Meeting a Legend

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting a Legend. Mrs. Shoshana Shteif herself, the woman whose reputation has infiltrated into every single sect and religious group in Jerusalem and beyond! I had first heard of her a few months into dating Pidgeon, when his Aunt told us how this woman saved her skin. Her homeopathic techniques, I later found out, were also what cured Pidgeon's best friend's horrible acne condition. A few months went on, and I heard that Pidgeon's cousin from London flew in to see Mrs. Shteif in order to help with her terrible skin itchiness.  Personally, I never thought I would ever meet this woman. But, that was before I got pregnant.

When Pidgeon and I got back from the States, the morning (or all day long) sickness was really getting too much to handle. I looked awful, and last Friday night it all came to a head. We were at his parents for dinner and I just broke down, I couldn't handle feeling so lousy anymore! I needed some relief from the constant nausea, the terrible taste in my mouth and the exhaustion. Pidgeon's Mom offered to take me to see Shoshana Shteif and I jumped at the chance. At this point, I'm willing to try anything.

Pidgeon's Mom called me yesterday morning and told me to make sure I dressed Tzniut for the appointment. I made sure to have my knees and elbows covered, and took an extra long shmata just in case. She picked me up at 10:00 a.m. for our 10:30 a.m. appointment and we drove towards the Belz neighborhood of Jerusalem. Literally, the office is 2 blocks away from the Blez Beis Medrash which was built to model the Beis Hamikdash. The up close view was pretty incredible.

I had been warned that the place is usually a complete zoo and that our wait might be long, so I brought along a book. MIL had her own and so I was ready to settle in and wait. Fortunately, there was no one in the waiting room and I was ushered back into one of the "exam" rooms. Mrs. Shteif's assistant then hooked me up to this machine and handed me a metal pipe to hold in one hand, while she used a rod like contraption to test my energies with the other hand. We switched hands and then she hooked me up to the machine a number of different ways. I went along, even though I had no clue what was going on. At first, I honestly thought she was just still testing me. Later, my MIL told me that it was actually detoxifying and purifying "cycles" that were going on. The weirdest thing included my bare feet on 2 slabs of metal that were hooked into the machine, which was hooked into a pad that rested on my stomach, which was hooked into this pipe shaped porcelin object that I held up against my cheek. I did this to both sides of my face for 10 minutes. Again, I had no idea what was going on, but so many people swear by her that I just went along with it.

Finally, after 2 hours of being hooked up to the machine with various contraptions and for different cycles of time, Mrs. Shteif came in to see me. She did a brief "exam" of my mouth, eyes and skin. She immediately told me that I am very "sensitive" from my skin to what I eat. I agreed that it was true. Then, she asked me who in my family has diabetes. Well, as far as I know the other person in my family who was borderline diabetic was my Zaydie. I told her this, and she said that while I do no have diabetes, I am genetically inclined to it. (side note, but Lord did my folks pass on the Lions share of genetic issues to me! I'm hoping we aren't doing the same to our baby!)

Then, Mrs. Shteif spent 30 minutes testing me for food allergies. Here's how it worked. I held that metal pipe again in one hand, and she used the rod to test my energy levels with the other hand while placing small vials of different food into the machine. I had no idea how it worked people, but I can tell you that with certain foods the machine really, really beeped. Only, it wasn't a beep but sounded more like the whir of a dying motor sound. I didn't know what was going on, but that dying whirring sound was pretty frequent.

Finally, after going through three huge boxes of vials, Mrs. Shteif told me that I have "quite a list". She then wrote down all the foods I can no longer eat, now that I'm pregnant. They include:

Charif (spicy), all kinds

Tomatoes and ketchup

Kiwi

Wine (which, I knew I was allergic to going into the meeting)

Yellow cheese

Oranges, clementines and orange juice (although lemon and pomello are ok)

Green pepper

Eggplant

Peanuts, bamba and peanut butter

Honey

White flour and anything made with white flour (although whole wheat flour is ok)

Eggs - although something made with cooked eggs like a kugel is okay

Milk and all milk products - although, I can have goats milk if I boil it first, cool it down and then boil it again. Soy milk is ok

Milk chocolate (which I knew I was allergic to going into the meeting) - although dark chocolate is okay

Fried foods

White sugar and everything made with white sugar - although, demerara sugar is okay

Then, she handed me a survival list for women who are nauseous and throwing up in the first trimester. Most of what was on it was pretty self explanatory, but somethings really were interesting. In particular, that you shouldn't combine eating and drinking and actually should wait an entire hour between the two. I thanked her for everything, made a follow up appointment for Friday, and then went home. 

