Let's be interactive here...

Hello faithful readers!
Thanks again for actually caring about my boring, and do I mean boring. But I suppose I try to make it sound more exciting for you, out there, reading.

I have a wonderful idea, it's almost like the enlightenment of blogging - like the renaissance of blogging! How about all you dear readers, if you have time because I know your life is much more eventful than mine, leave me comments! Then I feel like I am actually talking to someone.

I was thinking about this because recently my parents have gotten even more aggressive with their "suggestions" at transferring school for next year. In fact they offered to buy me a new car if I agree to such prosperous (or maybe not?) idea. Here's how the conversation kind of went:

Mom or Dad: "You should transfer schools because that way we can barge in on you anytime we like and make sure you stay a baby and dependent on us forever - and so that we can regulate you're every move and therefore you will no longer have any freedom...MWAHAHAHA
(translate: you should transfer schools so we can take care of you so you wont get sick from stressing out too much and we can make you food -even if chinatown's restaurant food is much better- and you'll be closer to home so we can visit you and you can come home every weekend!)"
Me: "No."
Mom or Dad (see I don't remember the details): "If you go to school here, we can buy you a new car!"
Me: "Ha.ha. That's funny. I want a BMW."
Dad (it was def him): "That can be worked out!"
Me (staring in disbelief): "Um, no it can't. We don't have any money..."
Dad: "We can borrow money!"
Me: "WE'RE ALREADY IN DEBT!!!"

I forgot what my dad said, but it was stupidly optimistic...haha. Three things I conclude from this: 1. My parents are clearly desperate/love me too much to be even offering this (and yes it is in earnest, not in a joking way) 2. I think I rather have a Mustang, in classic red, just like the good ol Chinese I am 3. Bribes are very good at convincing me to change my stubborn mind - which would make me a terrible court judge or jury or whatever (ha!).

But now I have a good reason to transfer (a car!) and a reason to NEVER transfer (we clearly don't have money to buy some ridiculous new car, or even a used one). Of course Uchicago is like 10 times more expensive than UNC, but I get some grant money...sigh. There are pros and cons to everything.
Which is why I would appreciate your comments :) Tell me what you think please.

On the other hand, I've been working on my cooking. I've semi mastered the taste of meicaikourou (which dried preserved mustard and bork belly, poached), the first time I put too much sugar, following the recipe. I realized this is because I am following a Cantonese person's cookbook, and apparently they love their sugar. It still looks like doggie doo, but tastes pretty good :) Then I tried some barbecue pork ribs, broiled yesterday night. ERM!! I don't know how to use a broiler, so I charred one side of it before realizing I should have used the LOW setting instead of the HIGH. I also used too much Hoisin (that's haixian for the rest of us Chinese) sauce...again following the recipe. I did use my brain and pre-cut the amount of honey I used (thank goodness!!). Anyways cooking is much fun! Soon I hope to learn how to make Beijing duck. SOOOOO excited! Yay.

Well, I guess it's karma.

Now that I have officially established that I fail at keeping updates on my blog, I think I have managed to lose most of my readers...right at the time I decided to reform. Oh well, here goes to talking to myself, and the emptiness of the world wide web. Cheers.

So...lately I've been thinking about how weird it is, my position in life...or my life in general. In terms of years, technically I'm 20 years old, physically (organ wise) I'm like 50 years old because of all the wear and tear of treatment, immunologically I'm not even 1 years old, and emotionally I sometimes feel like an 8 year old, sometimes an 80 year old.

GOSH. Now how does that work out? I mean sure there are people who are like "child at heart" or like "too mature for their age" or whatever the cliche is, but this is ridiculous.

I just wanted to post about this because I find it really, really odd. That's all.

