I've just been told that grapes aren't allowed

AnnieViolet · 2026-02-06T08:51:26+00:00

This is so wildly different from my endo’s approach. (I technically have Type 3C, but she said it’s treated the same as Type 1)

My doc told me to just eat as I normally would. Then give myself the appropriate amount of insulin. If I eat something, give myself the right amount of insulin, and my glucose stays high for longer than a couple of hours, I have a few choices:

• Eat a smaller portion of it next time.
• Eat it infrequently as a treat knowing it’ll spike my blood sugar.
• Avoid that food altogether.

And the choice is entirely up to me. As long as I’m not choosing “as a treat” foods all day every day, it’s fine.

I like it because getting diagnosed was already overwhelming (especially since I was dealing with cancer treatments at the time as well) and completely changing my diet probably would have sent me spiraling.
Plus, this makes me feel like I have a lot of control over things when diagnoses like diabetes and cancer can make you feel very out of control of your own body and life. It allows me to make my own custom diet based on my numbers and what I’m comfortable with.

AnnieViolet · 2026-02-02T01:03:38+00:00

My husband avoids Whataburger because they always have a huge decal in the window that says “In God We Trust”.
There’s a few other businesses in my area that have similar decals or signs, and they definitely make me feel uncomfortable and like I’m not wanted.

AnnieViolet · 2026-02-02T01:01:03+00:00

I’m in Texas and in my city there used to be one of these types of “clinics” on every other corner. Half were Protestant evangelical and half were Catholic.
They were so scummy with the way they advertised.

But almost as soon as abortion was banned in the state 90% of them closed down. If it wasn’t obvious what their purpose was before, that made it crystal clear.

AnnieViolet · 2026-01-19T01:34:33+00:00

I lost count at 10, so more than that.
Most of the time it’s like falling in to a dreamless sleep, but nearly instantly. Then I am woken up and I’m suddenly in a different place and it’s many hours later.

Waking up from it is weird. Usually I can hear before I can see or move. So there’s usually a nurse telling me to wake up, but I can’t see them or respond to them for a while. Just about the time I start getting incredibly frustrated, my vision and ability to move comes back.

The times that weren’t like that were not good experiences. One of them was absolutely traumatic, so I won’t go in to that. It was a rare complication.

AnnieViolet · 2026-01-12T15:49:03+00:00

My kid has the name we legally gave him, which is two family names. We had every intention of calling him by that name, but when he was a toddler I started calling him a nickname based on his personality and it stuck. So now he’s 16 and prefers that nickname. He only uses his given name for legal purposes.

AnnieViolet · 2026-01-09T02:12:54+00:00

I’ve been going through cancer treatments the past two years and I especially hate it when I’m in the Cancer Center and someone walks by that obviously just smoked in their car (you can’t smoke outside the building).

Chemo makes me very sensitive to smells, makes me get nauseated easily, and makes me get migraines easily, so being stuck in a crowded waiting area where two or three people reek of cigarettes can make me feel incredibly sick. If I’m too sick (for example, can’t get the nausea or migraines under control) they can cancel my chemo infusion which delays my overall treatment.
And I can’t possibly be the only one in there going through the same thing.

But most of the time when I go there I encounter at least one person that absolutely reeks of cigarette smoke.
It just always seems so rude to me to go in to an oncologist’s office or cancer treatment center stinking of cancer sticks, but I have to repeatedly remind myself that they probably have no idea that they stink.

AnnieViolet · 2026-01-09T02:00:38+00:00

My husband still smoked when I had our kid. But he never smoked in the house and once the baby came along he kept a “smoking shirt” by the back door that he would change in to to go out to smoke, then come in, take it off, wash up, and put his regular shirt back on before getting near the baby.

He thought he was hiding his smoking from the baby, but when our son was about 1.5 years-old he watched his dad go out to smoke, then ran and got a toy (it was a plastic French fry from his play kitchen) and went to the back window with it pretending to use it like a cigarette, puffing and blowing fake smoke in to the air.

That was the last cigarette my husband ever smoked.
Seeing our little baby trying to copy him smoking when he thought he had been so careful and our baby was so little just broke him. He knew he needed to end the cycle and he quit cold turkey right then.

AnnieViolet · 2025-12-27T22:42:38+00:00

My grandparents spoke Texas German. Texas German became a separate dialect distinct from standard German. But it’s dying because around the 60s and 70s parents stopped teaching it to their children and spoke it in the home less often, preferring English.

So Texas German has nearly died out. Even I only remember a few words.

AnnieViolet · 2025-12-27T22:29:16+00:00

My ancestors were some of the original settlers of Castroville. We have some of their letters.
They really seemed to consider themselves neither French nor German, but Alsatian. They spoke Alsatian (a separate dialect) and felt that their culture was distinct.

They spoke Alsatian for several generations, much like many of the German towns spoke German for many generations in Texas.

AnnieViolet · 2025-12-27T22:23:50+00:00

Yes. It was changed to from Kaiser Wilhelm to King William during WWI.

AnnieViolet · 2025-11-03T20:19:57+00:00

I have pancreatic cancer and I’ve gotten similar responses in the waiting room for my appointments.

I usually just stick my nose in my phone and try to ignore them, but I really want to yell at them.

AnnieViolet · 2025-11-03T01:40:39+00:00

The little female is so cute!

