High Holy Mass of Contradictions

Grief, animal friendships, and other people's reactions

2011-02-17T16:14:42Z

In case you didn't see it on Facebook or Twitter, Karsten and I had to put our cat Bonnie to sleep yesterday morning.

It was a tough decision to build up to, but a surprisingly easy one to make the morning of. She had a squamous cell carcinoma growth on her tongue which was diagnosed nearly a year ago, and over the past few weeks it had grown enough to make it difficult for her to eat. Once she could no longer eat at all, there was no way we were going to let her suffer to death, so we helped her die without having to starve.

So we've been grieving pretty hard over the past 24 hours, and I expect that's no surprise to many people who know us. We're obviously animal lovers, after all -- when you're living with six cats at once, and you're vegan, and you advocate for animal rights, and you support organizations like Farm Sanctuary and HSUS and ASPCA and PETA, it should be pretty easy to be profiled as an animal lover.

But the thing is, there've been a number of interactions with people over the past day, both online and in person, that have suggested that those people view my grief as a little over the top. I'm not someone who goes out of my way to be emotionally dramatic, so it's a little surprising to get this reaction, but it's clear these people are genuinely surprised by my grief reaction in the first place, so I can't fault them for what feels like insensitivity.

In fact, I guess I feel a little sorry for people who don't seem to understand why Karsten and I are experiencing so much grief over losing Bonnie. They must not have ever had the kind of close relationship with an animal friend that forms a true, genuine connection.

Bonnie was more than a "pet" to us; she was part roommate, part hang-out buddy, part comic relief. I never thought of her as a child. (We don't generally think of these cats as our "furkids" as some folks do.) Bonnie was a good deal smarter than our other cats, and incredibly loving and sweet. She was one of the three tightly-bonded littermates we adopted in '98 -- our first time adopting animals as a couple -- and she was the surrogate mother-figure to her two brothers. She would nurture them and groom them, and then she'd swat them on the head when her patience ran out. She had so much obvious personality, it was hard not to imagine her as a human in a cat's body.

I've truly never met anyone like her, and I'm going to miss her like crazy. But I also know this: missing her doesn't make me crazy. It makes me someone who's lost a dear and special friend.

The Social Network, and what's difficult about it

2010-10-11T13:45:41Z

I guess it's natural, if you're someone like me - someone who's been close to (and part of) a few online startups, and someone who's been an avid user of various online social platforms from the earliest days - to want to write up your reactions when you see a movie like The Social Network. This won't be a movie review, though, I don't think. I mean, as a film, it's a fine piece of storytelling with good dialogue and good acting, beautiful sets and many solid directorial decisions. So that's about as much of a review as I feel it needs. If you haven't already, I'd suggest you go see it.

When you do see it, though, I want to know what you took away from it. Because I was pretty conflicted. I saw the dynamics of growth and loyalty pitted against one another, not because of flawed young personalities, but because of an institutionalized idea of what it means to succeed, and while I believe that's a common dilemma, I want to believe that it doesn't have to be.

I also saw the premise of innovation as a hybrid of plagiarism and derivation, and maybe there's something to that, but it's a pretty disappointing thought. I've thought a lot about creativity and innovation lately, and I do think it's often a marriage of two or more existing ideas that yields a novel outcome, but how novel the idea need necessarily be before it's innovative: that's the rub. In the case of this story, what was allegedly ripped off was itself a derivation: a Match.com for Harvard students, as the Mark Zuckerberg character says a few times. And at least in this retelling of the story, the Match.com-iness of the prototype of thefacebook.com didn't enter the equation until minutes before launch, and even then only as a marketing angle, not as a core feature.

And even when movie-Zuckerberg is conceptualizing thefacebook, he already has MySpace and Friendster to compare it to and contrast it with. It's not entirely new, it's just a little different.

And yet it's $25 billion dollars' worth of different. So which nuance is responsible for the value? Probably not any one nuance, but a whole magical set of nuances and circumstances that lined up just right. And as a student of innovation, that's both inspiring and frustrating.

