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shadowkatAfter a salad (heirloom tomatoe, power greens (spinach/argula), cucumber, and onion with some lemon juice (use it instead of dressing) - I took off to get a cookie. It was a gray day, cool, and I didn't feel like walking about seeing the sights at lunch. So I made an excuse to go and get a cookie. (I've gone from checking out matcha latte places to checking out cookie places).
I decided to try Flavors Cafe, which had gluten-free cookies. I wanted to try their chocolate chip along with their black and white (which is never a good idea for anyone with sugar sensitivities (it's 20 g of carbs), but you know...it is a NYC staple and rare to find gluten-free). Also this is a health food store - with probiotics in the cookies.
I got hoodwinked. Again. It looked like a chocolate chip cookie in the store. But it was in reality an oatmeal raisin cookie masquerading as a chocolate chip cookie. And I idiotically did not look at the back of it.
I don't know why I didn't look at the back of it before I bought it.
Brain fog?
I decided to eat the Black and White cookie - which was okay? But I prefer Meredith's. I won't get it again from either place, though. Too sweet and not worth the side-effects. (It's not good for blood sugar. My body wasn't happy with it at all. In short, I liked it, it didn't like me. The chocolate chip cookies that I'd had yesterday, on the other hand - didn't do a thing.) Note to self - stick with Insomina, and ditch Flavors.
They had other flavors available - tasty cookies - Caramel Chocolate and Chocolate Chip, along with shortbread, and Macademia White Chocolate Chunk, but they are not available as gluten free. I don't know why. But they aren't.
Oh well, grateful to at have at least found gluten free soft cookies. There was a time I wouldn't have been able to find any and had to make my own - way back in 2005. I've been gluten free for about 20 years this August. Diagnosed in and around August 2005, after a long and painful process. [The medical community in the US is horrible at diagnosing ceiliac disease. They don't understand it at all and don't really know how to treat it. I had to hunt for a primary care doctor who took it seriously and went through two gastroenterologist - before I got a clear diagnosis in 2017, prior to that I was told it was gluten sensitivity, now I know I have the gene.]
I've satisfied my cookie craving for the most part. Right now the best cookies I've had to date - are the gooey big ones from the Courteylou Road bakery and coffee shop about a twenty-thirty minute walk from my home.
****
August Question a Day Memage - I'm behind again and catching up:
16. It’s National Roller Coaster Day – are you a fan of roller coasters?
No. I loved them as a child. But now, no. My back and legs can't handle the things. I'm six foot, and most of my height is in my legs. I'm long-limbed. Rollercoasters are made for small people not large people. They were a lot more fun when I was a teenager and a child. Now, my body is like - why are you cramping me into this tiny uncomfortable padded seat, and fastening restraints on me to whirl me about and go up and down for no reason? Do you want to kill us? Why?
A physical therapist advised me - after the last one I tried over twenty years ago at Six Flags in New Jersey (it was the Batman Ride) (I did it with a meetup group) - to never ever do it again. I listened. It is always wise to listen to a physical therapist.
17. Do you make your bed every day?
Of course. Otherwise critters could get in it. My parents logically explained that to me as a child, and I worked as a candy stripper in a hospital once. I do not throw sheets or clothes on the floor (unless the clothes are sealed in plastic or in a bag) and I make the bed. Also, ewww. Honestly an unmade bed grosses me out. I don't change the sheets every day, but I do make it every day.
18. When you are thirsty what is your beverage of choice?
Water. [Most of the time, all I drink is water.]
19. Do people shorten your given name, and if they do, do you mind?
Yes, all the time. Do I mind? Depends on how they shorten it. But No - if they use the gender neutral version (which most people do, once people get to know me - they use the gender neutral version or my actual name, nothing else. Close friends shorten it to the gender neutral version).
I have one of those names that people like to play with - and can either be shortened to a gender neutral form, or made incredibly girly, or changed in various ways. It's also an incredibly popular name - there are lot of people with varying versions of it.
As long as they don't make it girly, or fluffy, I'm okay. I only correct the folks who feel the need to add an a to my name, just no. Or a "ty" to the shortened version. Or an "sy" to the shortened version. Just no. People who know me very well or at all - won't do it, it's only strangers or folks who don't know me all that well that occasionally do it - usually friends of my parents that I barely know.
20. Are you left-handed or right-handed? Would you like to be ambidextrous?
Right handed, but because I have a tremor and it is more predominate in my right hand, I can do some things with the left - and often use the left for things like holding glasses, holding cups, carrying things, stuff like that. I can type with both. And do type with both. But I don't write or type on my phone with the left. And I paint with my right hand. I may try to start painting with the left - because of the aforementioned tremor. So yes, on ambidextrous.
