Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Who Loves Salad? I Do!
Here is a salad I ate the other day at a restaurant., the one day I could escape outside this month since we had a very brief warm-up. I love salad. This was a chef's salad but of course I had to tell them to remove regular cheese and eggs from it which I am allergic to. I like to make salads and make everything from bean salad with sweet onions and Newman's Own Balsamic Vinegar to coming up with concoctions over iceberg lettuce or organic greens. Here are some salad-making links.
50 Meal-Worthy Vegan Salads
Vegan Salad on Pinterest
Regular Salad Recipes on Pinterest
Monday, December 30, 2013
They Don't Care About the Constitution Anymore
Cartoon from "Studied The Constitution. Didn't Like It." {Ted Rall's blog}
It's scary to see how America is giving up all its freedoms that previously made it a great country. Bush started this and Obama is continuing at hyper-speed to remove freedoms such as the right to a trial among American citizens. Rall is usually more liberal then me, but seems to be a liberal that is an independent thinker instead of a Kool-Aid drinker for Obama. There are people on all sides with integrity to know what is happening is WRONG.
Good for Michigan: Michigan Nullifies NDAA's Indefinite Detention.
My Apartment Clean Out
My apartment is being cleaned out by me, to attempt to have a more healthy life. Today I am working on the bookshelves full of thousands of books, some thrift people will be very happy very soon. The above picture is just one corner. This place was/is jam-packed. Eight hundred square feet of living space really isn't cutting it anymore but everyone has to do what they can. I needed more money to really live life the way it needed lived, but have in my mindset that I need to live the best way I can with what I have. I barely hold to to this apartment financially but should enjoy it to it's fullest.
This task will be a week-long one.
I am getting a hospital bed soon to elevate my extremely swollen abdomen and left leg. They know I have body-wide lymphedema now, I am STILL at this point exploring medical avenues. My leg is far more controlled and uninfected but that takes 4 wrappings a day to maintain. In the spring, I will be going to a hospital clinic, when I am not housebound to deal with my severe lymphedema [already diagnosed] and possible lipedema problems to figure out what the next steps will be and more intense therapies.
My Occupational Therapist has been very helpful and I feel more hope in being able to function with my health problems. She has taught me exercises to help with stamina and focus and how to break down tasks into smaller pieces and manage the heart and breathing problems, that often led me to get overtired and to go give up. Sometimes it seems insane to me that I expend so much energy just trying to keep a small apartment from imploding even with husband's help in doing the laundry and with the errands, but maybe that it is the way of the world.
There is a lot of pushing past problems I have struggled with all my life,even with my own self-imposed structure and rules. Even with my Aspergers, serious focus problems in sensory tests were discovered. I kind of knew about this already. My ability to do school work well most of the time papered over a lot of other serious functional problems in life. Adults who can't focus outside of being able to read 10 books or even write on a blog for fun, don't get much accomplished. Add in sensory processing problems, and well there are times I wish many of these things had been dealt with well before 45 years of age.
Anyhow I plan to get this place cleaned out as much as possible. My kitchen and bedroom are already in far more order. Some techniques I have learned have helped me in functioning in everyday life.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
A Very Old Painting of Mine
I painted this oil painting, when I was 22 years old, that's over 20 years ago. It is actually right in front of my eyes as I have it hanging up behind the table with the sit-up computer. This painting is around 4 by 3 feet so is larger. The meaning of this painting always seemed interesting to me, at the time, I thought of a girl looking at her horizons or what awaited her. Almost like intuition knowing there'd be rocks to climb over.
Surviving December Blues
[picture from Charming Charlie Tumblr]
Poor Charlie Brown. I was always into Peanuts and often I think Charles Schultz and I would have been soul mates considering his outlook. He always got to the right of the heart of the issue. I should post about my fandom regarding Charles Schultz and Peanuts soon.
Seasonal affective disorder mixed with 100% house-bound-ness like I am in jail, is not always pleasant. I've had one day outside living like a normal person in the last four weeks. It may warm up tomorrow and Friday to 40 degrees and perhaps the outside world will see my presence. Here's hoping. Around the third or fourth week of imprisonment, some of us feel funny. There was one winter so bad, 90 days straight passed by of staring out the window. If I had money, I would winter somewhere else, but it's not an option. Heat bugs me too so moving South is not a solution.