On a side note, I get a funny reaction when I see Silicon Valley startup culture portrayed in movies or TV, and I think "I want to go there and be part of that." I forget, almost, that I sort of have been there and been part of that. But only sort of: I wasn't an entrepreneur, I was only along for other entrepreneurs' rides. I think the yearning has more to do with the fullness of it, and the large-scale-ness of it: of starting a company like Facebook and seeing it through to undeniable success.

I don't know what I envy so much about it: the pace, the genius, the accomplishment, or maybe a combination of it all. But I do know that as much as I love Nashville and want to see startup culture thrive here, it will never have that same thrill. That's OK, I guess: folks trade off that thrill for a quality of life in Nashville and other similar places that's harder to attain in the Bay Area due to cost of living and that same pace of work and competition.

Anyway, it feels only right to post this to LiveJournal, since that's where Mark was doing his blogging in the movie. I also haven't posted anything here in who-knows-how-long.

So who's seen it? What did you think?

Sitening stops providing services, focuses exclusively on Raven

2010-02-02T21:26:04Z

The Ethical Dilemma of Providing Marketing Services and Tools « Internet Marketing Blog

It's been almost a year since Sitening and I parted ways, and it was clear even at that time that their hearts were wrapped up in Raven, not in providing consulting services. My understanding is that, since then, they've been whittling down the clients they were consulting to, but this post declares services entirely gone.

Kudos to Sitening/Raven for taking a bold, decisive step to eliminate the chance for conflict of interest, or even the appearance of it. And of course, if you get good leads for SEO work, you can always refer 'em to [meta]marketer. ;)

The ups (my mood) and downs (my jeans size) of my raw switch

2009-12-27T18:32:37Z

If you're following along at home, you may recall that I switched to a raw diet over two months ago. I wasn't sure how far I would take it, but I just wanted to give it a good solid effort. A lot of people have asked me if I see this as a permanent thing, and my answer is always that I don't know. Based on how good I've felt since I switched, I'd like to, but it definitely requires an investment of time and money that have been considerable.

Perhaps I should give a more detailed update.

Within a week, I felt a lot more energy, despite forgoing coffee. I immediately got slimmer and started fitting more comfortably into my favorite jeans, which had become too snug. My skin starting looking clearer and brighter.

Within two weeks, I felt sexier and happier. My body continued to slim down, and my complexion continued to improve. I was getting adventurous with my "un-cooking" but didn't have a blender or a dehydrator, which are two of the key tools for broadening the possibilities of the raw diet. Of course, the good ones aren't cheap, and I didn't know how long I'd stick with it. But upon looking into it, the difference in price between a cheap blender and a great blender was about $40 - $400, while the difference between a cheap dehydrator and a great dehydrator was about $30 - $250, so I bought a cheap blender (which hasn't been all that useful precisely because it's cheap and underpowered), a good dehydrator (without which I probably would have given the whole thing up), and a few more "un-cook"books.

Within three or four weeks, I had little interest in cooked food and had to wear a belt with my favorite jeans. I'd had several instances where I felt that I'd been exposed to a cold or some kind of virus, but felt slight symptoms pass over in a matter of hours. If you've followed my journaling and tweeting in the past few years, you'll recognize this as nothing short of amazing, because I've had some uncanny ability to get sick from every germ that gets sneezed my way.

Five weeks in was Thanksgiving week, and for the holiday, Karsten and I chose to stay home and relax rather than join in on any of the dinners we'd been invited to. I made him stuffing and a green bean casserole, and tasted it at the table. It tasted like it should, but I had little interest in it because it seemed lacking in the vibrancy and life of the food I'd grown accustomed to eating.

Around six or seven weeks in, having shed enough fat that I could barely wear my favorite jeans anymore, I went thrift shopping for some new jeans. The pairs I found were two sizes smaller than my last pair. People began consistently asking if I'd been losing weight, and I got several compliments on how good my skin looked.

