Hi everyone (and especially New Mexican locals), I’m considering buying furniture of this style, but I’m a little concerned about connotations of this type of cross symbol. I don’t know what it is, although it’s fairly common in our region. I associate it with Mexico or perhaps Catholicism? Is there any reason why I shouldn’t buy this?
I do know that there’s a local traditional Native American symbol that is no longer used due to its unfortunate similarity to a more recent hate symbol, but it still exists locally:
That’s from the interior of the KiMo Theater in Albuquerque, by the way.
So anyway, is this cross okay, do you think? Is it Catholic? Anyone know what it’s from?
I’ve decided to start doing some regular fasting, as recommended in a video my sister-in-law sent. My plan is to fast from 8:00 PM the previous night through till the following morning. In case I don’t make it, instead of going hog wild, I’m allowing myself a light dinner of chicken broth & seaweed halfway through the fast.
I know some of you are thinking, bleck! We’d rather go hungry! But I actually find broth and seaweed comforting, and there’s nothing better for feeling like you’re eating healthy!
Speaking of seaweed, my sister sent me this funny picture the other day:
She was in a rush, and trying to make herself a quick cup of tea. She saw a small unlabeled bag of what looked like black tea leaves in her cupboard. But something wasn’t quite right, lol! She made tea from dried seaweed! I must have left it there when we stayed with her in February and March while I had my surgery done.
The morning of my fast started off fairly regularly, because I don’t usually eat early in the morning anyway. This particular morning I had to go to the cancer center to do my bloodwork. On the way home from getting my blood drawn, I noticed there weren’t very many cars in the Trader Joe’s parking lot. Hmmm.
I used to regularly and frequently go to both Sprouts and Trader Joes. But since my surgery and covid started, John has been doing the grocery shopping, once every two weeks. He alternates between Sprouts and Albertsons. He hasn’t attempted to go to Trader Joe’s because it’s crowded and I haven’t asked him to. Most of my Trader Joe items I can get at Sprouts or online. Except one thing. One measly, but very important item – my laundry detergent.
I attempted to buy a substitute laundry detergent from Amazon, but it stinks so bad that I’m going to have to give it away. I didn’t even open it – it’s SEALED and it still stinks so bad I’m going to give it away. I’ve been rationing my laundry soap, using less and less per load…it’s finally time to do something radical. Like actually going into Trader Joe’s!
Turns out it wasn’t bad at all. No lines to get in or to check out. I just grabbed two of the size large containers of laundry detergent and headed to check out. My checker was super nice and wiped down the detergent bottles for me. And he complemented me on my purse. (My purse is made out of seatbelts, and it is really cool.)
I realize how I miss those casual friendly interactions with people – strangers or coworkers or anyone.
Meanwhile, first major hunger pains at 11:00 AM.
At noon I had an online Zoom meditation group. It’s the weirdest thing, sitting in silence for an entire hour, staring at people in boxes on a computer. I’m new to this particular group, so I was staring at strangers in silence on my computer. However, I’ve done these types of groups before, so I knew we’d introduce ourselves at the end of the hour. Sort of backwards, I know, but that’s how it’s done.
Our intent for today was “healing”. Healing whatever. Healing us, our friends & family, our country, the whole world. We could all use a little healing right now. I sat outside – the weather has been perfect in Albuquerque for several days now. About halfway through the session, helicopters started circling overhead. My volume was muted, so my fellow meditators couldn’t hear them. Just me. First I tried to ignore them. Failing that, I tried to incorporate them into the theme of healing. But the sound of circling helicopters is not restful. It was worrying, ominous, repetitive and insistent. Around and around. They eventually quit around the time the hour-long meditation was over.
Second major hunger pains at 2:00 PM.
In an act of brilliance today, Amazon took someone’s box, which already had the address label on it, and stuck a second label with my name and address on top of the original label, partially obscuring the original address and delivered it to me instead of them. Surprisingly, I noticed before opening it, and knew it wasn’t my box. On the partially obscured label I could see the whole name of the person, the street name and zip code, but not the actual house number. His name is fairly unusual, so I managed to look him up online and find his phone number. He came by and collected his package and was very grateful I had tracked him down. I figured it was easier to google him than it would have been to call Amazon! Amazon doesn’t answer their phones. Turns out the package contained snow boots for his son. Now my only question is, what box was that label with my name and address supposed to have been on?
3:00 PM and I am hungry! I have a session with a client for an hour, which will distract me.
Now it’s 4:00 PM, and this is getting old! It’s already late afternoon and I don’t feel like I’ve made as much progress packing as I’d like.
6:00 and getting annoyed with fasting, but on the plus side, I suddenly started spontaneously dancing to my music. That hasn’t happened in MONTHS. Where’d that energy come from? It can’t be sustainable. Presumably I will crash soon.
