"C" is for Caffeine

Let’s journey back in time just a tad briefly.  A number of us will remember the loveable puppets from Sesame Street.  Each character seemed to have a composition of a specific personality style.  The budding little social scientist in me recognized the variety of personalities being depicted in the show.  I find it fascinating to listen to people’s stories & appreciate the original beauty within each individual from the gruffest personality style to the sweetest of the sweet.  The introvert & the extrovert are equally cool to be around.  When I was a young girl I was painfully shy so having a few super outgoing friends as well as the quieter pals was awesome.  I learned & continue to learn from everyone within my circle.  Getting back to the memories of childhood shows & specifically the characters in Sesame Street brings me back to the Cookie Monster, Mr. Snuffaluffagus, Grover & The Count.  Since I admit to being in love with cupcakes (gluten & dairy free out of necessity), of course the Cookie Monster is a star in my view.  When I decide to have the occasional cupcake it is guilt free & every bite is a delicacy.  As an aside, one of my favourite cupcakes is called the coffee break cupcake.  It has a mini cinnamon donut on top of a coffee infused cupcake with espresso icing…yummy.  Since I love, love love teahouses I usually arrange a special afternoon tea at my favourite one at least once a year.  Most times when I am there you will spot the table of ladies who deny themselves dessert it seems out of peer pressure.  I don’t have friends like that thankfully.  By goodness if I feel like freaking having dessert it does not cross my mind for a nana second that any of my friends would think less of me.  The hilarity of watching a table full of ladies out for lunch each saying they could not possibly consider dessert never gets old.  Come on…the portions truthfully in the teahouse tend to be petite so I cannot imagine that anyone is possibly truly full.  I feel like sending a plate full of scones to those tables but instead I do the Canadian thing & remain polite & reserved on the outside.  Life is too short in my mind for reindeer games or worrying about what your group is going to think about you.  Friends don’t make you feel uncomfortable I believe if the friendship is real.  If the friendship is not real then what the heck point is there to that I wonder.  Grover is the outgoing one & although I am far more reserved than that character I sure love having friends who bring that burst of fun energy everywhere.  How about the Count?  Our youngest son is a mathie & loves to do recreational math.  He is a bit of a Mr. Crabs too since he loves to accrue money in his savings jar & count it & save it for special stuff.  He loves to count things.  We need the counts of the world that’s for sure.  Do we dare speak of Mr. Snuffaluffagus?  I can to this day hear his voice in my mind & the sentence he used often of “Oh bird, I am not feeling very well today.”  Being a human can mean that there may be times where we channel our own inner Snuffaluffagus’ too.  Although I am by nature an upbeat, enthusiastic glass full kind of rascal I do not deny that some days suck.  What do we need most when we or someone that we cherish is having a Snuffaluffagus time of it?  How about acceptance, a hug, no platatudes & sincere encouragement even if there are no words used at all.  It is no fun feeling like an outsider.  Most of the time I am the only person with type 1 diabetes but I refuse to feel like I am on the outside of anything.  I wear my pump boldly with no hesitation on the outside.  Type 1 is not a dirty little secret.  It happened & is no one’s fault & I do not need to cower from life in any way because of it.  I don’t slip into dark alley ways to do blood tests or do corrections, etc.  For sure I have had a few random people give me the harry eyebrow for testing in their royal presence.  Get over it is my mantra about that. 

A few weeks ago our youngest son & I got to go to a Toronto Blue Jays game.  I love to create uncomplicated fun outings whenever possible.  Driving to & in Toronto to me is an instant recipe for a blood sugar surge or plunge so the GO train is a fabulous stress free way to do that commute.  On the way down to the game my blood sugars were too high.  If you live with the troublemaker of type 1 you know that feeling only too well of even fun outings causing blood sugars to soar.  I did my correction while riding the train & getting the intell from Alex our son about all the player hitting averages.  I added on a temporary basal & then prepared to just have kid fun.  The small town girl remains in me to this day because a trip to Toronto still makes me feel very excited & that excitement was contagious to our son aka the Count as well.  Once we got off the train we decided that we fancied some hydration…an iced drink for the Count & a double espresso for his rascal mom.  Then we walked over to the Rogers Centre & stopped off at the snackbar before getting to our seats for the opening pitch.  The count logically got a bottle of water & a pail of popcorn & the caffeine junkie rascal got a coffee.  I swear I have the power to adapt to even awful coffee when needed because I just love coffee.  In university I even enjoyed vending machine coffee yikes.  I have only been to 3 Jays games since being diagnosed with type 1 & every time I go I have this yikes feeling going through security with my insulin pump, fast acting sugars and extra infusion site in my purse.  I worry about how to explain this foreign looking stuff to security.  Every time I have gone through security seamlessly & onetime the officer said to me simply “I love the sticker on your insulin pump.”  The game was a nail biter & stand up out of your seat many times with the end score being 10-9 for the Jays.  Pardon the pun…Alex & I had a ball there & he had his glove out throughout the game optimistically awaiting a fly ball.  The walkabout that Alex & I had & then final jaunt to the train station did a number on me…a number I did not want to see starting with a 2 by the time we were seated for the return trip home after the game.  Thank goodness for those 2 wee bags of bunny gummies that brought my blood sugar back up by the time our train arrived at our home station.  Silently I said an “eff you diabetes” with that brutal low blood sugar crappy feeling & outwardly continued the fun banter with our son the count.  Nothing was going to ruin our kid fun day least of all diabetes.  The letter d does not stand for diabetes but instead for determination, double espresso & delight.  The f word is feisty in our house.  And c…well c is for caffeine & for sure I run on it & I make no apologies for that ha ha. 

My heart’s hope for you is that you stay the course & have some old fashioned kid fun as often as possible.  And for crying out loud have the dessert on occasion…bolus for it & then just enjoy it guilt free responsibly. 

Smiles, Saundie  :)                                                                                        

Have a "Grover" kind of week & as always be gentle with yourself.  Next Monday's writing piece is entitled, "Wobbly & Unsteady Footing."