The exercise:
A meeting took up most of my morning, then inspiration for my third round entry in the poetry tournament kept punching me in the face until I got it down on paper, then this evening filled up pretty quickly.
So I didn't do much work on AFC today. And that's okay.
Your prompt today: a holiday of my own making.
Do with it as you will.
Mine:
Four years ago today I found out why I'd been unable to quench my thirst for the previous couple of weeks. I found out why I had a near constant need to pee for the previous couple of days. I finally understood why I'd lost twenty pounds in less than a month (after discovering that was the case the night before).
Four years ago today I was diagnosed with type one diabetes.
It's not something I talk too much about, for several reasons. I'll share one with you now: it's really not much of a disease, as these things go. I can live with it just fine. Cancer? Now that's a real disease.
Anyway, I've been marking the anniversary of my diagnosis in different ways the last few years but this time around I've started something specific. Something I'm going to stick with.
Welcome to my Diabetes Donut Day.
I eat very well for a very large portion of the year. I think I can splurge, nay indulge on a donut once a year, don't you? So Kat and I took a trip to Tim Hortons this evening and I picked me up one of these (minus the coffee):
That, my friends, is a Canadian Maple donut. It was even better than I remembered it being.
3 comments:
Ah, I recall those doughnuts fondly, though part of me (my waistline) is glad that I don't have regular access to them :) I whole-heartedly support your diabetes-day doughnut plan though, it seems like a great way to mark the anniversary. It's not that different, after all, to getting cake on your birthday, but it's cheaper and easier.
I don't know how the medical communithy view diabetes, but I always thought it was more of a disability than a disease: like being confined to a wheelchair, there are things you can't do without endangering yourself, but it generally doesn't change much of its own accord.
Your inspiration sounds promising, I shall look forward to reading it. I'm lacking inspiration and time at the moment, but I'm sure I'll dream something up :)
A holiday of my own making
Hi again, it's your life-coach, Buddy here. I know it's been a while since we last spoke, but don't worry, I've been keeping an eye on you. It was me that put up your bail-money last Tuesday, and I ran your dog over last month too.
Well yes, since you ask, I did have to. If I hadn't you would have been at work that day, when Katrina brought in her home-made nam pla and gave most of the office dysentery. Your dog lived, and you dodged a bullet.
It's quite alright, I accept your apology.
I've popped in to remind you that stress is something that you need to control, not something you allow yourself to be controlled by. An excellent way of controlling stress is to have a holiday now and then, a regular break where you can sit down in your favourite chair, put your feet up, lie back and call other people in the office to tell them that your on holiday. Transfer the stress, and the desk-rage, and become a better-rounded, well-relaxed person.
I see from your expression that you're about to object that you only have so many holidays a year, and taking them is stressful itself. You have a wife to include in your plans, kids to work around, a mistress to tend to, an inconsiderate boss and a best friend who's an alcoholic dead-beat who'll tag along wherever you go. The trick then, is to create your own holidays.
Just this Thursday, for example, I informed the HR department that it was a religious holiday for me because it was the ten-year anniversary of St. Bodolphus the thrice-damned. St. Bodolphus, I assured them, had been caught desecrating the cross in York Cathedral in the eight century and had been burned to death in the churchyard. Every ten years his anniversary had to be respected lest he rise in all his firey glory and inflict vigilante justice on sinners and unbelievers alike.
HR swallowed hard, muttered something about needing to check fire retardance levels in the office, and told me I could take my holiday.
It's easy when you know how.
Re: the cake but much easier
I like that idea, very much :)
And it's good to see Buddy again - it's been far too long!
As per how diabetes is viewed: it's considered a metabolic disease. But I do like the way you look at it, other than the cringe I got at reading 'disability'.
Yeah, there is that problem that people see the word disability and immediately replace it with 'cripple' or 'mentally slow', usually without justification. Perhaps I should try calling it metabolically challenged instead? That might come across as a euphemism for dead though....
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