*sigh*

Thanksgiving kind of sucks if you can't eat 90 percent of the meal and aren't into football or basketball. Just saying.

Seeing family was awesome, though.

Lingguwista I am not

Ako nagsasalita ng tagalog maganda.

No, really, it's true, I'm really, really bad at it.

I'm learning, though. (Ako malaman?) I want to take a class — watching soap operas on YouTube and listening to music is not going to help much but my vocabulary, I think.

My roommate is amazing

So it took two incidents, one with a fish sandwich and one with a slice of pizza, to convince me that:

a.) I am, in fact, quite allergic to wheat
b.) I will never, ever eat anything with gluten in it on purpose again, EVER

I knew cutting gluten out of my diet entirely had helped me feel a lot better, but after my two "trials," I felt like an old woman. My joints ached, my skin felt dry and my chest and arms broke out in eczema, my vertigo returned with a vengeance, my eyes felt fuzzy and sandy, and I felt bloated and heavy for days.

Never again.

That time with the mole was not so awesome, either, though not as bad as the pizza, which I am still shaking off a week later.

Aside from those two incidents, I haven't had bread, sweets, etc. I've been craving desserts and pasta especially. In fact, I've mostly been eating a handful of foods over and over and over again.

So when I came home from work Friday night and my roommate greeted me with awesome, gluten-free brownies that taste SO GOOD, and fantastic veggie soup, and a list of websites she'd found for me while she was bored and cooking ... wow. I've been poring over Gluten-Free Girl ever since. (And reading her list of symptoms, it's like seeing how I've been feeling for years and years.)

I'm excited; I have ideas for foods I can actually eat instead of the same rice noodles every night. I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow. And I'm going to start doing my own research and looking instead of letting other people kick me into gear.

And tonight, I'm going to enjoy myself some awesome brownies.

Proud to be American today

Not that I haven't been proud before! But to be honest, even after they called the race last night, I didn't really believe it. I still can't believe it, a little. And I'm so, so proud to have been part of such an incredible moment in American history.

There is so much we still need to do, though. President Obama — and that sounds so strange after being so sure it would be President McCain — was right in his speech last night. There is a lot of work needed to turn this country around, and he cannot do it alone. The Democrats cannot do it alone, either — there needs to be unity and cooperation between everyone in this country.

I truly think President Obama can get us there. And just like the election, I want to be involved.

But for all of my pride and elation over the presidential outcome, I am so disappointed in California right now. I cannot believe that we can call ourselves a democratic state if we refuse to give everyone equal rights. I have a lot of investment in marriage equality — if it weren't for cases like Loving v. Virginia, I would not be alive right now. And I cannot believe that my state, the state I have been so incredibly proud to be a resident of, would deny happiness to people.

It's not over yet. There are 18,000 marriages in this state that are now illegal, but the state constitution itself prohibits nullifying them. There's also the fact that, due to the Supreme Court decision, the amendment itself is illegal because homosexuality is a protected class like religion, race and disability.

I'm hopeful. I'm disappointed in California, but I am so hopeful that good will come out of this election. And I really want to be part of it.

Writer's block

I signed up for NaNoWriMo this month, and 45 minutes in and I still don't know what to write about. I'm too tired right now, though — I really do not have the mental energy to do more than just sit and watch TV, or maybe mindlessly kill stuff.

So, a plot and 4,000 words is my goal for tomorrow.