My Dear Aunt Flo (Day 22 KEDfaY)

Everyone has their own remedies for a lot of things. It's like grandma's or mom's and how they always know what's best for whatever is wrong with you at that moment. Sometimes it's just what you needed to feel like a human again and other times it makes you feel smothered and like they are really just trying to kill you.

Leigh's cure for being sick:

• Sleep
• Meds
• Lots of tea
• Marathoning Harry Potter movies while live-tweeting and making fun of them 

This was just a culmination of a lot of habits. I drink tea a lot anyway and hot tea just makes you feel better when you're sick. You're always supposed to sleep and it's hard to sleep when you can't breathe so sleeping and cold meds just make sense. The Harry Potter movies started when Chamber of Secrets came out on DVD. I think it's pretty well known that I'm not a fan of the first two Harry Potter movies. They had so much potential and then they weren't treated like movies, they were treated like kid's movies which, more often than not, are treated like straight-to-DVD movies. But one thing I did like about Chamber of Secrets was Dobby. I thought they had done a great job with Dobby and that he was perfect and I loved him. (Yes, I sobbed uncontrollably in the movie theater at the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows Pt 1. You wanna fight about it?) I decided to watch Chamber of Secrets one day when I stayed home from school. I took my meds, drank some tea, snuggled up on our couch and somehow I ended up timing it so that the only parts I was awake were when Dobby was on screen. I'm not really complaining because they're some of the best parts but I certainly didn't do it on purpose. Somehow in my drugged up state of mind, I had become conscious enough to wake up and see Dobby. (My favorite part is when he says he's free at the end because his little ears twitch and it's adorable. Don't judge me.)

Leigh's cure for a hangover:

• Gatorade
• Daily vitamin
• Tums
• Lay in the bottom of the shower and alternate hot and cold water until hot water runs out. 
• After many hours and only once your stomach feels like it's going to eat itself, eat something starchy. Really starchy. Preferably pasta. Leigh recommends macaroni and cheese with tuna and peas. 

Some of these remedies take a lot of trial and error. I was once told that vitamins B12 and B6 help with hangovers. I don't know how or why but it did help me the next day and so now I always try to take a (chewable) daily vitamin when I know I'm going to be hungover. 

The shower thing I learned while living in the dorms which was perfect because the water fluctuated by itself and the hot water supply was seemingly endless. It doesn't work as well in apartments and there was one time that I actually boiled water for a bath because I had run out of hot water. I half drunkenly/half hungover stumbled my way across the house I was renting to the kitchen, draped in a bathrobe that I had somehow gotten wet (probably from me dropping it when I put in on in the half full bath tub) and getting my electric kettle so I could boil water in the bathroom for easy pouring access to the bath. If I can recommend one thing here: Do not drink $5 red wine that you got on sale, don't drink almost the whole bottle and especially don't do it after not eating all day. 

Trial and error.

Same thing goes for that time of the month. Well for me it's once every three months. Trust me, it's better for me, you, and anyone who might come in contact with me during Shark Week. It used to be easy to deal with me. I lived by myself so I would just really shut off all face-to-face contact with anyone so that I couldn't get irrational and ridiculous about stupid things like socks. Now I live with my boyfriend and the poor bastard has to deal with me getting irrational. The other day I cried because of groceries. Just, don't ask.

I don't get cramps like most of those lucky few who menstruate. I'm pretty lucky from what I've been told. Mine don't get so bad that I throw up or have to miss work or even pass out. They suck but a hot water bottle and some ibuprofen and I'm good to go. I've never even bought a bottle of Midol. 

What I do experience though is the cravings. All of the cravings. Everything that's bad for you and that you shouldn't eat but you want to anyway, that's what I'm going to eat. 

Leigh's grocery list for when Arsenal Play at Home:

• Steak
• Chocolate, preferably Hershey's Miniatures Family Size bag
• Soda, Coca-Cola to be precise
• Wine, white and sweet and cheap
• Optional, Potato chips

It's not like I gorge myself on this list of terrible junk food all week (except the chocolate) but usually by Wednesday of the Red Tide, I need my steak and cheap wine and potatoes. I'm sure there's some sort of scientific reason that I'm craving all of these things. The chocolate and steak are for iron and protein but soda? Wine? Potatoes in any form? 

I don't pretend to know my body, I just know what works and what makes me happy.


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And when I'm not talking about my period online for millions to read, I also knit. See! Look what I've done! 3 corners down, one more to go! I knew I was going to run out of that one yarn, the purple and blue variegated, so I decided to spice up the edging a bit and do stripes because who doesn't love stripes? Stripes are one of my favorite things ever. Probably in my Top 10 but not my Top 5. I hope to get this bad boy done soon and then move on to something else. Maybe my hexagon blanket that I'm still working on...