Around eight or nine weeks in, some fatigue with the process started to show. Preparing the food that appealed to me the most had required a lot of work and advanced planning, so I'd begun to settle for the easier recipes (salad, again and again) and was getting bored. It was also approaching my birthday and Christmastime, and holiday parties were offering tempting diversions. So I decided not to force it, and let myself eat cooked as often as I wanted over the course of the week. It felt like a relaxing and decadent treat, but I also noticed that now when I ate cooked food, I felt like that was "settling." In other words, I genuinely preferred the raw food.

So yesterday, as I marked the end of nine weeks, I managed to motivate myself into preparing some easy and delicious foods, like pesto, and a few more involved foods, like a raw bread and raw cinnamon rolls. Although I'd been starting to wonder if I'd lose my enthusiasm for raw, the dishes all turned out great and I can feel my excitement and energy coming back.

I had a great pilates workout this morning, and I'm feeling peaceful. It feels like a lifelong change, but maybe it isn't, who knows. Either way, I had a conversation with Karsten yesterday about the label I use to describe myself (hey, I'm a language geek at heart - of course this matters) because I've run across terms like "rawfoodist" and "living foods" and "sun foods" and they all seem to miss the point for me. I pointed out that "raw vegan" appealed to me a lot more because being vegan is much more the identity that matters to me. Not only my diet, but also my lifestyle, my politics, and my entire worldview are first and foremost about compassion. Raw is just a modification of my vegan diet to make me feel as healthy as possible.

So yes, apparently, I've become a raw vegan. And so far, I'm doing great, thanks.

Child-free and quite fulfilled, thankyaverymuch

2009-11-01T13:26:59Z

At a Chamber of Commerce mixer the other night, the woman who is my membership representative was telling a story about how she met me to someone else there. (She was in the audience when I was on a panel on women in technology at last year's BarCamp Nashville.) She mentioned that, at one point, when the panel was discussing children and family and I said that I had no interest in having kids, the woman next to her in the audience muttered something like "what an empty thing to admit."

I'm glad she told me that story because I do like to have a read on people's reactions to my choices and lifestyle. But that woman in the audience? Fuck her.

(P.S. - Also? I can't believe I didn't already have a "child-free" tag. Have I truly never talked about this here before? I mean, Karsten and I organized the Nashville Child-Free Meetup for the first few years we were here. How did this never come up before?)

Raw again, food tourism, and whatnot

2009-10-26T12:48:44Z

Courtesy of Boris Lauser
The raw-food chef Boris Lauser, left, and one of his creations.

BERLIN | Organic, local edibles that are not only vegan but … raw? In the land of the greasy currywurst? Aber ja — but of course! Since March, Boris Lauser has been quietly spreading the raw-food word, serving gourmet uncooked meals out of his own apartment in a glassy new building where Kreuzberg meets Mitte. He’s also been gathering a following of curious Berliners looking to taste something new.
Raw Food, Fully Cooked Concepts - Globespotters Blog - NYTimes.com

I've decided to switch to a raw diet for a while. Again. I've done it a few times before and I always feel incredibly healthy and energetic, but it takes so long to prepare enough food for a day that I usually find I don't have enough time.

And that will probably happen this time, too, but at least I can get a few good days of it in, hopefully, or learn to mix it into my lifestyle as a day or two each week of raw eating.

The other side effect I'm hoping for, predictably enough, is to shed some of the extra me I've gained since my thyroidectomy last year (and there's a pretty generous amount of me gained). I'd prefer to be a somewhat thinner me again. (I want to stress that I'm not dieting in the women's magazine sense of the word - I'm changing my lifestyle in a way that feels great and has historically resulted in my body dropping some of its excess.) We'll see how it goes.

(Ooh, and I went for a pretty decent run Saturday for the first time in weeks, if not almost months. I think just the idea of eating raw gives me energy. :) )

Anyway, the above article caught my eye because Karsten and I were just chatting yesterday about making a trip to Germany. We weren't specific about whether we meant for our next vacation or just sometime in the indefinite future but I kind of think it might be within the next year, which is exciting! I haven't been back to Germany since I spent a summer there as an intern in 1993. But I was also not vegetarian then let alone vegan, let alone raw vegan, and I was totally unaware at the time of the groundswell of alternative diet support there seems to be throughout pockets of Germany. This time it will be essential, but also exciting to explore and discover veggie-friendly places to eat and shop. Basically, I want to be a food tourist. :)

Women like to have sex. For a lot of reasons.

