The smell of Sunflower-Flax-Banana-Cinnamon-Apple cookies wafts from my kitchen tonight, and I should wake up to that smell tomorrow morning. A couple of days ago, my dehydrator came in and so I've been looking for ways to test it. After a (mostly) failed attempt at potato chips and zucchini chips (too much lime juice) I have decided to try again with cookies and "buckwheat crispies". Of course, I've eaten half the cookies already long before they were actually ready. I guess I'll have to start making the kind of raw cookies that don't need the dehydrator from now on. And the Buckwheat Crispies are to satisfy my craving for cereal and milk...though I'll still have to make the Almond Mylk so as to avoid the beast-food.
I started out as a Reluctant Raw Vegan instead of the Resplendent Raw Vegan I am today
. Realizing that I can actually do this helps. But I'm also thrilled to discover that I like preparing raw food dishes, which is surprising since I hate cooking so much. My favourites so far have been Nori (with sprouts instead of rice), and Zucchini Pasta with Marinated Mushrooms and Sun-Dried Tomato Marinara.
I think I will enjoy this even more when I am finished with my regimen of juicing, which means I only get to CHEW a meal at supper time. The rest of the time it's juicing and smoothies. The problem I'm finding is that raw food energizes me, so having it for supper means I can't get to
sleep before midnight. That was fine when I could sleep in, but now that the kids need to be chased out the door to school, it's starting to wear on me.
Perhaps the most surprising is how minimal my cravings are. I have had absolutely NO craving for coffee since I started the cleanse in New Brunswick last month. I have had a craving for something (anything?) crispy and deep fried...perhaps some kind of chicken...but it hasn't been overwhelming. And Saturdays are still hard when I am thrown off my routine.
The best thing about my 10 day cleanse is that it not only cleansed my body, it cleansed my palette as well. Today as I was walking by Tim Horton's, I almost said, "oh, I wish I could go in there," and then I realized that the wishing itself is only a habit. When I thought about it for a second, I realized I had no desire whatsoever for the taste of Tim Horton's, or any other, coffee.
That said, my next six weeks may be a challenge. I've decided to stick as closely as possible to the recommendations given me from the naturopath. The only problem is that it seems like a full time job to do this, and I'm not quite sure how to manage it while trying to work, take care of kids, and basically live life. In ideal circumstances, I'd take six weeks off and just focus on this. But I take so much time off already with this cancer that I just can't do that. I'm hoping it gets easier as time goes by.
Besides the preparation problems, I'm just not sure if I can fit everything into my body. Today I missed the evening stew because I'm just not hungry enough to eat it, and I missed one green drink, a bunch of water, and my second walk. I'll try to get in my psyllium drink before bed, though, so I can keep this stuff moving through me.
The program packs a wallop of nutrients, though. As it is I have consumed the juice of an entire bag of carrots, a sweet potato, a whole head of cabbage and a whole bundle of kale. On top of that I've had goji berries and cacao as well as two green smoothies that Melissa made me, both packed full of raw nutrition.
Mostly, I'm feeling sleepy after all of this. Maybe it's my body telling me I have to rest now and let the all of that nutrition heal me.
On the upside, I recognized myself in the mirror today for the first time in awhile!
For those that are curious, you can see an example of my daily eating (or drinking) schedule. This schedule is in effect for me for the next 6 weeks.
Daily Timetable
Time
Description
Supplies Needed
7:00am
2 heaping tablespoons fresh ground flax seed in a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice
3 Oranges
Flax Seeds
7:30am
1 X 8oz glass of water (room temperature) with ½ fresh squeezed lemon and fresh ginger
Lemon
Ginger
8:00am
Breakfast – 16oz green smoothie, along with 5 Wobenzyme “N” tablets, digestive enzymes, acidophilus ¼ cup each raw cacao & goji
Cacao, goji, + pills
9:00am
Walk outside or on treadmill for ½ hour
9:30am
8oz glass of water
10:00am
16 oz Green Drink with fresh apple juice (not smoothie!)
