Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.

Hi! This is a Chinese quote, it's very interesting. ^_^ Well, today my head is hurting worse than before. It's been a week already since I stopped taking Effexor, I thought I'd be fine by now. The weather's been much better today. It's so relaxing. :P I couldn't concentrate on much because of the withdrawal.

Since there wasn't much Challah left, we bought a loaf of honey and orange bread. (We usually have Challah on Shabbat morning.) Also, we bought some turkey bacon. It's not a pork product so we can have it. In case you didn't know pork products are not kosher. We don't follow all the kosher laws but that's one of them. That's the joy of being Reform, you can choose what you'd like to do within reason. Kosher laws are the Jewish dietary laws. There's so many of them, and some places have made they're own laws on top of the original ones. Particularly in the Orthodox community. :P

We used to eat pork products until I was about maybe 12 or a little younger. I still remember loving things like pork bacon, pepperoni, regular sausage, ham, etc. I've accidentally had some pork products after we switched to not having them. I ended up wanting to throw up. So, now it's kind of repulsive to me. We've also cut out shellfish, it's a hard one to do considering we live so close to the ocean. It's kind of the areas specialty. ^_^" There's other things we've given up, but these are the basic ones. So, my mom made some BLT sandwiches for us. It was really good! ^_^ We usually forget about Turkey bacon, so it was a nice treat. :)

For dinner we went to Taco Time, because it's still too hot to cook in the house. I had my fave, which is a bean soft burrito with mexi- fries and a Diet Coke. Really good stuff! :)

I watched more of Nabari no Ou. Yoite just needs to relax, he's not going to get better by running away from the hospital. I know they can't help much, but at least they can slow down the effects, also they can help with the pain. He woke up Gau from a coma using his 'forbidden' art of Kira. If it kills you faster when using it and you don't want to die just stop using it for a bit! Gau was fine, just upset with his friend and therefore didn't want to wake up. The last forbidden art type scroll or book has got to be on Thobari's ear. They keep showing the metal (sleeve I think) that's around his ear when they talk about the last scroll. That's kind of interesting if that's true. I like how the cat can 'speak' to Aizawa. Not really speak, but more like use telepathy.

Gintama was great. ;P I feel sorry for madao, because no matter what he's always having bad luck. He lost all of his money on betting horse racing. Gintoki did too, but in the end he won the last match but ripped up his ticket by accident. They ended that episode saying that madao suicided or rather left his sunglasses and a suicide note for Gintoki to find. And after the credits, madao showed up and yelled at the staff of the anime, saying he didn't really die, they just couldn't think up more ideas for his character. I love how candid the 'characters' are with the staff. The next episode first had Elizabeth in a spoof on those old silent MGM movies. It was hilarious! She spoke towards the end, and I think it was the first time in the whole series. It was a little disturbing. She also beat up Katsura because he was yelling at her. (I feel weird calling Elizabeth a her, because I think there's a man inside the costume.) After the short, it was about a 'whinery'. Basically a place where you complain to a food vendor. They didn't show the characters' faces. You could tell who was talking because of the voice actors were the same and the characters' situations were similar. Later, you find out it's not the characters you think they are, they're really just random people. But, they looked similar to the main characters. Gintoki at the end watches them leave and says who are they?

I also watched some of Hetalia. I've heard of it only from some fanart on Deviantart. It's actually very interesting. It's the story of Italy. Only, Italy and all the other countries are personified. The first thing Italy says is pasta! He's like obsessed with it, oh also with wine, women, art, music, and trying other foods. They showed the German's perspective on World War 1. And how Germany became friends with Italy. They also showed that when Italy was younger he was going through a 'Renaissance'. He loved to draw specifically, and was very happy. They said that Italians will say things like "I know someone in..." when pleading for their life. They used the example for Americans they would say "I have relatives in Brooklyn!" It's interesting they use phrases and from from each country. Japan was shown as a quiet guy and kind of refined. US's guy loves to eat hamburgers and drink soda. Italy has a brother named Romano, he represented Southern Italy. (This was mostly during WWI and WWII, they were split at the time apparently.) Italy's always asking for help and getting into trouble. England in the anime wants to deny America's existence, saying that it's citizens are basically English. I don't think they got all their facts straight in this anime, but it's still interesting none the less. Also, each episode is only 5 minutes long. o_0

Shabbat Shalom!

