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Checking in…

Today is day nine since my covid symptoms started. Everyone has their own thoughts and ideas about covid, isolation, and re-entering the world.

That being said, I wanted to look at the latest CDC recommendations and guidelines regarding isolation and returning to the world. It states:

If you had COVID-19 and had symptoms, isolate for at least 5 days. To calculate your 5-day isolation period, day 0 is your first day of symptoms. Day 1 is the first full day after your symptoms developed. You can leave isolation after 5 full days.

  • You can end isolation after 5 full days if you are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and your other symptoms have improved (Loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and need not delay the end of isolation ).
  • You should continue to wear a well-fitting mask around others at home and in public for 5 additional days (day 6 through day 10) after the end of your 5-day isolation period. If you are unable to wear a mask when around others, you should continue to isolate for a full 10 days. Avoid people who have weakened immune systems or are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19, and nursing homes and other high-risk settings, until after at least 10 days.
  • If you continue to have fever or your other symptoms have not improved after 5 days of isolation, you should wait to end your isolation until you are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and your other symptoms have improved. Continue to wear a well-fitting mask through day 10. Contact your healthcare provider if you have questions.
  • See additional information about travel.
  • Do not go to places where you are unable to wear a mask, such as restaurants and some gyms, and avoid eating around others at home and at work until a full 10 days after your first day of symptoms.

If an individual has access to a test and wants to test, the best approach is to use an antigen test1 towards the end of the 5-day isolation period. Collect the test sample only if you are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and your other symptoms have improved (loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and need not delay the end of isolation). If your test result is positive, you should continue to isolate until day 10. If your test result is negative, you can end isolation, but continue to wear a well-fitting mask around others at home and in public until day 10. Follow additional recommendations for masking and avoiding travel as described above.

Whew! Okay, by going by these latest recommendations, I could have gone out with a well-fitting mask four days ago after tomorrow, which, according to the guidelines, I could go out without a mask.

After re-reading these guidelines for days, I decided that’s it. Enough. I have felt better for four days and five without a fever. Today was the first day I went out to the bank drive-through and to buy trash bags. I hate that I felt guilty about going out.

It goes back to everyone having different thoughts and opinions, expressing them, sometimes shaming people for their own views.

According to the CDC, I had no reason to feel guilty but did because I let others’ opinions get into my head.

We all have to trust each other and have faith people are doing what’s right. We’ve decided to postpone production until next week, so our customers feel safe. I am staying home from dance class tonight for the same reason, even though I could have taught only with a mask.

When you feel sick, it’s easy to stay home, but being isolated when you feel healthy and full of energy is maddening. It’s like watching your life go by while you stand there watching it drift away.

This morning we both hit a wall. We had to get up, get dressed, and start doing projects around the house again. Marty is working on the outdoor electricity for the pool while I am cleaning closets.

I haven’t written for the past couple of days since I haven’t had a damn thing to write about. No one wants to read when someone is bored or having a pity party for themselves. I’m right about this, aren’t I?

I am about to close the chapter on my covid sickness and move forward to live my life unapologetically to the fullest. 🙂 Thanks for your support, care, and kind words during my illness; I appreciated it.

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Say it isn’t so…

I am feeling much better and so is Marty; he’s a day or so behind me. I feel almost completely back to normal just a little tired.

I am climbing the walls bored to death now that I am feeling better. We are still holding off on production for a couple more days, but today I worked on the chalkboards for the outdoor farmers market. I have filing that needs to be done too.

We are starting to need some basic supplies and while I am well enough to go get them, I feel like I need to isolate for a little while longer. When I finally do go out I’ll be masked up for another week.

Right now, I am sitting on our back deck getting some fresh air. The temperature is a seasonably warm 63-degrees. The deck boards are warm on my bare feet. It is a nice spring day and hard to believe we are under a winter storm watch for tonight.

Yesterday, it snowed on Easter Sunday, not only here in Vermont, but in parts of Pennsylvania as well. The little bit of snow that stuck to the ground has melted. This kind of weather is completely normal for our area.