21. Do you live near any trees? What’s the tallest tree nearby?
Yes, multiple trees. I live in NY - it has lots and lots of trees. If someone removes a tree - they have to plant about ten to replace it. I have, I think an oak next to my window that is the tallest. I am not a nature, tree or plant nerd - I do not know the names of the trees. I barely remember the names of people, why would I remember the names of anything else? But I love trees, and they don't really mind if I don't remember the names people have given them. They do their own thing.
I can't live anywhere without trees. I need them to breath, apparently.
(Even if tree pollan makes me sneeze.)
***
Bonus questions:
Are you a forest or the trees type of person? Macro or micro? Big picture or details?
Forest, Big Picture, Macro thinker. Although, as you all know, I can do the nitty gritty details, because I have to as part of my job - it's required. But overall, I tend to think Big Picture in regards to most things. Or see the forest and how it all works together as a whole. It's my difficulty or conflict with a lot of folks in fandoms, at work, in life in general, while they are busy shipping this pairing or that pairing, or this character or that one, I'm looking at the story as a whole - and thinking of how all the pieces work together, and if the characters are moving the plot forward? And the pairings support the themes. I see the whole pattern and see each character or story thread as part of the whole thing. I'm the same way at work - I look at the whole picture. And see everyone's role, and everyone's perspective, and what is working and what isn't. Same with world affairs and politics.
I'm the same way in regards to politics, and work. I was trained to think this way by my father - who was more forest than trees. And very logical in how he saw things. And pushed me to do the same. He got annoyed with minute details, as did a boss I had for fifteen years, so I've kind of being molded into a macro thinker.
I tend to clash a lot with people who are the opposite. I'm working on that. Because the micro is important too - and so are the details.
I decided to try Flavors Cafe, which had gluten-free cookies. I wanted to try their chocolate chip along with their black and white (which is never a good idea for anyone with sugar sensitivities (it's 20 g of carbs), but you know...it is a NYC staple and rare to find gluten-free). Also this is a health food store - with probiotics in the cookies.
I got hoodwinked. Again. It looked like a chocolate chip cookie in the store. But it was in reality an oatmeal raisin cookie masquerading as a chocolate chip cookie. And I idiotically did not look at the back of it.
I don't know why I didn't look at the back of it before I bought it.
Brain fog?
I decided to eat the Black and White cookie - which was okay? But I prefer Meredith's. I won't get it again from either place, though. Too sweet and not worth the side-effects. (It's not good for blood sugar. My body wasn't happy with it at all. In short, I liked it, it didn't like me. The chocolate chip cookies that I'd had yesterday, on the other hand - didn't do a thing.) Note to self - stick with Insomina, and ditch Flavors.
They had other flavors available - tasty cookies - Caramel Chocolate and Chocolate Chip, along with shortbread, and Macademia White Chocolate Chunk, but they are not available as gluten free. I don't know why. But they aren't.
Oh well, grateful to at have at least found gluten free soft cookies. There was a time I wouldn't have been able to find any and had to make my own - way back in 2005. I've been gluten free for about 20 years this August. Diagnosed in and around August 2005, after a long and painful process. [The medical community in the US is horrible at diagnosing ceiliac disease. They don't understand it at all and don't really know how to treat it. I had to hunt for a primary care doctor who took it seriously and went through two gastroenterologist - before I got a clear diagnosis in 2017, prior to that I was told it was gluten sensitivity, now I know I have the gene.]
I've satisfied my cookie craving for the most part. Right now the best cookies I've had to date - are the gooey big ones from the Courteylou Road bakery and coffee shop about a twenty-thirty minute walk from my home.
****
August Question a Day Memage - I'm behind again and catching up:
16. It’s National Roller Coaster Day – are you a fan of roller coasters?
No. I loved them as a child. But now, no. My back and legs can't handle the things. I'm six foot, and most of my height is in my legs. I'm long-limbed. Rollercoasters are made for small people not large people. They were a lot more fun when I was a teenager and a child. Now, my body is like - why are you cramping me into this tiny uncomfortable padded seat, and fastening restraints on me to whirl me about and go up and down for no reason? Do you want to kill us? Why?
A physical therapist advised me - after the last one I tried over twenty years ago at Six Flags in New Jersey (it was the Batman Ride) (I did it with a meetup group) - to never ever do it again. I listened. It is always wise to listen to a physical therapist.
