5 Year Plan
I was watching the Barbara Walters special before the Oscars – and can I just say how very awful the Academy Awards were this year? I’d rather have watched Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White for a couple of hours than watch that impersonal, rushed, yet dragging-into-eternity evening and where was I again? Oh yes,…
Sweet Boredom
I can’t remember the last time I had vacation. Of course, it could be argued that when you’re not working, you’re perpetually on vacation, but it’s not the same. Life fills up, regardless of what you do – or don’t do – and although you may lollygag for a few hours in an afternoon and…
Death & Life
This month on MyRACentral, we talk about death and dying, the unmentionable: “Twice, rheumatoid arthritis has tried to kill me. I was 12, almost 13, the first time, when it went systemic and starting attacking my heart and my spleen and there was a bad case of pneumonia, as well. I don’t remember much, just…
Validity, Perception & Pain
A little while ago, Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior posted a fantastic rant about the “well-established fact” that people who have RA have lower pain thresholds and that “they worsen the perception of a pain through their ‘maladaptive responses’ to their pain. Apparently, the medical literature has very decided opinions about the way other people experience pain….
This is News?
This one started building in early December. Christmas shopping was in the air, it was cold enough that you could see your breath as you walked down the street and Tiger Woods had been caught with his pants down. Well, more specifically, with his car plowed into a tree, which led to a much more…
Love Tinks
The Tinks came to visit on Valentine’s Day, a balm for sadness. Morgan is increasingly demonstrating the perfect storm of what happens when you mix a radio announcer with an Andersen woman: the talking never stops. The kids are learning at lightning speeds, going through workbooks and having a blast Janne/TinkMama helps Liam with the…
The War on Us
This week on MyRACentral, I rant: “When prescribed and used correctly, one quarter of one percent of people taking opioids become addicted. In some state, you can get arrested if your opioids are not in their original prescription containers (nevermind that such containers may be hard to open for people living with chronic pain). And…
My Mojo
She came to me a sunny day in February, 13 years ago, a small ball of energy, curiosity and attitude, at three months old, so small and with so much hair and whiskers, she looked like an explosion of fur. Wearing the black mask and mantle, she looked like she’d been dipped in white paint,…
An Encounter with Inanity
I collect them. Moments of the inanity, stupidity and general idiocy exhibited by the able-bodied around a wheelchair. They happen quite frequently. Examples: the ubiquitous “do you have a license for that thing?” (oh, ha-ha – so very funny. And I’ve only heard it 500 times before so yes, still hilarious!) and then there’s an…
Book Review: The Hunger Games
For a while now, I’ve had my eye on The Hunger Games, a sci-fi YA book by Suzanne Collins. Read some reviews that made it sound promising, but other books had jumped the queue until a few months ago, when I finally took the plunge. Still, it took a while to get to it, but…
Of Two Minds
Jeff Probst has a new show called Live for the Moment, which according to his blog post on the Entertainment Weekly website “tells the story of someone who has experienced a life-changing event that inspired them to change how they live their life”. The show sends “them on a series of adventures which offer major…