No Praise Like Home

You know how trauma workbooks commonly offer a warning to stop, to practice self-care, and to return to a chapter at a future time if any material in it becomes too triggering? I have never paid much attention to those warnings, even during those years when my mistrust of the system was so intense that …

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Imitation is the Sincerest Form of A$$hole-ery

Beckie of Beckie's Mental Mess, Ashley of Mental Health @ Home and Fandango of This, That and The Other (which is a new blog to me, I guess proving that even the most ridiculous of circumstances can expand a fellow blogger's audience?) have all posted recently about tygpress.com plagiarizing...well, pretty much everyone's blogs. They are …

Messages in a Bottle #15: Sharkna-Don’t-Mess-with-Me

After a few blessed days of rain, it has resumed being entirely too hot to live, and my creative juices are currently leaking out my ears and puddling on the floor. But, at least my brain is only melting, rather than being constructed entirely out of (presumably also melting) cheez whiz. I am fully lucid …

Subway Sociology #7/Improv #18: Dysautomomia

You know it's hot when... Your city subway sends you an emergency number to notify if you start to roast alive in their subway cars using the system they normally use to notify about line delays!  Wait, were you expecting a punch line to that one? Because that experience was real and is deadly serious. …

Where’s Whoopsie #21: Tea Hydration Solutions

Lavender: “Are you sure I should keep buying Gatorade to function out in public? I could just stop going anywhere until it cools down. In theory, in two or three months it will start being human-livable again.” Partner: “Complain less. Guzzle more. You are the only one being weird about paying for the hydration drinks …

The American Dread

This time last year, I was about to go on my not-FMLA. I had pre-written a blog post about how to protest with chronic illness for the Fourth of July, and - as that is a rather date-specific post - I went ahead and posted that. But, while I certainly went to protests as best …

Stick with It

Sometimes I have a flare and want to save my poor swollen hands for work. Since I always write on July 4th, check back then for a full post! In the meantime, if anyone needs any encouragement this week: If my squishy can stick to the ceiling for a full 15 seconds through sheer grit …

Long Walks and Candlelight Zen-ers

I sometimes think my Partner missed his life’s calling as a therapist, but whenever I mention this to him he reminds me that the only “people” he wants to be observant of and “people” with on a regular basis are me (and maybe the cat, who is unofficially a “people,” too!) As I’ve said before, …

Messages in a Bottle #14: If You’re a Poet and You Don’t Know It…

Traumaversaries are weird. I have learned that it is entirely possible for me to feel stressed, anxious, rejection sensitive and floaty for days with no overt understanding of why I am feeling this way - even throughout events that should otherwise be fun in present-day 2019 - because my subconscious mind still remembers what my conscious mind …

Messages in a Bottle #13: Placebo Effects

I bought pink Himalayan salt pills today instead of my usual generic salt capsales. I know some people think the "highest amount of trace minerals of any salt" are independently useful, but my default assumption is still that salt is salt. I have a scientific image to maintain at all costs, after all. My conception …