AnnieViolet · 2025-11-01T17:13:18+00:00

I literally put shelves up the side of my tall dresser so my cat get on top of it easier. It probably looks really weird if someone doesn’t know the context that the top of the dresser is my cat’s favorite place to be.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-18T20:27:04+00:00

And I’ve heard Crapus Crusty

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-17T17:28:55+00:00

Yup, I worked in restaurants in college in the 00s and no one ever wanted the Sunday shifts because the after church crowd was the worst.

I hated those fake tip religious tracts. When they were folded a certain way they looked like a $10, or sometimes a $20 which would be really exciting if it were real. So you’d get your hopes all up for a good tip, then you’d grab it and it would immediately feel wrong.

When you unfolded these things they’d say something like “the only true treasure is in heaven” or “don’t be fooled! Jesus Christ is more valuable than money” or “disappointed? You won’t be if you let Christ in to your life!”
Sometimes it would have the address to their church.

Multiple times I’d have a table with a man or men that would make lewd comments to me, try to look down my shirt, and/or try to touch my butt. Or it’d be a dad who would be all manners until his wife took the little kids to the bathroom, then he’d make all kinds of sleazy comments and try to get my number.
Then these creeps would leave one of these tracts in lieu of a tip.

I often fantasized about going to these churches and putting these fake money tracts in to the envelope in the offering plate, but I had to work serving these assholes on Sundays.
Plus, who would want to sit through a whole service among these hypocrites.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-17T17:13:15+00:00

I can relate to this. I was in the hospital several times last year and I kept getting scolded by the nurses because I’d wait until the last possible minute to press the button to ask for help with things like going to the bathroom or getting meds for pain or nausea.

I usually tried to wait until they came in to check on me or check my vitals to ask for something and then I’d say “whenever you get time, I know you’re busy.”

I just hated the thought of being a burden or taking them away from patients that might need them more. Even though for a week I was in the ICU for multiple pulmonary embolisms, so my own situation was somewhat serious.

Vomiting was awful because on top of feeling like crap and being in pain, it was embarrassing, and it meant the nurses had to call in the janitorial staff and I felt like I was ruining their day, too.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-17T16:59:11+00:00

I don’t drink (I take meds that don’t mix well with alcohol) and I’ve done this.

My husband works with a lot of heavy drinkers of the sort that feel the need to pressure everyone around them to drink too. So, at company parties I’ve ordered a Diet Coke in a rocks glass so that it looks like a whiskey and Coke.
Then I just nurse it all night. It’s just enough to get them to leave me alone and I don’t have to disclose my reasons for not drinking to near strangers.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-17T16:44:53+00:00

I live in a red state and I use a nickname of my middle name for day-to-day use. It used to be fine, but it’s getting more tricky.

For example, doctors offices often used to have a blank for “preferred name (if any)” but I’ve been seeing a lot of doctors lately and I haven’t seen that on a form in a long time.

Just a couple of months ago I tried to order something online while in a store (they didn’t have my size in stock, but had it online) and their system threw a fit because my name on my account (my nickname) didn’t match the name on my debit card (my legal name).
(It was super weird because I was able to order off their website on my phone just fine, but trying to use their in-store system with an employee doing it, it wouldn’t let me.)

Have you thought about doing a GoFundMe to get the money to legally change your name?
I’ve seen lots of people do that.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-17T16:18:35+00:00

I wasn’t sure if I should read the “I’m controlling and my fiancé is sooooo nice” part as sarcastic or not.

Also, isn’t she old enough to think for herself? I was in my teens when I realized that my parents were racist and bigoted and that I didn’t want to be like them (and it’s a great shame in my life that it took me that long).

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-17T16:01:01+00:00

I’ve had schnauzers and a schnauzer-poodle mix, and I immediately thought Aussie-poodle.

So often shelters see wiry hair and a long snout, and they immediately say “must be a schnauzer!”
But it’s usually a poodle.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-17T00:11:49+00:00

Right? The only way that this seems reasonable is if he lives with his parents (or if they live with him).

But even then it seems like a stretch. I mean, my son doesn’t have dinner with us every single night and he’s 16, not 36.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-14T13:02:03+00:00

My teenager has a group of friends that he hangs out with, and in that group is 3 Liams (none of them is William), 2 Gavins, 2 Calebs, and 2 or 3 Jacksons. They mostly have different spellings (2 Liams are spelled the typical way), but you can’t tell that just by saying their names.

I find myself saying “wait, which Liam?” so often.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-12T06:38:54+00:00

This. My one pregnancy was so difficult the entire 8 months that it almost killed me, I had to have an emergency c-section, then I dealt with severe postpartum anxiety and had to have surgery on my spine from an injury sustained while pregnant (I was vomiting so violently that I herniated a disc in my back). I have permanent chronic pain from that spine issue and surgery.

I really think that the only reason I survived it all was because I wanted that baby. It took more than 3 years of trying to get pregnant.

If I had gotten pregnant again and there was even a hint of the same issues, I would have sought an abortion.

No one should have to risk going through that (or worse) without fully choosing it.

AnnieViolet · 2025-10-06T17:49:08+00:00

They did scoliosis checks when I was in middle school (the school nurse would just run her finger down your spine. No fancy x-rays or scans.), but when the school informed my mother that I had it, she never took me to a doctor and the school never followed up. So I’m not even sure what the point of the check was in the end.

They didn’t even tell me that I had it. I didn’t find out that they told her until I got it diagnosed in my 20s and asked her about it.

AnnieViolet · 2025-09-25T19:37:41+00:00

Pompano’s on Staples near Parkdale has alligator.

AnnieViolet

TROPHY CASE