Apple Juice Kale, collard greens, mustard greens, baby spinach, dark green romain lettuce and green cabbage
For breakfast we had apple pie and banana ice cream. I can get used to that, I think. It was a raw apple pie, which I've had before and discovered is quite a tasty treat, with a lot less sugar than normal pie. The banana ice cream was a new experience for me, but it was delicious too, and it was made of ONLY banana's, which is kind of cool.
For lunch we had quite a spread. The only cooked dish was the oat burgers in mushroom gravy. I don't know how to make them (yet), but they were delicious. The biggest surprise for me, though, was the raw food. It was fantastic. The "potato salad' was delicious, which is all the more surprising since it wasn't made with potatoes, but instead created using a vegetable which I list among my all time least favourites. There was also a great tasting paté...I have no idea what was in it, but it was good. I even liked the various sprouts with french dressing. However, my favourite by far was the hummus, which was made without chick peas (not that chick peas are bad, but it's difficult to make hummus without cooking them). I could have eaten a lot of the hummus, I think, and I look forward to figuring out how to make it myself. For desert we had carrot cake, made with raw carrots. The icing was good. The cake itself was good for the first few seconds, but then I tasted it--coconut!--perhaps my least favourite food on the planet (not counting anything they eat on those gross reality shows, of course). Still, I can tell it would be quite tasty if I leave out the coconut.
Looking back on my experience I have to say it was worth it. There were nine of us going through the cleanse, and it seemed that the one thing we did the most was laugh. Sometimes we'd run into a concoction that was hard to get down, and some of the cleanse was challenging, but we laughed and laughed our way through it. That alone was good therapy for me. Thanks to Mona, Elden, Maria, Nadine, Vivien, Adam, Rachael and Patricia for making this a fantastic experience. Special thanks to Rachael and Patrician for the little gift I found in my luggage when I got home! It was both very sweet and, in the spirit of the whole 10 days, funny! It gave me one more good laugh before I hit the sack tonight.
Also notable about day 10 is that it's the end of the cleanse. We all said our goodbyes, and I can't think of anyone who I've known for only 10 days that I'll miss so much as these people. It seems we became a close-knit group in a very short time. Vivien, who also has cancer, and I made a pact to meet up again in 20 years time, which means we both have to stick around that long!
The trip home was another story. My not-so-trusty GPS led me down a dirt road that also happened to be a dead end. It took me too much time to get to the airport, but I did manage to catch my flight. Luckily, it was the Moncton airport which, like the Hamilton airport, is not very busy at all. In fact, as a far as I can tell, we were the only flight out right then. Still, I was barely through line when I had to board the plane.
I used red luggage so that it would be easy to spot when I got to the baggage claim. Surprised and chagrined, I discovered that a good 70% of air travellers today had the same idea I did, and there was more red luggage on that conveyor belt than any other color. I'm pretty sure my bag when around 3 or 4 times before I realized it was indeed mine!
Once I got my bags, I went to meet Melissa and the kids who were there to pick me up. We all had a big group hug, all six of us, and the kids couldn't stop hanging off me until we got to the van. They were also extra cuddly all night until they finally got to bed.
An extra special thanks to Melissa for giving me such a life-changing birthday present. Who know, it may be a present that saves my life. I have returned with a changed mind, ready to put into practice what I learned about healing my body while I was away. I look forward to the day that I write a blog that says "I'm Cancer Free!!" Hopefully, that day isn't too far off.
Above is a picture of my blood under a microscope. On the left is a picture of them the day I came. My cells are all clumped together and icky. On the right is a picture of them taken today. Notice how nice and round they look, and how UN-clumped they have become. Looks like this cleans was quite a success, as my cells are much healthier looking than they were when I got here.
Today we had four more melon meals. I thought I'd be sick of melons by the end of today, but I'm not. Tomorrow we are back to apples and concoctions, so I'm enjoying the food for today. I can't wait until Tuesday when we get a real breakfast and a real lunch before we head home!
