Forgot to mention

But I'm publishing a review a day for the month of September to catch up with my Cannonball Reads 6 queue - I took a break there sometime around 20 books and the end of April. I've read about a million and a half fan-fics since, but have fallen waaay behind on my book reading, and even further behind on my review writing, so if you're interested, or if you just want to see what I have to say about a bunch of books and maybe you don't already follow me on Goodreads, c'mon over.

A review I wrote last week got a comment by the author on it the other day, so that was pretty exciting! Exciting because I actually liked the book...so she was pleased by the review and I was pleased that she had seen it. It definitely could have gone the other way - I wrote a not-so-great review about another book a few days ago and it still doesn't feel great to me, because I hate to say mean things. I mostly just tried to play the "this really isn't my style" card, but... there were a lot of issues, and I mentioned that a few times. I wasn't actually mean about it, I know that, but it was hard not to follow the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" rule.

For the most part though, I'm on a pretty good streak of books, and I think, if I survive September with any brain cells, and anybody's interested, I may link a few of my favorite fanfics and talk about them, come October. (Apparently we can review them for CBR, but since the point is to raise money for charity through Amazon, I'd feel badly since there aren't any Amazon-links to click in the AO3 fics. But this is my page, so I can do what I want. Also, at some point, I should probably recognize that I have been writing here for 9 years now, I think. It might be 10 - time to dig through the archives for that first mess of a post, and see the date again. But I know it was September, so I've got a blog-aversary coming up. And a sick-aversary come October. I'm just full of happy days [and made up words.])

So come check it out, if you feel so inclined.

This post may only be interesting to sociology/history/word nerds: I apologize in advance.

I somehow made it through our (granted unseasonably cool) summer months without putting in my air conditioner, and now that it's September, I want it with all of my soul.

Hi ho, internet friends ~ I don't know about you, but September has brought with it all that is muggy and unbearable up here in Massachusetts: We had some thunderstorms tonight that I was hoping would bring some relief, but no such luck. My asthma is so unsure of what to make of this, because some fall pollen is already out, so it's doing double duty battle, and there's some telltale rattling happening.

Calling the fall and the cooler weather, please, since I guess this doesn't even technically count as Indian Summer, as summer hasn't even officially ended yet. But September should be cooler than this.

So, I had this big check-in post planned, originally, with those first couple of paragraphs leading into some stuff that's going on here (besides the weather), when, in the course of typing out the words Indian Summer, it occurred to me that I have no idea how offensive a term that might be, and maybe I shouldn't be using it. And so, a whole new fascinating post (and at least three hours worth of rabbit-holing with Google) were born.

I had to start with the assumption that if it made it into the lexicon as something Indian, it probably didn't start out as a huge compliment, given both the word (Indian vs Native American) and the time period during which it would have emerged (which I was just guessing on, but I figured to be pre Industrial Revolution). Given those, I was not startled to find that there are many opposing viewpoints on its origin, its meaning, and its potential offensiveness.

After a (by no means exhaustive) search, it seems likely that it means "false summer", a kind of fake-out, reminiscent (to me) of Indian Giving, only this time, on behalf of Mother Nature. There are other explanations, sure - Fools summer, maybe; named after Indian Gods who sent the wind, perhaps; or (in a highly unlikely, but poetically, stunning turn of events) having to do with the actual Indian Ocean and its famed shipping, but most of the sources I found seemed to agree that there's a degree of dishonesty or falseness to it.  The majority of the other suggested definitions aren't particularly positive either - Indians burning things, or trickery of some sort - so they're not really helpful in terms of judging its offensiveness.

 Most interesting to me, however, was this blog post from the humorous news site, PTSOTL (whose author also writes for the Boston Globe and other major publications, and who did as good a job Googling as I did, since we came up with many similar sources {even if he is completely wrong about Tumblr, but that's another post}) which talks about what Indian Summer is referred to in other countries, and makes some pretty clear inferences as to its meaning:

Almanac.com has another guess for the meaning. 

The most probable origin of the term, in our view, goes back to the very early settlers in New England. Each year they would welcome the arrival of a cold wintry weather in late October when they could leave their stockades unarmed. But then came a time when it would suddenly turn warm again, and the Native Americans would decide to have one more go at the settlers. "Indian summer," the settlers called it.

 Sneaky bastards, right?  Surprisingly, the American term for the weather singularity may not actually be the most offensive one. Check out a list of all the different terms for the return of unseasonably warm weather from throughout the world in the Wiki entry here, including more info on my Russian friend from above.

In many Slavic-speaking countries, the season is called Old Ladies' Summer...

Only thing worse than a back-stabbing heathen Indian, of course, is a woman, right? Women are the Indians of regular people. 

In Bulgaria, the phenomenon is sometimes called "Gypsy Summer" and in some places "Gypsy Christmas"....

Gypsies are the Indians of Europe, right? Native American European Non-Europeans. Surprisingly, Germany and Austria, always known for their mannered approach toward cultural differences, may have the most reasonable expression:

In Germany and Austria, it is called "Altweibersommer", or if referring to mild sunny weather during October in particular, simply "Goldener Oktober" ("Golden October").

It gets worse though. 

In Hungary, it's "vénasszonyok nyara" (Old Ladies' Summer or Crone's Summer) because the many white spiders seen at this time of the year have been associated with the norns of Norse folklore or medieval witches.

Maybe, or maybe because you can't trust a spider anymore than you can an old lady.

Women, Gypsies, Old-Women, Spiders, Indians - So, it's basically "Outcast Summer"? "Persecuted Peoples (and assorted arachnids that help witches)" Summer? Yeah... I'm thinking perhaps that's not the most stigma-free term I've ever used.

And yet, I've never heard/read/found someone say they were offended by it, so I don't want to just assume it's offensive, but I also don't know many Native Americans people personally (and the one lady I could ask would probably just laugh hysterically in my face, and then roll her eyes at me, because that's the kind of relationship we have: I love her to pieces, but I'm pretty sure she thinks I am the Liberalest Liberal who Ever Liberalled, and, since she loves me back, she just pretends that's not true.).

I'm already anticipating the eye-rolls I will get if I mention any of this to members of my family, because I constantly get crap from them about being "too PC" and "going overboard". I honestly don't believe there is such a thing, but whatever - that's not what I'm trying to do here: It's more checking my terminology and adjusting for how people want to be spoken to/about. Nobody has every mentioned this to me, and I'm not reading some large scale (or even minor scale) treatises about it online, so... I'm not making a huge deal about it because it's not my place to.

It's just one of those phrases that's slipped into our vocabulary over time that I wanted to know more about. And now that I know more about it, I'm troubled. I'm left wondering if it wouldn't be nice if there were a different term we could use here, and if I saw a story tomorrow about how Native Americans found the term Indian Summer to be racists, I wouldn't be surprised.

At least now I know. At least now, if someone asks me to not use the term, I'd have a way to explain it to the eye-rolling people, even if that wouldn't be good enough for them and their "PC monitoring". It's enough for me to know. Maybe I'll start using the German word, that was pretty.

No, actually, Wikipedia has some better ideas: Latvia calls it re/summer ("atvasara") and China calls the period autumn tiger (qiū lǎohǔ (秋老虎), which ROCKS ---> either of these are obviously better vocabulary choices, popular lexicon. Get with the program and let's just start calling it ReSummer - a brief period of summer again after frost/cold -, alright ?

That way nobody gets hurt, no one's culture is ridiculed or appropriated, and it makes literal sense. Problem solved.

Also of scientific note -

• Some countries have very specific ReSummer criteria (such as dates and temperatures that must be met before it can be declared as such). I did not know this until I started writing this post, and I'm pretty sure the weather people on TV are also not aware of this, because I have heard them say it already, and even I know that it can't be Indian Summer until after the end of Meterological Summer, which is September 22. 
• According to The Phrase Finder,  "The incidence of Indian summers has increased significantly over the past decade or so (in the UK at least - I can't speak for other countries) as one symptom of the unstable weather caused by global warming."
• Apparently, haze is also required, according to Almanac.com: "As well as being warm, the atmosphere during Indian summer is hazy or smoky, there is no wind, the barometer is standing high, and the nights are clear and chilly." (Then today DEFINITELY doesn't count, because while we have haze, there is no chilly night happening here.)  

So that's what I learned today, and now I've shared it with you. More stuff you didn't know was racist until you put a little bit of thought into it and realized, "Of course, that seems likely!" This, by the way, describes basically my entire sophomore year of college, if you also include sexist/abelist/ageist/homophobic/etc. Liberal Arts educations are very eye opening, and also make you feel like you have not been paying attention to anything, ever, in your entire life (at least, for privileged people, that is).

 Now back to our regularly scheduled sweating.

Seriously, with the heat: Stop. 

"You may never have proof of your importance, but you are more important than you think. There are always those who couldn’t do without you. The rub is that you don’t always know who."

In the next week or so, everybody around here who's going back to school will be heading back. I've already got a steady influx of teacher friends on Facebook lamenting their return to lesson plans, field trips, and core curriculum. I've gone through an initial round of first day of school pictures, and will be prepared for the next round to hit right after Labor Day, when most Massachusetts kids head back to books, backpacks and (hopefully) brain expanding in various forms. It's a time of year that hits me hard, usually, since I am not among those going back to school.