Tonight however, we are forecasted to get up to six inches of heavy, wet snow. Ugh! Talk about rubbing salt in my wounds of already being stuck at home, but stuck inside too? This totally blows.

I don’t know how much more television I can possibly watch. Yesterday, Marty and I watched a documentary about a young guy living alone for two years in the woods while building a log cabin by hand; complete with a secret hidden underground food pantry.

The documentary only had sounds but no talking. His dog only barked once. We actually paused the show when we needed to get a drink or go to the bathroom.

Why should you care about this? You shouldn’t, but it’s a description of how pathetic things are for me right now. Lol!

Have a great night guys. I’ll be keeping my fingers and toes crossed the weather forecast is wrong and we don’t clobbered with a lot of snow. 🤞🏼

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New flavorful fare…

Shakshuka photo credit Jen A

I am a cook. I love cooking, and even more, I love to cook for people. It gives me so much joy when I make something delicious and watch people enjoy it. 

Whenever my sister Jen comes to VT, I have the menu and the shopping done. I don’t mise en place or prep anything because we like to cook together. 

When I stayed at her house last week, she had the menu and the shopping done and didn’t prep anything either.

Her children were away with her ex, so she had an opportunity to make anything I told her, except fishy-fish, lol. She wanted me to try some flavors and dishes she loves.

It’s fun watching her prep and cook. Jen is a pediatric dentist which is evident in how she cooks and bakes. Everything is done precisely and methodically.

I love that she tastes her food along the way and adjusts the seasoning. She is reading the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which was a culinary game-changer for me. You can also watch the four-part series on Netflix. 

Shakshuka

We had Shakshuka on Saturday night with roasted potatoes. I wrote about shakshuka in an Eggs in Purgatory blog post a few months ago, but this was my first time having it. 

It was delicious and comforting. The eggs which were cooked in the flavorful tomato sauce were done perfectly. The dish was delicious, something I would make for brunch. 

Lebanese omelet

Monday, she made a Lebanese omelet, another thing I had never had before. The omelet was full of veggies, parsley, and mint. The mint was the ingredient that made it different from other omelets; I was surprised I liked the mint so much. It was light and full of flavor. 

Monday night, we had my favorite dish, a roasted beet salad. The beets were piled on a pool of an herb and olive oil vinaigrette topped with avocado and dill. 

Roasted beet salad

The flavors all worked together, with the sweet roasted beets being the star of the show. I will be making this one when beets are in season at the farmers market. 

She also made a Middle Eastern lentil soup with the beet salad. I was expecting a thick and dark soup and what we had was the complete opposite.

The lentil soup had rice in it and was topped with caramelized onions. The soup was brothy and light. The caramelized onions were the hero of this dish. The soup has so much more flavor than it looked. It was yummy.

I was the sous chef, chopping onions, garlic, and herbs. I cleaned up as she cooked. It was nice to take a backseat and let someone else cook for me. 

I had no urge to take over like I usually would in the kitchen because I wasn’t familiar with any of the dishes. 

I am so glad Jen shared these dishes and flavors with me; each was a pleasant surprise for my taste buds, plus the time we spent in the kitchen was priceless. 🙂

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Cravings…


I am on day six of having covid and I am still sick. Nothing serious, just sick. I thought I was feeling better yesterday then I started to get congested before bed.

Misery loves company so Marty joined me in the covid department yesterday. He pretty much feels like I do. We both have such major fatigue it’s easy to rest all of the time.

The weird thing with having covid is I am craving foods like crazy. Normally, when I have a craving I make whatever it is. I have been craving roasted chicken since Wednesday. Luckily for me it cooks itself and I had one in the freezer. 

We didn’t loose our taste or smell but mine is dampened a bit because of my stuffy nose however the smell of the chicken roasting is heavenly and is making my stomach growl.