7:00 and I can smell John’s dinner. At least he fixed it for himself! I could fix my broth and seaweed, but I’m actually curious to see if I can do a complete fast for the whole day (and two nights).
Conundrums: I just realized I usually take my vitamins at dinner time. Can I take my vitamins on an empty stomach? John thinks that vitamins wouldn’t be as hard on my stomach as the decaffeinated coffee I’ve been drinking all day. Ok so I’m switching to carbonated water and taking my vitamins, all except the gummy vitamins, which probably have sugar in them. I’ll take them tomorrow.
8:00 and wondering if it’s safe to go in the hot tub after fasting all day? The weather is still warm but it’s cooling off at night and I’m feeling a bit chilly. Maybe if I don’t stay in very long.
Now time for some TV! I almost never watch TV. I’ll go for weeks without watching anything. But I’m not up for doing much of anything else tonight.
9:00 and I’m giving up and going to bed. Too many food commercials on TV. Taco Bell nachos are somehow suddenly appealing? Even the fruit loops looked good – or at least edible.
9:00 AM the next morning: Breakfast! For breakfast I had my gummy vitamins from yesterday, coffee, a scoop of plain yogurt with blackberry and chia seed topping, a few grapes, and two breakfast tacos (2 corn tortillas, 2 eggs scrambled with green chili and cottage cheese, and 2 sausage patties). I would have taken a photo but I was too busy eating!
The fast wasn’t fun, but it turned out to be perfectly doable, and I hope those hungry cancer cells suffered!
Ever since getting home from our epic van trip about 3 weeks ago, I’ve been doing nothing but ordering stuff online! It’s been very nerve wracking (I’ve never really enjoyed shopping, although I do like having nice stuff).
We’re not able to completely up and fully move everything to Tucson, because we need to maintain a presence in New Mexico for John’s job. So I’m trying to split all our stuff in half. What a confusing endeavor! Does it stay or does it go? How many do I have? How many do I need? Where do I need them?
I’ve resorted to spreadsheets and I’m still confused. For example, my top priority is having the Tucson house comfortable for visitors by mid-winter or early spring or whenever we all start feeling safe to travel again.
That means beds, comforters, sheets, towels, pillows, and ugh! It’s all so expensive! Some people would just buy a bunch of linens and hope for the best. But not me. I’m working the details. THIS comforter goes with THAT bed, these four pillows, this set of sheets, and oh wait, darn, that comforter doesn’t match those pillows. Ok, try again. This OTHER comforter goes with – no wait, why do I have so many Queen sheets and almost no King size? Oh and pool towels! We’re going to need pool towels. And I spent far too much on that pair of pillows from Amazon, what was I thinking? I need to send them back and order more from IKEA, even though they charge for shipping…
Adding to the confusion, there is a general shortage of household items right now because of covid. It’s a combination of supply delays from China due to closed factories, and the fact that so many people are trying to improve their homes because we’re all just HOME now. Houses that used to be empty all day long now contain adults trying to work from home plus kids supposedly learning something from home, and everyone is trying to adjust to being home. Bigger refrigerators, outdoor play equipment, desks, desks, and more desks…
Therefore, everything good is selling out! For example, I got my order in for my new washer and dryer as soon as I could, but it still isn’t going to arrive until mid-November and there’s a big warning notice on my contract that the delivery date is likely to be further delayed. So instead of waiting to order things when we get to Tucson, I’m trying to get it all ordered now because I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better. A month and a half to get a laundry set! Yay, I can’t wait to go to the laundromat in Tucson, with a $2,000 washer and dryer sitting on order…indefinitely. (Yes, prices are insane right now.)
The refrigerator I want is simply unavailable. Luckily we have an old garage refrigerator that we can bring. It’s ugly but it works fine. And we’ve realized we are not going to have the time to remodel the kitchen this year anyway, so our grungy old refrigerator plugged into the wall and blocking some cabinets will just have to be good enough – you may remember, there’s not even a built-in slot for a refrigerator in that kitchen. The previous owners had their refrigerator in the next room! I’ll deal with all that sometime next year. Just getting the house functional is a big enough goal for now. Beautiful will have to wait for some other year.
I also completely struck out when looking at new couches. Everything’s full price, and most things are out of stock. No way am I going to spend $2,000 for a couch set that I don’t even like. So instead, I spent $200 for a used one on Craigslist. It’s a bit raggedy, but at least it’s comfortable.
