Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Thank you. I sometimes wonder...

Oh man, I am absolutely starving and we have nothing appetizing for breakfast. I know there is a bag of potato chips in my car (emergency provisions) calling my name, but I really need something healthier/more hearty because that minuscule pear I just ate is not even close to sufficient. Normally I'd just do toast, but I'm sorry--that "veganic" bread totally sucks.

efcliz, kombucha is a delicious (or vile, depending on how you feel about fermentation) elixer made from a slimy culture that is fermented with tea and sugar. The sugar is broken down in the fermentation and you get a sparkling beverage with trace amounts of alcohol that is (in my opinion) invigorating. Others will tell you otherwise, so take my pro-kombucha opinion with a grain of salt. I should have sent you one!

Hey I did that too! Like 10 months ago. I felt iffy the whole time, but now I really don't regret it. It's so easy to hate a job and so hard to find one you don't mind going into every day, it'll take a lot more than money to talk me out of my current job.

So true. I've left more than one job in order to have a better paying one, but then seriously regretted it and found myself wanting to beg for the old one back. I just hope my current job can eventually give me a bit of a raise so I can pay student loan payments, but we'll see. Being happy really is more important since I'm already fortunate to have a roof over my head and money for cat food.

Apparently missing breakfast makes me very cranky. But really, offering to replace the food that you screwed up is not "giving [me] a freebie." It's fixing your mistake.

Horrible pain from an iron pill? That's a new one, and I've been taking a prescription dose for 15 years. I could see them really constipating you, but as a vegan (a diet that is naturally high in fibre), that is sooo not an issue.

Also, I did stop being vegan and go back to eating meat for a while, and my iron levels dropped despite taking the same ferrous gluconate dosage.

Ugh. I was joking a couple of days ago about how if I got sick I wouldn't have to give a talk tomorrow. Well, I got sick and now I am just sick enough to feel like death, but not sick enough to get out of giving my talk. Awesome. Be careful what you wish for, guys.

I've tried so many different iron supplements and they all cause intestinal pain, sometimes debilitating. Not fun. There have been other threads on that issue here.

Everyone's body is different. Veganism (or any high-fiber diet) does not guarantee that one will never get constipated; it just decreases the likelihood for many people. Other things besides low fiber intake can cause constipation. And some people's bodies just respond in totally unpredicted ways to certain treatments...like, if I take melatonin (which is supposed to help people sleep) I wake up with screaming night terrors and can't sleep at all, which I've never heard of happening to anyone but me, but that's what happens when I take it! So...just because something isn't supposed to have a certain side effect doesn't mean that it won't ever.

I have now had to explain to a certain otherwise-nice, otherwise-liberal person, for the THIRD TIME, that just because you like someone and get along well with them does not mean it's okay to use their race as their primary designator.

For. the third. time.

Like, I literally have to EXPLAIN that just because you are telling a nice, non-derogatory story about your coworker, specifying that the story is about "Chinese Bob" is still racist. Like, the fact that you have two coworkers with the same first name happens to everyone; the fact that you refer to them as "Bob" and "Chinese Bob" is still racist. Yes, it is. Actually.

(The first time we had this conversation, it was because this person was asking me if referring to his coworkers as Bob and Chinese Bob was racist. I just looked at him like "...you're kidding, right?" OF COURSE IT IS. He insisted it isn't, because he likes Bob and they are friends. Good for you; STILL RACIST. Even if Bob doesn't mind. STILL RACIST. Even if it's Monday. STILL RACIST. Even if someone else who is Chinese does the same thing. STILL RACIST. I mean, the answer to that question is always yes, it doesn't matter how many qualifiers you add.)

Similarly, please do not designate your small child's small child friends as "Jeff" and "Chinese Jeff." ALSO RACIST. After I calmly asked you if "Chinese Jeff" has a last name, and you said yes, continuing your story with "Jeff [lastname] - you know, not Chinese Jeff, Jeff [lastname]..." STILL ANNOYING. I was trying to give you an opportunity to change your language and move on; you had to try and make ME the crasshole. I also don't appreciate your wife asking me FOUR TIMES "...you know he's just kidding, right?"

Because obviously the problem with this conversation is ME, with my PEA BRAIN, not understanding that it's JUST A JOKE, HAHA.