It's been 12 years since I've headed back to school on a crisp September morning ~> before that, I'd done it steadily (and with great enthusiasm, for the most part,) for the previous 19 years, as both student, and then teacher. And I miss it. I miss having to meet my class in the brisk schoolyard before the bell rings on a December morning, watching them all fidget their way into the building, seeing as they mentally prepare for the day now that they've got enough of the school year under their belts to know what's expected of them.
 I miss circle times and study guides and picking the exact right book to introduce the exact right concept. (Not that I have stopped doing this: you can ask pretty much anybody and they'd tell you that my solution to almost everything is the Exact. Right. Book.) I miss the hugs you'd get spontaneously when a kid just overflowed with happy, and the look on their face when something you've been trying to squeeze into their head a million different ways suddenly fits just right, and they get it. I miss having a kid in my class draw a picture of our class, with me in my wheelchair, as if that were the way we were naturally supposed to be drawn. I just miss it, sometimes, is all. And it makes Septembers hard.

But I also think about all the things I've been able to be a part of because I haven't been working. All the days I would've missed out on if I hadn't been able to live with people and make not working a possibility. (Because, health wise, working is not a possibility. But financially, not-working means being incredibly poor. Or, in my case, homeless without the support of my family.) A lot of the things I've been a part of in these past 12 years - good and bad - are things that, had I been at work - I might have missed out on. Or, at the very least, I wouldn't have gotten to experience them as completely as I have.

It's only because I wasn't working that I was able to stay with Grandmother during her final summer:a As hard as that was, it will always be precious to me. Same goes for the time I spent with Nana. I was able to spend a significant amount of time helping to raise the children in my life - thinking of all the times I was able to rock one of them to sleep or help them learn to read or argue with them about politics or introduce them to a particular obsession of mine, those are things I'd never trade. I know that I am lucky to have had those times, to keep having them. I've been able to sit with loved ones who were sick or sad or lonely or lost; I've had the time to lovingly craft things for those I wanted to show how much I cared; I've read all the books in all the land (never: but I'm at least attempting it); I've done good things and tried to be a good person.

It isn't as if I would have consciously made these choices - be sick, don't work, stay sick but learn how to care and express your caring in whole new ways - but things happened, and I did make choices, I have TRIED.

So here we are at another September, and I miss it again: the lure of being normal, of doing what I set out to do with my life is strong. And still: there's another situation in our family where I realize, yet again, if I were working, how would I help? How could I be available when people needed me? It's a real mixed bag, this life. Because I could not be more grateful that I CAN be around for those I love when I know they need me most, but I still hear the siren call of school bells, still get that little twist in my gut when the bus drives by, still sometimes send my teacher friends ideas for lesson plans, unsolicited.

September was always the New Year for me, logically. It never made sense in January, still doesn't. September's when things start changing, when the weather wears down and turns vivid, when the air gets fresher, when the routine starts anew. Our routine this September is going to be a tough one, one of holding together the pieces for as long as possible, and cursing cancer, and helping kids to understand things that there just aren't any Exact. Right. Books. for. And I feel miserably underqualified for this, and too far away, and too close, and yet: that's what you do, I told my brother, as he calls me and worries about his wife. "It's what you do, even though it's torture. You show up, you walk through, you do your best, because you love them. It's all anybody can ask."

So I let myself be sad about missing the work I wanted to do, and I show up. I do the work I've been doing, and instead of sharpening pencils, I try to sharpen my wits. And instead of grading tests, I try to judge where on the emotional breakdown scale my nephew might be falling today. Instead of lesson plans, I work on treatment plans. And I do my best not to do too much, or too little, and I just show up.

---Title quote: Robert Fulghum, All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (where he, by the way, agrees with me about the whole September = New Year thing.)

*But literally: just enough.

God it has been a shitty, shitty day. Week. Couple of months. Couple of years. (Peppered with just enough non-crap and actual happiness to make it worthwhile, I suppose.*)

"Say what? She's going to near disappear for most of two months and then come back with this complaint-clusterfuck?" Yes: yes, she is.

You may have noticed that I have been largely absent, and that is because the part of my brain that writes the words (at least the words that make sense) has been taking a sabbatical ~ unscheduled and unapproved, I assure you ~ and every time some words make an appearance, I feel like they're not good enough, or sensible enough, or long enough, or enough enough for posting, and so... radio silence. (Here, at least. My tumblr, what with it's gifs and reblogging and queue never-ending is still going strong, and you are welcome to find me there anytime.)

But I'm breaking my word-fast today because my brain is boiling over and I can't rant about it on Facebook without getting a whole lot of well-meaning, but completely ridiculous faux-advice; Twitter's out of the question because 140 characters just wasn't cutting it; and honestly I would like to start writing here again and coming back and admitting I suck at consistency is sometimes the hardest part.

So, yeah: it's been a tough little while for me, and I'm having a hard time making my brain act like a reasonable adult brain, when all it wants to do is stress-eat (or never-eat), read (mostly Avengers' fanfiction, which, WTF: Now I have a lot of feelings about JARVIS, which ... is probably unreasonable? Seems unreasonable when I am not actively reading about a personified Dummy named DJ** who is super adorable and has to be reminded to wear pants), and move as little as humanly possible because everything hurts.

And I guess people say that a lot "everything hurts," and probably I say it even more often, because I feel like it has lost ALL meaning to people, including myself, because the reality of it is so freaking overwhelming that you can't really think about it all that much without overloading your brain. At least I can't. But I've been realizing just how much Everything and Hurts and All The Time is truly limiting me, and so, I made an appointment with a new pain clinic.

Even though my last three experiences with pain clinics were - in reverse chronological order - useless; 'hey everything you're already doing is exactly the stuff we'd tell you to do, so you're kind of shit out of luck'; and 'hey, i don't think it will really help, but i could try to stick this really big needle in the base of your skull and see it if will numb things for a while, wanna try that?' And I'll note here that I am kind of pissed that I didn't try the big, probably won't help but who knows needle in the skull, at this point, because fuck: did I mention that everything hurts???

My skin hurts. It hurts to wear clothes. It hurts to have the fan blow freaking air at me, even if it's 90 degrees and I'm dripping with sweat. Sitting in a chair hurts, sitting on my bed hurts, laying on every pillow I own (and I own a LOT of pillows) hurts. I've been spending my painsomnia nights designing suspended animation machines that make me float, where literally nothing is touching me, and they sound like the most wonderful things ever to exist. (Except that they don't and I can't design things, so basically, I lay around being jealous of cartoon cupids who can lounge on clouds, because damn, I bet that doesn't hurt.)

But: Pain clinic #4. First appointment: Really nice nurse, excellent office staff. Doctor's kind of an insensitive ass who didn't understand POTS or the wheelchair or why I wouldn't at least attempt to give him a urine sample in the bathroom that was too small to fit my wheelchair (so I'd have to try to walk, which: no.), but not a complete idiot or anything, and usually nobody gets the POTS, so I shrugged it off.  We did a mouth swab and he poked me all over, because taking my word for how much it hurts is never going to happen, I am aware of this by now. And then he comments on my hyperalgesia, which: duh - I just got finished telling you that I almost cried when I put my bra on that morning, but by all means, please rest your hand on my shoulder while you're talking. Also took not of my shading skills  - because you KNOW they all have that little naked generic human form and tell you color in the areas where you have pain, and, well, they mailed me my form, so I had plenty of time to be VERY SPECIFIC about where the pain was the worst (darkest) and where it was just tingles (lighter) and where if you touch me, I most likely will be unable to control myself and will want to punch you in your face (those were red. I like to issue clear warnings. Which he clearly did not heed because shoulders are RED.)  "Do you have enough pain meds to tide you over for a month?" "Yup." "Okay, see you then."

So, today was appointment #2, and the nurse is still nice and the office staff is still excellent, and the doctor walks in the room and says "The mouth swab we did last time didn't show any traces of DRUG I AM TAKING, so we're not going to be able to prescribe any additional medications for you from here on out." Literally, the first sentence out of his mouth.

And I... didn't understand what the heck he was trying to say? Like... "I don't get it." I must have said that a few times, because he started to get impatient with me a little. And I was still trying to process the whole "not going to be able to prescribe medications" bit, because: I'm sorry, that's the whole reason I'm coming here??? So, then he starts talking about "Well we have a few ways to measure compliance with medications, and your drugs didn't show up in your swab, like we would have expected them to if you were taking them..." and he blathers on a little bit before it actually unscrambles enough in my brain for me to blurt out

"You think I'm selling them or something - that I'm not taking them?"

Which: probably not the best response, but I was gobsmacked. I mean... It still is sitting there in the part of my brain that is trying to make sense of the whole thing and ...

Now he's looking at me: "No, I'm obviously not saying that. I would have no way of knowing that. It's just that IF you were taking them, as you say you are, then we'd expect that it would show up in the swab, and the fact that it didn't...." And his face tells me very clearly that yes, yes he is saying that but he is not allowed to say that aloud.

And here I'm going to have to give 6-hours-ago-me a little slack, because I have thought of A HUNDRED MILLION BETTER RESPONSES than getting choked up and almost bursting into tears, but that is, in fact, what happened. I just... couldn't process it. So I tried to to get him to explain it to me like I was five: "If my prescription says take as needed, and I'm trying to keep from becoming, I don't know addicted or completely tuned out of my life, and I freaking PUSH THROUGH THE EXTREME PAIN OF MY EVERY DAY LIFE to save those pills for flares and really bad days and the like, you're telling me that that's a bad thing? And now you won't give me anymore of the stuff that gets me through those really bad days? This.. makes zero sense."

