article, about how Obama's swing states don't like Biden, and that could be a problem, and as I was typing, I was like, "This. . .is. . .boring." 

The blog, not the article.

So I told my cousin, Carrie, about my issue, and she was all, "I'd personally like to see more food recipes and things with food, since I know that's what you're interested in.  If you're interested in it, your readers will be interested."

I've tended to avoid food talk, because I'd started another blog with the express purpose of talking about food, you know, in case someone around here doesn't. . .like food?  Or wasn't interested.  I wanted my "personal" blog and my "food" blog.

Well, seeing as to how I let this blog sit for months at a time with no use and my poor food blog hasn't gotten any love since. . .um. . .December 8, 2012, I think I'll allow the use of food here.  And I'll cross-post with my other blog, so if you're JUST into food, you can follow that one, and if you can go either way, you can follow this one.  Or whatever. I may post stuff over there that I don't post here (Menu Plan Monday, anyone?)

I'm trying to get back into blogging regularly, and talking about food may be just the way to do it.

So while I'm not sharing any recipes at the moment, I just wanted to let people know what to expect.

I'm sure I'll still have my boringish articles, but, you know, we have to eat!



The One with Another Wordless Wednesday

Grace Poore

May 21, 1923 -- May 22, 2012

The One With My Birthday

Saturday was my birthday. It was also the JDRF Walk-a-thon. We got up. . .7-ish and then promptly went back to sleep. Got up again about 8:15. Registration started at 8 and the actual walk didn't start until 10:30, so we weren't late or anything. By the time we got there, the crowd had died down a bit, and registration didn't take long.

Apparently, there were about 7,000 people there. I, personally, didn't reach the goal I'd set for donations, but with that many people, I'd be willing to bet the foundation made quite a bit of money.

We walked 2 miles, with music along the way, and then were provided Jersey Mike's for lunch. The weather? Perfect. All in all, an awesome event. I also saw one of my teachers from high school who had a baby like a month ago. Cutest. Baby. EVER!

We then went home and rested briefly before going to Mom's house to have dinner with the fam. we went downtown to Hi5. Everything on the menu is $5, so it's a good place if you don't have a ton to spend. Mom and Johnny had never been there before, Katie was the one who introduced me to it, and D and I used to go weekly, at least. (Before the, you know, no money thing happened.)

After dinner, it was back to Mom's. She hadn't taken her daily walk yet, so we waited for her (Read: we took naps) until she got back. And then it was time for cake.

Let me tell you about this cake. You know how I make a lot of cakes, right? How baking is kind of my thing? For my birthday, D made me this cake that blew me and everyone else away. Check it out:

Holy crap, you guys. It's a cake! And a stack of books! How effing awesome is that? He made the entire thing from scratch (except, you know, a cake mix.) Made the fondant, built it so it stayed. . .and it was delicious. So awesome, awesome, AWESOME cake.

Then, presents! Money from the parentals, and Katie gave me these:

She made that plate. Or, designed it.

Also, D gave me a kitchen apron that I can't seem to get a good picture of. . .it's black, and has a little V-neck and is pinstriped. I'm sure it will be making an appearance in future posts.

After we left Mom's, we stopped by Dad's to give him a book of cake and to hang out for a while. It was during this time that we watched the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" version of Glee. I've never seen RHPS, but I've had songs from it stuck in my head SINCE Saturday. ("Toucha, Toucha, Toucha, Touch Me," "Dammit, Janet," and the Time Warp song are the ones that have been stuck there.) I've heard from many people that they didn't like the episode because of the "sanitized" changes that were made to lyrics, but having never seen the show, none of it bothered me.

Since then, I've had a Lady Doctor appointment (thanks to an irregular Pap) that has set me back $500 that's going to take me 20 years to pay off. (Thanks, no insurance.) And I still love my job.

Also, I've prepared a whole chicken for the first time. It was horrifying, but if I tell you anymore, it'll ruin this week's French Friday entry.

Oh! And I'm also taking part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the point of which is to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. I'm up to speed so far, but it's only day 3. We'll see.

The One With the Walk-a-thon Kickoff

As most of you know (a few of you don't, I guess), I have Type 1 Diabetes. I'm fairly sure I've referenced this before, but I can't think of a particular entry in which I talked about it. So this one will be that.