Hi! It was a lot cooler today. I was able to relax somewhat, plus the cat looked much happier. I still have some really horrible withdrawal symptoms, but I think I'll get through it. I was distracted by another game on Flash Ninja Clan called We're Pirates. A very addicting game. Although it's pretty hard to even get through the simplest enemy's island. It's similar to a tower defense game. You try to sink the enemies ships, and get 20 of your other ships to cross onto the island. You can't let the captain die, or it's over. Apparently, our job is to be his strategist.

We went to the Shabbat potluck tonight. There weren't very many people that showed up, maybe 10 or 11 something like that. The food that people brought were either salads or desserts. Good stuff, but no main course dish. We brought tabouleh (it's an Israeli salad with couscous, parsley, lemon juice, tomatoes, very tasty!), there was watermelon, cantaloupe, lots of vegetables mixed in an interesting salad, an interesting peach pie, brownies, lemon angel food type cake that had raspberry syrup and whipped cream, and lemon bars. Since there was no main dish, one of the organizers called for pizza. I had the pesto, pine nut, feta, spinach type pizza. It was good, except the crust was like wafer thin and was more like a cracker. There were lots of screaming kids running around and climbing on things. It was annoying. There was a new family that came, to see what it was like in the area. They're thinking of moving here. I think they were from Texas, not sure though. Their kids were overly nice. It was nice to see how people were doing.

I'm pretty into my religion but lately I feel my congregation is kind of.... lacking, for lack of a better word. I used to love their services so much, that I find it odd that it's not doing it for me anymore. I keep racking my brain trying to come up with why so we can change it. (My mom's on the religious committee, so she thinks if I come up with why we can change it.) Nothing really concrete has come up though. Yes, I find the screaming crazy kids annoying, but they're gone during Saturday morning services for their 'Saturday' school. (That's another odd development. I know it's funny, but we used to have that type of thing on Sunday, so the kids can see what the service is really like. I actually loved it that way.) Also, I didn't really like our cantor (a person who helps lead the congregation in singing.) towards the end, but she's kind of gone now. I say kind of because she moved to Seattle, but she might come back like once a month or something to help. I didn't like our Rabbi at the beginning, but now I seem to like him more. Kind of like he's grown on me. He still says things I don't agree with. Maybe what I want is to be more 'spiritual', but I don't know how to go about that. I like being a Reform Jew. (Reform- basically a liberal Jew.) I don't think I want to go down the road of being Orthodox or even Conservative. It bothers me so much! What will make me happy 'spiritually'? I don't know. Also, I feel like I should be doing something more about it everyday. Not like let's be Jewish only on Shabbat. (I know that's not really the case, but it's how I feel.) Sorry, if I seem to be babbling about it, but I'm just confused about my form of spirituality I guess.

I watched Eureka tonight. It was interesting yet again. This time about a 'pet' named spot (really a blob) who loves to feed off of radioactivity. The only problem is it gets so big and since humans are a little radioactive it starts trying to eat people. They ended up putting salt on it, and killed it like it was a slug. Kind of funny. Also, I'm pissed that Syfy decided to drop Primeval. I loved that show! It's about these 'anomalies' (portal type things) that open and let in prehistoric and future creatures. Each show showcased an animal or two. It was kind of fun. Oh, and what makes me even more pissed is they decided to show reruns of a different show at that time. You know, take it away and add a new show I somewhat understand. But, take it away and just show reruns I don't understand.

Not to have felt pain is not to have been human.