And now, tears are slipping out, and I. Hate. Crying. During. Arguments. Because it makes me feel weak and it feels like playing a dirty card, and the other person obviously sees it as a sign of a lesser argument or something, but I DON'T KNOW HOW TO STOP DOING IT!!! Granted (and again, with the slack-cutting) I held back the sobs that were sitting right there, clustered in my sinuses, clogging in my throat, but some tears definitely slipped out and he knew it, and he was all "Well, if you're not taking it as prescribed then it's non-compliance, and we can't give you anymore meds, in that situation."

And I'm still trying to understand the whole "AS NEEDED" part, and he's still rambling, but what it basically boils down to is "If you hurt as much as you say you do, you would obviously be taking this every minute of every day, like the doctor told you to, so No: I don't believe you, and No: I won't give you anymore."

And at that point, my brain, so GOD DAMN FUCKING SICK OF NOT BEING BELIEVED ABOUT MY OWN GOD DAMN BODY, just refused to accept anymore input. He said more things about "maybe another clinic will see you, but I doubt they'll prescribe for you either. Or take your non-insurance." and I knew I had about 2 minutes before every sob I was holding back just burst out of my throat (possibly with this morning's breakfast), so I just said screw it. Fine. Nodded while he told me how glad he was to meet me, nodded at the very nice nurse who looked at me and knew I was going to explode and didn't try to stop me as I just rushed past her desk and into the waiting room where I told my mother that we had to leave Right. Now.

And I didn't make it 3 seconds out into the corridor before the dam burst, and my poor mom looked like someone had shot her and kept asking what she could do, and all I could say was just "Go. Just go."

Super-fun-happy-awesome-times!

So now it's some hours later, but I'm still angry. I'm angry about - and so unbelievably weary of - not being believed. Not, for one single moment of this entire 20 years of being sick having everybody on my side. And, usually? Having almost nobody.

I'm so tired of having to fight with doctors in addition to fighting whatever the hell is going on in my body. Of having to explain to and make excuses for and prevaricate with and never fully trust the people who are SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING ME. Of having to do so much of this on my own, and knowing that I am messing it up but not knowing how to fix it. And having nowhere to turn.

I just.... don't want to do THIS anymore.

I am so sick of fighting for every minute of every day. Of being punished, or paying the high price, for any moments of happiness, because my body is just ...  the way it is.

And the more I think I've accepted that, that this is me and my body is not my enemy and I have to find SOME WAY to live as much of a life as I can? The minute I start to think I've got a handle on this shit? Everything blows up in my face, and I'm suddenly a newb again, and all I want to do is hide my head in the sand till it all goes away.

And it never goes away.

And time still passes.

I don't know. This is a super depressing post, and I'm sorry for it, but ... I thought I was doing the right thing! That's the worst part. I literally thought that NOT taking a very potent pain medicine three times a day, every day, and... suffering, yes: but... I'm used to that! And, at least I'm there! And... at least I'm present in my mind when I'm there! and then I take the full doses after, because Flare! Of course flares! Because that's what I know, and that's how I live, and that's what I thought was the right thing - save the big drugs for the worst days (or even the slightly almost worst days, because we have other drugs for the worst, worst days), and muddle through - THAT IS BASICALLY MY WHOLE GODDAMN LIFE AND NOW YOU'RE TELLING ME: NOPE, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

Nope: you're not taking ENOUGH of the medicine, so I'm not going to help you at all.

Well, that's a mind-scramble, if you don't mind me saying so. Because half of my doctors say I take TOO MANY meds, and now you're telling me I'm not taking enough AND you're not even going to give me a chance to try it your way, just 'don't bother coming back.' Yup: Mind. Fucked.

So, here I am, reevaluating ... pretty much everything - which has been happening a lot lately, and part of the reason this was so shattering today, because I THOUGHT at least this was something I had a good handle on, but it turns out that Nope: this is a screwed up as the rest of my life and now... FIX IT ALL RIGHT NOW.


So, you know: no pressure or anything.

God I need a nap.

That's me, for today ~ How are all of you? (Are there any of you?) I'm mostly keeping tabs on my regulars via Twitter/Tumblr/Your Blogs that You Sometimes Actually Write Words At Because You Are Magicians or Something, but

Hi! If I haven't seen you in a while. Hope you are well!

Probably your brain is not as scrambled as mine, in which case, I'm giving you a sticker, because you're awesome. (I'm giving myself a sticker too, though, because I'm at least TRYING to be awesome, scrambled brains and all.)

Talk again soon, I hope? In a less ranty, less "oh god oh god why" kind of mood, we can all hope.

---                               ----                                                                           ---

**Seriously: You should read this series. If you want to have Bot-feels (which I didn't, but Oh Well.) And because DJ. I'm sorry, only because you might get sucked in. Fanfiction is like a vortex or something, and NOBODY WARNED ME. I'm not going to warn you either, but... good luck!

Hulking Out (BADD 2014)

So I knew BADD 2014 was coming up, and my brain has been... uncooperative.  In fact, it has been pretty uncooperative for anything besides reading Marvel fanfiction and carving out random hours of time to spend with my family for about a month now. :shrug: It happens. But a confluence of all three of these things happened over the weekend, and it seemed like too much of a good thing to pass up, so here we are.  Please be warned that this is completely ridiculous and that I KNOW I am stretching the metaphor a little bit too far - OK SO FAR - but... :shrug: It happens. (Also: some spoilers for The Avengers & maybe random comic book knowledge?)

----

During a sleepover with my niece and nephew this weekend, my (soon to be 8 year old) niece and I were playing with modeling clay while I was making dinner. Mostly, this consisted of her making a thing, showing it to me, and then setting it aside, or asking for help with a particularly difficult part of the construction (making a Bruins 'B' for her brother required a cookie cutter, as neither of us could make a B that would suffice, for example).  But, at a certain point, I'd gotten all the ingredients cooking and was just sort of waiting for things do be done, and so I sat at the table with her and started to make a figure of my own.

I chose the Hulk because a) I know how to make basic figures in clay, b) the green was closest to me, and c) LilGirl and I had been talking & reading about The Avengers just prior to dinner-time. We chatted a bit about Hulk and how he'd become the Hulk (origin stories - not always appropriate for children!), and how he's usually a 'normal' guy, except if he gets hurt or angry or there's dangerous situations going on. She remembered that her favorite part of The Avengers movie is when Hulk  smashes "the bad god-brother" and laughs "Puny god". She even demonstrated for me with the clay in her hand.  I told her how the old TV show of The Incredible Hulk used to make me so frightened I'd hide behind the couch every time poor Bruce Banner changed into the unbelievably large (to then 5 year old me) Lou Ferrigno, but that once he WAS the Hulk, he seemed ok; even nice, mostly... If you were nice to him. And how he always seemed so sad, at the end of the show, walking off down that highway, twinkly, piano-theme music playing behind him, which led us to talk about how hard it would be to make friends if you were the Hulk. I finished up my Hulk as best I could - his face was still not great, but at least his arms stopped falling off - and she finished her sculpture, which she then gave to me. She'd made her brother a Bruins 'B', herself a smiley faced self-portrait, and me, a copy of my wheelchair. I oohed and ahhed over it, and then the next steps of dinner took over, and I asked her to start clearing off the table while I got the rest of the food together and found her brother.

A couple of hours later, when we were finished eating, cleaning up, and playing games, she went to give her brother the B, and I was going to show off my new clay wheelchair, when I looked to where she'd put them aside, and found Hulk, standing in the chair. LilGirl explained to her brother that she'd made the chair, and I'd made Hulk, and when he asked, "Why's he in the wheelchair - he's a superhero...?" She made a face like he was being ridiculous and answered "So? Superheroes can have wheelchairs -" When he went to say something else she looked to me "Can't they Auntie?"

Before I could respond her brother butt in (the two of them are not great at letting each other finish sentences, but that's what siblings are for), rolling his eyes: "Of course SUPERHEROES can, but HULK doesn't use a wheelchair, because then he wouldn't be Hulk." Now they were both looking at me. Um... OK.

"Yeah, I mean, of course: Superheroes DO use wheelchairs" I rolled into my room and brought out my Oracle trading card, showing her the lovely and super-amazing Barbara Gordon in all her technological splendor. "We've talked about Oracle before, right, how she used to be -" "Batgirl" her brother put in. "Right." LilGirl took the card, gave it back - "Yup, I remember. But Batgirl is not an Avenger, right?"

I laughed and thought about explaining how Batgirl isn't even in the same universe as the Avengers (mostly), but... thought better of pushing my luck. "Right. But... Um Hawkeye - in some versions of the comics: He's deaf, so he has a disability and is an Avenger. And... " Nope: not going to explain PTSD to an almost 8-year-old, but... "And Iron-Man, in the movies he has a panic attack, and sometimes that can be a disability - anxiety disorders."

"And I guess it isn't exactly super-normal that you change into a big green monster when you're angry either" suggested her brother, ALMOST apologetically. "Well, I'm not sure disabled and normal are exact opposites there, bud" I corrected him gently (because you try and correct a 14 year-old any other way), "but yeah, I think maybe Hulking out could stretch into the disability category if we really tried, because it's something in his body that he's not always got control over and a lot of disabilities -" I gestured to myself "are kind of like that. Cousin Sara once called her seizures Hulking out." (Our cousin has epilepsy.)

