How I got over

Just got over the most horrendous case of soy milk poisoning. Not the throw up, better in the morning kind of poisoning, but the slow, insidious, lethargic, foggy headed kind where you realize, oh f--k, I must be allergic to soy! Which would make sense considering how I'm allergic to peanuts, wheat, barley, oats, grasses, pollen, dust, et cetera and so on. Not that I've allowed this to keep me from enjoying all the foods which should be on my do not eat list: pizza, pasta, Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, all kinds of beer, toast, all those wonderful, comforting foods which play havoc inside my body making me somewhat tired and nasal drippy but which can also be effectively counteracted with sugar and (until last year) caffeine.

But no more voluntary food poisoning for me. Not after experiencing the kind of fatigue (making it extremely difficult to write or paint) which, no matter how much I slept, only got worse with each cup of soy milk I innocently ingested. Not after doubling over in excruciating, utterly blinding pain (when before I would feel just a twinge of discomfort here and there) making me want to schedule my surgery for that very day to have these benign little suckers ripped out of me once and for all. I can't help wondering now if I would have even had a fibroid issue in the first place if I hadn't been slowly poisoning my body all these years. Maybe, maybe not.

So for the past week I have been eating nothing but safe foods. Eggs, chicken, lots of veggies and fruit, popcorn, goat milk, cottage cheese. Even so it took me about five days to bounce back to normal. I hate soy with a passion now. I want to poke holes in every carton I see. I'll probably want to knock them out of the hand of every shopper about to put a carton of that foul tasting poison into their grocery cart. Don't drink that crap! I'll want to scream. Don't chew it, suck on it or lick it either!

Even though, to be reasonable, it was probably my propensity towards food allergies that made my reaction so strong. Then again, a friend of mine who is allergic to nothing, tried soy milk for a while and noticed it changed her previously like clockwork menstrual cycle. And since she works in a hospital, she had many, many other horror stories involving soy to tell me.

Anyway, on to my photographs of the week:

1. People looking at art in the De Young...

I love this elegant older lady...
I bet she lives in a large, beautiful house filled with original art.

From Glide, where I will be doing my community service...
Food I will no longer poison my body with (except on special occasions)...

Sunday plein air painting. Except, because I was still getting over my soy poisoning, I only had energy enough for doodling...

A bluebird about to eat whatever the hell it wants...

The shi shi rich versus them world of Sausalito, where I once made enough money as an unlicensed street artist to fund a summer backpacking all over Europe.

5 pm. Almost dinner time now. Hmmm, what will I have?