This...is Erica.

Today is Erica's birthday. Erica is my roommate, and she's probably one of my best friends, especially down here in sunny Fairfax, Virginia. I figured with it being her birthday and all, I'll give her a little bit of a tribute or something. So, today you're going to learn a little bit about Erica and what makes her so special.

Erica has a special food allergy called Celiac disease. It's basically an allergy to gluten (i.e. wheat, flour, basically anything in that bottom row of the food pyramid that isn't rice). You may or may not have heard of it before. I know that before I came to college, I certainly had no idea what it was, and even more so, what I was getting into.

I drew her this lovely picture for our names on the suite door

It's not like a normal allergy where you would break out in hives or go into anaphylactic shock, and it's different for everyone who has it. Some people people go through life without ever experiencing any symptoms, while others can have very severe symptoms. Erica does get symptoms where if she accidentally eats something with gluten in it, she has pretty bad stomach pains and she feels sick. It's not deadly to have a single episode, but the way I exaggerate things, I always think she's going to die:

There's a lot about celiac that's still a mystery to doctors. They're not sure what causes it, but it can be genetic and passed on by parents to their children. Also, celiac is an autoimmune disease, meaning that it's a result of the body not being able to process something, and it attacks what it considers to be foreign matter and causes degenerative effects to the rest of the body. For example, Erica and I are the same height. She's short because of celiac, and I'm Ukranian. She also has joint problems sometimes. However, since she has symptoms she can make sure she's not harming her body any more without knowing it and she can stay healthy. :)

This whole year living with her has been a huge learning process for me. In the beginning it was a bit of a struggle for me; I had so much to learn and so much that I didn't understand. I never could've guessed how many different foods have gluten in them, even foods like feta and tomato sauce. But I'm glad that I could get to know about this and now I can even help her cook sometimes. I know that we can joke around about it now and she's totally cool with it. Sometimes I even chase her around with a bag of flour or threaten that I'm going to feed her flour while she's sleeping.

Ok, so I'm a little mean, but we know it's a joke and in the end we both end up laughing anyway.  I really wanted to post this, not just because it's Erica's birthday and all, but also because I want to help give you a little bit of extra knowledge today so that you won't be as clueless as I was when I met Erica. It's more common than I ever would've guessed, but hey, I was totally in the dark so maybe you are too. Nevertheless, I hope that maybe, if you ever come across someone with celiac, you can make their life just a little bit easier with some understanding.

I've also developed a personal theory that when you can't eat gluten you need to substitute other sugars into the body to compensate. Like, I have never seen anyone eat as much sugar as this girl. One morning I caught her spooning brown sugar straight into her mouth. Seriously, she has an unhealthy obsession with candy. But hey, that's her, and I couldn't love her any other way. :)

_sara

My Current Dance Craze

So life has been a little bit...uh...crazy lately. I think we've all gone through those periods of time where it just seems like everything is being thrown at you faster than you can say "meat nuggets." I also apologize, because I feel like I need to post on here every so often out of the sheer obligation of owning a blog, and this week has been killing me.

So, in order to cope with the stress of everyday life, I've created a little dance. Does it actually help? I have no idea. Probably not. But it's fun and I think that in some strange way it's therapeutic.

My dance is called "The Shitshit Dance."

(I apologize for the wiggly outlines. Hopefully a graphics tablet is in my near future.)

It goes to no music, and the moves are to be completely made up by the dancer. The only rule is to be as erratic as humanly possible with the arm and leg movements whilst exclaiming shit in a manner deemed appropriate to the situation. But in what situation would this be necessary? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Huge exam tomorrow you forgot to study for? Crap! SHITSHITSHIT!!
Woke up late for class/work/important appointment? Oops! SHITSHITSHITTT!!
Extremely socially awkward situation? Make it better! SHITSHITSHIIIITTT!!
Eating a burrito that is lava on the edges and frozen in the center? Well.....SHIT.SHIT.SHIT.
And many more!!

Okay, so I'm a little odd. But we all have to get through those tough days somehow, right? :)

_sara

Don't Blame Us, It Was 3am...

So, being that we are well into our lovely spring semester of college, it tends to happen that some nights go a little late while we try to get all of that homework/exam studying/project work done. With this in mind, last night was one of those late ones. There was a point where none of us wanted to do anything we had to do, and as the night went on, more and more ridiculous things were said. I don't think the world is ready for most of those things, but there was one that I found that was appropriate/funny enough to draw. And if you're thinking "Sara, this isn't at all appropriate!" Just remember, it was one of the more appropriate things that was said.

As a little bit of background, this is a hot beverage product hailing from my friend Tri, who deemed it with the lovely name mentioned below. Claiming it had magical ultra-fiber-like qualities, she insisted that this is truly what happens upon ingesting this product. Though it's not actually comprised of what the name suggests, I think you can figure out why else it would have that name. The more graphic details were withheld (though if I get a good response on this one there may be a follow-up second advertisement). I present to you, Poop Tea (patent pending):

Yes, that's exactly what it looks like.

_sara