Oh yeah. I'm going through STEROID withdraw. All good citizens refrain from calling the police to rat me out, all policemen refrain from jumping into your little nifty alarm capable, blue and white cars and racing over to my house - it was prescribed. Whew. I mean after all I'm not a baseball player, nor am I a woman seeking to look like a man (do I need help in that apartment... NO. And yes I do remember all those nasty little fiends that said "Oh Sarah, you're soooooo MANLY" in high school. But don't worry, because Jesus forgave me, I forgive you as well. OTHERWISE, you might be in trouble...mwahaha...).

So no I am not either of those, I am just a sick person who's body became addicted to steroids. Now, steroid withdraw comes with nasty little side effects like muscle ache, and overall body discomfort. Fun fact: it's because cortisol (fight or flight hormone) (which is apparently in steroids) is naturally produced, but when the body has outside sources of it, its adrenal glands stop producing it on its own. So when I stopped taking my steroids, as ordered by doctor, my adrenal glands have yet to wake up and start producing hormones again. So, the conclusion is, I feel yucky and awful (not quite the same thing) for a few days. Well it's been 5, but hey who's counting? Hopefully misery will be over soon! Always hopeful!
<3

***OPPS. I guess cortisol isn't the actual fight or flight hormone (my physician lied to me!), it's the other thing that the adrenal gland produces. But cortisol is increased during fight or flight...Anyways I don't know what is in steroids...so I Googled it. Here's what I got from http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_prednisone.html "Prednisone and prednisolone are members of the glucocorticoid class of hormones. This means they are steroids but, unlike the anabolic steroids that we hear about regarding sports medicine, these are "catabolic" steroids. Instead of building the body up, they are designed to break down stored resources (fats, sugars and proteins) so that they may be used as fuels in times of stress. Cortisone would be an example of a related hormone with which most people are familiar. Glucocorticoids hormones are produced naturally by the adrenal glands to prepare us metabolically for physical exercise and stress."

We learn new things everyday!

I fail at keeping a blog...

Well hello people.

My dad stopped his little calender, and I think there are still some people who want to read my blog updates (or at least one, which is I suppose, enough reason for me to continue).

It's been 9 months! I can't believe it. I hope that I get a yummy cake on December 11th, for my 1st year birthday - haha. My mom's birthday is coming up next month, as well as my parents 21st anniversary! I got my mom some face products from Sephora.

I sometimes wonder what my mom was like when she was my age, and how she turned out the way she did. I think as we kids grow older, our parents grow wiser (haha).

There's not much to update really. Since the last time I updated, I finished 6 seasons of House because I'm an official loser. I've reduced my pill intake to only two a day (one type of pill - antiviral). I ordered these two awesome cookbooks and am working my way through them one at a time. And then yesterday I watched "Julie&Julia", which I was quite inspired by. Though I am not cooking through Julia Child's cookbook (since the ones I ordered are Asian food: Chinese one, and Momofuku) it's kind of cool to see someone journal their journey through something. I've always had the problem that Julia Powell did - and that is starting projects with full force then never finishing them. Take for example, my novel (ha.ha...) which I wrote 60 something pages to, and just left it there, TWICE. Actually the first time I wrote it, I left it at almost 100 pages, but then I decided it sucked, so I started over from page 1 and wrote 60. I think I will start another blog for my writing, so that I can actually achieve something, other than wasting my time.
Actually, I already have another blog set up for creative writing, but obviously, I suck at blogging, so it's been left abandoned.

Well overall, my health is getting better, I take longer walks now, and can ALMOST jog constantly for a short time. My weight has reached 115 lbs, which is a lot better than the 109 lbs it was a month, or so, ago. I have more energy and have been skipping my afternoon naps, sometimes. And I miss human interaction...haha. I feel like I'm a caveman or something. Or a houseman...since I live in a house, not a cave (har har).

I'm very excited about the new health law, yay for better health insurance! I'll try to do weekly updates on this blog, for those few who read it :) I'm actually really surprised people would want to read my blog, I feel like blogging is so narcissistic...unless it had a specific point to it. I suppose this is my "health/post transplant" blog...haha.

<3