Cooking for survival

Maya at the therapist office the other day. We get to take a 2 week break from this. Yay!

for my primitive doll collection: homemade angel

Tessa at the Bean in Millennium Park

Well at least I don't have to water today. Finally some relief. Extra bonus: it stopped raining long enough for me to get a run in though as it was so hot and humid, I didn't feel well.

I went to my monthly cooking class at the Cancer Support Community last night. Subject: healthy pita sandwiches. I am not a fan of pita bread, too cardboardy and 'healthy' pita is even more so. My new rule about carbs; they better be good if I am going to risk obesity eating them and pita bread doesn't pass the test. I have added some carbs to my 'maintenance ' plan such as the mushroom pasta I had for lunch today but if I start to gain weight, out they go. So she made 4 fillings: egg salad which I could barely tolerate smelling so no to that one; roasted eggplant, tomato and asaigio cheese (the winner by far); a white peach and corn salad (tasted better than it sounds), and a zucchini fritter with roasted pepper hummus number (also good but too much work to prepare).  She always introduces herself to the newbies how she has been a dietician for years at the nearby hospital and had breast cancer twice (two kinds). Someone asked what hope is there for them if she, presumably eating healthy all the time, got cancer twice. But there are many causes of cancer and many advantages of eating healthier even if one takes cancer out of the equation.

My friend was able to make it there.  I had met her there 4 years ago. We bonded when it turned out we were going to Italy (she is Italian-American) at the same time. Although she was feeling fairly good last night, her permanent lung disorder is getting worse. Sadly no cure for that. She is considering a clinical trial for treatment that now cystic fibrosis patients get for clearing their lungs of sticky mucus. It won't stop the fibrotic lesions though.

The class is for survivors and the supporters of someone going through treatment but sometimes the strangest people show up. A woman returned who does not have cancer nor is not close to anyone that does but for a while thought she might have cancer because certain things didn't seem right but she was too afraid to get them checked out because she is so afraid of actually having cancer. She is mostly deaf so the instructor has to repeat things numerous times and has a huge list of foods she won't eat and expects to be accommodated. Annoying. There are foods that are difficult for those in treatment to handle ( I couldn't even abide the smell of my beloved coffee) and some people actually do have allergies but OMG, how crazy some people get. For the record, I did not ask for the eggs to be left out of the egg salad . The instructor has too much patience  though she was getting irritated when a certain someone would not shut-up when others had the floor. 

Since we did not see Josh's family last weekend, we are going out to dinner with them tonight. Tomorrow is the former preemie Daniel's birthday. Tuesday night, the Moms and I had Happy Hour next to the train tracks. Blackberry IPA, yum. Steve took in Naomi's car that had only 240 miles left on the warranty. The problem seemed to disappear. They could not find the defect. Hopefully it will not come back.

Went resaling yet again for some smaller clothes. Size 4, can you believe it? I can't.