Through this entire sickness I have been starving. I mean STARVING! The bad part is I don’t have the energy or want to cook. We’ve been living on simple things that don’t require much or any cooking.

The other thing I am craving are sweet things, something I hardly ever crave. I want ice cream and those little chocolate pudding cups with whipped cream sprayed from a can. Funny right? Of all the things to crave. Lol.

I just threw some rice, chicken broth and some seasonings into the rice cooker; another dish that cooks by itself to go with the chicken later. The best part is there will be hardly any dishes to wash.

I was thinking yesterday that this is the first Easter I am not making a big dinner. It will be as simple as it gets. It will also just be the two of us having dinner.

We did pick up a tiny ham before we came down with covid so I will bake that. I also have some asparagus on hand and will make some easy kind of potatoes.

No deviled eggs or pizzagaina like I always make. No brunch quiche, Easter desserts or little dinner rolls for leftover ham sliders. 

You know what? It’s ok. I am actually too tired to care and here’s the thing, I don’t have to make those things only on Easter Day. I can make them anytime. 

I wish you all a very Happy Easter, Passover or Sunday, which ever you celebrate. 🙂

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Covid finally hits…

Otto taking care of me.

Fuck! It was only a matter time. What I thought were allergy attacks in NJ turned into a fever, coughing, fatigue and a heavy chest.

I woke up this morning feeling worse than yesterday and took my temperature which was 100.1. Then, I got out one of those free covid tests and surer than shit, it was positive. I kind of expected it.

This was the moment I’ve been fearing since the beginning. Maybe now the Psoriasis that reared its ugly head in April 2020 will finally go away along with the anxiety attacks.

They said from the very beginning everyone is going to get it, from the looks of it they were right with these two new variants.

Thankfully, I’ve had colds much worse than this. I am drinking plenty of fluids, staying in our bedroom resting, willing myself to get well, and to test negative quickly since the business is on hold at the moment.

It doesn’t matter who, what or where I got it, I have it and am dealing with it. C’est la vie.

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Walking food tour…

Our view from the bench we sat on in front of Murray’s Cheese Shop.

Last Sunday, my sister Jen and me went on a 3-hour food and history walking tour of Greenwich Village, NY. It started as a sunny spring day in NYC, then the weather rapidly changed. After the second stop on the tour, it felt like the beginning of March.

I learned so much about the Village that I divided the food and history into two parts. The food tour that we took has been in business for 21 years. They took my gluten-free business very seriously; so did the restaurants. 

Our guide’s name was Bert and he had a fantastic personality. He is an actor, comedian, improviser, and tour guide for 18 years. He knows his shit. Our group had 14 of us; luckily, everyone was fun and easygoing.

We met at the famous Murray’s Cheese. Wow, was all I could say. It is a beautiful store and a cheese lover’s dream. It is not overpriced if you can believe that one. Many cheese stores here in VT are much more expensive.

The first tasting spot was Joe’s Pizza. This stop I knew would be the roughest one for me. If I had to choose a last meal, NYC pizza would be on the menu.

Before Bert went inside to get the group’s pizza, he gave us the history. Joe’s has been in business for over 100 years and is famous. Everyone who’s anyone has eaten there.

Bert also explained how NYC water really does matter when making pizza and bagels. Pizza and bagel makers from other parts of the country have been trying to change the scientific components of their water. For instance, raising or lowering the ph, phosphorus, magnesium, etc. It’s serious business.

That is the size of a regular cheese pizza!

Bert also discussed the sauce was San Marazano tomatoes with nothing added. No garlic, salt, or pepper. They used a high-quality cheese that didn’t contain oil resulting in a slice of pizza that didn’t leave a greasy puddle behind. 

Do pizzerias use cheese that contains vegetable oil? Yup! “Pizzeria” inexpensive cheese contains oil for better melting ability. That is what they use in places that serve $1 slice pies, not at good places like Joe’s. You get what you pay for.

