RA Goes to the Oscars: an Interview with Christine Schwab
Last week, I had the opportunity to interview a very interesting woman: “Christine Schwab wants to change how the world sees rheumatoid arthritis. Diagnosed 20 years ago, Christine has been in hiding about her RA for almost as long. She knew that if she “came out” about her disease, she would lose her career as…
Range of Motion
I took a lot of photos that night. I love my camera, but it isn’t very fast in the dark, so every image was slightly fuzzy. I found a bench and tried to rest the camera on that, leaning out over my left armrest to find a surface that was reasonably flat, but still a…
Speaking About the Unspeakable: How RA Affects Your Sex Life
I’m in a rheumatologist’s office, discussing starting methotrexate. This is long before the miracle of Enbrel and Humira, my first shot at one of the more serious drugs for RA, but my disease is flaring and something needs doing. Methotrexate is the gold standard and can be very effective. It is also very toxic so…
Fancy
Not too long ago, I mentioned that Ken had asked me to come with him to a fancy event, which naturally send me into a frenzy of overthinking, given that I haven’t been out to anything fancy for years. Said event was this The March of Domes’ 60th celebration. Seeing the program brought me from…
Perfect Comebacks
Perfect comeback #1: Barnes & Noble and Borders in the US have requested that a magazine cover up due to what apparently has a controversial cover: an androgynous-looking man with his shirt off wearing makeup and girly hair. Because, says B&N “the model is young and it could be deemed as a naked female.” I’ve…
Enemy Within: An Interview with Karen Ager
I got the chance to interview a fascinating woman: “Born and raised in Australia. Spent two years as a “virtual prisoner” in a fourth floor walk-up living with her mother unable to walk. Nanny to a rock star’s children. Survivor of an abusive relationship. Tireless advocate for RA. Teacher at the United Nation’s International School…
The Poplars Popped
Yes, I know I post one of these every year. I can never get enough of this delicate green.
2010 Moby Dick: A Celebration
Saturday evening, at about 8:28pm (OK, at exactly 8:28pm), I finished the first draft of The Book. Cue sparkling confetti falling from the ceiling, popping of champagne corks and triumphant blasts from the horn section in the corner of my living room. You’d think, right? It was, rather to my surprise, what my brain had…
RA and Fibromyalgia
Yesterday was National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day in the US, but by the time I carved out some time to post, Blogger had inexplicably gone down. And remained so for most of today. So… Herewith is yesterday’s post. If none of Fibromyalgia Awareness Day, Karen Lee Richards and I interviewed each other about living with RA…
The Best Intentions
I sat down (metaphorically) at the computer, fully intending to write something clever, thoughtful and erudite for today’s post. I feel as if I’ve woefully neglected my blog in the insanity that has been the launch of MyRACentral’s Arthritis Awareness Month festivities (new contest starts today!). In order to be clever, thoughtful and erudite, I…
An Odd Comparison
A friend of mine introduced me to The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. It’s a wonderful series of books, a mix between hard-boiled detective fiction and the paranormal. Our hero is Harry Dresden, a wizard working in Chicago. Or barely working – as is the tradition of hard-boiled detective fiction, he doesn’t make a lot…