Thursday, December 23rd, 2021, 18:36

Mood: Full

Ok so first y'all I really just made like the best soup I've had in a really long time that I've never made before. To me, there's two kinds of vegan foods. There's normal people vegan food, which really isn't any different from foods most people are familiar with, except the ingredients are plant-based--and then there's what I call "hippie co-op vegan food". Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, I spent a pretty extensive amount of time in housing co-ops. I never lived in any but I had a bunch of friends who lived in Nottingham, Ambrosia, and Lothlorien. (And Audre Lorde but, I mean, ugh lmao.) They also threw punk and metal shows in their basements, so a lot of my youth was consumed by drinking beer or smoking weed and hanging out in their basements. Dude I miss being a kid in Madison, wow. Anyway, aside from getting fucked up and watching shows, what I most strongly associate with these housing co-ops is vegan food. For some reason, it was never just like normal people food but with vegan ingredients. It was food that would probably be straight-up unrecognizable to most people: just, like, giant pots of vegetables.

Here's a great example of what I'd like to call "hippie co-op vegan food". This is exactly the kind of food I would've been served trudging into the Lothlorien basement, pre-drunk and with big snowy boots on. I used this recipe as a base for what I was doing, but I was super chaotic about it and really didn't follow any of the instructions. Half of the potatoes I used were sweet potatoes, and I used black beans instead of soyrizo because I don't have soyrizo. I didn't pre-cook my lentils, and I used hella lime and Tabasco sauce. Holy fucking shit y'all when I say I was sad that I had ate so much soup there was no room inside for more soup. The bread off to the side is just regular gluten free bread with Violife cream cheese spread on it. I really don't understand people who insist that vegan food is gross. Are you a child? Like, ok, Siren ate Bagel Bites instead, but she's literally nine and doesn't know any better.

Aside from that I've just been doing chores and caregiving all day. I did dishes and laundry and swept and waited on Siren, who has been recovering beautifully. Her pain levels are worse today because the local anesthetic has totally worn off, but we've been keeping it mostly under control with ibuprofen. Kids heal so quickly. I remember whenever I'd hurt myself, my dad would always remark, "Kids heal so fucking quickly!" I never knew what he meant until I got my own kid and then got older. I was still healing pretty quickly when I had her, because I was pretty young myself, but my mid-20s and EDS tanked my health and now it takes me several weeks to even get over a cold. Siren is still young and totally fresh. She continues to be the easiest person I've ever taken care of after a surgery. Her biggest complaint is that she's bored, which is definitely a valid complaint of being injured or unwell.

Two people separately today have recommended me Wellbutrin to deal with my cyclothymic disorder, which is a rapid-cycling form of bipolar disorder. I was prescribed Lamictal, but I have a genetic mutation associated with an increased risk of developing Steven-Johnson syndrome. I might say "Fuck it" and take it anyway if we had any hospital space left over. I swear to God people who don't get their covid vaccination. It's so hard for me to remind myself that probably nobody actually chooses to not take the covid shot because, if it was really a choice, they wouldn't choose to be selfish and ignorant. Which, I'm sorry, but if you choose to not do the proper things we need to do to avoid covid, and then you get covid and insist on taking up hospital space that could be used for people with random and uncontrollable medical emergencies, it's pretty ignorant and selfish to me.