“Health food makes me sick.”
— Calvin Trillin

My mom used to let me lick the beaters.  I really loved fluffy sugar butter back in the day.

After my dad was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, my mom learned to cook healthier.  Then I learned as an adult to bake healthier.  But, it is always much more fun to cook guilty pleasure food.  The rich, the decadent, the “so bad it’s good” items.  Why?  Because people love you more.  Love and adoration for the cook comes easier when food is rich.  I speak truth!

In college, I decided to pursue a healthier lifestyle, starting with what I ate.  It came in stages, but my meals slowly became more organic, less meat, less saturated fat and full of whole grain goodness.  Then I became a veggie (lacto-ovo vegetarian is the more”annoying to other people” term), so I am on my own in most cases now.

My mother (see previous post) opened a true to form diner, so the food served is comfort food.  She serves healthy options, and you can actually order the food any way you want it (egg white omelette with fresh veggies, please!), but ironically, that’s not what people come for.  My mom sells a lot of gooey cinnamon rolls.

I had a dream I ate french fries from Sonic and woke up nauseated.  I savor my protein pancakes, my soy grilled cheese sandwiches and my baked tofu.  To me, deliciousness.  To others, I have hypersensitive taste buds, because everything I eat apparently to them tastes like newspaper.   I am the rebel child.

My mother creates rich decadence, pleasing to the eye and palate.   My mission is to create healthy food that tastes delicious, too.

Will I be successful?  I have had some successes in the past.  Check back for some of my experiment results.

“Space… the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”
— attributed to various television producers, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry

Needless to say, I blame my mother.  Needless to say for those who know my mother.  For those of you who don’t know my mother:  It’s her fault, and this is why.

When I was growing up, Mom demanded we watch her television shows.  I was held captive, and had no choice in the matter.  (My mother might argue that she deserved a few hours of her fave shows after hours upon hours of Disney movies on repeat, Animaniacs and Super Mario Bros.  Whatever Mom, this is my blog, I am the victim/hero.)

Mom loved Star Trek:  The Next Generation.  So, late in the afternoon, early in the evening, we would cozy up in our old recliners, and I would huff and puff.  The opening scenes and the opening credits would pass, and I was hooked.  Dad would undoubtedly walk in from working outside, ask if it was a “good one” and Mom would say, “Oh yeah…”  Before Mom could describe the intertwining relationships of the crew, the threat from strange new worlds and Data’s new step in coming more human, Dad would already be halfway back out of the door.  This was a ritual that never changed.

When the movies came out after the series ended in the mid-nineties, Mom would drag me to them.  I was held hostage.  Mom might counter, that she deserved to pick a movie once in a while because, like all mothers, she rarely got to see anything not labeled “kiddie.”  So she went with geeky, not kiddie, and my young mind was forceably molded by Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future.

After the last Star Trek:  The Next Generation feature film, I remember we cried.  I know it was partly because of the storyline, but also because it also marked the ending of my childhood in a way, as it hit theaters when I was a bit older.  (Disclaimer:  I bawled during Toy Story 3 for this same reason, although I was way older than “entering adulthood” when that movie was released.  Omigod, I’m getting misty right now just thinking about Toy Story 3.  Andy saying goodbye…playing with them one…last…time…)

Well, all my television shows I became addicted to last year went on HuluPlus hiatus as the summer hit.  Nothing is not Netflix…EVER.  Then, I saw Star Trek:  The Next Generation.  I thought I would watch the pilot for kicks and giggles.  It was like watching a badly acted play.  Three months later, I’ve watched all seven seasons.

It’s funny how you don’t realize you’ve turned into your parent until moments like these.   Some episodes gave me flashbacks of sitting with my Mom, and I could even hear her gasp, or mention how beautiful Marina was, or whisper, “Poor Data.”  I felt like I was bonding with my mom this past summer even though she is hundreds of miles away.

I even recruited someone to join me in my Geekdom.  Smee* huffed and puffed when I started watching the series, but when I would ask him what he wanted to watch, he would say, “I don’t know, uh…just…whatever you want…just…let’s watch Star Trek.  I don’t care.”

Haha!  Busted, Smee!  Your geekiness now goes beyond gamer geek!

Instead of trying to be super cool, I decided to embrace the geek in me.  I am already super cool, and the geek part of me only adds to my well-rounded awesomeness!  The show is so much fun, I would be a total snob by denying it.  And if, Reader, you are thinking, “Omigod, you are so cheesy for watching that show” I rebut that NO, I am not cheesy for watching the show.  I get my cheesiness from Dad.  There’s a difference.  Mom is the reason I watch Star Trek.  Dad is the reason “Until the Last Teardrop Falls” by Freddy Fender is on my iPod.

So, now I have watched all episodes of STTNG.  I’ll give you time.  Did you get the acronym?  Okay, can we move on now?

Now that I have watched the series, I am a bit sad it is over for me again.  Now I’m watching the movies.

*Name has been changed to protect his geeky true identity. 

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”
— Jim Rohn

My last day of work at the JDRF office was incredibly weird.  It felt like I was cleaning out my locker after graduation.  For the first time in over six years, my inbox was…empty.  When I walked out the door after 5pm, the theme song from Cheers became stuck in my head.  I’m going from an office where everyone knows me to one where I’m the new girl.

Like high school, though, I had a case of senioritis at JDRF.  That feeling of needing to grow and learn more.  I didn’t make the decision to leave because I grew tired of the mission.  If nothing else, I am more excited about our progress and the future of diabetes management therapies and technology than ever before!  I simply had smushed my face against a professional ceiling (which becomes very uncomfortable after time) and then reached the conclusion that I would make a better impact on our mission as a volunteer than as a paid staff member.

There are so many things I feel I should know about my career, marketing, that I do not.  A chance to learn and apply can only be found through deliberate change.

Over my six and a half years with JDRF, I have met so many that have become family to me.  Whether they consider me family or not is moot.  They are the family I have taken hostage and claimed my own.  Expect me at family gatherings.  I’m the vegetarian holding a fruit salad.

Because of all the people I have met living with type 1 diabetes that are waiting for better until gone, I will volunteer and continue to be a part of an organization pursuing better treatments, cure therapies and a future free of type 1 diabetes.  That one shot cure does not exist, but steadily cure therapies will contribute to cures.  By no means soon, but by no means impossible.  I am one of the ones that believes in cures, and I am one of the ones that believe we need them.

One thing I have learned is that disease plays a different game in each person.  I can currently control my epilepsy with one type of oral medication and routine.  Others cannot, battling seizures daily and losing part of their independence.  Some with type 1 diabetes have blood glucose levels more in range more often, are able to accomplish much more than others who work equally as hard and cannot achieve “control.”  Disease can inspire you and it can burden you.  For those who are burdened more than others, we must continue to fight and not pretend that disease can be conquered only through positive thoughts and a lecture.  Quality of life must continue to get better for everyone, until there is no enemy to fight.

I pray this new career will bring growth and fulfillment.  What I know it will bring is new experiences, which are necessary.  I will be working with a reputable company to market nutrition, health and wellness.  Along the way, I hope to become more healthy in mind and body, and therefore able to give more back to my family.  All my family.