2009-09-29T12:43:32Z

From The 237 reasons women have sex - Holy Kaw!

"Nobody has really talked about how women can use sex for all sorts of resources." Their main reason was "orgasm, orgasm, orgasm."

That this was in any way elusive is a mystery to me. :)

What tasks go into "developing relationships"?

2009-09-27T21:47:56Z

In my Remember the Milk account, my lists generally correspond to the greater goals I have for my life. (I borrowed that concept from Life Balance, actually.) I just changed the name of a list in Remember the Milk from "Reach Out" to "Develop Relationships." Functionally, the tasks that go into the list are basically unchanged, but I think this renaming appeals to me because it reflects a significant shift in my thinking over the past months, which is two-fold:

The nature of the company I started this year lends itself to meeting a lot of people, all the time. (It's a web marketing agency, and the billable work is done almost entirely by freelance and independent talent so that we can fit the right people to the tasks. So I'm always recruiting.) I naturally meet a lot of people that [meta]marketer doesn't have any current work for, but I have been paying attention to when I can make introductions between people who might be able to help each other. So I'm interested in developing relationships between other people. So some of the tasks that go into this list read like "send email introducing so-and-so to so-and-so."

My social networks are growing, and I'm less interested in having a vast collection of people around me that I have no connection to than I am in having at least SOME connection with most of them and always deepening the connections with as many as possible. So I'm interested in developing relationships between myself and others. Some of the tasks that go into this list, then, are things like "Follow up with so-and-so from the mixer the other night."

I also have a daily recurring task that reminds me to check Facebook for birthdays. I really enjoy wishing people a happy birthday, and it means that I can count on at least one interaction with most of the people in my network (some don't list their birthdays) every year. That may not sound like much, but that one birthday wish has often led to messages back and forth catching up a bit and getting to know people I may have only gone to school with or hung out with at a conference.

How do you approach developing relationships? Is it something you just do, or do you have methods of organizing it into your life, as well?

My new Posterous blog

2009-09-07T16:04:49Z

I know, folks are probably sick of me having so many sites. But I like the idea of a Posterous-style tumbler blog, and I want to see if I actually use it.

Subscribe or don't, it's up to you. :)

Posted via email from Kate O'Neill and then some

My namesake sushi roll

2009-09-03T20:02:53Z

Nashville, TN,
originally uploaded by TheTravelingVegetarian.

I'm trying to get a local sushi place to create a menu item based on a custom roll I devised. Some friends have since named it the "Kate O'Roll."

It's avocado, cucumber, and mango inside with seaweed salad over top.

Yummmm.

Just a little harmless bragging

2009-08-17T01:44:37Z

I got it into my head yesterday that I needed yellow flats. This morning I was browsing online shoe sites, trying to find the ideal pair. I'd narrowed it down to a few, of which the lowest-price pair was $35.

Then Karsten and I randomly stopped in a thrift store on our way to a party, and I found yellow shoes. Not quite flats, but low wedges, so they're almost better, because flats actually make my size-11 feet look huge. (Well, they are huge, but they don't have to be so obvious about it.)

And they were only $6. Yay!

Email from Karsten

2009-07-15T20:37:25Z

> From: karsten soltauer
> Date: July 15, 2009 3:25:12 PM CDT
> To: Stone Fox
> Subject: techno sapien
>
> have you seen this? would you like one? let me know.
>
> http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2106/2414194397_9a484b1d75.jpg
>
> love you.

A rainy stroll through Germantown

2009-07-11T23:45:12Z

I walked to Zackie's for a veggie dog at lunch, and although it was drizzling and although I am miserably sick, I was safely under an umbrella, so I took it slow and snapped a few glistening pictures of the neighborhood. I'd like to show some to you.

