I had a very eventful and wonder-filled day yesterday :-) From being pulled over for allegedly not stopping completely at a stop sign in a military base to a head-spinning gchat conversation about conversation, to being chatted up by two nice cops about track and field, to bellydancing lessons, to driving a stick shift for the first time in 10 years under pressure, to finding the gate open at ten at night to the local urban garden I always wanted to explore, to finding things that were lost, including my passport and key set. What a successful day!

I included a picture from the urban garden of the rows of garlic, as evidence of my expedition. It was such a cool huge garden, with streams, bridges, and a pond. It even had bee boxes for harvesting honey. I munched on the only ripe thing I could find which was some leaves of lettuce. It’s amazing how alive food tastes right after being picked, compared to how bland store-bought veggies/fruits can get after transit and storage.

To another magical day in the city…

Three weeks of being excruciatingly ill has finally come to an end. I declared myself 97% healed today. It was feeling very tiresome not being up to par. The biggest thing I noticed was my desire to reproduce came back, haha. I felt like being out in the world again.

It turned into quite an introspective time for me, a good diving in excursion I suppose, before I begin another diving out into the world phase this summer. My bankruptcy case officially begins this week I think. I’ve been doing a lot of paperwork and prep for that which has enabled me to get back on top my finances again, after a few years of hiding among them. I opened a new bank account today at a credit union. A very local credit union. They have only 68 employees. They reimburse all ATM fees everywhere, coolest thing ever.

I’m also doing an orientation this week for a new part-time gig: valet car parking. Cross your fingers that I remember how to drive and park a stick shift on Wednesday. Must be all this great Taurus energy helping me organize my finances and plan for success.

We had a great conference championship meet this weekend. I am so proud of my team and how far they have all come this year. They faced a shit-ton of personal obstacles and all came through in shining colors, together. Sweet moment was Dee and Cassie hoisting me on their shoulders after hammer comp and singing “For she’s a jolly good coach…” after they both exceeded their lifetime bests at that meet. Highly embarrassing and yet so sweet. We are family!

Feeling excited about a potential hot springs trip in June with some close personal friendly friends. This is going to be another magnificent summer. Hard to top the last one, but I shudder to think how awesome this one will be :-) Life just keeps on getting better…

So I have gone an entire week without adding the chemical sugar (sucrose) to anything in my food! I have also not eaten anything containing sugar (or HFCS) listed as an ingredient. And it feels great! I have been forced firstly to conjure up new desserts. I have grown fond of plain organic yogurt with raw honey and nuts.

I found this fabulous recipe for raw fudge that has been hitting the spot daily:

1 cup almond butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I prefer pecans)

Simply mix them all together with your clean hands in a little bowl. Then spray a 8×8 pan or loaf pan with Pam and press it firmly into the pan (or cute molds). Refrigerate for 1.5 hours and enjoy! Doesn’t give you that sugar rush like regular fudge and gets more delicious the more you eat. And it’s GOOD for you!!

The main effect I’ve noticed so far is that my skin is more clear and glowy looking, saying a lot for the typically worst skin week of the month. Plus my little eye laugh line wrinkles actually look smaller! It is possible I have been smiling and laughing somewhat less after having been ridiculously ill for 2 weeks though ;-)

On with the experiment! Let’s see if I can last a whole month…