Yesterday, I went walking in the ocean. I made the mistake of doing so with my flip-flops on, and they dug into my toes. My toes still bear the marks of their injury and still sting (you never mind, Dwayne, they do so hurt!). Today, I knew better and went walking in the ocean without flip-flops. My feet got attacked by a huge creature (okay, a small creature). I don't know what it was, but I saw it dart at my feet and hit my heel. It didn't hurt, and I don't know if the creature was malicious or clumsy, but I don't like unidentified creatures touching me while I am in the ocean.
Today's schedule was the same as yesterday, except this afternoon we watched a video that made me wish I had stayed teaching. It always makes me sad that I left that profession.
I'm currently laying on a towel sweating. The steam bath was done about a half hour ago, but the sweating keeps on going for up to an hour after. It's not the most pleasant time of the day. However, we discovered a topic that keeps us talking and not noticing the heat. Movies! Though I don't know if we'll remember enough movies for 3 more nights!
The big change today was melons. Apparently, melons work well for a kidney cleanse, so we had 4 meals consisting only of melons. After having mostly drinks of one kind or another, I was quite happy to be chewing something. The cantaloupe, honey dew melon, and watermelon were all delicious, all four times we ate them. I don't know if I'll think so tomorrow which is the same schedule as today...and I'm still not sure what this will do to my bathroom time!
I should have posted this last night, but didn't feel much like writing. The only difference in Day Five is that we had more poultice drinks (something sweet mixed with activated charcoal, so the drink is a dark black colour). Also, we got to go in the steam bath earlier.
There are 9 people here, 3 men and 6 women, and the steam bath comfortably fits 3-4 people. So we've divided into 3 groups, 1 men's group and two women's groups. The men's group always went last, but yesterday someone suggested maybe we should get a turn to go first. None of us cared one way or the other, so we went. What a difference! Although, in theory, it's supposed to be as hot, it turned out to be more bearable in the first session. I think it's because it hadn't been on for two hours already before we got in it. By our third 15 minute session, the walls were as hot as ever, but the first 15 minute session, they hadn't heated up, so we weren't getting radiant heat from them as well as from the steam in the air. It still wasn't easy to sit in there by the third session, but it was a lot easier than previous days.
6:00am - Still dark out so it's not time to get up. Oh no, the drink. I don't want the drink....I fantasize about packing my big red bag, sneaking out the front door and driving back to Moncton. But then what?
6:45am - I am startled by my cell phone alarm. I turn it off and lay back down.
6:59am - I wake up again. Now it's too late to take a shower. I get up and check facebook and email. It occurs to me that I COULD have taken a shower instead of checking the computer. Oh well, I'll get one later.
7:30am - Time for the drink. 2 litres of warm salty water. It's not the taste, it's the anticipation of what comes next. Apparently, since the water is about the same temperature as the inside of my body, with the same salty composition, it will bypass the normal digestive process and push right through me, flushing my system of toxins. Yesterday, it was hell.
8:00am - Today it wasn't hell. It wasn't even heck. I'm not saying it was pleasant, but my fear from earlier this morning was not warranted. I'm not saying I'd want to do this every day for the rest of my life (which is good, since I'm not supposed to!). But it wasn't as bad as yesterday, perhaps because yesterday the salty water had to break the dam that chemo built.
8:30 - Liver/gallbladder cleanse. The garlic orange juice is getting stronger. Each sip burns in my stomach, and a few sips make me feel like I'm going to hurl. I sit very very still and let it settle.
8:45 - Rachel announces that she is renouncing meat. I tell her that when she went on about it yesterday, it made me crave Kentucky Fried Chicken, even though I don't really like KFC. She says she is turning over a new leaf. I said, "If it's a new leaf, does it matter which side it's on?" I hadn't thought of that before. I guess it's a stupid expression. Either that, or I'm too stupid to understand it. On another note, it occurs to me that the suffering now leads to feeling better later, but I have chemo scheduled the day after I get back. Maybe I should postpone it a week.