Bert came out with a gigantic 14-cut pizza and those cheap white paper plates; pizza is always on. Before the tour, he handed me a beautiful antipasto salad; while delicious didn’t help me salivate for that pizza. 

The apple and cherry blossom trees were in full bloom and were so beautiful lining the streets of the village.

Next on the tour was a sit-down stop at a taqueria named Tacombi. They are known for their authentic fish tacos, like the ones found on the beaches of Mexico, not anywhere in the US.

The weather turned nasty right after I took this photo.

The owner started selling tacos out of a VW Kombi camper in NYC and called the place Tacombi joining the two inspirations. It is a very hip and cool spot in the west village with delicious tacos.

Photo credit Tocombi.

I couldn’t have a fish taco since it’s battered and fried, but I did have one spread with flavored sweet potato and blacks beans. It was delicious, and I didn’t feel left out here.

Watermelon juice is the signature drink at Tacombi which is real watermelon juice and so good.
Bert made the tour so fun and exciting because his enthusiasm was contagious.
Ever wonder what’s down those stairs to the basements of NYC? Bathrooms like this one. It was clean though I will give them that.

The next stop was a standing outside stop, Faccios Italian Specialties. The group was given an arancini or rice ball and a slice of thinly sliced soppressata. I was giving a marinated freshly pulled mozzarella knots. I make arancini, so I was fine with the cheese. The soppressata was delicious and one of the meats they specialize in.

Next, we had a sit-down stop at Pesce Trattoria, which is in another ancient building with a gorgeous, original tin ceiling. Bert told us restaurants were required back in the day to have tin ceilings in case a fire broke out in the kitchen.

The meatballs were identical!
Photo credit of restaurant from Pesce Trattoria.

This is where I was almost leary to eat my gluten-free meatball. It looked exactly like everyone else’s. The inside of the meatball looked like everyone else’s. I trusted them and tasted a soft and delicious meatball in a simple sauce. They sprinkled on a blend of romano and pecorino cheeses. 

At every “sitting stop,” Jen and I used their bathrooms since bathrooms are hard to come by in NYC if you don’t know. It was cold and super windy so sitting in a warm restaurant felt wonderful.

We walked to our next standing stop called The Donut Project, a woman-owned business with all women employees. Being gluten-free, real donuts are hard to come by; I’m this case, my gluten-free donut trumped the real thing!

Look at the depth of those donuts! I forgot to take a side view of my donut I was so excited to eat it!

The donuts at The Donut Project come in very different flavors and toppings. My donut was huge and delicious. It was fried like a donut should be, not baked in a donut pan some places try to pull off. This was the best thing on the whole tour for me.

Jen said the donuts the group got were delicious covered in a lemon glaze, but my donut was better. How do you like those apples??

We walked to our next stop, and it didn’t seem like it could get colder or windier. We were frozen to the bone. Our sit-down stop was a Rafele. Rafele opened in 2012 when the chef from Naples even had his own pizza oven sent over.

As soon as we walked into the restaurant, I was smart and got a seat at the bar near the pizza oven to warm up. The place was very nice and the kitchen was small like most restaurant kitchens. 

My eggplant parmesan was another one of those dishes I couldn’t believe was gluten-free. The chef presses the eggplant for 24 hours to get out all the water, then dips it in egg and sautés it. I am not sure if the tour’s eggplant was breaded, which it didn’t need. 

Simplicity in its finest form describes the food at Rafele.

We stayed here the longest before our last standing stop at Rocco’s bakery, another west village institution. The group had mini cannolis while I was given a cup of cannoli filling and a pignoli nut cookie. 

I didn’t miss the real cannoli in the least; my cup of the filling was huge. I was happy with this substitution.

After the tour was over, Jen and I got a table in Rocco’s, and each had a cappuccino. Originally, we were going to hang around for two more hours and have dinner in the village, but since we were not hungry and were freezing, we planned to head back to Jersey. 

We had dinner later that night at an Indian restaurant called Nirvana. It was close to where she lived, and the food was warm and comforting after such a cold day. 

