Haircut, Soy, and Other Stuff

Hey, Everyone!

It's been a few weeks...

I've been super busy with work. For the past two weeks (except for Thanksgiving), I was working 12 hour days. For those of you who don't know (or have already forgotten), I write this: http://blog.coc-elite.com That's the Official blog for Champions of Champions Elite, the #1 Muay Thai show in North America. Anyway, I write their blog and I'm also in charge of their Facebook and Twitter and I write e-mails to Muay Thai people... yadda yadda.

Thanksgiving was good. Ramiro and I went over to my parents' house for dinner. We got to see my mom, dad, and my mom's brother. And Dorian:
And, on Thanksgiving, I looked like this:Two days later, I had my friend Jaz over at Vous Hair give me a haircut and now I look like:

I like it. It had been over a year since I'd had a real haircut (I don't count haircuts I give myself because they suck) and it feels soooooooooooooooo good. I love it. I think it suits me, don't you? I trust Jaz so much when it comes to my hair that I only tell her one thing: Don't go any shorter than my jawline. Other than that, anything goes! Haha, actually, this time, when I told her that she said "What about in the back...?" (It's the back, who cares!) I knew she had something special in mind.

Anyway, things were humming along really well in my life until the other day, I ingested soy. Now, those of you who know me well (or are avid readers of this blog) are probably saying "Oh no!!!" about that. And you'd be right! Soy + Lauren = Not good. For, as some of you know, I'm very very allergic to soy.

What happened was, Ramiro and I went to IHOP the other day. I had them check everything that I ordered for soy--and it was all safe--however, that doesn't really matter when they end up serving the wrong thing. I had ordered Ranch dressing (safe!), but the waiter gave me Bleu Cheese dressing (isolated soy protein). I don't blame him. It looked exactly the same. Anyway, I took one bite, looked up at Ramiro, said "This is wrong," and then I was barfing like crazy. ONE BITE. I got all puffed up (even my tongue!) and I was non-stop vomiting and ALL of my joints hurt. My elbows are always the first to go for some reason, but before the end of the day every single one of my joints was in horrible pain. I became acutely aware of just how many moving parts there are in my body.

When I get soy'd, the aftermath can last from a few days to a few weeks. I never know. Since my smaller joints (fingers/toes) are already starting to feel better I'm hoping it'll only be a few days...

Of course, now my guts are all messed up. For the first day I lived off of water & original pedialyte (that's all that would stay down), but the next day I had a small cup of brown rice and half a piece of bread. Today I tried to really "go nuts" and made myself a plain turkey sandwich (bread, 2 slices of turkey, and minimal mayo) for lunch and ended up throwing up at work. So it was back to brown rice for dinner. I'm going to be on a diet of brown rice and baby food for the rest of the week and then work my way back up to normal food starting next week. I always have to do this when I get soy'd, but it had been so long since this has happened that I'd kind of forgotten (I'd also forgotten just how horribly painful it is!)...plus I'm impatient. I want my guts to be better now!

The really sucky thing is, my parents were going to take Ramiro & me out to dinner at the North Woods Inn this weekend. For those of you who don't know, that's where white people go around Christmas-time to enjoy a steak the size of their face while being surrounded by the heads of dead animals. It's glorious. Unfortunately, we had to cancel because there's no way I'd be able to keep it down...

In other news, I got a message from an old friend today... Which I mistakenly (thank God!) thought was his way of telling me he was planning to kill himself. Sure. It's funny NOW. Anyway, I was so concerned that I actually called him up (even though I loathe talking on the phone). It was all a comical misunderstanding and I'm sure you'll all be happy to know that he plans to remain alive for quite some time (provided he isn't hit by a van...again). I'm still in quite a bit of pain, so I was grateful that he took up the burden of doing most of the talking. And supposedly he's going to write a song for/about(?) me. We'll see.

In conclusion, here's a picture of Robert & Ziggy (Ramiro & my cats):

They're very sleepy. Shhhhhhh.

Until next time...

--Lauren*
PS: Yes, it is very hard to have one condition (Hypoglycemia) that dictates I eat all the time with another condition (being "soy'd") that won't let me eat anything. Sigh. Pray for me?

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