9:00am - Green Smoothies and apples again! Mmmm. I like the smoothies, although I'm pretty full from all the liquid I've already taken in. The burning has stopped in my stomach, though, so I can at least enjoy the taste. When that is done I eat half an apple out of principle. I'm not the least bit hungry, but I should ingest something that actually requires chewing, I think. Much conversation ensues, and we all tell pet cat stories.
9:30am - Worship. I skip it and come her to write this diary.
9:56am - Take a break from writing the diary so I can head downstairs for the lecture.
10:00am - The lecture today is particularly relevant to me as it is about how cancer starts in the body, why the white blood cells don't recognize it as disease (and then clean it up), and how to make the cancer cells vulnerable to white blood cells (basically, by eating a mostly raw food diet so that the enzymes that the pancreas uses to digest cooked food can instead go after the proteins that protect the cancer cells...in a nutshell). I start to think that maybe I truly should eat like this, although the thought still depresses me. I clearly have a strong emotional attachment to food. I don't want to give up mom's lasagna on Saturdays, or the occasional dinner at the Mandarin. I'm trying to decide, though, whether to go whole hog, or just half hog here. Should I start with one meal every day that has the 80% raw / 20% cooked ratio? I don't know. We'll see.
12:00 - It's time for me to drink my charcoal/apple juice poultice. I'm feeling hungry, actually. Hungry for food. But the only chewable food coming today are apples. After drinking the poultice, I'm not feeling hungry anymore.
12:45pm - Walk time. We're supposed to walk for 45 minutes. Adam and I are engaged in a philosophical conversation about the Matrix (I tell him about the excellent book Melissa once got me called The Gospel According to the Matrix). Rudy, the guy running this program, chases us out of there saying, 'talk while you walk', which makes sense. So we walk down to the beach and chat. We walk by an beautiful cottage on the beach with great big windows, and keep walking. There is a bog right beside the beach with cat-tails, and the water trickles down the sand into the ocean. It's a beautiful place. At some point we turn around and see the cottage far behind us and realize we'd better start heading back. The walk wound up a bit more than 45 minutes, but it was sunny out, and it was by the ocean and what could be better than that?
1:45pm - Have some free time. Something is on the schedule for 2pm, but I can't remember what, so I come to my room to check email and facebook.
2:00pm - I go downstairs to see what is going on. Rachel is sitting in the living room area, but I see no one else. I say, "Isn't there something we're supposed to do at 2pm?" and she says, "Yeah, start our water". So I go to the kitchen where my water bottle is waiting, check the schedule and realize there is nothing again until 2:30. I take the water up to my room and update this diary entry. At 2:30 I get to go down and drink a green smoothie and eat some apples. I'm starting to feel a bit hungry, so the timing is right on.
2:30pm - Green smoothie and an apple.
3:00pm - another walk along the beach. This time I went with Rachel, Patricia, and Nadine. Everyone here seems to be pretty good at conversation, so I've been having a good time that way. I love conversation, and conversation while walking a beach is even better.
3:45pm - Health video time. This one was one I saw when I went to the cancer coaches in Hamilton, and it annoyed me because they only showed the first part, which was all about how ineffective conventional cancer therapy is. Apparently, we get to see part two tomorrow, though, so this time I won't be left without hope.
5:30pm - Rudy told a story about when he was in a band at The Danforth (some biker bar in Toronto). It was quite amusing, but I don't feel like retelling it here.
6:00pm - Another charcoal poultice, and then free time until 8 when I do the dreaded steam bath. I went for a drive in the car to see if I could get better cell phone coverage, but I couldn't. I guess this town just doesn't have it's own tower!
8:30pm - Steam bath time. This time I lasted 4 more minutes. And extra 5 tomorrow and I'll have sat through the full 45 minutes, punctuated every 15 minutes by a freezing cold shower, of course. My heart rate was 174 when I got out (as opposed to 86 this morning when I was rested).