The experience exceeded my expectations. The Original Food Tour Company, the tour company we used, has many other food tours in the city. I can’t wait to go on more!

I hope you got an idea of what the tour was really like. I would highly recommend taking the 3-hour tour one-day yourselves. It’s a great way to experience the history behind the real deal places and not taken to tourist traps.

When I wrote “a 3-hour tour” I automatically thought of Gilligan’s Island. LOL! 😂

Look for part two of the food and history walking tour very soon!

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I’m back in VT…

This is the building where the outdoor shots of the popular TV show Friends were taken. Everything else was filmed in Los Angeles, California.

This morning I got up early at Jen’s house and was on the road at 6:05 am. I pulled into our driveway at 8:55 am. The ride went quick!

I planned all along to get out of Jersey before rush hour traffic which is one of the reasons we left NJ in the first place.

Before a trip, I am always anxious, I haven’t driven down to New Jersey in a few years. Marty usually does the driving.

I left on Saturday from The Troy Farmers Market and was at Jen’s house in one hour and 45 minutes. The ride was smooth and there was hardly any traffic. Same thing this morning. Thank goodness!

Skye, my little Ford Maverick handled great. I felt safe and confident. I was able to speed up quickly if I needed to pass someone and get back over into the right lane. This was my first long drive with her and it was really awesome.

I have tons of things to write about the trip, I am trying to organize my thoughts and photos for a couple blog posts.

We had a great time together and got to do everything we wanted to including going into Greenwich Village for a walking tour, cooking together, going out to eat, drinking wine and watching Netflix.

Today, I am getting getting ready for the busy work week. Yes, I may have taken a nap too. 😉

Enjoy the rest of your day, the sun came out and it turned out to be a decent day. Yay!

***There may be some errors in this post which I apologize for, I did it on my phone and not the laptop.

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Doot-da-doo…

Today while Marty and I were working in the production kitchen he snuck up on me and did a loud “doot-da-do ” in my ear. I was so focused on cleaning the big tilting kettle we used to cook the spätzle in to see what he was up to. I screamed, “Marty, you’re an asshole!”

Standing there behind me, he held an empty paper towel roll with a huge grin on his face. “Boy, you really jumped,” he said. “Yes, I am working, which you should be doing too.” Then, we both cracked up laughing.

If you don’t know what a doot-da-doo is, I was surprised to find the word in Urban Dictionary.

Doot-da-doo: The cardboard roll in the center of toilet paper, paper towels, wrapping paper etc.

Husband- “Don’t throw away the doot-da-doo“! 
Wife- “What’s a doot-da-doo”? 
Husband- (places paper towel roll to lips) “DOOT-DA-DOO“!!! (Smiles)

Marty and I have been together since 1985 and have a lot of fun together. If either one of us finds a doot-da, do we either do what he did this morning or clunk each other over the head with it.

Klausie-boy knows exactly what a doot-da-doo is. If he sees someone with one in their hand, he will try to tackle the person. Otto knows what one is also, except he likes to dig them out of the bathroom trash cans and eat them.

Noah and Sam know all too well about doot-da-doos. Marty is a jokester and is very funny. After being with him for so long, I know when he is full of it. I tell people not to believe a word he says.

Marty likes to prank people on the phone. He used to prank his co-worker, and she was only 20 feet from him. He always used a different accent and a ridiculous story. She never knew it was him until he started laughing. Luckily for the world, it’s harder to prank people now with caller ID.

One day, he pranked our friend Martin pretending to be someone from Home Depot. Martin was waiting for carpet installers to show up to carpet his three flights of stairs and another room. Marty made up some bullshit story about why they couldn’t come and couldn’t reschedule for months. Martin started freaking out until I couldn’t stand it anymore and yelled, “Martin, it’s Marty.”

Martin thought he was the King of Pranksters until he met his match. Now the two of them try to get each other all the time. Marty’s “holy day” is April Foods Day. He’s gotten a lot of people over the years, all in good fun.