This woman has now left with absolutely nothing I can eat. Let me explain that the only things I've been eating each day are eggs, yellow cheese sandwiches and peanut butter on rice crackers. I now could basically eat absolutely no protein. It was really, really frustrating. I also managed to somehow get myself good and dehydrated yesterday because each time I was hungry, I ate which meant I had to wait an hour until I could drink. It was rough. By the time we went out for dinner with Pidgeon's family, I was exhausted and starving.

Fortunately, we went to the epitome of protein places at El Gaucho. I could hardly find anything on the menu I could stomach, and the pasta was out because it was made with white flour and cooked in a tomato sauce. So, I decided to try a steak and see what happened. The salad arrived and I devoured my plate! Finally, my extremely well done steak came and I tucked in tentatively at first. After a few bites and no nausea, I managed to clean my plate. It was pretty amazing, especially since I haven't been able to eat meat in quite some time. We got home and I had some watermellon before we went to sleep.

This morning, I woke up really, really hungry and thirsty and a bit nauseous. According to the paper, I should eat right away if I feel nauseous. Unfortunately, there wasn't much in the house I could eat. I opted to drink instead and had a bottle of water. A few hours later, I made myself a sandwich on whole wheat bread and cut up some approved vegetables. Sadly, I have a vegetable bin full of tomatoes that I can no longer eat, and a huge chunk of cheddar cheese. It was expensive to buy, so I think I might just package up all the foods I can no longer eat and give them to Pidgeon's family. At least that way I'm not being wasteful.

Today has been a very productive day, even though I haven't left the house. I managed to finish all the laundry and tidy up the house before tomorrow's bed delivery. I'm really, really excited about the new beds and hope they are everything I was hoping they'd be! If anything else, I need the firm new mattress to help with my back which has already started to ache. Tonight, we're going to the supermarket so we can stock up on food. It took me an hour to write my shopping list as everything I wanted to make had some sort of offensive ingredient in it. Sigh. I really hope eating this way will help, although my biggest concern is that I basically eliminated all calcium options and I don't think that's really healthy. Hopefully, once I feel better, I'll be able to slowly add it back into my diet.

Well, I'm off to finish up my errands and get ready for out outing tonight. President Bush is coming to town tomorrow to completely mess up this City for the next 3 days. It should be really, really annoying. More to come!

Yom Tov from Baka!

Buswhacked

It would be cliche for me to include a picture of El Presidente George Bush in my blog, so I decided to go with one of my favorite New York City images from the 30's. Let me assure you folks, the construction workers in this country don't look or act like these men here. 

So, Bush messed a lot of things up in this City this week, but it was all manageable. Pidgeon was able to find a back way into school by driving down Derech Chevron and well, me, I stayed in the house. Almost 24/7. For 3 days. It was nice. I was in PJ's all Wednesday, in solidarity towards the President who came and mucked up this entire City. Well, he did pledge MidEast Peace by the end of his term, so who am I to sulk? Let's see what really happens, shall we?

It's another Friday and the sun is shinning and I've got a full day of cooking ahead of me. I decided not to do any yesterday, since we ran a lot of errands and I was too tired to start anything by the time I got home. I need to give women everywhere - who are in charge of running a household - a lot of credit. It's tremendous work just doing one load of laundry, going food and other errand shopping, and then having to make breakfast/lunch and dinner! I'm constantly cooking in the kitchen, which I don't mind, just never found myself doing much of when I was single. I was the girl who bought one of those Lean Cuisine/Weight Watchers meals and popped it into the microwave and just chowed down. Simple. Now, I'm grilled steak burgers, sauteing onions and making a fresh garden salad for dinner. No wonder I'm too tired to get cooking for Shabbos.

Since Bush is in town, our work was called off for the week because the workers couldn't get around the City. Everything is scheduled to start in earnest this coming Sunday, which means it probably won't be done before Pidgeon's surgery next week. He's going in to have a growth removed and then tested. We're hopeful it's nothing, but the procedure itself shouldn't painful although the aftermath will be. I'm hunkering down for becoming Florence Nightengale Wifie during the next week. Hopefully, our workers will be done with the bedrooms and bathroom so Pidgeon can get some much needed rest.

