Recommendation #1

I just started to try out one of the things that my mother's acquaintance told me about last week. There's this plant-based pulver powder (oops) that she takes every morning in place of a normal breakfast (you're technically allowed to eat breakfast in addition to it, but it's filling), which helps her so much that she's now almost completely painfree and even sleeps better. She did say that she also knows people for whom it didn't work, but there's no harm in trying.

You have to order it online, which I did right after she left. It seemed expensive at first glance, but the FAQ informed me that it's actually not because it lasts for about two months and will likely replace all the breakfast foods you would otherwise have to buy. Makes sense to me, except for the part where I'm mildly creeped out at the thought of never eating breakfast again. o_O

Yesterday I received my first 500g box of the stuff in the mail and a few hours ago I gave it a try. You have to stir a tablespoon of powder into a liquid of your choice, down it as fast as possible and then drink some more because it's slightly dehydrating. I went with water to find out what it would taste like on its own, but it turned out to be surprisingly bland, so I think I'll use oat milk tomorrow.

Of course I'm not feeling any effects yet. That's supposed to take a few days, but I was curious as to whether I would actually be satiated afterwards. It was interesting - I definitely noticed a reduction of hunger, but it felt odd without the presence of proper food in my stomach. It was like satiety slowly snuck up on me until I finally had to admit that it was in fact there. What a strange sensation.

Sadly the product's website is only available in German, but if I find that it helps me, I imagine I'll eventually end up translating what it is and how it (supposedly) works for those of you who don't happen to speak my native language.

About once a year, I do get cryptic.

I'm feeling unsafe today. I don't even have the vocabulary to explain my own existence, so I might as well not be real.

"I didn't know I spent several years in a relationship with someone who can't handle being around people like me," I said. A blank look. I don't understand. Since when have you been a part of the group I was just talking about?

I have no words. Not in the only language he speaks, anyway. But this is the country I'm in, this is the language I have to use to defend myself in critical situations. In this country, I don't exist.

Clearly you can handle being around me just fine, despite the fact that I am, in a way, exactly the type of person you seem to perceive as such a threat.

Oh, excuse me. How could I forget that I pass for normal? None of this is supposed to concern me, right? How silly of me to be offended when you were clearly not talking about me.

Sometimes if a duck neither looks like duck nor quacks like a duck, it'll still be alarmed when you announce your disapproval of the entire pond.