High on our list of criteria for a livable neighborhood when Karsten and I were house-hunting was that it had to have sidewalks. Some cities take this attribute for granted, but many of Nashville's neighborhoods don't have extensive sidewalks, so this truly was a limiting factor in selecting a location. In moving to Germantown, not only did we get sidewalks, we got charming brick sidewalks:

One of the best things about this neighborhood (and maybe it's to do with the culture of the South in general) is just how much gardening goes on. There are some beautiful gardens just on the blocks we walk the most, and we never take them for granted.

Here, the lilies seem to be peeking up over the hedges. If you could only take a picture of scent, I could have let you smell how deliciously wonderful these smell.

Even a simple decorative purple border of petunias looks better when it's drizzling:

And this? This is the best garden in Germantown, if you ask me. A whole side lot dedicated to a lush, gorgeous garden, filled with what must be hundreds of varieties of flowers and other plants.

I love living here.

Deep thought about beauty

2009-06-24T13:00:27Z

It's not very motivating to do one's hair or makeup when the stupidly large bathroom has no air and only a ridiculously tiny window.

I'm just saying.

Lifehacker - Zoning Out Is A "Crucial" Mental State, Studies Say - Focus

2009-06-23T13:33:37Z

From Lifehacker - Zoning Out Is A "Crucial" Mental State, Studies Say - Focus:

Discover Magazine references several studies on the importance of zoning out, including a University of Santa Barbara case that asked participating students to read from—what else—War and Peace and to tap on a computer key when they weren't thinking about the book.

They make it sound like such a chore! I loved War and Peace.

Posting from the road....

2009-04-20T19:13:49Z

Posting from the road. My dad Hall of Fame induction ceremony was great, could it gone better. And I'm now driving back to Nashville and it's pouring rain but I'm trying out posting via Jott. So, here goes.

listen:
http://jott.com/show.aspx?id=c43d282e-9182-46c5-8cf5-1f3357e18713
Powered by jott.com

(edited to say: Not quite, but close.)

So beauty doesn't crap on me

2009-04-16T16:30:52Z

There's a huge flock of cedar waxwings gorging themselves silly on the hackberries high up in the trees around our garden. And crapping all over the garden, which means the planting I was going to do can wait.

It's OK; they're beautiful. I don't mind waiting on beauty.

My dad's getting inducted into my hometown's Hall of Fame

2009-04-15T22:07:31Z

From the announcement:

MARTY O’NEILL

Through his efforts for children, his church and his community, the late Marty O’Neill was a tireless volunteer.
From coaching girls’ softball to his caring church work, through his participation in the Park Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, O’Neill was a solid and consistent force for good in the community.

He served as a mediator for St. Irenaeus Catholic Church called upon by Fr. Daniel O’Sullivan to solve conflicts among parishioners. Marty lead through fairness and patience to establish a peaceful atmosphere within the group. He was instrumental in helping an organization assisting alcoholics and their families locate in Park Forest.
Fr. O’Sullivan supported Marty’s nomination, calling him a “man of character.”

As an extraordinary volunteer in the Park Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, O’Neill gave his time, talents and strengths to enable the organization to prosper prior to its merger with the Matteson Area Chamber of Commerce.

As a coach, he helped build character and served as a positive role model to his charges, being especially supportive to those who needed it most.
He and wife Georgia O’Neill, now a Park Forest trustee, raised three children. O’Neill, a 35-year resident of Park Forest, died in 2005 after a three-year battle with cancer. Before his death, he received a Leadership Certificate from Barack Obama.

Depeche Mode, iTunes, and the state of the music industry,

2009-04-10T12:41:24Z

I hadn’t heard about the Depeche Mode iTunes Pass fiasco:

Just recently, Apple introduced its iTunes Pass program with Depeche Mode, only to find the proposition dismantled by the internet itself. The Pass builds extras around a formal album release date, and packages everything into a multi-week program.

But all of that is predicated on scarcity and control. What happens when the album leaks? That is exactly what happened with Depeche Mode, to the surprise of few. Buyers were left holding the bag on an $18.99 extravagance, while those paying $0 were granted access to the entire album - and various extras as well.

(via Resnikoff’s Parting Shot: Not Your Father’s Release Schedule… — Digital Music News.)