"Plus, how you said that sometimes the Hulk - or the doctor who is the Hulk - gets so sad because people don't understand him? That's the same, right?" Lil Girl offered and I was kind of stunned. Because -although we talk about it a lot, how people don't always understand about me or how much it can hurt when you want to do things but you just physically can't - I wasn't sure she really ever got that part of it before. Shows what I get for underestimating her. "Um, yeah, kiddo - I guess that would be the same kind of thing, really. Sometimes being sick can be wicked lonely." Her super-sweet brother shoved his chair closer to mine and put his head on my shoulder.

"So see: Hulk could need the wheelchair." LilGirl gloated at her brother, never one to let an opportunity to best him pass. I rolled my eyes at him, because he's older and we share the experience of little sisters, if nothing else. And then I said "He could: but even if he didn't use the chair, he could have a disability. Lots of people do. You can't always tell." 

"Well, this Hulk needs a wheelchair." she said, showing it off. "He looks good in it too," I agreed, "although you probably could have told me that before I spent so long making his legs strong enough to hold him up, you  fruit loop."  She laughed, and we got ready to watch a movie and call it a night.

While I realize that not everyone will be on board with the whole Hulking out/disability metaphor (and I'm not sure I'm 100% behind it myself, as my brain cells would need MUCH better focusing skills then they are currently capable of), when I was thinking of BADD, and what the hell I was going to write about, it was this conversation that I just kept coming back to.  There's a lot I could say about it - I could talk about the power of representation, and having books and media that accurately portray characters with disabilities in a way that helps CHILDREN especially create a more realistic view of their actual world.  I could go on and on about how great it feels that some of what I'm actually hoping these children in particular are learning is actually getting through (Empathy! We can haz it!).  I could definitely ramble at length about how much I miss Oracle even though I love the current run of Batgirl. 

But really, I think, for me, this was about how often we underestimate what kids can understand, and how they understand it. To LilGirl, there was no reason that Hulk couldn't both be canonically Hulk and use a wheelchair: at eight, that limit doesn't exist for her. By 14, her brother, on the other hand, has more experience with the actual Hulk's story, and knows that (in canon) Hulk would never need a wheelchair. Which was also fine, because, to him, having no control over your body whenever you get angry seemed like a disability in and of itself. Sure, neither used exactly the terminology I would have preferred (normal =/= non-disabled, for example), but that's small potatoes compared to the big stuff. The big stuff here being that neither one of them thought it was even the tiniest bit absurd that Hulk - whatever his disability might have been - would be a superhero. There was just enough "Well why the hell not" in both of their attitudes to make me proud. (And not enough "But they're special BECAUSE OF their disability" to make me worry about running headfirst into super-crip territory.)

Because WHY THE HELL NOT??? is basically how kids work, and we should do a better job of living up to that, all around.

PS: Here is our Hulk, complete with his chair. My favorite is the push handles in the back of the chair, because I like to picture Captain American rushing into battle, pushing Hulk's chair while Hulk smashes with Cap's shield.

PPS: In case you haven't heard it, here is a link to The Lonely Man, which is the actual title to the theme song from The Incredible Hulk, which I didn't know until right now. The song still gives me the sads, though.

Things that shouldn't be hard, but are.

I'm in the handicapped stall in the Bertucci's bathroom, staring at the same four little tiles underneath my feet, trying to breathe, afraid to do anything more, anything other, than that. Outside are 4/5 sisters, a handful of my niblings and not my brother. Inside the bathroom, an older lady who'd held the door open for me when we were both coming in, is coughing in her stall. Peeing.

I'm just sitting and breathing.

In the movies, or books, when a character goes into the restroom to have a breakdown, it is conveniently huge, echoing and empty, or otherwise a single stall with someone rudely banging away on the door. Here, it's me and these four tiles and the old lady in the stall next to me.

And I couldn't have a breakdown even if I wanted to, because everyone is counting on my to be an adult, there has already been enough drama. My brother and older sister already had a disagreement that ended with him leaving the restaurant before we'd even been seated. There was no actual yelling, and it was probably better that he left, because restraint is SO not his thing, but the kids are on edge, the remaining adults are feeling a little awkward, a little off. (Or at least, I am.)

I have not slept - and I mean in any way for more than three minutes at a time - for over eighty hours. No real reason; just a shitty painsomnia cycle combined with brain overload and pills that stopped working all of the sudden. Not completely unexpected or unheard of, just another joy of life with chronic illness. I know I've made it over 100 hours with no sleep before, but it's been a while, and it's definitely disorienting. Everything seems either too close or too far away - as if I'm looking down the end of a spyglass, or as if they are all looking down the end of one towards me. Sometimes both, at the same time.

I've left the table rather abruptly, but when I get back, only one of my sisters notices. She claims I have a weak poker face "The worst poker face", she says. She has no idea how wrong she really is. If she can see through it even that much though, imagine if I had just started bawling in the ladies' room? Imagine if the one who puts everybody else's pieces back together - who can see that my brother's leaving is worrying my nephew and attempt to joke him out of it, who can see that the sister who tried to plan today's visit is poaching in self-recrimination (our first restaurant had been too small, too hot & unable to seat us quickly enough for my brother's patience; this next choice seemed to have no food options for our nephew with multiple food allergies) & try to give her a bit of a bolster (as the one whose plans USUALLY blow up in her face, I know that particular stew too well); who can see which little one is jealous of the baby and which big one is itching for his phone; who notices the fake smiles plastered on and rushes to fill the cracks in between - Imagine if she were to suddenly lose some of her own? 

It is not a thing that any of us wants to find out.

I know I don't always have to be the strong one, or the bossy one, or the one who notices, or the one who tries to help.  It feels like I do, but I don't. Usually, almost always, I WANT to be that one. I don't ever want to be the indifferent one or the one who doesn't care, or the one who walks away. Still,  I try to step back and give people space, and let others step up and fill different roles.

 But sometimes, like today, sitting in the Bertucci's bathroom, staring at those four tiles, trying to pull myself together enough to go back to the table instead of collapsing into a large puddle, I wonder "Why doesn't anybody ever put my pieces back together?"

I hope, some day, that there'll be someone I can depend on to do that for me. With me.

It's a lonely feeling, and I know it's not even 100% valid - I DO have people who care, who help, who fight with me to put my pieces back together: Even today, my sister noticed, asked, tried to help. But sometimes, just sometimes, it feels like I don't have that help, that I can't accept it. And that's a hard way to feel.

And if it took me a little bit longer to put my poker face back on, then I'm just going to have to be ok with that. Because I managed. I pulled through, and ate food, and coaxed smiles out of infants and adolescents and adults alike. I put a smile on my face that was semi-natural and I made it through. And we all made it home.

And that's today's triumph. And I'm going to take it.

TBR Mountain? Meet TBR Universe

So if you've been reading here for any length of time, I hope you know enough about me to know that I am an avid reader myself. Of everything. And anything - shampoo bottles, literary tomes, complicated scientific articles, every kind of novel ever (romance, sci-fi, fantasy, crime, thriller, YA...), obscure biographies, how-to books, and so much more. But up until last week I had avoided getting entangled with fanfiction.

My reasoning was not snobbish - I do not consider any kind of reading to be better than any other, after all, and a person who takes immense joy in selecting picture books as presents for people of all ages has very little in to say about other people's reading choices. If you like it; it's worth reading, is my basic reading philosophy. (Which does not mean, if I don't like what you're reading that I'm not going to find some way to build a literary bridge between your (poor) taste and mine, because, really if you like fairy tale retellings, I can find 72 better fairy tale retellings than the one you are reading and then we can talk about it and fangirl together, and won't that be more fun? Yes: yes it will.) Like every reader, I do have issues of personal taste when it comes to books - things that make a good book amazing, subplots I have had enough of, characters I wish would show up more, things that make a good plot go bad - but I'm no literary snob (despite the English Lit department's best efforts).

No: my reasons for abstention from fanfiction were varied & personal  -

•  A) I didn't know a lot about it, except that it's not always finished & I HATE waiting for things to be finished*;
•  B) some of the pieces I had wandered upon were ... poorly written/edited/solely smut (not that there's anything wrong with that except for - ) 
• C) I tend to have my own head canons about things - certain favorite characters, primarily - and I don't like to see those get messed up and
•  D) the sheer amount of reading material I already have on my plate & an unwillingness to open the Pandora's box of literally ever written character I've ever fallen for having an infinite number of more stories told about them.

But - even with these well-thought out & well-intentioned self-preservation techniques in place - I threw it all out the window one day last week when I started reading a phenomenal Avenger's Fanfiction series. Which I found completely by accident, and which I am very upset there are not more stories in. (See star below.)

But, as often always happens in reading - one thing leads to another and here I am, a week later, having barely put a dent in the multi-verses of fanfiction that's out there, but having a ton of non-canon Avenger feels and ignoring all my other reading responsibilities. 

Literally - I barely have read anything else in a week, and that's unusual for me, because I've always got three-four things going concurrently.  In this case, however, if I don't want to be reading Avenger fanfic, I can just switch over to Sherlock or GoT or virtually any other thing I am even the tiniest bit interested in. Not to mention crossovers. (No seriously: let's not mention them because I maaaaaaaaaaaaaay have spent an entire day and a half stuck in the MCU, and now I'm mad that the Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four don't all play together in the movies, because of stupid studios.)

There is fanfiction for everything, and for a person who reads as much as I do, this is Very. Dangerous. Information. Favorite author fan fic; favorite character fan fic; favorite book series/movie/television series fan fic; I don't play video games, but if I did? Fan fic.