I was diagnosed with diabetes in October of 1989. For those of you doing the math, this means that this October will be the 21st anniversary of the diagnosis. (Hey! My diabetes can legally drink!) I started out on 3 shots a day, then went down to 2, and then back up to 3 when, in 1999, I got my insulin pump. It's made stuff a lot easier, needless to say.

Type I diabetes is different than the diabetes you normally hear about in the news. The more "popular" type, Type 2, is (according to the Mayo Clinic Web site) known as adult-onset or noninsulin-dependent diabetes, and is a chronic condition that affects the way your body metabolizes sugar (glucose), your body's main source of fuel.

Type I (the type I have) is known as "juvenile-onset diabetes," since MOST of the time, it is diagnosed in young children. This isn't ALWAYS the case, however, as D as has a friend that I believe was in her 30's when she was diagnosed, and I heard today of someone who was 16. Still a child, yes, but diagnosed later than many.

Type I diabetes is a little more complicated than Type II and is much more rare. Of all of the diabetics in the world, less than 5% of those are afflicted with Type I. What Type I is, for those of you who wonder, is actually an autoimmune disease. That means that the immune system mistakes something that's supposed to be there (i.e. my pancreas and its insulin-producing beta cells) for something bad, and it attacks it. Hence, my pancreas doesn't do what it's supposed to.

D and I (we make up a "family team") went to the Team Captain's Lunch today for this year's Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation walk-a-thon. We were served. . .I'm not quite sure what, but it involved chicken salad and pasta salad, and a bunch of leafy greens that cost probably more than I could afford for as many people as were there. Some people, including one of our local newscasters, gave presentations, and there were several points where I'm pretty sure some people did or almost did cry.

I don't really feel like I need to go into as much detail as I was going to about the lunch itself (although, fun tidbit, I did run into one of my favorite teachers from high school, who is apparently pregnant and due on Saturday. Awesome!) but I want to do that thing that some bloggers do that some other bloggers hate, but we do it anyway, because we're talking about a cause we believe in.

Our team goal is to raise $500. I'm 100% certain we can beat this (maybe even double it!), but obviously, D and I can't do it alone. I'm aware that not every hit on my blog is from a new person, but if every time someone clicked on my page, they donated $1 to the JDRF, I'd have almost $3,000 to give on the day of the walk, which is Saturday, October 30, 2010. This is, incidentally, also my 26th birthday. (Yes, I'm aware that I've referenced my own birthday in the last 2 updates I've made, but this has been completely unintentional. Sorry.)

I'm going to give you guys a link, and that's this one. If you find it within yourself to donate even a dollar toward this walk, I (and the millions of people suffering from Type I diabetes) would really, really appreciate it. If you're someone I know In Real Life, I will also be sending you an e-mail in the near future, so sorry to inundate you with info for this. I would just like to raise an eff-ton of money this year. Apparently, North Carolina raised $7 million for this last year. How badass is that?

I'm also going to be putting the link at the bottom of posts until Oct. 30 and, if I can figure out how, I'll put something on my sidebar. Don't worry. I won't let you forget. :)

And thank you, thank you, thank you!

The One Where Katie's Ready For College

Just a really short entry for now, and later, I'll have my Super, Awesome Exciting News Update.

I had the following e-mail exchange with Mom this morning:

Mom: So.....Katie comes out of her room last night carrying her bag of Crazy Bones and a toiletries bag, wearing a bunch of Mardi Gras beads and a plastic fireman's hat and says, "I'm ready for college."

Me: Tell her she also needs a fire extinguisher and a pair of stillettos and she should be good to go.

Mom: And a blender.

Me: And matches. (Hence, aforementioned fire extinguisher.)

Ah, college.

The One Where the Class of 2010 Gets Really, Really Depressed

(Note: This is another entry that contains photographs I, myself, did not take. The ones at the ceremony were taken by my SDad, and the others, I THINK, were taken by D. Just FYI.)

Katie graduated last Friday. While I was busy graduating college and getting my first job and getting fired from said job and getting engaged, Katie went and grew up and graduated. D and I were THISCLOSE to being late, thanks to Raleigh traffic on a Friday afternoon, but we made it. Even found a good parking spot. I was fine on the way there. I was fine whilst parking. I was fine when I walked in.

