The Bad, The Good, The Wonderful
It’s Scorpio time so all vampires are coming out to see the light, me including, just can’t miss my birthday season. I’ve been MIA for a long time, but a lot in my life has been at standstill. Maintaining a blog just wasn’t a priority, plus there are some physical limitations that prevent me from doing it too. The good part: I haven’t lost any followers – thank you for sticking with me! The not so peachy part: I’m not sure if I can blog often now, but I’ll let it flow however it shapes to be.
Do you know that next spring, it’ll be 10 years since I started this blog! I haven’t been the most prolific (though I did have periods when I’d produce a new recipe almost every week) and definitely not the most known food blogger, but I’ve enjoyed the whole process of both writing and cooking/baking and gained my niche in followers.
The Bad
Unfortunately, some of my autoimmune issues were progressing over the past two years and affected my vision. I have Sjogren’s. It’s an autoimmune condition that affects all connective tissues and mucous membranes in the body: eyes, sinuses, throat, stomach, lungs, joints, nerves endings, etc, and often comes with neurological issues too, plus the hallmark of all autoimmune diseases – profound fatigue. Taking care of myself is a literal full-time job. And I do still maintain a part-time private practice.
This year was particularly hard with many symptoms exacerbation, multiple surgeries (just had another one this week) and a general need to rest and recover more often, so none of it bode well for baking and blogging. But the most important factor was my worsening vision, even after surgery this summer. Sjogren’s attacks eye muscles and optic nerves. Even if your visual acuity is still somewhat normal (and I had LASIK a few years ago to help that), your overall vision is still crappy. The world to me is hazy, blurry, tilted, and skewed with double vision and faulty depth perception. Thanks God I live in the city with all kinds of public transportation, otherwise, driving in this condition is impossible.
Lousy vision means difficulty with reading (and it pains me as I love to read), typing, and most important with shooting and editing pictures. I have not figured out yet how to shoot quality pictures when you can’t see well. If you’ve noticed that recipe pictures have not been that crisp over the past couple years, now you know why, so I apologize for that!
The creepy but cool side effect: found out that crying bloody tears is not just an expression but an actual thing – learned it after my last eye surgery when red salty water was streaming down my cheeks. I should’ve recorded it for Halloween week!
The Good
Not everything was terrible this year. In September, my family gained a new member.
Afina is Australian Labradoodle (a different breed from a regular doodle). She’s almost 6 months now and is such a loving creature, full of vibrant puppy energy. Afina is a Slavic version of the name Athena. She was born on Orthodox Easter, so I thought she needed a Slavic name. It fits her well I think.
Having a puppy is very similar to having kids: you’re sleep deprived in the beginning, there are always socks go missing, you’re constantly saying “no or what is that in your mouth?”, and nobody answers you back when you talk to them, but puppies are much more pleasant to be around than kids.
Afina now occupies my son’s old bedroom so I told him he can visit but he may not move back in.
We’re all utterly in love with her though!
The Wonderful
With all the difficulties that I’ve had lately, I’m happy to say that I still remain cancer free! I just had my annual checkup and got all clear, so it makes it 14 years cancer free! I’m looking forward to (hopefully) celebrating big 15 next year.
Happy Halloween!
Buzz 🐝 buzz 🐝 Bee beautiful!
