Not feeling too well today, miserable with pollen.
This morning i got up earlier than usual because of FDS committee. S and i had talked about how to deal with it last night. S wanted us to all go in my car because of the expense of gas, etc. So i got up, got ready. He was still in the shower and i really wanted to leave in about 15 minutes, so i asked him if he still wanted to get the kids up and go. He said yes, but in a kind of short way. (ie If you don't get the kids up, i don't know that i'll be able to get them up in time and i think i just won't bother going). And i found that i was angry. i said ok and went to get the kids ready. During which time i also took care of the dogs, cleaned up after pipsqueak, made sure they had food, water, clean straw in the pen outside, etc. Then got J up and dressed. Got P up and ready. i was angry, all the while doing this, and tried to both just watch my upset and focus on being aroused. i thought, i have a focus for meditating in meeting today!! i felt angry because on one hand S hates for anyone to be late for anything, yet i get three people (and two dogs) ready to go in the time that it takes him to get himself ready to go.
Of course there are mitigating factors such as rheumatoid arthritis and his higher standard of grooming (even now) than mine. And i am so used to doing most of what i do in the mornings that i don't really even have to think about it.
Anyway when i got back upstairs he was dressed (but not shaved, which was a concession on his part), and he said, "Just go ahead and leave". i had explained about it taking me longer because of the dogs. i said, "Well all we have to do now is dump the kids in the car and go. We might as well all go together." So we went more or less grumpily out to the car. i wasn't as upset as i had been. Then as we sat down, he said, "We had discussed this last night." And said something else apologetic. Then the anger was gone completely and i was greatly relieved. And my meeting hadn't started when we arrived just a few minutes late.
After Meeting i developed a terrific headache. i was reading CM at home when i lay down waiting for the worst to be over. It was ironic that it was part of the book in which she discusses migraines and the odd things that pain does to one's state of consciousness. After a time i slept some, S was with me which was nice. The rest of the afternoon i was in a fog, still am a little bit. My headache is not completely gone, but my sinuses are clearing and i am no longer shakey and nauseous. i think my mistake was not wearing my mask a bit yesterday and when i took the dogs out this morning, i tried to hold my breath, but must not have the whole time.
i'm so glad that it's going away. Before i knew i was allergic to soybeans i would spend weeks with a terrible chronic headache. My last year of college i had to take incompletes because i spent so much time lying around feeling miserable. That's when i was a vegetarian still and i ate a lot of soy. In between naps i would read a lot, it helps distract from the pain. But i felt terribly guilty about it. i tended to make everything into a psychological problem and wanted to believe that i could make myself well through sheer force of will. i was diagnosed with the inhalant allergies that year. Hearing the results, one of my professors said, "She's allergic to life!!" At any rate the medications helped enough that i was able to make up my work and finish without problems.
Then in medical school i continued to be ill a lot but just pushed through it. Same in residency, although it wasn't quite as bad then. Probably because i was indoors so much!! And by then i had more acceptance of having allergies. i think too that during residency i was living alone and ended up having rather odd eating patterns, which amounted to a rotation diet of sorts. Especially in the evenings i might just pick up some vegetable in the stores and have that for dinner with a slice of bread. i had given up on being vegetarian during medical school, usually i didn't eat meat, but i didn't worry about it if i did. i was quite thin and didn't want to get any thinner.
When S and i started dating he would call me in the evening to make sure i'd eaten something, because i would get caught up in doing something and forget to eat. It seems amusing now, looking back that he was helping me that way back then. After i was diagnosed with the food allergies, S stopped wanting to cook. He had done a lot of the cooking. i think he was quite dismayed to learn that he had been "poisoning" me by feeding me tofu marinated in soy sauce in the lunches i brought from home!
That was sort of what happened last night at the spaghetti dinner, i asked what was in the sauce before eating any of it. The woman who had made the sauce showed me the recipe and then said she had added soy protein too. (Oh Boy!!) So i was very thankful to have asked. Although the last time i put the texturized vegetable protein in my mouth, i gagged with just a crumb of it. Still i'd rather not take that chance. i almost ate the salad which would have been ok except that i'd just had lettuce the night before. And i had already messed up Saturday by forgetting and eating some lettuce while i made the salad for S!
So i put the salad back a bit sadly and was thankful for the mashed potatoes i'd brought with me. i noticed last night that the folks at friends meeting didn't make me feel as if they were sorry for me in their questions about my diet restrictions, just politely interested, glad that i seemed to have a handle on things. One woman did say "The things we take for granted!" i watched myself in this other venue of my life and felt that i struggle still with dealing with it gracefully. i tend to have a bit of bluster about it still. Still some feeling sorry for myself and making maybe a bigger deal of it than it needs to be. i don't know, eating is such an important social aspect of life that i can't judge (and of course it's not my place to judge anyway). There have been a few times lately when i've really craved coffee, just wanted to dive into a vat of it and guzzle away. Oh well.
i got dinner done tonight, but not in a very timely fashion. : (.
Posted by briannawaters
at 11:10 PM EDT