And then I hear, "SARAH!" and turn to see Katie in line, getting ready to go in, waving and grinning with all the excitement of a soon-to-be high school graduate.

That's about the time I lost it.

I cried until we got to our seats. I ended up sitting next to a cousin of mine who is. . .kind of mean? And who would have mocked me had I cried any more, so I managed to hold it in through most of the ceremony. I just looked away if I had to cry.

Katie went to a private Christian school. I don't know how many of you know what about private Christian schools, but the graduations from such institutions are. . .all exactly the same. A few too many songs sung, a way-too-long "message" during which you find out that you may or may not be going to Hell, all in a gym that's hot. Freaking hot.

This one was pretty much on the money.

The main thing, though, that I need to mention, is the speaker. He's from a Christian college in South Carolina, the name of which I won't explicitly type out on the off chance this blog comes up when you Google it. He was wearing this giant medallion that has something to do with being the President of said college, and told us promptly that it has its own facebook page. (You're welcome.)

He started off with an analogy (or something) about a turtle on a post. A fence post, you know? In this case Turtle on Post = High School Graduate. The idea was that a turtle on a post clearly didn't get there by itself, and neither did a high school graduate. . .they had support along the way, etc. OK. Good analogy.

But then.

Actually, no. I lie. He STARTED with a 15-minute commercial for his college. Said that there was one person from last year's graduating class who went to his school. None this year, but hopefully there would be in the future.

Probably not after this particular commencement address.

THEN there was the turtle thing.

And THEN he starts talking about how messed up things are

in the world. Legitimately goes on for about 35 minutes about how crappy things are. According to this guy, every time anyone looks at an airplane, they "see a potential weapon." He went on about the economy, and how there are no jobs. He also took a moment to mention that Al Gore is wrong about global warming but that he, himself, does not have an opinion. There was also something in there about the melting glaciers. But, of course, global warming isn't a thing.

Um, I'm pretty sure that saying Al Gore is wrong is an opinion.

There was a rumble throughout the crowd when he mentioned Al Gore. I don't think it was a lot of people getting mad that he'd said AG was wrong, since the school is made of primarily of conservative Republican-types, but I have all ideas it had everything to do with bringing politics into a high school graduation.

Oh, yeah. That's right. I forgot that the graduates were even THERE.

At one point, he says something like, "Now, you'll be glad to know I'm almost finished. . ." and a few people actually applauded. D was one of these people, and, as it turned out later, my SDad was another one.

Then someone's air horn went off. You'd think that the guy speaking would maybe laugh or say something about it, but no. Just kept on talking. No acknowledgement.

About 40 minutes of doom and gloom (and bling!), and he closes with "But God is there." I think this was his point, but I also think that he chose the Worst! Possible! Way! to get the point across. Finally, blessedly, it was over.

And then everyone got their diplomas, and there was joy in all the land. But seriously? If I were one of these graduates, I'd throw off my stupid hat and be like, "Eff all this. I'm staying in high school."

When Katie's name was called, D said we were maybe one of the top 4 loudest families to cheer. My Marine brother yelled, "Yeah, KATIE!" in a scary, military-type voice. We're all loud by nature, so none of this was a surprise. I probably "WOOHOO!"'ed kind of loudly as well.

Afterward, we went back to Mom's, took some pictures, had some cake, and hung out. My brother brought liquor, which helped with my grieving process.

But all in all, good times.

What's that you want? More pictures? OK, OK. Incidentally, this marks the first time ever I've posted a picture of myself on my blog. This was initially for. . .something like security purposes? But I feel like at this point, I've given enough information that people would be like, "Oh, yeah. That's Sarah."
I know what you're wondering, and the answer is yes. I am, in fact, 9,000 feet tall. This is, obviously the fam.

What I should explain before my last picture is that my sister is kind of a misplaced hippie. She legitimately should have been born back in the 50's, so she would have been a teenager in the 60's. She's crunchy and groovy and all about peace signs. So when I wanted to change out of my lovely black and white dress and I borrowed some clothes from Katie, naturally, they were tie-dyed.