And it was somewhere between the Nora Roberts/GoT crossover fanfic and the Star Trek reboot fan fic where Bones was finally getting his due that I realized something - some of the first things I ever wrote were fan fic. The Little Women retcon  FIX where Laurie does not end up with whiny Amy and Jo does not marry a professor we know very little about. The Tiny Toons Adventure scripts where they got to hang out with the Animaniacs. The alternate ending to It (spoiler alert) where Bev - who is 11! - doesn't decide to have sex with her friends for no goddamn reason, just because they're lost in the freaking sewers and Stephen King didn't know how to get them out of there without being a creep. (I was 11, and I can guarantee you that it would not have entered my mind to lead the group out of the tunnel that way.  Even if I was a slow learner - and I'll admit I was - 11??? Also: I still think that was a shitty thing to do.)

I've been re-writing endings (And middles.  And beginnings.) of stories since I started reading them.** And while I am extremely relieved that publishing as I was writing was not an option for me (although it may have been and I just... don't share what I'm writing, so it's likely that never would have happened anyways), I'm so glad that the Internet has introduced me to YET ANOTHER group of my people.

I can only rue the fact that it did not include some wormhole that enables me to read while also accomplishing other things, or an extra 52 hours in a day, so that I can devote them solely to reading and actually accomplish something else. As always, there is just so much more to read, and so little time to actually do it.

The sacrifices to readers (and writers) make. ;)



*Please see: Actual Comic Books, a literary art form that I truly love, but only in retrospect. I do not appreciate a bi-weekly serial. I do not like the cliffhanger versions of stories where I'm supposed to wait to find out if favorite characters survive. I get enough of that in my television watching, thank you very much. And also in my book series reading, which I both love and hate: Love spending so much time with characters and revisiting them, hate having to wait for the next book to come out. Am not patient about this, for some reason.  (And this is why I have a half-year's worth of Batgirl comics to catch up on: because I want to be able to read them all in one gulp.)

** One of the many books my mother saved from my childhood is a revision of The Monster at the End of this Book, the first book I remember reading out loud by myself, the first book I loved, as a reader. So, the fact that I then did my own version of it, way back when, suggests I was a little slow to pickup on the whole "fan fiction is for you, you dope."

Don't ask me why I watch shows that seem specifically designed to piss me off, ala Dr. Phil & Judge Judy

When I watch a show like Dr. Phil (which: see title) and I see him talking to a person whose behavior is abusive - maybe physically, maybe verbally, maybe emotionally: doesn't matter - and they reach the point in the conversation where Dr. Phil thinks he has broken through to the 'truth' of the matter, that he is making the abuser SEE that they are abusive and that it is unacceptable, and the whole audience sort of breathes a sigh of relief like 'finally: this guy gets what he's doing, he SEES it, and that's going to be good enough," it makes me ... livid? Shake my head? Wonder how a 'clinically trained psychologist' can be taken in by such blatant pandering? All of the above?  Yes: all of the above.

Which is my way of saying I have had yet another 3 1/2 hour 'conversation' with my dad about unacceptable behavior. Mine, to his line of thinking; His, to the rest of the world's.

It seems that my short answers and 'pulling faces' is unappreciated by him - to which I responded "too bad." Short answers and resting bitch face are my least offensive options for interacting with you on a daily basis - a thing that is required because you have gone back on your word yet again and haven't left yet. My tightly drawn mouth is a direct result of having to bite my tongue against the things I'd like to say to you, the names I'd like to call you, the disrespect that the bullied part of me wants to heap back onto you in any effort to expel it. (And which I control not for your sake, but for mine, so that I do not become the bully I hate in others.)

"I'm not even sorry for the faces" I said, at the conclusion of our 'talk': "They're the closest thing to self-control I've got towards you, at the moment. And you're just going to have to deal with that."

That was after three and a half hours of frustrating round-and-round, never-ending saga that anyone of my siblings could basically repeat to you right now, if I called them up, despite not having been at this latest one.

It is, in fact, our family's own special version of the ouroboros - the snake eating its tail, for infinity - He is emotionally distant/abusive/threatening, screws up, calls people names, explodes (usually in a huge, terrifying and abusive way)... there is a 'calming down' period, which is to say a living in denial period where people avoid all mention of the latest incident, then eventually, he is 'forced' (by someone's behavior - not going to lie, usually mine) to 'discuss' it, to 'apologize', to seemingly take responsibility while at the same exact time explaining away his bad behavior by a) becoming the victim rather than the perpetrator (which is how he ALWAYS feels, guaranteed: "I was trapped; you don't understand; I grew up with X...") and b) blaming the actual victims ("Those meds that she's on make her unreasonable"; "Nobody appreciates the shit I do do, everybody only talks about how I screw up" - Well, when you're version of doing stuff is 'making sure there is a roof over our heads' and your version of screwing shit up is 'kicking people I supposedly love out of the roof I am putting over their heads' then, yeah: You kinda have to expect that.)

And round and round and round and round (literally ad nauseam) it goes.

Yesterday's discussion started with my 'bad attitude' which - I am pleased to say - I did not once apologize for. It's not a bad attitude to have boundaries, and to react when they're constantly disregarded (parrots the Adult Child of Alcoholics and Psychology Major, in an effort to actually feel that way, instead of just saying it all the time). It's not a bad attitude to be unwilling to risk being hurt again by a person whose only predictable responses are to lash out at the people around him, particularly when he knows he has a temper (but takes no steps to address it, because "I'm 65 years old" a refrain I have literally been listening to since he was 45 years old) and has a drinking problem (but doesn't see it as one or care to curtail it). It's not a bet I am willing to continue anteing up for - and I said that straight out.

I also told him that he's in denial about the way he actually lives as opposed to the person he thinks he is.

•  He thinks he's the person who shows up for people, always no matter what. He's actually the person who made the summer my grandmother was dying 3000% worse by picking fights with my mother and sister, threw my sister out of the house the night of her wake and then didn't even come to the funeral. That's who he actually is. 
• He thinks he's the guy who didn't abuse his children because he never made us go hungry or put us to work at the age of 9 (as he was forced to do when his father abandoned his family). And that's partially true - we've always had food on our table, even when it was tuna, white bread and deviled ham. And while we may not always have been grateful for that (I guarantee that I was never grateful for either tuna or deviled ham), I also don't think he deserves a trophy or cookies or a special award for meeting the bare minimum standard for decency.  I told him that while he may not have been the guy who left, he certainly was abusive. IS abusive. He's actually the guy who told me I was a "cold hearted bitch, just like my mother" and just recently explained that, had it not been for the "burden of me and my 'disability'"(which he put in goddamn air quotes), he and my mother would not be breaking up. He's actually the guy who made me* afraid to EVER make a mistake because who knew how out of proportion the punishment would be; the guy who doesn't know how old his children or grandchildren are; who thinks his relationships are fine even though he puts no effort into them at all.   
• He thinks he's the guy who puts every single dime he earns into other people's needs. He's actually the guy who went out and bought himself a new TV-set for the basement because he "didn't appreciate the cold shoulder" my mother was giving him in the den (even while dodging calls for the past-due mortgage), who goes out and blows ??? money on drinks and food every night, who asked the daughter he "physically can't stand" (and is on a highly resctricted income) for loans so that we could keep the electricity on for Christmas (and won't explain how the money slotted for that bill just disappeared).

I pointed out all of these inconsistencies last night, and at times - like the Dr. Phil guest - he seemed shocked into silence. Into agreement: "I know I'm an asshole" he would say, as if it were news to me. And then, five minutes later there would be the "But what you don't understand is...." and I would sigh and shut it down.

 "It's not that I don't understand. It's not even that I don't care - although at this point I would LIKE not to care - it's that it's not excusable. YOUR PROBLEMS ARE NOT SO MUCH WORSE THAN EVERYBODY ELSE'S. YOUR ISSUES DO NOT ENTITLE YOU TO ACT LIKE AN ASSHOLE TO OTHER PEOPLE - ESPECIALLY PEOPLE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT. YOUR LIFE IS NOT THAT MUCH MORE STRESSFUL THAN ANYONE ELSE'S, AND THE FACT THAT YOU CONTINUE TO MAKE EXCUSES FOR YOUR BEHAVIOR IS WHY I REFUSE TO INTERACT WITH YOU."

Which I had to say at least 15 different times and at least 15 different ways. And in the end it was still "I don't like you being mad at me" and "We at least need to be civil."

No: I am not civil to people who speak to me in abusive ways. No: I am not civil to people who speak to my mother (sister, brother, friend, stranger on the street, lady on the telephone, aardvark in the zoo) in abusive ways.

No: I do not placate bullies any more. Because I have done so: too many times to count. And it's ridiculous to pretend that that does not play into his cajoling routine, that that is not, in fact, a vital element in our tail-swallowing-snake-swallowing-tail loop.  But the fact is that I am determined not to do that anymore, and no amount of bullying on his part (or on the part of my other family members, who continue to make me feel like the unreasonable, bitchy, judgemental one) is going to change that.

I have a right to build boundaries, and have them respected. "It's not fair that you won't at least be civil to me, when I keep asking if you need things or cooking or..."

"No: It's not fair that you continue to ask me questions when I've told you to leave me alone. It's not fair that you use my illnesses (and inability to sometimes preform a task like cooking) as a ransom if I don't behave the way you want me to. It's not fair that I have constant anxiety whenever you are in the house, that I'm always waiting for the next big blow up - those are things that are not fair. Me telling you to show respect to the limitations I've place on our relationship? Is beyond fair. Me, not responding in kind when I have any number of names I could - in all FACTUAL honesty - call you? Is beyond fair. You're getting more from me right now - with all the looks and bitten tongues - then I feel you are entitled to already, so you need to just leave me alone, and let it be."

