Category Archives: Life

National Epilepsy Awareness Month

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purpleribbonSince it is National Epilepsy Awareness Month, I asked my niece, Jessica, to provide me with some information about epilepsy, and I found her article very informative.

This article was originally printed in
“The Shavings” Calumet College of St. Joseph’s school newspaper in November of 2006, written by Jessica Lund.

November is National Epilepsy Awareness Month.  Currently, epilepsy affects over 2.5 million people worldwide.  This month marks the 39th anniversary of this occasion.

Epilepsy Awareness Month is personally important to me because I was diagnosed with epilepsy in December 2003.  Up until I was diagnosed, I had no clue what the disease was or how it was treated.

I think it is beneficial to educate people on this disorder because, in some cases, it can be contracted later in life.  You aren’t born with it.

Epilepsy isn’t a mental illness.  It’s due to abnormalities in the electrical activity of the brain.  People who have seizures can go through long periods of time in which the electrical activity in the brain is normal and seizures do not occur.

During a seizure, a person may feel, think, act or even move differently.  This is due to the fact that a seizure can temporarily disturb parts of the brain’s functions, including consciousness, memory and even movement.  Seizures can be caused by brain tumors, head injuries, alcohol abuse, family history or problems during birth.  If seizures occur often and need to be controlled with anti-seizure medication, then usually one is put under numerous tests to determine if they are epileptic.

The many effects seizures cause are body tremors, blank-staring, brief unconsciousness, the biting of one’s tongue, or loss of bladder control.  Usually a person can be pulled out of a seizure within minutes.  Either talking to the victim or laying them down are the first things you should do in order to pull an epileptic out of a seizure spell.

Epilepsy goes back to the year 400 B.C.  The Greek doctor Hippocrates wrote the first known book on the disorder.  In the Bible, epilepsy is referred to as the “scared disease”.  During the Middle Ages, people thought of epileptics as demonic and often tried to kill them by means of saving them.  Thus began the association of epilepsy and witchcraft.

It wasn’t until the 19th century that scientists began to discover treatments by medication, which is the leading source of controlling seizure activity for epileptics.  I take about 2500 milligrams of medication per day to control my seizures.  I’m one of the lucky ones that have only suffered seizures at night while sleeping.  I think I’d live with more fear if my seizures could occur at any given time of the day.  Thanks to my medication, I can go about three months without suffereing a seizure.

Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Dickens, Beethoven, Julius Caesar, Thomas Edison, Napoleon, and Leonardo da Vinci, were among the famous people diagnosed with epilepsy.  When looking over that list, I always think that I’m in good company.  After all Van Gogh is my favorite artist of all time.

For more information on epilepsy or how to support Epilepsy Awareness Month, go to www.epilepsyfoundation.org …Because if we are better educated on topics such as these, then maybe one day we can find a cure.

2009 Pierogy Pocket Capital of America

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My hometown of Whiting, Indiana is one of the finalists in “Mrs. T’s 2009 Pierogy Pocket Capital of America”.  Pierogy have always been a tradition in my family, I really didn’t like them as a kid, but I do enjoy eating the potato ones now.  I can remember when I was little, my mom would go to my grandmother’s house and they would spend the whole day making pierogy; potato, cheese and sauerkraut.  It was one of those Polish traditions.  They would then freeze them and we’d have pierogy whenever we wanted.  As my grandmother got older, my mom would do this at home and would enlist my older sister to help.  But over the years, even my mom stopped making them.  I never actually made them, when I got old enough, I didn’t want to spend my time making something I didn’t really like to eat.  As I got older, and realized I missed out on a tradition, I asked my mom why she stopped making them.  She said it was a lot of work.  It is a lot of work, it’s not like you can just whip up a batch of 1 or 2 dozen.  When my mom made them, she usually made about 350 of them, that’s almost 30 dozen.  The way to do it is the old traditional way; you make goo-gobs of them!!

Let me clarify something here, my mom does still make them, she just stopped making them at home.  She now volunteers at one of the Catholic churches in town every week, with about 5 to 10 other woman and they make pierogy for about 6 hours.  These are some experienced women, they make about 80-90 dozen during that time.  That’s over 1,000 pierogy!!  These pierogy are sold throughout the year.  Last year, around the time of the Pierogy Fest, these same ladies helped make pierogies to sell at the ever-popular Pierogy Fest.

Pierogy Fest is about as big as 4th of July.  It is the last weekend in July.  There’s Pierogettes (pierogy cheerleaders), Mr. Pierogy, a Pierogy Toss, and a Pierogy Eating Contest.  They even have a parade, which my dad participates in each year.  This has been going on for the past 15 years.  Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger, or maybe it’s just the world’s largest pierogy that gets bigger every year.  Last year’s 78-pound pierogy was topped by this years 96.5 pounds!!  This fest is a big deal in Whiting and it’s a nice way to spend a summer weekend with the family, there’s usually over 50,000 people who visit the Pierogy Fest.  If Whiting is named “Capital of the Pierogy Pocket”, they will build a 10-foot statue of their dancing pierogies and place it at the entrance of the town’s business district.

So if you’ve ever been to Whiting, or you just love pierogy, please go and vote at the link below.  Let’s make Whiting “2009 Pierogy Pocket Capital of America”, so every time I go back home I can see that 10-foot statue of the dancing pierogies.

http://pierogypocket.com

Click on “Meet the Cities & Vote”

on the ballot, select Whiting, IN

You can vote everyday until October 24!!

Dancing With The Stars

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I was looking so forward to the new season.  Last season, I watched almost every show, with the moans and groans of my children every Monday and Tuesday night, as I gained control of the TV and the remote.  I must say, I was very disappointed last night, and I don’t think I will be watching the rest of the season.  I just didn’t find anyone worth watching for the next 10 weeks.  I was a little excited to see Susan Lucci, I was a big All My Children fan back in the day.  But she was not very graceful, she has an excellent body, very petite, but not much of a dancer.  The model, Brooke Burke, seems to have some potential.  I guess I’m not too familiar with most of the cast, maybe that’s why I’m not that excited about it.  But even last season had people I was not familiar with, or even heard of like Cristian de la Fuente, Mario, Marissa Jaret Winokur, or Jason Taylor, but they really added to the show with their personalities.  Of course the main people I watched last season were Kristi Yamaguchi, and Priscilla Presley. Then there was Marlee Matlin, Monica Selles, Shannon Elizabeth who were also names I think most people are familiar with.   I just didn’t see any personality worth watching week after week.  I think last season was just a fluke, because everyone did so well even on the first show.  We also saw that with Sabrina Bryan, and Mel B.  So what does anyone else think?  Will you be watching this season?  Also, who is one star you would like to see compete for the Mirror Ball Trophy? I would like to see Sandra Bullock.  I think it would be interesting if they ever did a show with all A-List stars, but I guess they are all too busy for such a show like this.