About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
Fabulous finch story starts with … “Every year the same pair of finches returns to the bush outside my office window, and every year they have the same debate about whether or not to build their nest in exactly the same place. It is like an Avian Love It or List It.”
Beyonce and Beychella – making hearts sing: “I was supposed to perform at Coachella before, but I ended up getting pregnant,” she explained to the crowd of diehard fans who exchanged knowing laughter and cheers. “So I had time to dream and dream and dream with two beautiful souls in my belly,” she continued, “and I dreamed up this performance.”
I’ve been seeing research that suggests that a gluten-free diet may help the effects of my fibro and rosacea, not just anecdotes like I’d heard in the past and finally had to start considering that it might be something worth trying.
I hated the thought because oh how I love my carbs but I’ve lived with high levels of pain for most of my life. If a simple change in diet might help, I’ve got to try it.
I planned to wait until after our summer vacation to start because that would give me time to use up the gluten-ful ingredients we have stocked and phase in GF foods instead over the course of several weeks. Instead, PiC convinced me to start early because if it could help, why not find out earlier rather than later?
My order-loving soul is grumpy about it but his argument has a certain amount of logic. It takes at least two weeks, according to the experienced, for all the gluten to exit the system so I have to try this for at least 6 weeks to get any real sense of whether this will help.
I’m not a fan of people and one of the reasons is this: people can be remarkably ignorant, judgmental, and downright crappy. In general it doesn’t matter because I avoid them as much as I can, but in one aspect of my life, it can matter a great deal.
My illness, the incurable and constant pain and fatigue, has been bad for years. It’s debilitating. I find ways to work while fogged with fatigue and aching constantly because it’s important to earn while we can and we’re just not wealthy enough for me to rest on my laurels, but that the amount of energy eaten up by work is not going to my family and life and that sucks.
It also sucks that I’m doing as much as I reasonably can to live my life in a healthy way and what little improvement has resulted is incredibly incremental. That doesn’t do a heck of a lot for morale, I can tell you that much!
I’m very lucky not to struggle constantly with depression – that old specter has only haunted me a few times. I’m also very lucky not to be wheelchair-bound yet – that would pose a whole host of other accessibility problems that I’m not prepared to navigate. (more…)
These attitudes about women and childbearing have got to go. Assigned childbearing shifts???
What would you spend on if you saved too much in your Dependent Daycare Account? I’m absolutely no help there, I’m just staring wide eyed at the idea of not spending a full $5000 in the DDA for a quarter of the cost of daycare. And frankly somewhat terrified at having to add “summer logistics” to my brainspace.
TSA, get it together. Now they’re thinking about telling us we can’t carry food on planes?? I’m not ok with this. We never travel without food lest one of the three of us become hangry.
We’ve talked failure resumes before, I haven’t done mine but look at Jim’s!
We want to make the most of our time together this year but still get things done around the house. There’s a ton of work still left to us, we only paid for work we absolutely needed completed before we moved in.
Despite (or because of) the massive derailment that was last year, we’re taking a more structured approach to planning our year. Admittedly, it’s a bit late in the day to be planning for the whole year, this is the kind of thing I would normally have done in October of last year. Holy dang it’s April already!
What we planned
Take one at-home home maintenance weekend per month.
Take Seamus to Fort Funston at least once a month so he can romp and meet other dogs. We’d love to do Point Isobel but crossing the bridge on the weekend is definitely a no go.
JB gets one or two playdates a month (includes birthday parties).
Host a dinner with friends once a month.
PiC and I loosely agreed to using the library’s Discover and Go venues at least 4 times this year. I was all kinds of enthused about this, applying for new library cards for both of us. Ours have been expired since JB’s arrival. Disappointingly, it turns out that almost all of the family friendly locations suck in some way: they require 1.5 hour drive one way, the discount is only for the child and parents have to pay for parking and $30 admission, or it’s in SF proper which means traffic, terrible and $$$ parking and walking miles just to get to the venue thereby burning up my valuable energy before we even make it in the door. This may have to be two weekend trips this year instead.
We recently took on a young lady rescue, to Seamus’s mild chagrin, and my heart’s delight. I’m pretty sure we needed a second dog but the first few months will be tough because no one gets Seamus AND an easy new dog in the same lifetime.
Even Seamus’s first months with us were hard. He was learning the ropes of our household and I was battling his allergies: hives, broken skin, rashes, bathing three times a week, steroids which means 6 walks a day, and one (terribly embarrassing for him) accident in the house because he couldn’t wake me for a walk in time. Those demanding weeks and all his maintenance since then has been totally worth because he’s a lovebug, has perfect manners, coparents JB, and protects zir from all comers. He was and still is a big help to me during my tough days, helping me get up and around during pregnancy and during flare ups, and supporting me through the days when people aren’t around. I don’t expect quite the same from her but it would be a good idea to train her like a helper dog as much as I’m able.
Suffice it to say, new pup has a tough act to follow. But we have lots of training planned, plus lots of patience and persistence. For my own sanity, I have told myself to give her two months to start showing real improvement and the ability to fit in. That’s about how long I can maintain all training all the time mode, and I need the reminder that a perfect dog isn’t achieved in 3 days.
An interview with a nanny for a psychic. This bit caught my attention: “I initially reached out to her because my (deceased) father’s spirit was following me around trying to get my attention. I asked him to stop but she told me that he was there trying to make it up to me for being a negligent father. He was trying to protect me now and wanted me to know that he’s there.”
Haunting runs in our family and is considered run of the mill. But if my dad tried to pull this, I’d be looking into banishment. We don’t typically go in for that in our family but no way no how no sir.
Nicole Cliffe on bigamous marriages in her family. We also have one of those stories. It’s weird.
Slate does a series based on the idea that “Every couple has one core fight that replays over and over again, in different disguises, over the course of their relationship.” Realistic or no? The very idea seems totally exhausting to me. We have had long standing differences of opinion, and backgrounds, but we acknowledge them, discuss why they’re important, and work out compromises based on knowing those things about ourselves. It’s a lot of work sometimes but it sure feels better than engaging in a lifelong tug of war like this couple. Also I think this is a remarkably immature read on risk-aversion, but is this actually common?: “I see risk-aversion as banality, boredom, giving into convention or family pressure or something like that. I hate this idea in our culture that you’re not an adult unless you feel frustrated and stifled and you hate your life. We equate maturity with the wrong things.”
Since when is adult life equated with feeling frustrated? For me, it’s meant freedom and stability and more freedom even with all the responsibilities I choose to take on.
Social jet lag? I’ve always been a night owl though motherhood may have changed that a bit – are you an owl, lark, or finch?
I’ve been seeing research that suggests that a gluten-free diet may help the effects of my fibro and rosacea, not just anecdotes like I’d heard in the past and finally had to start considering that it might be something worth trying.
I’m not a fan of people and one of the reasons is this: people can be remarkably ignorant, judgmental, and downright crappy. In general it doesn’t matter because I avoid them as much as I can, but in one aspect of my life, it can matter a great deal.
We want to make the most of our time together this year but still get things done around the house. There’s a ton of work still left to us, we only paid for work we absolutely needed completed before we moved in.