Happy Sunday!

It's been awhile.  Almost three years since I last posted anything.  A lot can happen in three years!  I will try to give you a quick overview of life during that period.

My last post details my journey as a gluten-free individual and that is still the same today.  I am allergic to gluten, as well as the wheat and barley separately (which both contain gluten).  This has been one of the biggest life changes to get used to but I am feeling like my old self again, physically.  I am still getting there mentally though - my brain fog is pretty much gone, I still have some challenging days though.  Someone told me it could take years to go away and then one day you will wake up and feel it just lift away and clarity will return!  Sure enough, one day I was talking to a co-worker about diet changes and thought "oh my gosh, it's finally gone!" I still have some days where I experience it in small doses, usually after mistakenly eating something that I shouldn't have (ie.my official cheat day: Corn dogs and fried everything at the State Fair of Texas). But about food...

I moved home from Argentina in November of 2012.  I was still working for 3rd Home, but realized I could no longer sustain myself on an income that low so I moved back to Texas, with $400 to my name and did what every college graduate dreams of doing: moved back in with the parents to share a room with their high school sister again.  That was fun for about two whole weeks and I knew something had to change so I quit 3rd Home and started working on getting my teaching certificate.  About two months into that a friend of mine, Katie, suggested I apply for an HR job at her company.  I did and was soon an active HR professional!  I have been at Employer Flexible every since.

I quit Facebook about the same time I quit 3rd Home.  After years of being online all the time for work and when trying to maintain relationships with friends in family back in Texas, I just needed to disconnect for awhile.  It is amazing what a habit that had become and how much time I had for new things after that, I highly recommend it for anyone just needing a break.

During my confinement at my parents I was able to save some money which afforded me the chance to visit my brother while my old friend, Phil was visiting the Bay Area as well.  That was a lot of fun since it had been years since I had seen either of them. 

Happy 4th of July!

Muir Woods

Meanwhile, Facundo and I decided we wanted to move forward in our relationship so he started working on getting his fiancee visa to the USA.  That was a long, exhausting process both mentally and emotionally.  That process took about a year and a significant amount of our time and bank accounts, but eventually he moved got his visa to Dallas in January of 2014.  

On February 21, 2014 he officially proposed to me at my apartment after I got home from work that day...and a week later we were married.

Engagement

Starting our greatest journey together.

About two months after Facu moved in we decided to do what every sane, young, married, financially struggling couple should do - adopt a dog!  Much to the objection of my parents, we went to "just look at a dogs" one day and of course came home with one the next.  As much as we probably shouldn't have done it, I am so happy we did, because Enzo has been so much fun to have this past year.

Enzo F. Duggan

Facu eventually got his work visa (and subsequently a job) around October of last year which allowed us the opportunity to visit some friends in New York City for NYE.  I also had the chance to travel and see friends and family since I moved home (Kate in St. Petersburg) and some friends have been able to come visit here as well.  I love being able to show people around my hometown and spend time sharing the things I love about with them so they can love it too.  Philippe came to visit last Spring, Andy came in the summer, and Edita came in the Fall.

St. Pete

Lake Tahoe - North Star

The Rustic

Edita came to experience a real, American Thanksgiving, which was Facu's first as well.  I think they both enjoyed it and can now share their experience with people they care about.  Hopefully I will get the chance to visit Lithuania some day too...I have heard nothing but wonderful things and have added it to the list :)

Edita's first American pedicure!

It's kind of crazy to look back on things and see how much as changed since I last wrote a post here.  I made some other decision during this time as well that have helped me change what direction I want my life to go in.  There is an old quote we used to say at Southwestern:

"The person you hope to someday be, you are now becoming."

I try to remember this whenever I get frustrated with life and things that might be happening the way I do not want them to happen. I joined a new church (Shoreline Dallas) which has been a new and exciting journey as well.

Also, after seeing how much my diet change my health, I decided to stop complaining about my back and went to see a new doctor who advised me to try yoga.  He said it would help strengthen my core and it has helped tremendously.  Not only that, but it has helped me combat stress and encouraged me to look at other health-related aspects in my life as well.  I am going to have to admit that I have gotten on the essential oil train (the using kind, not the selling kind) and am going to start up doing things I enjoy more, like writing.  I am going to revamp my cooking blog again.  I think I will change it in a new direction though, not just healthy eating on a budget, but trying to bring things back to the basics - I have two chairs I am going to reupholster myself, I am going to start brewing my own Kombucha Tea, making my own cosmetics, etc., and you are welcome to read all about that journey as well.

It's good to be back.

