Name Changes, Brain Tumor Moments, and Soup

Well internet, that was funny, right? See I have a sense of humor about these things too. I’m glad embarassed that all of you could witness my first real “brain tumor moment”. It started when I decided to change my twitter name because @sarainsantiago is fine, but for someone who is actually in Santiago. But, I am here, for a while, at least and, the name needed to go so no one got confused! I thought about my new name a little and decided that it should be something related to the blog to make things easier and all. I quickly decided that the name born out of necessity (Titleless) would be a perfect name.

See this is where the fun starts. I spelled it out TitlessSara and looked at it for a long time. It was like one of those annoying word puzzles they made me do in occupational therapy. Any missing letter, Sara? No, I don’t think so. You sure? No. Should I be?

That is how I went from @sarainsantiago to @titlesssara for almost a 24 hour period (while everyone noticed) until two brave souls were like “MMkaaaaaaaay… Sara I don’t know how to say this but I think you miss an important syllable.” YOU THINK?!?!

Later, some people tweeted that they thought I had really had a “different” operation and they thought it would be rude to bring it up (Seriously, I would be honest about that if I had. Have I shown you nothing internet?). No, I really did just have a brain tumor removed. They did not remove a tit from the top of my head (although that might have been funnier) and I am definitely not titless despite claims that I look pre-pubescent after surgery. I do still have those aforementioned lady parts for the time being. Thank you very much. I am now @TitlelessSara fyi.

I’m writing this post now because I can’t sleep. I’m not sure which medication is to blame but I went to sleep tired (sort-of) and woke up about two hours ago with energy to do things. Except I just don’t know what. Yesterday, I ordered an iPad, paid all my bills for the next month. Tonight, I canceled the iPad (three weeks to deliver that sucker…too much! I’ll just field trip it to the store when I’m up to it!). Oh and I cut my nails. Yeh, don’t tell L. because he gets nervous when brain tumor girl starts welding sharp objects (you should have seen him when I tried to cut the english muffin) but what else can a girl do at 3:12 when the entire world is sleeping? Cut her nails very carefully, that’s what.

Yesterday was a great day. L.’s mom sent us a recipe for a simple Chilean beef soup. I was so excited about leaving the house, and buying the ingredients that maybe that’s part of the reason I slept poorly last night. Life is a little slower after brain surgery, let me tell you.

We started out with a list of Chilean Spanglish ingredients and a picture of a cow. Okay, a chopped up cow which I handed to the butcher on my iPhone and was all “Can you get us this?” He did. He actually had some suggestions that we hadn’t thought of like adding the marrow bone and all, but gross. We opted for the chopped up stew meat.

Walking through the grocery store was harder than I thought it would be. I seem to have mastered my own house and the neighborhood, but there are like real people at the grocery store and some of them (the employees…i.e. butchers and such) wear these annoying white robes which blend completely into my peripheral vision and *poof* suddenly the person ceases to exist for me.

Our only one small annoyance was when a rather douchey suburbanite came up behind us and loudly “excused himself” although the aisle was rather wide and I’m sure it was obvious that I was being escorted around like a constipated granny. Oh well, it was a minor annoyance.

In the end, this is what we bought. I panicked slightly when I saw that he had squash (the base of so many Chilean soups) on the list and we fortunately picked probably the only grocery store in the area that stocked pre-cut and pre-washed squash. Score! L. loved that you could buy everything ready in little baggies (no washing, weighing, or cutting required). I did tell him that usually implies a heftier price at the cash register, but we decided to go easy on ourselves. Here I am with all of our ingredients. I’m rocking the Rosette style scarf (I think that’s how you spell it. It’s the one with the off-center flower behind one ear). Okay, so I cheated and used clips and a pony-tail holder. Getting all that silk to stay in place is harder than it looks!). The earrings might have been a bit much, but I’m all for taking the look to the next level.

Here is our soup before we started boiling it. It takes longer to make beef soup than I expected. I bet it was at least an hour and a half. Campbell’s makes this sh*t look so easy, you know.

It was worth it. I ate a heaping bowl and L. made sure that I drank all the broth where the vitamins are. We even invited over a friend of mine who had studied with me in Chile and she loved it too. It was a perfect Chilean winter soup (or as I’ve been told it works for kids and sick people too).

Okay, I’m off to try to sleep again.

2012 Edit: Hey new readers, this happened about two years ago. My newest Twitter handle is @saritab_