Aunt Zelda's

It was the weekend to attend cannabis events celebrating the convergence of all things 420 (and psychoactive). April 20th is the date to Stand Up, Light Up, and be like the Grateful Dead’s kid, and smoke weed out back at 4:20. My clocks are on 24 hour time, so I seem to miss it each afternoon unless I’m on Twitter. Either I’m just going to bed in the wee morning, or it’s 16:20 here. Let’s not even get started on my kitchen clock, which runs backwards. Each day at 8:40, 4:20 appears on its analog face.

Like my clocks, I don’t have a 4:20 face. Of course, what does that even mean? A 4:20 face. Does that mean I look like Bob Marley with his flowing dreads and magical smile? Or, do I have jailhouse tattoos and piercings all over my body? How about this. Do I secretly rendezvous with a dealer in my cheap skirt and heels during lunch hour? There’s a popular Dove soap commercial floating around the Internet at the moment that illustrates how distorted images can be based upon bias. Fox News is unlikely to highlight the same stories coming out of Denver this weekend at the High Times Cannabis Cup as, say, Steve Elliot at Toke of the Town. Different viewpoint, different face.

Though cannabis consumes most of my waking hours as a volunteer with Aunt Zelda’s, when I’m at the grocer, you’d look right passed me on a good day. Without ingesting cannabis each day, I would have very few hours to be functional. I don’t look like the ‘face’ of the 420 movement. More like a yoga pant wearing, Prius driving former techie baby boomer. Yet, I am. So are you. So is everyone who has an endocannabinoid system in their body.

A member of Aunt Zelda’s received the best possible news yesterday. His MRI scans are clear. The glioblastoma that the oncologists warned him a year ago would claim his life by now, is still nowhere to be seen. We celebrated with dinner down in Cupertino at a steakhouse. Along with my simply prepared meal, I ate some of the table’s fried onion rings, and even had a Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut bar when I got home. Oh, and a bite of my husband’s banana cream pie with whipped creme.

When I awoke this morning, the first thought I had was, “God, please kill me. Anything but nausea”. After I returned to the bedroom, I ran through my head trying for the life of me to figure out WHAT had made me so sick. I’d had grilled, chicken (no sauce), steamed veggies, and a plain baked potato with sour cream. This is a lot of food for me, but not terrible. It must be food poisoning. I even called a volunteer RN. Then I remembered..

I have gallbladder disease. It had been so long since it had bothered me because of daily cannabis infused olive oil, combined with my healthy diet, that I’ve been symptom-free for over a year. I had forgotten to even include it in my checklist when I was troubleshooting. I heard hooves, and went looking for zebras. This time it was just an old nag.

A well stocked cannabis medicine cabinet has the following, and mine is no exception: an infused oil tincture of 1. high CBD, 2. high THC that doesn’t make you paranoid or uncomfortable (we’ve gotten fairly accurate at identifying which ones are which), and 3. A Mason jar (sealed tight) of raw flowers with high THC:CBD ratio. These should all be tested by a recognized lab to ensure quality, and to understand the cannabinoid and terpene profile of each medicine.

Once I had identified the source, it was just a matter of choosing a strain from what I keep on hand. In my case, Cannatonic (high CBD) infused olive oil, and William’s Wonder (high THC and Myrcene) infused olive oil. As a bonus, I also had on hand our infused coconut oil topical, which is filled with fabulous essential oils, like frankincense, rosemary, arnica, and lemongrass, to name a few.

I placed a dab of the topical under my nose, and immediately my nausea decreased considerably. A dropper of Cannatonic and WW each, had me feeling 75 percent better within an hour. While looking for something to eat during this time, hoping to hurry it along, I found a can of olives in the pantry, and ate several. A first, but it felt right, and it worked.

While all this was transpiring, several people were in need of cannabis and its miraculous medicine. A woman whose brother-in-law has metastatic skin cancer to the liver and bone called asking how she could get the extract for him. Another reached out from the East Coast to let me know how she dreams of one day having access to Aunt Zelda’s like we do in CA. Her pain can’t wait for the politics to open the first dispensary. Many others. It was a day that required many faces. However wearing the face of a cannabis patient, was número uno.

So, like my clocks, I have many 420 faces - Patient, advocate, caregiver, medicine maker. And today, on 4/20, I was diagnostician, chemist, patient, and volunteer in the life of someone because of cannabis. I’d say that’s worth celebrating. #PPP