We're going to dinner tonight at Pidgeon's folks house and I'm looking forward to it. It's nice not having to cook another meal and just focus on Shabbos lunch. Although, the weather forecast is calling for 2 degree Celcius tonight, and that's just a number I'm not excited about. Fortunately, I think I know where my winter coat is, but am not 100% sure. I hope there's no mold on that one too - cause I'll be super pissed if there is!

Pidgeon and I found another place to shop yesterday and we're thinking of making it our go-to- food place from now on. We've been using the Rami Levi by the Rav Chen mall and the prices are decent, but not so overly cheap that it's necessarily worth the hassle. But, we went across the street to this other shopping center and found a SuperDeal inside whose prices are really comprable. Plus, it's very, very clean and that is so important for me! I need a place that's clean because it lends confidence that the food I'm buying is good quality. Call me crazy, but I like to shop in nice places. Now, we just need to shave 100 shekel off of our bi-weekly food trips and we should be all set. I think we're just going to have to employ some portion control so that our food will last much longer.

Meanwhile, we've both been starving lately because we're used to eating 3 meals out with the family. I spoke to Mom last night and she's in the same predicament, it was like Rosh Hashana for 3 weeks only we never had that cleansing fast. I'm hoping it will resolve itself soon because it's no fun waking up with a growling stomach.

Saturday night we have a bar mitzvah all the way out in Raanana. I, of course, have absolutely nothing to wear so I know it will not be fun around here as soon as Shabbos is out. Plus, the trek to and from is going to be very exhausting. We're having a busy day on Sunday as it's the 60th anniversary of The Lamed Hey and Pidgeon's Great Uncle was unfortunately a member. We'll be going to an Azkarah at Har Herzl and a couple of other events for the family members. It will be a busy and emotinal day, but they did a tremendous service for this Country that we can all be grateful for.

Well - I'm off to finish cooking for Shabbos and get the rest of my day going. Wishing everyone a wonderful and warm Shabbos in Jerusalem!

Mold and Ire

I am a very unhappy person today and it's because our apartment is overrun by mold. As I mentioned in yesterday's update, we discovered a lot of mold growing in our Mamad. So, we hired our contractor to build us two walls of sheetrock to ward off the outside moisture and better insulate the room. We are hoping this will solve the problem. Now, I knew that today I had my work cut out for me, but the extra surprise that waited for me behind the closet was extremely unexpected. 

We have one very large wall-to-wall sized closet in the mold room and it's made of wood. Last week we checked behind the closet and saw some mold on the wall, so we knew that it needed to be fixed. The contractor told me that I had to remove everything from the closet for him to do the necessary work. I spent all day yesterday moving us out of the spare bedroom and back into the master bedroom so I could prepare for today's day of labor. I had asked pidgeon to help me last night, but somehow that never happened, and so when he left for school at 6:30 a.m. this morning I realized I had to do this tremendous task alone.

I started in pidgeon's closet first and moved all his hanging clothing to a stand in our bedroom. Next, I took all of my hanging shirts and moved in to the second stand in our bedroom. And that's when I discovered that the mold invaded the closet - and my wardrobe.

I now have three piles of clothing on my floor - covered in mold - and in the following categories: I hope to G-d the cleaners can salvage this, It's gonna take a miracle and Who the hell am I kidding? This is going straight to the trash. My Steve Madden black fabric flip flops are gone - covered in mold - and straight into the bin.  I know that the Lord hates me because only my clothing was ruined - pidgeon's is practically pristine. 

After my discovery - and subsequent shit fit/crying jag - I called the contractor and he came over to help me. Fortunately, he brought a worker who cleaned all of the mold from the room. Unfortunately, he can't clean my clothing or all of our travel luggage which is covered in green mold.

The apartment now stinks of mold and bleach, and I'm trying to keep everything ventilated and dry. Of course, today is perhaps the rainiest day all year and it's absolutely freezing to boot. I don't have the heat on, I'm afraid the heat will lead to more mold and I just can't have any of that anymore.

Meanwhile, my resentment towards pidgeon's family is growing day by day. I'm still upset with his sister over a Chanukah incident and now she's insisting that tonight - of ALL nights - we both come over to her apartment so she can give us the wedding gift she bought us. My friend said I need to grow up and just go over there because it's her right to want to give us the present together. I am not interested in seeing her right now - she waited 6 months to buy as a gift - she can wait a few days. This apartment is full of mold and I'm miserable, to have no choice but to cater to her whim is absolutely preposterous.

Well, I just learnt that with Bush coming to town, my contractor can't work for a few days. It looks like this place will be a mess for at least another week. Anyone out there want to invite us for Shabbos?