So: +10,000 points for me, for sticking to the script (and yes, you know I write the script for this sort of thing in my head - if not on paper - at least a million times) and not giving in even when he tried to make me feel uncaring and cold.

But -10,000 points because I know he will do absolutely nothing with anything we talked about yesterday, and I'm just going to have to keep having this conversation until we can finally move out.









*One of the hardest things I do in these 'discussions' is stick to "me statements" because I can't speak for the experiences of all of my siblings with 100% accuracy. But I know damn well that 3/5 of us would say he's been abusive. And the other two would describe abuse while saying "he did it for our own good", which... speaks for itself, in my opinion.

I confess: I totally made up more than one science fair set of data. It's too late to do anything about it now, Mr. Lindstrom!*

Because I am currently in a measuring cycle of illness (wherein the doctors want me to record everysinglepiece of information about my illness numerous times during the day, and I hate it, and then I forget, or I am too sick, or I am too sore, or I just do not care at all, and I am tempted to just fill in all the blanks the way you would if you forgot to do your science fair homework and needed to some extra research done), I am going to hit you with a by-the-numbers post:

• 17 - The number of prescription medications I am currently taking
•  2.5  - The approximate number I think are actually doing something, maybe? Who can tell?
• 0 of those are new drugs and 
• 2 of them are for breathing, so that's good, anyways.

• 86 - My average resting heart rate for the past month
• 139 - My average standing (or post-standing) heart rate for the past month - That's just standing: God forbid I try and do anything over that because then
• 175 - My average "I attempted to also stand for longer than it took for the pulse ox to read my pulse" rate for the last month 

• 1 - Number of times I have left the house since the calendar read March
• 0 - Number of times I have left the house since the calendar read March that were not doctors' appointments  

• 3 - How many different strengths of antibiotics it took to kick this last sinus infection, probably because of
• 5 - The number of sinus infections I have had to treat since Christmas

• 17 - Books I've read in the past week
• 1 - Books I've written a review of for Cannonball Reads in the past week
• 0 - Reviews I've actually posted on Cannonball Reads in the past week
•  17,000 - Number of excuses I've given to myself for not writing/posting any of the others

• 14  - Number of people who have promised to come over/said "we should come over"/attempted to/said they would like to see me since the New Year
• 4 - Number of people who have actually come over (and one of them is an infant, and the other a husband, so neither of them had much say in the matter)

• 2 - Number of times I've watched the Veronica Mars movie already (Yay Kickstarter! Yay for getting first run movies delivered to your computer! Boo to computers freezing at P I V I T O L moments in the movie! (If you have seen it, think 'cars', fellow Marshmallows, and you will understand why I was so unhappy.) 
•  1.5 - Number of days it took me to watch all 3 seasons of VM on Amazon Prime in preperation for the movie 

• 6 - Number of draft posts I have written since I've published a post here, all incomplete
• 5 - Number of Tumblr posts I have published for the whatshouldwecallfibro.tumblr.com I am a co-admin of, in the same space of time (because giffing is easier than writing, people)
• (Currently most popular, by the way: For all of you chronically ill Whovians out there)

• 63 million (approx.) - Number of times I have wanted to throw the computer and it's stupid Excel spreadsheet of numbers out the window since I have been symptom tracking
• 3 - Different websites I signed up for because I thought they would help with the symptom tracking, only to bail because it was easier to Excel it myself 

• 2 - Separate weeks my dad has been on vacation already this year, and I have been stuck in the house with him
• 0 - Clues that he has that there is anything 'off' in our 'relationship' even though I have spent the better part of 
• 2 - Separate weeks ignoring him as much as possible (When I had the sinus infection it was 0% possible, because I could not even find the kitchen, let alone make food.) 
 

• 39 - Average number of hours a week my mom has been working at the retirement home for the past month
• 100% - How exhausted this is making her & how much it sucks to still be the one who can't work, even though I'm 
• 200% proud of her for kicking ass and doing so awesome (The old people love her, of course: They all request her and one woman told her she was an "angel on earth." But it's also seriously depressing, and even the stories she comes home with bring up all sorts of Grandmother-y related feels for me, so I know how tough it is on her.)

• 16 - Other things I've got on my to-do list for tonight
• 2 - Realistic count of how many of those things I might accomplish (eat/shower)
• 0 - Cares I give that my to-do list will be carrying over to tomorrow
• 100% - Realization that I should rename the to-do list the "Carried over from before" list, because it's more honest.

And finally:

• 6:00 - The time, and that means more numbers to mark, more foods to eat, more pills to take, more things to cross of the list. 

*And I usually NEVER cheated, but ... I'm not going to watch this stupid thing for three months: I'm going to put it together a few weeks ahead of time - IF you're lucky.  My brother and sisters were all "do it the night-before-ers", so I think me occasionally fudging the data on whether or not cats and dogs are right and left pawed is not, so much, the end of the world.

Seriously, evolution: tears are not a good communication tool

I'm doing that thing where I'm taking a little thing - the inability to get a prescription refilled in a timely manner - and turning it into a big, huge thing - EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE IS FALLING TO SHIT RIGHT NOW. So, if the pharmacist at Rite Aid wonders why that lady who has called everyday this week just hung up while obviously holding back tears: there's her answer.

Zach's new hospital situation is crummy: I don't especially like the hospital, but that's fine; having to learn all new office and blood and nurse people sucks, but I've done it a million times, and can manage again; the hospital itself is a labyrinth that I traveled during the first days of my illness, and being there brings an odd sense of deja vu added with the feeling of 'holy shit I can't believe I'm still dealing with this mess' (since, when I originally fell ill, they told me it would only last a few months); But the main problem is getting in contact with him is near to impossible.

If there's one thing I've got down at this point, it's how to keep my meds refilled - I know which ones have to be written and mailed (or picked up) and which can be called in, and I USED to know approximately how long it would take from phone call to fax to authorization to filling to pick up for most of my regular meds. This new place?

I might as well be calling him in Hades, leaving messages with Cerberus, or sending them via Charon's freaking ferryboat.

I left a message last Thursday, saying who I was and what I needed, knowing I had about 5 days worth of meds left. I heard back nothing ... Ok. So I called back on Monday, and left another message. Tuesday, I called Rite Aid, and since they still had no new prescription, I called again. I repeated this again on Wednesday and Thursday - when I did finally manage to speak to a nurse who assured me that Zack was in the office that day, and she would make sure he sent the refill to the pharmacy. (I knew he was in that office on Thursdays, hence why I called LAST Thursday, but... moving on.)

This morning: Rite Aid reports, still nothing. I called and talked to the same nurse. She said she would get the message to Zack at his other office and get back to me. (I do not have the phone # for the other office, which is a HUGE problem, I realize now, but how was I supposed to know that then?) Hours pass; No call from Rite Aid or the nurse. Now it's 4:00 on a Friday afternoon, I'm out of pills, and I call again, leave a message.

5 minutes later, she calls me back: She spoke to Zack who said he sent the rx yesterday, but will resend it right now. Thanks and gratitude all around: Have a good weekend! 

No confirming call from Rite Aid.... so, at quarter to five, I call them, and the pharmacist says "nope." WHILE I AM ON THE PHONE WITH THEM, I get the Robo-call from Rite Aid, which I answer: "Your recent prescription requires additional information from your doctor before we can fill it. Please call your local Rite Aid" So I call them back, and a new, very cheery pharmacist puts me on hold. And plays cheesy 80s music in my ear for 10 minutes, and now it's after five on a Friday, and ...

"We don't have any refills left on that prescription."

No, see, the reason the robot called me is because my doctor just called the refill in, otherwise it would have no reason to call me.  More hold time, more cheesy 80s music.

And now - I freely admit - I am beyond frustrated. I am ready to lose my mind because this isn't even one of my complicated drugs: this is a base line drug! This is a "I can barely function, and this drug gets me to barely" drug. This is not some miracle cure I'm chasing: this is a drug I have been on for 9 years, that I refill every single month of those 9 years, and now it's after 5:30 on a freaking Friday, and you're going to tell me...

"You should call your doctor's office and have him resend it. Sometimes this happens."

And I can tell at this point, that I'm not going to be able to continue the conversation. I'm just. Done.  I'm not a person who gets mad and starts screaming (generally): when I get upset the tears gather behind my eyes and my throat gets clumpy and I start to have to swallow and sniff a lot, and take a lot of deep breaths and blink repeatedly and hope that the other person doesn't notice that I'm probably going to start bawling at any minute.

I don't think I hid it very well, because the cheery pharmacist lady started apologizing "Sometimes this just happens, you know, it gets lost between us and them... I'm sorry? Maybe he has the wrong number... call him and try again."

And what I say is "I... just. This is ridiculous. Ah. I.  Ok."

But what I mean is "IT IS ALMOST 6 O'CLOCK ON A FRIDAY NIGHT, AND HE'S GONE: HIS OFFICE IS EMPTY, AND THERE'S GOING TO BE NOBODY THERE TO RESEND THE DAMN THING, AND THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING BECAUSE I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT! I CALLED AHEAD AND I PLANNED IT OUT AND I EVEN GAVE YOU ALL ENOUGH LEAD TIME TO BE STUPID ASSHOLES ABOUT IT, AND IT'S STILL WORKED OUT SO THAT I DON'T HAVE THE MEDICINE I NEED AND THERE'S NO WAY FOR ME TO GET IT UNTIL MONDAY? I'VE BEEN TAKING HALF OF MY DOSE JUST SO I DIDN'T RUN OUT THIS WEEK ALREADY, AND NOW I WON'T HAVE ANY?? I JUST DON'T HAVE THE ENERGY TO DEAL WITH THIS KIND OF NONSENSE! I HATE THE WHOLE WORLD RIGHT NOW."