Interesting attempts to innovate and consequences in the music industry right now. I’m just realizing I didn’t blog here about the Leadership Music Digital Summit Karsten and I attended a few weeks ago, and what my impressions of that were. This was basically it: there’s so much disruption in this industry right now, and some very bright minds are trying many different approaches to make something new work, find a new model, build out lucrative side businesses from that model, etc. But it seems that the disruption is happening faster than the innovation, and that’s really freaking everyone out.

I mean, truly, that was my overriding impression from that conference: not one of hope and excitement, but one of a general anxiety and fear about what happens next.

But the flip side of that is, it’s just about anyone’s game right now. Anyone with an idea could come along and innovate on behalf of music makers, and on behalf of music lovers. There certainly are innovators already. It’s just that there’s so much room for more.

Originally published at Sticky, Sweet, & A Little Overdressed. You can comment here or there.

Idealistic, perhaps? Come join me

2009-04-09T17:18:05Z

Did you know I started a new blog yesterday? It's called Corporate Idealist, and I'm really excited about it. I think it will be a source of encouragement to people to feel like more than cogs in a corporate machine, and to do something positive in their workplaces and in their lives beyond the pursuit of money. (Hey, I like money as much as the next capitalist, but it isn't enough by itself to feel good about.)

I hope you check it out, and subscribe to the feed, and comment on the blog, and spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested!

I also want to attract contributors and eventually pay them, as well, to provide a really diverse set of perspectives on how to be happy at work, what constitutes good corporate citizenship, how to advocate for positive change within a company, and so on.

Sound like anyone you know? Send 'em my way and we'll talk.

Haven’t you been thinking that you need a puppy?

2009-04-02T16:59:20Z

I know I shouldn’t have a favorite, but I do. I can’t help it. I mean, just look at her:

More puppies - just waiting to be adopted! - over at Newscoma.

Originally published at Sticky, Sweet, & A Little Overdressed. You can comment here or there.

Link to a poem, probably a little less than SFW

2009-04-01T16:33:09Z

Because I have not much of my own to say right now, and because this is such genius:

Read Vito's poem: I fucked your mom.

But it’s so much nicer to come home

2009-03-21T15:39:34Z

We’re back! And so far it doesn’t look like jet lag should be too much of an issue: I’ve been up since 8 AM this morning, which is a little later than usual for me, but only by an hour or so. Karsten is still sleeping, but this is fairly normal for a Saturday morning. He’ll probably be up soon, if my schedule was any indication.

Here’s the details of the sleep schedule, for those who are interested in jet lag avoidance:

We were up late on Thursday night at a bar called Velvet Lounge (kind of a gay bar, apparently, though a very mixed crowd), and didn’t get to sleep until 3 AM. Then Friday, as is my habit no matter how little sleep I get, I woke up sometime between 6 and 7 AM. Our flight out was at 6 PM (mind you: that’s 5 AM Central Standard Time). Around 10 PM China time, I started getting really sleepy, so I gave in and slept for about 4 hours, and then was awake until we got home around 10 PM Central time (which is 11 AM China time).

So I got to bed around 11 PM last night and was up at 8 AM this morning. Seems not bad for having been 13 hours off schedule for the past week.

ANYway, enough of that. I’ve missed the last few days’ worth of updates here, but it was a wonderful trip. I felt like we did just enough sightseeing to get a feel for the place and the culture without wearing ourselves out. That was balanced with getting a taste of living like locals (or at least like ex-pats) by doing things like going grocery shopping, etc. And that was balanced by getting out to lots of great restaurants and eating some of the best food of our lives. And all that was balanced by a comfortable amount of time in our friends’ modestly luxurious home, which gave us a very relaxed feeling of being on a sort of staycation.

Or perhaps more meaningfully, it also felt quite a bit like being on a cruise, where there are comfortable periods of time spent relaxing and enjoying the amenities of the ship, interrupted by excursions and sightseeing, all highlighted by wonderful food.