17. Do you make your bed every day?
Of course. Otherwise critters could get in it. My parents logically explained that to me as a child, and I worked as a candy stripper in a hospital once. I do not throw sheets or clothes on the floor (unless the clothes are sealed in plastic or in a bag) and I make the bed. Also, ewww. Honestly an unmade bed grosses me out. I don't change the sheets every day, but I do make it every day.
18. When you are thirsty what is your beverage of choice?
Water. [Most of the time, all I drink is water.]
19. Do people shorten your given name, and if they do, do you mind?
Yes, all the time. Do I mind? Depends on how they shorten it. But No - if they use the gender neutral version (which most people do, once people get to know me - they use the gender neutral version or my actual name, nothing else. Close friends shorten it to the gender neutral version).
I have one of those names that people like to play with - and can either be shortened to a gender neutral form, or made incredibly girly, or changed in various ways. It's also an incredibly popular name - there are lot of people with varying versions of it.
As long as they don't make it girly, or fluffy, I'm okay. I only correct the folks who feel the need to add an a to my name, just no. Or a "ty" to the shortened version. Or an "sy" to the shortened version. Just no. People who know me very well or at all - won't do it, it's only strangers or folks who don't know me all that well that occasionally do it - usually friends of my parents that I barely know.
20. Are you left-handed or right-handed? Would you like to be ambidextrous?
Right handed, but because I have a tremor and it is more predominate in my right hand, I can do some things with the left - and often use the left for things like holding glasses, holding cups, carrying things, stuff like that. I can type with both. And do type with both. But I don't write or type on my phone with the left. And I paint with my right hand. I may try to start painting with the left - because of the aforementioned tremor. So yes, on ambidextrous.
21. Do you live near any trees? What’s the tallest tree nearby?
Yes, multiple trees. I live in NY - it has lots and lots of trees. If someone removes a tree - they have to plant about ten to replace it. I have, I think an oak next to my window that is the tallest. I am not a nature, tree or plant nerd - I do not know the names of the trees. I barely remember the names of people, why would I remember the names of anything else? But I love trees, and they don't really mind if I don't remember the names people have given them. They do their own thing.
I can't live anywhere without trees. I need them to breath, apparently.
(Even if tree pollan makes me sneeze.)
***
Bonus questions:
Are you a forest or the trees type of person? Macro or micro? Big picture or details?
Forest, Big Picture, Macro thinker. Although, as you all know, I can do the nitty gritty details, because I have to as part of my job - it's required. But overall, I tend to think Big Picture in regards to most things. Or see the forest and how it all works together as a whole. It's my difficulty or conflict with a lot of folks in fandoms, at work, in life in general, while they are busy shipping this pairing or that pairing, or this character or that one, I'm looking at the story as a whole - and thinking of how all the pieces work together, and if the characters are moving the plot forward? And the pairings support the themes. I see the whole pattern and see each character or story thread as part of the whole thing. I'm the same way at work - I look at the whole picture. And see everyone's role, and everyone's perspective, and what is working and what isn't. Same with world affairs and politics.
I'm the same way in regards to politics, and work. I was trained to think this way by my father - who was more forest than trees. And very logical in how he saw things. And pushed me to do the same. He got annoyed with minute details, as did a boss I had for fifteen years, so I've kind of being molded into a macro thinker.
I tend to clash a lot with people who are the opposite. I'm working on that. Because the micro is important too - and so are the details.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-22 07:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-22 12:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-22 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-22 12:36 pm (UTC)I don't know the gluten range of Mia's Bakery, one in Brooklyn, but everything I've tried has been awesome. Just googled, they have a few gluten free cakes.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-22 12:51 pm (UTC)if I had a salad with no protein, and then a cookie after, my blood sugar would go wild. They all do sound good though.
Well, the salad actually did have a lot of protein? It had spinach and arugula - also has protein. Both are high in protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins. I can't eat lettuce, so I only use protein greens. (And I forgot - that I also put pumpkin seeds in it which are high in protein, and lower blood sugar.)
Salads : spinach, chard, arugula, pea greens, bok choy, kale
With either cheese, chicken, salmon or tomato. Usually add green onion, radish, and cucumber. Also nuts.
Usually pumpkin seeds, pecans or walnuts. I always put in a protein source, I just realized after a while I was over-doing it on the protein with chicken (which doesn't tend to digest well).
I also eat a lot of pumpkin seeds and pecans, almonds, and walnuts.
So I had about 15-20 grams of protein prior to eating the cookie. ;-)
Add to that? Breakfast is poached egg over greens.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-22 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-22 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-22 09:19 pm (UTC)I've had them in gluten-free bread as well. Very good in bread.