But I don't say any of that.  I hang up and I burst into tears (and then I get mad at myself for bursting into tears because it helps absolutely nothing) and then I take a lot of deep breaths and I sniff and blow my nose and then complain to Twitter about evolution and then I come here and write this. And now it's after six o'clock on a Friday night, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next, but I have to go leave some (non-bawling, hopefully) messages on people's voice mails, so that somebody will help me with this before I lose what's left of my marbles.

---- And... I left a message AGAIN, but the office is closed. I won't hear back, and it's technically not an emergency, so I don't want to call the cancer care line (because that's his service: he's an oncologist). PLUS, the pills are 'controlled', so, even though I've been on them for 9 freaking years, AND you're not supposed to 'suddenly stop' them, they can't give me enough to last till Monday morning.

So, I'm betting I'm going to have the Best Weekend Ever.

I'm already taking a half dose, and it's reminding me that these pills do actually help a little. I am not looking forward to no dose at all. Off to scour all my backups - the travel pills, the purse pills, the bug out kit, - where I know there will be at least one or two hiding, and that'll bring me to Monday without having to no dose at all, hopefully.

But I think you can see why I'm hating the whole world right now. this should be so easy! it is not that hard! all it requires is four or five people to be doing their jobs at the same time ~ but, still -  Here I am. Hitting publish, eating a homemade english muffin pizza, and pretending I didn't just spend an hour crying about people being unhelpful.

My Inner Elsa

Part of the reason that I like winter are the reasons that everyone else dislikes it: it's cold and inhospitable outside, so you're stuck in the house.

See, for me, that's actually mostly an improvement: I'm generally inside, usually stuck, and the rest of you are out there buzzing around being... productive or something. Ick.

The idea that other people are just as confined as I am, that there's some universality of feeling stuck is somehow comforting to me. I like to picture all of you huddled behind your screens, cozy under blankets, as I'm huddled behind mine, tippy-typing away.

A bit of misery loves company, perhaps, but I find winter (for the most part - there are limits*) to be a cozy, comfortable type of time.  Of course, everyone else in my vicinity is Fed Up (capital F, capital U) with winter, and has taken to Facebook and Twitter to rage about yet another snow day or how spring is bound to show up sometime, right????

But I'm pretty much all set ~ winter allows me the comfort of my heating pad without worrying too much about overheating; nobody else is tan (and therefore can't endlessly comment on how pale I look); indoor activities trump outdoor, with little debate; and - since there are no longer any preschool age children in my care - as long as I don't venture too far outside of my own particular bubble, I'm not a battling a constant barrage of germs. (Knock wood, having said that, because I was with kids this week. And at a doctor's office, so that's twice the wood knocking required.)

And - as I don't have to do the shoveling, and don't mind paying neighborhood boys a little bit extra to clean the ramp, if necessary - I prefer snow to rain, 100%. Rain makes me feel gloomy and Eeyore-ish, sometimes to the point of headaches; Snow makes me feel like curling up with a good book and a cup of Fluff-topped hot chocolate is the only reasonable option in life. Who could argue with that?

So, while everyone around me clamors for winter's end, and moans about yet another storm heading our way, I'm just going to smile slyly, load up my kindle and make sure we're well supplied with hot chocolate.

How about you - Are you begging for spring (open windows, I do miss you), or enjoying the last gasps of our ferocious winter?

 

*These limits are mostly health related - cold is a foe to both my aches and pains and my asthma, the latter of which is worse than it's been in years, because just breathing the nearly frozen air outside is a true struggle. But the heat doesn't help my health either, so it's usually a case of '6 of one...'

In which the world thinks I hate animals (again)

Aside from one anonymous angry e-mail I got about the fact that I didn't like a certain drug, the only truly negative feedback I've ever received on this site was the time that I had the gall to suggest that the act of acquiring a pet was basically saying to me that I was unwelcome in your home*. The pro-pet contingent was up in arms over my suggestion that pet ownership precluded us (meaning me and whomever the pet owner might be) from having a certain kind of relationship; the "you can't tell me what to do in my own home" response was also quite vociferous; and the worst response - a well written, but sharply pointed "if your friendship comes with those sorts of conditions attached, I'm better off not knowing you" - was something that I had been completely unprepared for (especially considering I thought the person who had written it and I were, at the very least, friendly) and stung quite a bit.

    It was surprising to me then, and continues to confound me now, that the limitations placed on relationships by my illnesses are seen as unreasonable, extreme and beyond understanding, while the limitations that people voluntarily impose on relationships - say, you don't date smokers because you don't like kissing someone who tastes like tobacco, or you're not really friendly with people who go to bars all the time because you've outgrown your barhopping stage - are seen as completely normal, routine, and worthy of respect.

Let me break it down for you a little bit more - Take my example of pets. If you own a pet, it is an actual impediment to me being able to spend time in your physical space. I know that your cat's litter box doesn't smell to you, and that your dogs would never dare to shed, but for someone like me (who is allergic to all sorts of dander and fur, and hypersensitive to smells), your animals are indeed as much of a physical barrier in our relationship as the stairs going up to your apartment, or the perfume you can't seem to remember not to spritz before meeting me.  I have had to leave more than one family occasion because of a reaction to an animal (or the detritus that the animal has left behind, no matter how well you think you've vacuumed), and more than once, I have been either hospitalized or required additional medical attention (or a new drug regimen) for the same reason. [Trust me: there is nothing like a course of steroids to convince me to send my regrets next time.]

Hopefully, this clears up the idea that just locking the animal in another room while I am there means that everything will be fine.  That is far from the most likely outcome.  The most likely outcome is that my allergies or asthma will start up the minute I walk through your door - even though I've already taken prophylactic meds, just to be there - and that it will go downhill - to varying degrees - from there.

I am not saying that you can not HAVE pets: Although I have somewhat of a reputation now as an anti-animal person - I do not, in fact, dislike them.  I think puppies are adorable and little kitten feet are so scrumptious and padded and purrfect that I can't even.  The truth is that I have had to harden my heart to these snuggly little guys out of necessity: so that it just isn't one more thing that I can't have. Trust me, though -> I binge watch cute animal shows, and am definitely not immune to the allure of a waggely tail.

BUT, let's just be clear about the facts here - your pet-friendly house is significantly less (and sometimes completely un-) NTE-friendly. Those are just the truths of the matter, and me saying so doesn't make me some sort of barbarian animal hater: it just means that I'm pointing out the limitations that your choices are creating in our relationship.

It means that I don't get to drop everything and sack out on SisterCh's couch for a week to help after Baby D is born, because an hour in her four room, four cat apartment, and my skin is raw and red and raised, and my nebulizer ain't cutting it anymore.  That is not to say that sometimes I don't bite the bullet and choose the nebulizer and the hives and the steroids and the ER, because I value the people I love and want to spend time with them - the same way I hoard spoons until I have enough to visit my 3-steps-up sister or UJ and his 'your wheelchair won't fit through the entryway' house - these are just the kinds of sacrifices spoonies like me make all the time.

Pointing them out does not make me the Wicked Witch of Whereever Petless People Live.   It literally is just me asking for the acknowledgement that maybe your having animals or steps or a husband who bathes in Axe body spray are all things that I have to accommodate: And that sometimes? I am just not capable of doing so.

It would be a nice change of pace if everything stopped being my fault. 

If people could recognize that that I might love to just be able to drop in for a few minutes and a cup of tea, but with those steps, it'd cost me a week's worth of energy, and I can't do that right now.  If someone would acknowledge that part of living with a brood of cats, dogs - or even toddlers who bring home every germ from day care - is that sometimes your friend/sister/cousin with the wackjob immune system can't come to birthday parties, or girls' nights, or potlucks.

Something I often feel that gets overlooked is that part of the ease of a relationship - the familiarity and flexibility and fluidity of it - is hampered not JUST by my illnesses (which are not choices, btw) but also by your life decisions - having animals, living in a 3rd floor walk-up, only having late night parties, etc.  It's not that there is anything wrong about any of those choices, but let's just stop making this all MY issue, all MY fault -

YOU have made decision that work out great for you 98% of the time: Happy puppy smiles! so many great neighbors! Living in the suburbs! Drinking till the bars close!-  but I happen to fit into the 2% that's leftover and kind of sucks.  The inconveniences and unfair factors related to your choices - like having to lug your groceries/stroller up those three flights of stairs, or having to walk your dog during a blizzard , or having to wake up the morning after you've closed down the bars- the stuff about your choices that hinders rather than helps. All the stuff that is just part of the deal, and goes along with the decisions you've made.

And me not being able to hang with you or babysit your kids fits into that 2%. It's not about fault - because I'm not trying to BLAME anybody for having animals or stairs or whatever - but it is about getting the fact that I am NOT at fault, if you can see the difference. 

It's all in the perspective, and if I can just get people to see that I'm not saying you have to make different choices, or you have to only do things in a way that means I can participate (Because, truth? That is boring. I can participate in very few things, and would not like everybody to have to scale back to my level), but I am saying that you need to realize that your choices have consequences for our relationship, and that sometimes they will really suck.