Bridget

Back to normal...kinda

So I've officially been on the gluten free diet for 2.5 months and I'm feeling much better. Mentally and emotionally I almost feel like my old self, physically I am much better, but still not quite there yet. But I think it will take a few months more since I do not know for sure what some of the ingredients are in certain foods down here. But I did feel better playing soccer on Saturday! Well, except for the whole big girl run me over and sprain my ankle part, but that wouldn't be the first time. Before that incident I felt much better than I did trying to run an 8k two weeks before. I almost died. I was in a pain and even dry heaved a few times. Pretty sad, I know, but it's most likely a combination of being incredibly out of shape, as well as eating apple strudel (with gluten!) the day before. Not my brightest idea, but my roommate is from Germany and worked so hard at it and I just...wanted...a...little...piece. Probably not worth the feeling that terrible while trying to run more than I have the rest of the year combined, but it was still delicious. And I learned my lesson: no cheating on the diet. Sorry Andy! (He had to run with me).

Don't really have any pictures to post here, I don't think, unless...wait. Here you go:

cankle time!

Probably not what you wanted to see, but I'm struggling financially theses days so I haven't really traveled around Argentina much. The one place I wanted to go was Mendoza but still haven't made it. Hopefully I will someday, I've heard it's beautiful. Anyway, I head home in November and cannot wait to see everyone!

A sister blog

I started a new blog for to help with my new gluten-free life!  I'll be expirimenting with recipes and such so feel free to check it out! http://simplywithout.blogspot.com.ar/

Bridget

Finally!

After about 24 hours of traveling, a very tired Facu and I just got back to Buenos Aires.  I will upload the photos and add a post about all the stuff we did and places we saw when I can find the cord to my camera/get the internet to work, so sorry about the delay.  But I do have some updates from the doctor!

I don’t know if I ever told you, although I’m sure I did multiple times knowing myself, but I’ve been having a lot of medical problems since I was a sophomore in college.  It started when I found out I was anemic even though my iron levels are normal and then just grew gradually from there.  Nothing ever big enough to suggest something needs immediate attention, but enough to make me aware something was not right.  I started noticing when I was suddenly exhausted all the time - even just walking one flight up the stairs.  And of course people would say “oh you’re just stressed” or “maybe you have mono” which I went and got tested for because I was so tired, but it was negative and I wasn’t getting any better after taking cold medicine.  Then other things started to happen like my short-term memory would be off and I couldn’t focus on tasks as well as before and then I was having a really hard time getting out of bed after 8 hours of sleep.  And I have always been a morning person because I like the quiet and taking my time eating, getting ready, reading, etc. so this was really annoying because I didn’t want to get out of bed.  I thought maybe I wasn’t getting enough sleep so I upped my count to 10 hours.  But nothing changed.  And then I started getting acne that was worse than any I had ever had during adolescence which confused me quite a bit since I thought I had grown out of it.

And since the changes were so small and gradual nobody else really noticed a difference in me or my habits but me.  And it was weird because I never really felt bad, but I never felt good either.  So I became sleep obsessed.  I mean, I went to bed at 11PM during the week and on weekends I would plan on going out in Memphis but would frequently find myself opting to stay home and relax because I was “tired” and “needed to catch up on sleep.”  

And then I noticed a huge difference in my food digestion that prompted me to try the celiac diet.  So I kicked gluten out but I didn’t notice a difference in how I felt so I nixed that after a few months.  And then I had some blood work done; which is where I discovered that my anemia had nothing to do with iron but we weren’t sure why.  And things remained the same for about a year or so until after graduation I would get terrible headaches sporadically every few months (enough so to get my eyes checked in case they were the problem) and then my joints began aching too if I sat still for too long.  And I can’t tell you how incredibly frustrating this all was, not knowing what’s wrong or if there is even something wrong at all.  People would tell me they thought I was a hypochondriac and was fine and it was all in my head (which, of course at this point, I’m sure you know that was really encouraging to hear).  

I became insanely stressed because I didn’t know what was wrong, and maybe people were right and it was just in my head.  I was getting angry and worked up over nothing, I went from crying once a year to crying to every other day.  And over stupid things too.  Wow, I’m crying because I missed my exit on the highway?  What is wrong with me?  And I know people change, which I clearly have over the past few years just because of life, but I became really cynical about everything.  I still appreciated life with it’s challenges, but I just noticed a negativity I’ve never seen in myself before.  I could find something wrong with everything.  

And there were good days and bad days too.  Most of the time though, I couldn’t sleep through the night without waking up every hour.  And then I would wake up feeling hung-over even though I didn’t drink the day before.  And poor Facu and my mom have had to put up with me the most since I’m living down in Argentina and they're the ones I vent to when I can. So, when I was home this past month we took a day away from our vacation to go to the doctor to figure out what the heck was wrong. 