9:22pm - Still sweating from my steam bath. I wish there was a safe place to sweat without getting stuff all wet! I need a fan or something. Air conditioning would be nice too.
So that's my day so far. As soon as I stop sweating, I'll go to bed, and hopefully sleep as well as I did last night!
This morning's schedule sounded harmless enough. At 7:45 we'd have an Isotonic Drink followed by 2 litres of water to be finished by 11am. At 8:30 there would be a couple more drinks for a 'liver/gallbladder cleanse' followed by a Green smoothie and apples.
Don't let anyone tell you that what you don't know can't hurt you!
It turns out the Isotonic drink is 2 litres of salty warm liquid that has to be finished in 20 minutes. All that sounded fine when as I started sipping. It wasn't something I'd ever choose to drink for it's taste, but it didn't make me gag. What I didn't realize was that the purpose of this was to flush the bowels. I might have been okay if I didn't have chemo just this past Tuesday (which does interesting, but relatively predictable things to my digestive system). To make a long story short, I spent a fair amount of time on the toilet this morning, and none of it was very pleasant. Even less pleasant was trying to fit in MORE liquid when I was already filled up with it.
The liver/gallbladder cleanse consisted of two drinks. One was a drink made with freshly squeezed orange juice, raw garlic and I don't know what else. The other drink was in a dainty wine glass with a long blue stem and foot. Neither tasted great, but neither were horrible either. I preferred the orange juice/garlic over the other one.
Then came the green smoothie and apples. I couldn't fit an apple in at this point, but I welcomed the green smoothie (in between trips to the bathroom, that is). Melissa makes me green smoothies all the time and I enjoy them. Her's taste better than these, but these were still good, and packed with nutrients.
After that came the health lecture. By this time I was able to sit for the hour or so without having to run to the toilet, and that alone would have made it good. But the lecture itself was interesting. It is laced with a bit of religion, but I expected that here. Still, I think the principles are sound, and I learned much about the digestive system, including how a peanut butter and banana sandwich is digested from mouth to anus.
When the lecture was finished we had a poultice drink...it was black and gritty, but sweet. I kind of liked it after the morning drinks. Activated charcoal provided the black, but I'm not sure what else went in it, and I can't remember what it's for.
The best part so far was a walk along the beach. I went with a woman whose name I can`t remember yet, but we had an interesting conversation while we swatted mosquitoes...
...a few hour later...
The woman's name is Patricia and she is from Ottawa. She knows my brother-in-law and my friend Mark. When your Adventist, it can be a small world, and it's easy to run into people you know, or who knows someone you do.
The afternoon went a little better with a green smoothie and apples to eat, and then another black drink. Now all I am doing is waiting until 8pm for the steam bath. It's something to look forward to, except for the 30 second cold shower that I'm supposed to have at 15 minute intervals!
Later...
Ah, the steam bath...luxurious lounging with steam swirling in clouds as I relax and enjoy the heat. Or so I thought. It occurs to me that anytime I've had access to a steam bath I've loved it...for 5 or 10 minutes tops. And then it's time to get out. Tonight I was supposed to stay in 15 minutes, hop into a cold shower for 30 seconds, back in for 15, out for 30, in for 15 and out for a final 30 second cold shower, and then go directly to my room to lay down. I made it through the first two, and about 6 minutes into the final one I gave up, took my cold shower, and came to my room to lay down. In my room I was sweaty and couldn't get dry (still can't and it's been a half hour!). My pulse was 144 when I noticed it seemed to be elevated (who knows how much it was BEFORE I noticed that, though!) I flopped myself on top of my covers and just lay there, breathing deeply.
This is supposed to flood my body with white blood cells, which is good. But my 'relaxing' steam bath turned out to be far more difficult than I could have imagined! Hopefully, tomorrow night I will get through all three sessions.
"Gulag" is a bit harsh, I realize now. Overall, my day was pleasant, but I sure look forward to sleeping tonight!