I think that’s a pattern that works really well for me, so maybe I’m a cruise-type vacationer after all. Only I think I prefer big city ‘cruises’ over tropical islands. I suppose that makes me weird, but hey. I’m just not that crazy about hot sun and sand, whereas exploring urban areas never gets old.

I guess, like anything, it takes experimentation to learn your ideal vacation style. I think we got pretty darned close to perfect on this trip. (Sure, it would have been better if I hadn’t been sick for the first third of the trip, but even that wasn’t as bad as it could have been had we not been staying in such a wonderful home.) And we both loved Shanghai enough to go back, which is saying a lot considering 1, how many other interesting destinations there are in the world, and 2, how long it takes to get there and back. But it’s an endlessly fascinating place and we only spent a little bit of time exploring its neighborhoods. We could easily do another two weeks there and not get bored.

So maybe we’ll try to squeeze in one more trip before our friends come back to Nashville or move on to wherever they’re going next. Or maybe we’ll put it on the list for some future year and just look for an apartment to rent or something. It’d be a totally different experience without a Chinese-speaking friend to guide us (so I should probably improve my own Chinese skills beyond numbers and simple greetings and ‘bu yao’ or ‘don’t want’ which is immensely useful in the shopping areas) and without a driver. But it would almost certainly shed more light on what it’s like to live in Shanghai.

At any rate, I would love to publicly thank Paris and Charles for their warm and wonderful hospitality and for not only putting up with our vegan pickiness but for making sure we were well taken care of. Because Paris spent all week with us, we enjoyed the luxury of having a trusted and knowledgeable guide as well as the wonderful company of a friend. Thank you so much, Paris and Charles!

And now: back to our normal lives, with taxes to file and deadlines to meet. But also kitties to pet and friends to see and favorite places to go. Vacation life is good, but our home life is pretty darned nice too.

Originally published at Sticky, Sweet, & A Little Overdressed. You can comment here or there.

Shanghai while sick, days 2 and 3

2009-03-16T02:02:40Z

This has been an odd vacation: I’ve been struggling with still being sick (I came down with a virus infection less than a week before we left) and with having no energy due to weirdness with the timing of taking my Synthroid.

The Synthroid thing really threw me — hard. Here’s the thing: this is a medication you’re supposed to take at the same time every day. And for me, I’ve found that I need to wait at least an hour and a half after taking it before eating, and then wait at least four hours before taking my calcium supplements, which interfere with the effectiveness of Synthroid. But I have also found that to go back to sleep after taking Synthroid seems to concentrate it in some weird, intense way, so that I wake up jittery like I’m on speed or something. So trying to juggle all those restrictions and requirements while 13 hours off my normal schedule? Not easy. I initially tried just taking it at the same actual time (about 6 AM CST), which meant evening here, but that meant I was trying to fall asleep when I was just starting to feel energized. Yesterday morning that meant that I woke up (well, I never really slept) all shaky and with my heart racing. So I waited through the time difference and switched to taking it first thing this morning, and am just now starting to feel more normal, but I’m still a bit weak and woozy.

So I have truly been in the apartment almost the whole time we’ve been here. The only exceptions were on Saturday morning when we went out for a walk around the block (which wore me out) and for lunch when the driver took us to a Thai place for lunch, and we briefly walked around the Xantiandi area (which also wore me out). Yesterday I just resolved to stay in all day and let myself recover so I don’t ruin my whole week with this half-assed weak crap, but yesterday was also the day I was hardest hit by the Synthroid timing discrepancy, so while I was off my feet almost all day, it wasn’t exactly restful.

Nonetheless, I think the virus infection is almost gone (I still have slight sinus congestion and a trace of a cough, but it’s very minor) and I expect I’ll have my strength fully back within a day or two. Of course, we’re only here three and a half more days. So I’m going to try getting outside today, and see how it goes.

In the meantime, I have to say, if you’re going to be stuck indoors, our friends have an awesome place to be stuck. I’ve taken a few pictures from their panoramic picture windows and have played with ColorSplash on the iPhone with the one shown above. More pics are here, and more will be added in the coming days, I’m sure.

Originally published at Sticky, Sweet, & A Little Overdressed. You can comment here or there.

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