After I cleaned the kettle, I ran out of paper towels on another roll in the production side of the kitchen. I decided one doot-da-doo was enough for one day. 😉

Right after I hit publish on this post I have to pack for my sisters’ trip and get everything ready for the farmers market tomorrow morning. Martin saved the day by inviting us over for a roasted chicken dinner tonight, now I don’t have to cook and can get stuff done.

Happy Friday! I’ll catch up with you when I get back from Jersey. I will be taking lots of photos of our food and history tour of Greenwich Village and other sites in the city.

Have a great weekend! ❤️

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Chalkboard art…

Marty and I are super excited that our farmers market, The Troy Farmers Market, will be moving back outside on May 7. The farmers’ market will be located back on “the street!” “The street” is located around Monument Square and down side streets around the square.

Before the pandemic, the farmers market had a festival-type atmosphere, with nearly 15,000 people visiting the market every Saturday. Can you imagine between 10,000 & 15,000 people visiting the market between the hours of 9-2?

It didn’t feel too crowded because the vendors are spaced perfectly. There are multiple musicians, many food vendors, areas to eat, and places to people watch. Customers also visit the shops on River and many adjacent streets.

In 2019, The Troy Farmers Market was ranked the number one farmers market in the state, region, and country. Ranked number one in the country!!! Wow!

The market did a great job making a massive pivot during the pandemic setting up the market in Riverfront Park, located right along the Hudson River. To follow protocol, vendors were spaced with vehicles in between the booths.

The market was set up with a one-direction-only traffic flow, and masks were mandatory. The market was carefully supervised. by market employees. Older customers could shop 30 minutes before the market was open to the public. The market did a fantastic making the best of a shitty situation for the last two summers.

Marty and I discussed the summer market and decided our five-year-old market setup needed an update. We needed a new tent after so much wind and weather damage. Standing under a tent that leaks is not fun…at all. Our sidewalk sign and table clothes are beat-up beyond repair.

Our setup did as many as 4 markets a week for the first two years and 3 markets for 3 years. We’ve decided we will be only doing one market from now on with a possible guest appearance at our local market if time and production allows.

Our wholesale business has grown during the pandemic, which is where we need to concentrate our attention. We love doing The Troy Market, making new customers by giving them the spätzle spiel, and connecting with our regular customers in person.

We are still as passionate as we were at our first farmers market in Arlington and still love spreading the spätzle love. ❤️

We’ve ordered a new tent and table clothes. We also purchased two new chalkboards. At Riverfront Park, each week, I made a saying of the day with chalk on the pavement of the sidewalk. People got a kick out of it, and we looked forward to it each week. Here are some of our favorites:

When the new chalkboards arrived today with regular chalk and chalk markers, I watched a few YouTube videos on chalkboard art. Did you know you have to season your chalkboard? Chalkboards are porous, so seasoning them makes the chalk easier to remove when you erase it. If you write on a chalkboard without seasoning it, it’s a son-of-a-bitch to clean. Who knew??

After I seasoned the chalkboard by lightly running the side of chalk on the whole chalkboard and then erasing it, I took the advice on the Youtube videos and practiced with my laptop. I realized quickly this it was not productive for me to do the board twice.

Seasoning the chalkboard, then it’s ready to go.

The advice I will be using is to use a measuring tape and trace lines as we had in elementary school when we were learning cursive writing. Do they even teach cursive writing anymore? I was told no but can’t believe it.

Regular chalk on the left and chalk marker on the right.

First, I used regular chalk and did a mock-up without measuring anything to get an idea of how to do it. On the other side of the chalkboard, I used a chalk marker, which came out better.

The two fails I had during my practice time were the stencils that came with the chalkboards. I got frustrated quickly and decided my handwriting was better than using those fuckers. I wasted precious time, the time I don’t have doing a mock-up on the computer first.

After you are done with your chalkboard art, you use wet and dry Q-tips to clean up the letters to make the whole thing look better, neater, and more professional. I was happy with my outcome for the first stab at it. The wording wasn’t correct, but I was only practicing.