I know. Still not funny, is the thing. Thanks so much for explaining, though.

(OH, and PS: referring to the small children as "Chinese Jeff" and "Irish Jeff" instead does not so much fix the problem, as just make you an asparagus. Some more.)

Sometimes I just don't understand what people think a "joke" is!

I think my standard response should be something like "oh. I guess I got confused because usually jokes are FUNNY."

ha.

I'm much less sarcastic in real life. ;)

CQ I OWE YOU AN EMAIL HIIIIIIIIII!

Abdominal pain/cramping is a fairly commonly reported side effect of iron supplements. It's why my partner (who has Crohn's) can't take them. When he does, the cramps can be debilitating.

But I'm like you, paprikapapaya. I had more problems with anemia when I was an omni than I have since going vegan. (Likely more down to getting my period under control than anything in my diet.)

Yeah, iron supplements have pretty much given me every possible problem they can. Which sucks because I'm pretty anemic.

Dexy's Midnight Runner station is pretty forkin' rad too...

IRON! I could never understand this thing.

15 years ago when I was a dumb omnivore I used to have chronical deficiency ... so I ate liver. LIVER. LIVER!!!!! Horrible stinking LIVER!!! With a strong Roquefort sauce! Then, suddenly, I turned vegan.

Still, I kept absentmindedly taking one iron pill every now and then (period, typically), but according to my last blood check I had way too much iron -ironically.

"What, you take iron pills? You shouldn't!!!!" Doctor said. ok.

At the end, I just aknowledged that there is basically no link at all between what is found in my body and what I actually put in it. Mysteries make life more exciting.

(ps: liver didn't help with iron deficency)

(obviously)

I've never had anemia but I was feeling dumb when I realized the FE in my birth control pills meant the 'off' pills. I always just assumed they were sugar pills and no need to take. Now I take those. Otherwise I don't take an iron supplement.

Well, we don't have stairs but they do stomp basically everywhere, and place items on the counter or wherever very, uh, forcefully, but thankfully they don't tend to spill oil on the stove (although they do sometimes spill other things). They are very pedantic about the toilet being clean, so that's something.

I didn't mean to imply that I thought everyone with anemia or x issue could be cured the same way! Please excuse me on that poor writing. I know that every body is different and things that work for me do not work for everyone. But the person I was discussing, who shared her story, made the change BEFORE being diagnosed with anemia or anything. The doctor said, women your age can become anemic. And that was it. So there was no attempt to try other treatment, which makes it seem like a convoluted excuse just to eat meat. And I think I wouldn't be as bothered by former vegs making the switch to re-eat meat if they were straight about it, instead of leaning on a faux-apologetic excuse (and didn't make an ENTIRE theatrical event chronicling the change; how lame is that show going to be).

In other news, I subbed at my mom's nursery school today, and this little 4-year-old Israeli boy (who I'm OBSESSED with) who like 8 months ago only spoke Hebrew, said to me "I think that the cutest animal in the world is the bunny." It was like one of his only full sentences in English, and it was freaking adorable. omg.

I was just mildly peeved by the jokes about it being sooooo hard to take an iron pill since it actually is hard for me and causes me a lot of issues. I know I'm not alone on this. I have to choose between severe anemia and being in a lot of pain. Not fun. Usually I wait until I start getting randomly dizzy and then start the pills again, then go off them when I can't deal with the super painful cramping any longer. I'm in the stage now where I'm about to suck it up and go back on them.

in other news: I've apparently volunteered myself to sponsor the school chess club. Oops. I had better relearn how to play. I just felt sad that the kids had no sponsor. I'm sure I'll be better than nothing!

EEEEE!! I miss working with little-little kids, they're so cute.

Have to give a talk tomorrow, PPK. Pick a shirt (the light one is actually a very light blue), pick a tie.



You guys are awesome.

Tough. I like the pink, but maybe the blue shirt with the burgundy stripe tie.

You always look super spiffy, so you will look great regardless.

Anemia sucks.

When I was a kid, my friends would be totally wowed by all of my bruises, as if I was some sort of hero. Now I am just tired and tired and bruised and tired.

That was exactly my call -- blue shirt, burgundy stripe tie.