I'm not sure "Spa" is quite the right word for this, although I do get a steam bath every night and massages are available (though not to me...apparently deep tissue massage is bad for cancer patients). I'm hear for a 10 day 'cleanse' where the naturopaths in charge use nutrition to help cleanse the body of toxins while at the same time giving it a good dose of nourishment. Since my body clearly isn't in a healthy state, Melissa gave me this trip as a birthday present so that I could hopefully start on the road to good health.
I was nervous about coming at first--partly, I think, because it sounded eerily similar to some of those 'independent ministries' I hear about now and then, which give me the perception that they are full of ultra conservative people who dress like the Amish and talk in lilting, sing-song voices using the language similar to the King James Bible. But two things made me decide it's okay. First, I've met the people who run the place, and heard some of what they had to say, and they seem reasonable and positive (and they look nothing like the Amish...not that I have anything against the Amish, mind you). Second, it's on the ocean, and I haven't been near the ocean for awhile. Just knowing it's nearby makes me feel better already.
Even after making the decision to come here I was nervous. Who else will be here? What kind of people will they be? Will I feel like I have to pretend to be someone I'm not while I'm here? What are they going to feed me? Will I be okay? How will I be not eating my favourite (and unhealthy) foods for the next 10 days. So yesterday I pigged out at the Mandarin AND a BBQ, and this morning I made sure to stop at Tim Horton's for what might be my Last Coffee Ever.
It turns out the other participants here are very friendly and easy to talk to. One of them I even went to high school with (Maria Cornett, for those ex-Kingswayites out there). The ages of my co-cleansees range from early twenties (or could be late teens) to grandma's. Overall, it seems a great bunch of people, but I'll reserve judgement until after we get all cranky from the cleanse (if we do).
So today was day one. Shortly after I go there, I was stabbed in the finger with a needle and my blood was placed under a microscope. It's fascinating to see my blood cells moving around. I can get it done in a week to see if there is any difference (and you can bet that I will). I only wish they had their own CT Scan machine here so they could see if any of my tumours actually change. I guess I'll just have to keep up a healthy lifestyle at home until my next CT Scan so I'll know if things are working.
I don't know if I'll get to write in everyday that I'm hear, but for now that's the plan. Still, if I'm tired come bedtime, I will choose to go to sleep instead of writing. Today is the beginning of a 10 day adventure doing something I've never done before. I'll let you know how it goes!
Trudy posted a video blog over at hypergraffiti.com. She did it through YouTube, which I noticed had a "Post Video Response" button. Since I was sitting here with a camera built into the laptop, I couldn't find any reason not to respond. So here is my response, which isn't funny or even interesting, but it's video and it's a response.
Like many of the songs I've written, "Sinner's Song" is more of a prayer. I put a video up of me singing this (Click Here), but I never posted the lyrics. The reason I am doing so now is because it occurred to me while playing this on my dulcimer today, that if there is a God, then I think he may have answered the prayer that I prayed in song...not in the way I would have expected, or in the way many people who have heard this song will have liked. Indeed, my paradigms have shifted and my sinner's song has been changed to a hymn.
In the middle of the night it gets worse dark thoughts hover and make me think unthinkable things. The shallows become deep as the thoughts dig themselves deeper and deeper Until the unthinkable become thinkable and then probable.
"Brave" is one of those words people use a lot when you have cancer. I get called brave and courageous a lot these days. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the compliment, I just don't know that I deserve it. It's not like I decided to go bravely into this fight for my life. I am only here because I have absolutely no choice in the matter whatsoever. If I could run away from this thing in a way that it wouldn't catch me, I would. Immediately.
Yes, I could spend my time curled up in bed crying. The truth is, I've already done that. A person can only do that for so long, and then the tears dry up. It's like a book I read where the character cried and cried and cried and cried until she had no tears left. "I couldn't have peed or spit just then" she said.