It's seeing things more from a "well, I've got cats, so you can't come here, it seems reasonable to me that I should go there instead" kind of perspective instead of "well, I've got cats, so I guess you don't want to ever come here, the end."  It's about having a relationship with others where it's not all about me asking for things that people see as accommodations and impositions, and more about acknowledging and framing it as "hey this is OUR issue; how do we go about getting around it?"

Unfortunately, too often, the procedure in my life has normally been

• Barrier = Can't Do/Go = People Eventually Stop Asking Me To Do Things or 
• Barrier = Go Anyways = Get Much Sicker = That Was Really Unwise instead of 
• Barrier = Can't Do/Go = People Help Me Figure Out A New Plan. 

Because sitting out on things is really starting to chafe, and having people assume that just asking me - knowing I can't go because of X or Y - is good enough is really getting old.

 No: it's not good enough. If you're really interested in maintaining a relationship with me, asking me to do things you know I can't do (like drive or show up at your inaccessible apartment) and saying "Sorry you can't make it!" is no longer good enough for me.

Let's figure out how to do better.

*I tried to find that post, but haven't managed it yet. If I do, I'll update with the link.

Oh, so much, so manyies.

So what's going on in your brain these days, NTE?
Oh, so much, so manyies.

For example - I had a doctor's appointment yesterday (after taking a little doctor free time over the holidays, except for emergencies), and my new-ish primary care doctor - who I don't particularly like but originally signed up with because of his being in the same hospital as Zach, but is now pointless, because Zach moved to a new hospital - started things off on a lot of wrong feet. 

First, he and his nurse totally ignored my POTS diagnoses and commented positively on my low BP reading, even though my pulse was still sky-rocketing from the effort of getting to his office. Newsflash, doc: low blood pressure is not great for everybody, and it's particularly not great when your pulse is up near 145. 
Next, he started talking about somebody else's blood work, because he was looking at the wrong file on the computer. And his nurse tried to stick me with a needle AFTER she told me that she's been having a 'day when I drop everything'.  I'm sorry: no? No needles now, thank you, drops-things-a-lot.

 Then he started to extol the virtues of exercise - even 'any little bit I could manage' - while I was explaining how I didn't think my POTS issues were improving. Right, because all I need is yet another person telling me how I'm not trying hard enough. Particularly a person with a medical degree who should be able to read the report there on his computer (if he's even looking at the right one) from the cardiologist last month that warned that my heart issue were 'potentially life threatening if left unchecked,' and recommended 'one step above complete bed rest.' So, maybe starting a conversation about bench pressing (even if you are only talking about cans of soup or vegetables) is a tiny bit premature. Just saying.

Needless to say, it was quite frustrating to leave there with very little actual help, BUT - silver lining time - I have an appt with Zach next week that is sure to go better. (And by 'sure', I mean, please Dieties let it go better, because it will be my 1st appt at Zach's new hospital, and we all know that new people aren't always great.)

Continuing in the silver lining vein, however: My mom got a job! (Aside from her PCA-ing for me job, I mean) She completed a CNA course during the fall, and rocked the state licensing exam, and now she's got her first non-me job in I want to say 20 (?) years.  She'll be doing CNA/PCA stuff at a group home & in individual houses in a neighboring city ~ her orientation is Thursday, so she's not sure what her days/hours and stuff will be, and while that will be an interesting complication to have to work around re: doctor's appointments,  I am SUPER proud of her and I know she's going to be great.

Hopefully this will be more than just a money making opportunity for her (although, that's definitely not going to hurt) - I'm hoping it will help her feel more confident about herself and her skills, and really give her something that she feels proud about as well. These last couple of years/months have been difficult, and the next few months don't look to be conflict-lite either, so I'm glad she's got something to give her a much needed boost, right about now.

She also started telling people what's going on here - mostly the basics, that they're splitting up and we'll all be moving to separate places, at some point in the near future. There's a lot still that people don't know (mostly because even people who should care to ask have not thought to ask, and I know that that has hurt her as well), but I think just getting it out there to a few crucial people has been a relief for her. Some of the responses were unexpected - one sister started to ask if that meant that she would be dating, immediately squicked herself out and told her not to answer; UJ has offered for both of us to stay with him for as long as necessary, while my mom's sister told her that she was unable to loan her the money for a lawyer - even as she started talking about how they were going to remodel their house, so that stung more than a little bit. My brother, on the other hand, seems as clueless as usual: "I do not know what to do with that information" was his response. SMH - never change, Big/Only Brother.  But, aside from the kids, who don't need to know until it's actually starting to happen, I think most everybody knows, so some of the uncomfortable 'who knows/who doesn't' tension is at least drained from our (already preternaturally tense) conversations.

So those are two of my mind's trending topics. Others include: Sister who reads my blog, I love you, please call me;  What the hell do you mean it's already February this week;Oh My God, Gmail: Don't eat my e-mails and Seriously: I'm probably going to have to get rid of a lot of things if we're moving.

 Super fun!

What's on your mind, this gloomy Tuesday?

Look how much I am sharing!

Yeah, no: another two weeks have passed with very little word from me - unless you follow me on Twitter/Tumblr, and even there, it's mostly other people's words re-hashed. The reasons for not writing are numerous, at least in my head - ranging from the usual ('not enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things I need/want to do' combined with both 'active illness & post-holiday flare-up' and 'so few spoons it isn't even funny') to the restrictive ('everything I want to say will hurt someone if I say it, so I don't know how to say it' and 'everything I write is so depressing and if it makes me depressed to write it, who the hell is going to want to read it?') to the absurd ('but seriously: do you know how many episodes of Dr. Who I still have to watch?') So it's been pretty difficult to carve out a thinking space, let alone a writing space.

But I have promised more sharing, and more sharing it shall be.

First off, let me recommend, if you do have a Tumblr, that you follow me over there for some mostly illness related, gif-filled ramblings. I'm a little bit upset that I am too old to be in school now, when I imagine I could find an appropriate gif for any single homework assignment (and that I could bs my teachers into accepting their validity as objective tools of measuring my learning). There is a gif for every occasion, I have come to learn, and it is a little bit disheartening to me when I am interacting with actual people in real life and can not just open up my gif folder and show them that I understand exactly what they mean. I have a feeling Google is probably working on that though. (Dear Google: work on that INSTEAD of Google+.  Nobody likes Google+, because you try to force us to like it and incorporate it into everysinglething we use. It is not ok with us. Just let it die already.

 See what I mean about the gifs?)

Secondly, in an effort to keep from writing yet another truly depressing post about the current state of my family let's just keep it under a paragraph and say that things here are pretty sucky. In a major way. For a lot of people. But because we're in kind of a holding pattern right now (for reasons that I do not understand, and therefore cannot explain to you), I can't figure out what to do to help myself or anybody else.  There's a whole lot of not-communicating happening, which is stupid (except for when it's me, of course), but also understandable.  I think my mother is afraid of what comes next, even though she knows it has to come, and is postponing it as much as she can by talking about the unreachable finances of the situation (which are valid issues) instead of the direct harm she is causing herself by not just bulldozing forward. I can't even say I blame her, because I could bulldoze forward about shit too, but really just don't have the energy to deal with the fallout. So: hellish holding pattern it is!

And lastly, for this morning anyways, some commitments.  After a few years of reading awesome reviews and interacting with some great people, I have signed up to participate in Cannonball Read 6, which is "a race to read and review 52 books in a year".  Now, if you've been here any length of time, you know I will read many more than 52 books this year, but as my sadly outdated Goodreads account reflects (Seriously: September? That's the last time I told you what I was currently reading? Ugh), I did not review nearly quite so many.  But I think it's definitely doable, and it fits in with my goal of sharing more parts of myself in different places, so I'm going to do it.  I'm also on the look out for a therapist who specializes in people with chronic pain (did you know there even were such mythical unicorns? I did not!), in the hopes that s/he will have some strategies that I haven't tried out that will help me moving forward. And I'm also trying to comment more, across the board. (??!?!)

This commenting thing is obviously not unique to me (one of my own commenters JUST left a comment saying she was trying to do the same), but it's something that should be so easy, and it's just so HARD.  Guys, I feel ridiculous!

Sometimes I feel like I have a good thing to say, but then I feel like a third wheel or something - especially if it's on Twitter, and two people I follow are talking about something, and I just... butt in - and I wind up erasing what I was going to say.

 Or I feel like, after reading all the other comments on a post, that all I could contribute is a "me too!" or "Agreed: what X said!", which feels like a comment not worth leaving. 

Other times I will spend long minutes - I do not mean like 5 or 6, but like maybe 20 minutes - crafting what I think is the exact right way to phrase what I want to say, and then chicken out before hitting the enter button.

It's so stupid!

I do not know why I am so intimidated by the commenting thing ~ all I know is that I often feel like I did back in high school, when I was at the edges of all the crowds, not unpopular, but never quite fitting in anywhere, and having to monitor my words and actions to an extreme rate, for fear of embarrassing myself.  I know this is all in my head - aside from spam, and one mean comment about 6 years ago, I never have had a comment that I wasn't Super! Excited! to get.  Not here, or on Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook (maybe Facebook - the people I know in real life are not always awesomesauce with the comments). 

But the general truth still exists that comments - even of the "me, too!" variety - make my day! And I should just get over myself already and hit that submit button.

So, that's how my January is going so far - how are all of you faring?