I hated getting called on as a kid to go up to the board when I was in Catholic school. I also hated the kid in charge of writing down the names of bad kids if the nun or teacher had to step out of the room for a minute. I did love being able to go outside and bang the erasers together to clean them or wash the board with water. I do like these new chalkboards and look forward to using them.

We have four more indoor markets then it’s back out to “the street” with our new setup. Guess what? We can’t wait! ☺️

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Anxiety and eggs…

Our business is now over five years old. We’ve kept records of our invoices over the years, and I can tell you that egg prices have gone up 10-14 days before Easter every year.

Each year there is some excuse why the price of eggs doubles; this year is the bird flu. I just read a report from the government explaining the bird flu and why it is causing the prices to double. Here is the link if you are interested.

This morning, we were in the production kitchen early again since we are still climbing out from under all our orders. Then, out of nowhere, I had an anxiety attack. I was able to talk myself out of it quickly; I was in the middle of making a batch of spätzle batter and focused on that instead.

Before I started having anxiety attacks or even knew I had one, I thought it felt like you were very nervous or frightened. I was wrong.

I know seconds before an anxiety attack starts because my arms begin to tingle; then go numb. My hands start shaking, I can’t bend or straighten my fingers, and I get a pain in my chest. Then I feel like my whole body is in a vise that keeps getting tighter. Breathing becomes difficult.

Instead of panicking, which I know sounds ridiculous not to panic during a panic or anxiety attack, I try my hardest to stay calm. I begin deep breathing, focusing on something else, and tell myself to make it stop. 

Today’s attack lasted less than 5 minutes. My hands are usually still a little shaky for a while, but I pushed through it. Fifteen minutes later, it was like nothing had happened, business as usual.

I now know why people think they are having a heart attack instead of an anxiety attack; many symptoms are similar. It is horrifying when it is happening. It’s hard to hide in front of people and harder for people to understand what is happening.

People say you need to “calm down and not get stressed out.” Anxiety attacks come on even when I don’t feel stressed out but have a lot on my mind.

I take anxiety and depression medication twice a day, but I’ve had more attacks during the last two years. (I can’t imagine why right?) I can go months without one, then wham! Belly dancing and meditation help me tremendously with stress and anxiety, but I don’t get to do either of them enough.

I brought up the egg price because our egg delivery man, Greg, delivered the 3 cases of eggs we ordered later this afternoon. He apologized to me the second he saw me for the price increase.

The price of eggs went from $1.40 dozen to $2.99. Thirty dozen eggs are in a case, so you do the math how much our 3 cases of eggs increased. Greg said they told him it was because of the bird flu; usually, we are told it is due to the supply and demand during Easter. 

This stresses the fuck out of me because we make egg noodles. You can’t make egg noodles without eggs. I was foolish to think things may not get totally out of hand after our retail containers that nearly tripled in price and weren’t able to get for months are now back in stock again.

This afternoon I am anxious. There is such a thing as good stress and bad stress, which I am dealing with right now. I have to focus on taking care of the good stress, the stuff I have control over, and give the bad stress over to the universe or God, whichever you believe in. It works; I have to remember to do it and do it repeatedly.

This is another super busy work week with many orders to fill. I am also thinking ahead to next week since I will be then driving to my sister’s house in NJ on Saturday afternoon and not returning until Tuesday morning. I work well under pressure, so this is good stress, healthy stress, not bad like the egg situation.

Jennifer and I are having our first sisters’ only time together, which we are both very excited about. We have a lot of fun stuff planned. She has the menu, food, and wine ready to go. I know we will laugh until our cheeks hurt, watch movies, and eat delicious food. This is our relaxing, stress-free time together that I desperately need.

Mental health isn’t something that people generally like to talk about, I certainly don’t go blabbing about it often, but today was the day to share mine with you. This was hard for me to write about as a strong and confident person, but here we are.