And that's how it goes. The tears wear off. They come back now and then, sometimes for only a few moments and sometimes with long sobbing. As I reach certain milestones in my treatment the tears can return with a vengeance (as they have been doing since I've gone onto my third (and likely last) line of chemo).
I am lucky that sometimes, late at night when I should be asleep, as the tears fall I feel a hand on my back. The gentle rubbing comforts me and my sadness turns to gratefulness.
On an email list I'm on, some people were talking of retirement dreams...it got me to thinking of my own dreams for retirement, and so I've pasted my response below:
...............
Since we are dreaming of retirement, then my dream is that I have enough money to buy a small country (not that I would...I just want enough so I don't even have to THINK about it). I would buy a few houses in my favourite spots in the world, and staff them with a house keeper and a cook...maybe a butler, while we're at it, though I'm not sure what a butler does, exactly. Buttle, I guess.
Then I would flit from house to house, when I'm not vacationing on a cruise ship or tropical island somewhere.
In my spare time, I would begin a foundation to discover the truth about cancer. I'm tired of seeing the medical community and the alternative treatments community go head to head when neither trusts or understands each other. Since I'd have unlimited money in my dream, I would fund large-scale studies both on promising drugs and promising alternative cures so that we could finally have some hard, scientific, statistical truth instead of having to wade through all the accusations and hype that we have to wade through now.
When not doing that, I would write and record music. I would hire a band to make my music sound great, and I'd hire a music teacher who would make me practice every day so I'd actually get good.
Somewhere, in the midst of all this, I'd take a trip to Africa. I've always wanted to see Africa. Since I'd have unlimited money (hey, we said 'dreaming' right?), then I would also pour money into sustainability projects so that there would be no more hunger in Africa. Heck, since my dream includes unlimited funds, why limit it to Africa? I may as well feed the world (suddenly, a brit-pop Christmas benefit song from the 80's popped into my head for some reason).
I'd use some of my unlimited money to fund Space Tourism...selfishly, since I'd be doing it so I could be a space tourist, and fly in a rocket around the moon.
Oh, and while I'm doing all of this, I'd keep a laptop nearby so I could check facebook and email. I'd also take as many naps as I felt like taking.
Despite the dire warnings from both Melissa and D'Arcy that they think this year is my "Hard" year for Lent, I checked back to my lent 2008 blog and discovered that LAST year was the year to give up something difficult...(and I gave up caffeine, as I often do for the hard year).
So this year I will have to think of something easy to give up. In 2007 it was pot (which I never smoke)...previous easy years found me giving up coconut and cauliflower. Last year I thought that maybe 2009 would be my year to give up cocaine, again, very easy since I've never even seen the stuff...but I'm not sure I should give up something so drastic!
So here's the time for suggestions. What should Jamie give up for Lent this year? (I guess I should have asked this a little earlier than 6 hours before Lent begins).
Thanks for dropping by my site. I love that you are here and I love that you are looking at, listening to, and reading my stuff. Here are some things you should know before you start browsing around:
1. If you see something that makes you want to comment, add a reply...most pages here have the option to add your own reply to them, and sometimes an interesting discussion gets started.Come Talk To Me!
2.Video on this site is all in the DivX format.Go towww.divx.comand click where it says "Free Download" and follow the directions. When installing it, the only thing you need checked off is "Divx Codec"...Windows Media player will play the video once this is installed and you'll be able to see the video (instead of just hearing it).
3. Text inblueis clickable. It might lead to another site or it might download a song that goes with my blog somehow. So when you see text inblue, you can click on it and see where it takes you.
I'm not sure "Spa" is quite the right word for this, although I do get a steam bath every night and massages are available (though not to me...apparently deep tissue massage is bad for cancer patients). I'm hear for a 10 day 'cleanse' where the naturopaths in charge use nutrition to help cleanse the body of toxins while at the same time giving it a good dose of nourishment. Since my body clearly isn't in a healthy state, Melissa gave me this trip as a birthday present so that I could hopefully start on the road to good health. 