Two arms and a leg later I found out I am allergic to...pretty much everything.  The main thing is gluten, which wasn’t much of a surprise, but the setback is that I’m also allergic to cow milk – which immediately kills most cheeses, yogurt, ice cream, milk, etc.  And then there's eggs (the yolks and the whites), cherries, almonds, black pepper, garlic (really God?), avocado, apricot, pineapple, green beans, mushrooms, kidney beans (Actually, I think I’m okay with this one), chili powder, mustard, and the list goes on.  Oh and don't forget brewer’s yeast! So that means no beer, even the gluten free ones.  But I guess the dairy, eggs, and garlic probably explains why I didn’t see much improvement with the celiac diet.  I was substituting yogurt and eggs for breakfast cereal, and I wad definitely drinking gluten free beer and putting garlic in everything when I cooked – all of which are things I’m allergic to.  Awesome.  And I guess it's really hard for your body to function properly without absorbing any nutrients for years (which I know my mom will claim is the reason I'm so short).

On the bright side, coffee and chocolate are safe along with meat and seafood, and I apparently need to eat MORE salt so I won’t complain about that.  I can’t tell you what a relief it is just to know.  I mean, I definitely cried when I saw the list and found out that mushrooms and garlic were a no go too, but still it’s much better to know and be able to solve everything then be left wondering if you’re crazy or if you have something more serious.  

And there’s also a possibility that after 2 or 3 years I can start gradually introducing certain things back into my diet.  But we’ll see, I’ve only been on the new diet for 2 days so I’m still trying to figure out what I CAN eat so that I can start feeling better.  So if you know of any cheeses besides goat’s cheese that don’t have cow milk let me know!  Also I’m still a bit confused about alcohol because I thought brewer’s yeast was only in beer, but I’ve read it might be in wine too (which would be really sad), but I really don’t know so help would be great.

Bridget

Choice

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
- Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain


I love this quote, because traveling seems to kill the little silly things that don't matter much but become such a big part of your everyday life, while at the same time, it seems to exaggerate and solidify the things that are most important to you.  And once you've disposed of the unessential items you'll have much more time for the things you love.

For me, the most important thing a person has is: CHOICE.  The ability to choose what you do, what you believe, the way you react, the way you think, and the way to change your situation if you've chosen not to be complacent with it.  So often we choose to take the entitlement mentality that is based around the mindset that we are victims to our situations. 

I've been doing it quite a bit lately, but then I remember even though something may happen that's out of my control, I still have the choice to complain about it, deal with it, change it, or remove myself from the situation altogether. Maybe it's inconvenient and takes a little time and work, but nothing comes easy in life for anyone.

There are some people in this world who have not been taught that they have the power to choose the way they live their lives.  Some think it's all given to them and they are therefore entitled to it as well as anything else they desire while others think there's nothing they can do to better their situation and everyone else is to blame for it.  Both are false.  Anyone can do anything if they have at least 2 of 3 things:

1. an education (and I'm not just talking about the schooling kind)
2. a desire
3. a strong work ethic

Don't let anybody tell you any different, even yourself.

Argentina is the place for doppelgangers

If you want to find yours then head on down to Buenos Aires!  They say that there is at least one other person in this world that looks like you and apparently they all live here. 

Seriously not a week goes by that I don’t see someone and think “what are you doing here?” and realize it’s not who I think it is but instead is a complete stranger.  Or I meet someone and can’t stop staring at them because I feel like I’ve met them before.  Only to soon realize that they just remind me of someone because they look and act scarily similar. 

I’ve compiled a list of my friends who have “been in Argentina” in the past year:

Ben Kessler (you have a salsa-dancing, flannel wearing clone down here)

Peter Hall (Equipped with a North Face vest, fratastic shirt, and the same hairstyle, I’m still pretty sure it’s actually you)

Willie Dale (your long lost, brown haired, brown-eyed brother with extremely flat feet)

Blake or Andy?

Alex Nicholson (in this case, your doppelganger is an expat as well.  Same hair, same nose, same humor, and same manner of walking – only British)

David Guetta

Blake Rustmann (a brown haired, big-headed version – only smarter ;) )

Katherine Lagow (wait, that actually was you)

Sarah Casey (American-born, Spanish speaking, freckle faced, Argentine living version)

Harry Potter (real-life version)

Aaron Nicholson (same ginger beard and all)

There’s definitely more, I just can’t think of them off the top of my head, but I’ll update as I remember.  Also, I really need to start taking pictures because it’s ridiculous how similar these people are.

Wait a second...

So if a christian says something derogatory about a certain type of person it's hateful and unintelligent (which I agree, it shouldn't be done considering it goes against everything Jesus taught) yet when other people say something derogatory about Christians it's not hateful and not ignorant?  And aren't they the ones preaching about being more open minded to other people's beliefs?  I see a double standard here.