A lovely tango couple in San Telmo my friend and I stumbled upon last time in BA–oooh, the street passion
Soon I’m headed back to South America, first to Cali, Colombia, one of my favorite places on the planet (where I first discovered tango), for a visit of ten days, and then to Buenos Aires, where I am going to do my first test of location-independent working and reconnect with tango at the source. I’ll stay in BA for the fall and maybe a little longer.
When I came back from my 2010 travels in South America, I made a list of what I want in life, and one thing on the list is the ability to spend 2-3 months a year in another country so that I feel fresh and alive, outside the bubble of the United States. Although people called that adventure “the trip of a lifetime” I knew that I didn’t want that to be the last. I wanted to have many trips of a lifetime! This is how I would like to do it.
This time, my intention is to keep working and tap into my creativity in South America. I’ll be working remotely, part of the whole “location-independent” trend. This will be an experiment for me. I’ll stay at least for the fall, renting an apartment and basically continuing my life as I live it here–only dancing tango later (tango starts at 9 or 10 in SF and 11 or 12 in BA!). I’ll be working on my memoir,and recreating this website with some cool new programs for readers to come–please sign up on the mailing list to stay in the loop! Read more ›
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Ordinarily I am a sweet and certainly nonviolent woman, so I surprised myself. Even stunned myself. A Whole Foods employee looked at me with fear and awe and couldn’t believe what I have just done. I had just come back from the bathroom where I tried to vomit up the GoodBelly probiotic coconut water I sipped, but that didn’t work. So I hurled a plastic bottle of coconut water like a grenade across the dining area of Whole Foods and splattered coconut water on him. All I could say to him was “I’m sorry” and “I had good reason to be angry.” I repeated these phrases a few times.
I was sorry about spraying him, but not sorry about the public display of rage. It felt good to hurl that GoodBelly bottle of probiotic coconut water hard. It felt good to hear it hit the garbage can with a thud. I had to do something. I have always been the kind of person who bottles anger up inside. And for once, it felt really good to externalize my anger and hurl that bottle into the trash where it belongs. Why? That coconut water was poison. After I took a sip, I read the ingredients and they contain “barley malt” and “oat flour.” Those are both sources of gluten. That’s serious business. That’s poison for the 1 in 133 Americans who have celiac disease (and I am one of those one in 133). Read more ›
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This Christmas was a turning point. For the first time, I came home to celebrate Christmas as a celiac. The traditions that define Christmas are gift-giving, yule longs, mistletoe, and a feast. One realizes as a celiac how much of our holiday traditions revolve around food. Being celiac turns a person into an outsider in all sorts of sudden, surreal ways. When one speck of gluten can damage my health for months, I develop a different way of looking at a loaf of french bread, a Christmas cookie, or a beer. For me, those things are poison, and the holidays are forever altered. Read more ›
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Future boyfriends: take note. When we kiss your kisses must be gluten-free. As a newly diagnosed celiac, I am entering into dating terrain that few can imagine. And I am just making sense of it in writing this post.
Celiac is an autoimmune condition triggered by even the most minute amount of gluten. Gluten is a protein found in barley, rye, (most) oats, and wheat. Think bread, and think of a thousand other products. I can’t eat a bread crumb (or a tiny amount of bread, beer, pizza, soy sauce, fake crab, gluten-containing ice cream). Gluten is in an amazing array of products, and the possibility of cross-contamination makes many products unsafe.
Navigating life as a celiac is complicated, especially in the United States where the FDA is three years late issuing even minimal guidelines to manufacturers on safe limits for “gluten-free” products. I’ve blogged about this issue on the Huffington Post. This issue is even trickier when it comes to dating. Guess what? You can get contaminated from kissing someone who has eaten gluten (and that scenario would be quite common on a date, all it takes is a swill of beer!).
Normally we save awkward conversations about “safe sex” to later in the relationship. But for a celiac it’s critical to talk about “safe kissing.”
Most celiacs posting in forums are married or already have committed partners. So they have only one person to educate. But it’s an entirely different situation if you are meeting someone new. I’ve had one date so far where I didn’t spend half the date talking about celiac. The guy went in for a kiss and I had to brush him aside telling him we would have to wait until we had talked about celiac. He was clearly confused. Later I sent some links.
I’ve googled extensively to find out whether celiacs get sick from kissing someone who has consumed gluten, and although research hasn’t been done on the effects of saliva on gluten, the consensus from the field in forums is yes. Kissing is not something I am going to give up, but getting sick is also not OK; for me, it means being a zombie for a week and over time dramatically increasing risks of getting cancer, osteoporosis, and other autoimmune disease.
Here are the most common tips:
*ask your date to brush his or her teeth before kissing you
*ask your date to not consume anything containing gluten for a few hours before kissing
*ask your date to rinse with water before going in for a smooch
*if you’re dating a woman, ask her to wear gluten-free lipstick
*if you’re dating a man, ask him to brush gluten crumbs from his moustache!
Spontaneous, no? Sweet and romantic? Yes. Being celiac and defining your needs means your date has to value you to kiss you.
Here’s looking forward to some passionate gluten-free kisses. Step one in this video is also to brush and floss. And hey, it’s never a bad idea to brush and floss.
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How do I get in touch with you?To email me, write me at sasha AT sashacagen DOT com. Where are you? I'm in Buenos Aires writing, teaching, coaching, and dancing tango. I'll be in Oakland, California starting in late June 2013 doing the same. How can I stay in touch with you?To follow my work (books, courses, events), join my mailing list and you'll get weekly inspiration for your quirky life.. How do I learn more about what you do? Read my about page. What's the whole quirky thing about? Read this. How can I work with you? You can join me for the next session of my class GetQuirky to go for an adventure: 30 days of creative self-acceptance with kindred spirits to witness and support you. You can inquire about one-on-one coaching and creative consulting. Is there something I should be planning for? Yes. Get psyched for my upcoming quirkysensual travel adventures
where I will be leading personal growth adventures with a quirkysensual and travel twist. Get on the early information list here. What's your next book? I'm working on my third book right now. It will take you through what I learned on my unplanned adventures through South America. It's about pleasure, the body, sex, shame, love, and all the really good stuff and you want to jump on my mailing list to be aware of publication details and maybe even get a sneak peek!
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