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So, it's going to be my birthday in a few days. I'm keeping it quiet, don't tell anyone.

32. Thirty-two. It doesn't matter much this year. I've been really focused on making myself better lately. My head has been consistently ignoring my attempts, but my soul reacts like dried brush catching flame, in a good way.


I walked to the farmer's market yesterday morning. I couldn't handle the bike. My boyfriend rode his, however, and he ran the dog and carried the bags. It made my load lighter, and gave me a chance to enjoy being outside, for the first time in almost a week. The holidays really took it out of me this year.


So, I'd run across this cooking forum post that mentioned how tasty roasted parsnips are, and I've never had a parsnip, that I can recall, so I made a mental note to look for them next time I'm buying produce. Yesterday, at the market, I found a vegetable that looked convincingly parsnippity. The only problem was that I'd never actually looked up a picture of a parsnip, and all I'd gleaned was that it was a white, root vegetable. So, yesterday, I bought a daikon radish for the first time.

But hey, I roasted it up with some potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, etc, and it was good! Lately, the key to my happiness is learning new things, so this seemingly boring adventure of cooking with strange (to me) ingredients is actually a huge thrill for me. Food I've never had! I'm cooking it! It tastes good! The happiness is probably ridiculous.

I also picked up a few kohlrabi. I have no idea what to do with them yet. Exciting!


My body never does well with inactivity and this latest bout of largely horizontal living has taken its toll. On the treadmill the other day, my left hip started screaming at me and yesterday, it was my right knee. Usually, just slowly increasing my activity will make these aches and pains ease off, so I've got my fingers crossed.


During the holidays I'd stopped my daily head log, it was all stress and pain and caffeine anyway. I didn't need to record it. But I started it back up on January 1st, just to be a total cliche, and I've changed my format a skosh. I'm no longer recording my food intake, as it was making me feel obsessive. But I am now writing down EVERY symptom that happens EVERY day, or at least as many as I remember. (Memory loss. I keep forgetting that one. Heh.) And I'm taking note of my general activities, like whether I was unable to do anything but internet all day or if I managed a walk, or to cook a meal or two. 


One of the first things I did this year was have my boyfriend help me make a duct tape dress form. We used three different colored tapes, and didn't plan the way it came out, but we are both heartily amused by it.

My body, head cut off to keep these from ending up on facebook, wrapped in different colors of duct tape. My shoulders, arms, upper chest and sternum are gray, my stomach is green and my breasts are blue. My boyfriend says I look like the earth.

The back view: Again, gray shoulders, arms and upper back, but blue and green take over my torso, giving the form a corset-like look. Also, in this pic: flannel pj bottoms, two plastic hampers and a free calendar I got from pillsbury featuring their January covergirl, pot pie.

I haven't stuffed the form yet, she's currently hanging on the back of my bedroom door, all deflated. It took her a week to quit the nasty off-gassing, so migraineurs beware. I'm aware that I am referring to her as a she. She has my boobs.