Hi! Shabbat Shalom! :D Well, this quote is a Jewish proverb. I'm still sick. :'( It's funny though when I have a fever, because my head is burning up, but the rest of my body is freezing! Also, I feel like my head is floating and being pressurized. I looked up stuff about concussions, and if I have one it's extremely mild. All, I have in common is the nausea and dizziness. They said that usually people need to see a doctor when you have blurry vision, amnesia, been puking a lot, faint a lot, etc. Usually people have to just relax and rest until it's better if it's mild. It's just taking a while! It was disturbing that my mom and I were both not up for going to a Hadassah meeting recently. I usually have to be there, because I'm the Secretary. I'm sure they'll get along without me, but I feel bad that I couldn't do my job! >.<

I read more Naruto. I love Gama bunta! He's hilarious! Saying things like why's a punk on my head? He's the "boss toad" of the toads that can be summoned. And Naruto accidentally summoned it. Every time I hear about Gaara's past I feel even more sorry for him. :(

I watched more of Nabari no Ou. I like Thobie's (I think that's how it's spelled- their teacher) roommate Hana. She's great! Miharu was going to shake hands with Yoite, and Yoite was hesitating. Hana jumped in grabbed their hands and made them shake. She's so nice, it's creepy.

I guess I can tell people this. My dad is transgendered. He told me several months ago. I kind of had been suspecting he was "different" but wasn't sure. He's been dressing up as a woman, getting electrolysis done on his face, and taking hormones all in a very short time. He's even come up with another name: Jill instead of John. It also seems to be the only thing he can talk about lately. I'm ok with it, but it sometimes gets to be too much. :P He's part of a community in Seattle with other people like him, so that's kind of nice. He can make friends with people who truly "understand". He's seeing a Gyneocologist for the hormones. I almost had the same guy, which kind of would had been odd to me. It's also funny that before he told me he was always tense around me, and yelling, etc. Now, that he's told me, he seems nicer and more carefree. A lot easier to deal with too. So, we have a transgendered person, a person with cancer, and a person with Bipolar disorder. Funny combo!

Tonight my mom made trout with an onion and oil sauce. With some Bok Choy. And finally some Garlic and Basil Polenta. It was awesome! And of course, we had some Challah. :D My dad drank all of the rest of the Grape juice, so we had to have old sparkling apple cider. It was flat but ok. For dessert we had some almond ring cake, very nice! Although, I would have liked chocolate, but that was ok too. Also, we didn't have anymore Shabbat candles, so we had to make do with long tapered candles. It was just a little different tonight, but it makes it exciting. We even had a hole in the Challah. Tasha's so cute! She loves to watch us come up the stairs from the landing. She almost looked like she was going to fall over.

Test Results

Hi! Well, I wasn't able to do much today because my mom had an appointment with her oncologist and I wanted to be there for her. She had a full body scan done when she went for the brain scan the last time. Now we finally have the results. He said that it looks like the growth in her mastoid bone (the one close to her brain next to her left ear) looks like a flare up from when she had breast cancer maybe just from the meds she was taking at the time. It somehow traveled up there. He looked further down the scan and showed us weak "spots" of her bones that look like they can fracture the bone at any moment. 2 on her spine, 2 on one hip, a couple on her leg, and some other places. He said if they were to fracture she'll need a wheelchair and might become paralyzed. He's apparently more worried about those than the growth in her mastoid bone. He said they can't biopsy that bone because of how complicated it is to get in there. Since it's a flare up, he said it can go away on its own, but he's not sure. So, for the time being he made her take a med that's only given intravenously to help strengthen her bones. Now, I feel even more worried about her. :( The nurses took forever to get her hooked up to the med. By the time we got out we were very hungry. It was like 2:30 PM and I hadn't eaten since 7:30 AM. So, we decided to eat out. We barely ever eat out, so this was a nice treat. Plus, it was kind of to make her feel better. It was what we call lupper or lunch and supper in one meal. ;P We went to a Chinese buffet. Oh, it's like one of the best ones around us! So, good! I love their sesame beef (it's like candy really!), cheese wontons, chicken teriyaki skewers, buttermilk biscuits with a little sugar on top, chicken dumplings with a little sweet and sour sauce, lo mein, honey chicken (another thing that's like candy!), garlic green beans, vegetable fried rice, and apple pie. The apple pie oddly is one of the best pies I've had. It's got like a strudel kind of filo dough that's wrapped around huge chunks of apple and has an awesome sauce. After that we came home. My mom's going to go to her Mah Jong thing later. So, that will get her mind off things.