I also failed to find a traditional wooden dining room table and chairs. But I did find a gorgeous round hammered-copper table with a natural patina, that would typically be placed outside in a grand courtyard at a fancy hacienda. Of course I don’t have a huge, beautiful Spanish courtyard, but nonetheless, I had to have that table. I just had to. John was like, where are you going to put that? And I was like, inside or outside or anywhere. I would put this table in any room in the house! (Except it’s too big for the bathroom, lol!) So we don’t know where we’re going to put it, but I’m just glad we’re going to have it, ready and waiting in the garage in New Mexico.
Sorry this blurry close-up picture does not remotely do it justice. I just wanted you to see what I meant by hammered copper patina. I don’t blame you if you don’t like it. It’s sort of a speciality thing. Come visit and you can see it in all of it’s genuine glory.
Of course the amazing table didn’t come with chairs. What kind of chairs would even match it? I saw some copper-tone chairs that would go well with it in Taos, but they cost something like $300 apiece. And I want 6 of them. And I already spent a ton for the table.
So instead, I found southwest style chairs for vastly cheaper, online at Target. And they weren’t sold out! I was so excited that I ordered 6 of them, sight unseen, and didn’t wait to check with John about it. They arrive next week. He’s going to be…surprised? Well now he knows because he reads this blog. I hope the Target chairs aren’t awful. It’s a style that’s fairly common here, but not as common elsewhere. If they turn out to be terrible, we’ll put them in the back of the pickup and drive them to Target and return them. But then what would I do for chairs?
Ideally John and I would also buy a nice new bedroom set for Tucson, but there’s the same issue with exorbitant prices and very little being available. So instead, we’ve bought just a mattress and frame (no headboard). And we’re going to bring out the dresser drawers and wardrobe from the guest room in Albuquerque. We figure guests don’t need dresser drawers, they just need a good bed, and ideally, a pair of nightstands with lamps.
In Tucson our guests are going to get a very nice, nearly new California-King size mattress and frame, which is coming out of the master bedroom in Albuquerque. So what’s John and I going to sleep on in Albuquerque? Good question! I’m currently prioritizing Tucson, so initially Albuquerque is only going to have the existing Queen bed in the guest room and no bed in our room. Our room will have a headboard and dresser drawers, but no frame or mattress, lol. Eventually I’ll need to buy another bed!
Confused yet? That makes 2 of us! Oh, and I never mentioned the van. Yes, even the van is on my spreadsheet, because our two best pillows and most of our pillow cases somehow ended up in the van (I guess something to do with our epic van trip last month).
I wanted to get a lot of things ordered ahead of time, partially because of shortages, and partially because I dreaded ending up in Tucson with nothing but random stuff, missing stuff, and chaos. Problem is, that means I’m accumulating an entire second house worth of stuff here at this house as I prep. The garage is full, the office is full, and the living room is piled high.
I was trying to avoid chaos, but chaos found me anyway.
My sister-in-law, Dawn, sent me this excellent video about diet and cancer. And not just because she has the same first name as the researcher, lol. It’s actually a very good video (a gem in a sea of terrible ones about the topic).
I recommend it for anyone interested in diet or cancer, and specifically how diet could impact cancer. (Thanks, Dawn!)
I especially like this article because it isn’t someone hyping a magic cure-all. The speaker is a doctor and researcher in the field, and she draws upon many scientific studies. And she doesn’t come to simplistic conclusions.
She carefully distinguishes when certain diets can help and when they can’t. For example, lowering carbohydrate intake can help some people with stage 3 colon cancer (which is what I have), but the positive results were found only for people who have body mass indexes (BMI) of over 25 (which I don’t).
She’s also a surprisingly entertaining speaker. It’s quite interesting. I watched it twice and I wasn’t remotely bored (of course it is a topic that is relevant to me).
My conclusion is that what would most likely be of use to me at this point is some intermittent fasting (which the speaker briefly addresses at the end of the video.) In hindsight, we probably should not have tried so hard to get me to eat frequently during the worst of my chemo treatment, when I didn’t feel like eating.
Going forward, I’m going to delay eating in the morning until close to lunchtime, in order to increase the length of time every day that I’m not eating (compressing my eating hours into a shorter length of time). I’ve done that before and it doesn’t seem to be too difficult. The only hard part is that I miss having milk and sugar in my coffee and green tea early in the morning. To have zero calorie intake, I need to drink my coffee and green tea black. Or wait until lunchtime. Bummer.
I’m also going to try occasionally doing a 24-hour fast, and see how I do with that. I haven’t tried that before.
The reasoning is that cancer cells fare much worse when faced with a lack of fuel than normal cells do. Normal cells just go into a non-dividing state and patiently wait until fuel is available again. But cancer cells continuously divide and cannot wait, and therefore have more trouble surviving in a low-fuel environment. So I’m going to starve those suckers out.
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