Some Depression creeps like cat through a window, back to some of us when the days get shorter and darker. I have had it's struggles life-long, and have had to manage it the best I could, but December is known as the month I dread. Once I'm over it's hump, Jan and Feb aren't always so easy too, but for some reason December stands out more. I'm involuntarily away from my peer counseling group which does not help. I should get one of those light-boxes maybe but some circumstances are impacting things. Waking up sometimes I wish I was a happy "normal" person who did not have their body dictate so much of their life. The sin of envy combined with the "should of, would of, could of" Sometimes in the morning I wake up and think "What happened?" How did I get this sick? How did so many things fall out of my hands or out of my reach?"
A person can know they have some gifts and worth but regret is a river that can drown you and right now, I'm trying to swim for land. I'm praying to God too in doing so.
I'm trying to focus on maintaining myself, my kind medical professionals helping me with getting a bed to elevate my legs, to managing my apt--organization, Aspie focus and sensory problems, and how to get things done with serious cardio-pulmonary issues. One thing I've learned is I need to slow down, rather then work myself into a frenzy collapsing because my lungs and body have checked out. The walking and exercise has helped. All medical scores have improved including blood pressure and the rest. My leg has shrunk. I've been watching old movies, and doing cards and talking with friends and trying some semblance of happiness. Part of the formula here, is DO THE BEST THAT YOU CAN
I feel badly about how things panned out with the family. So much regret. One website helped me saying, relationships are two way streets, and if you are the one who is always trying, and the effort on the other end is at the extreme minimal or even toxic in terms of the narcissists, it's not your fault! They say going no contact is hardest during the holiday season and in the first year. With the family I lost, I will have contact with some of the kind ones, but I know my mother will remain central and I'm on the outs. Part of me thinks what if I had been healthy, or had money or have achieved more in my life? Would I have been "somebody" to them? If that is what it took, then it would have meant nothing anyway. My mother had her party where she gave out presents and almond bark, and well let's just say she is far more in the middle of everyone's vision then me. I will never know the satisfaction of grandchildren or a family or many things she has enjoyed in her life. It's kind of funny how things work out that way in this world.
December is not a fun time for every human being out there. If you are lonely or not feeling the holiday cheer, remember others out there are feeling the same. Not everyone celebrates Christmas too including some Christians who are not Jehovah Witnesses and many others. There are others who have walked away from the go-go greed fest too based on secular reasons.
For those of you who find this a tough time of year, I will pray for you and trust me there is some of us who understand. If you have been broke for years all the focus on presents and shopping, can stink too. You watch people who seem to have endless buckets of money sink money equal to your rent just for the specialness of a TV being flat screened instead of a giant box. You can comment here if you want. The forced smiles and the rest can be a trial. If I was not housebound, I would go do some work to forget myself, such as at a soup kitchen and am working on some cards for those in the hospital which I'll be working on after I write on here but many do not find this the happiest time of the year. Many of my friends have been good to me, one keeping up regular visits I always enjoy and another calling me every few days, to help keep my spirits up.
Some of us await January 2nd, praying for the relief it will bring. Most Decembers of the last 10-15 years, I've been housebound with my bad lungs. It is not one of my most happiest or memorable months though there are others that keep me inside too. One sometimes has to look at pictures of last spring to know some sunshine and good times will return.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
"14 Painful Examples of Fat-Shaming"
[picture source]
14 Painful Examples of Fat Shaming
"Blogger Melissa McEwan created the #FatMicroagressions hashtag to start a conversation about the inappropriate and hurtful comments directed at overweight people on a regular basis. Microaggression, a term coined by Professor Chester Middlebrook Pierce in 1970, refers to small acts of aggression towards people of a certain group -- usually those of non-privileged races, classes or ethnicities."
Fat Microaggressions, hmm to me these may amount sometimes to the look you may get while existing in a fat body. Of course one does not want to enter the world of paranoia where you think every person hates you because you are fat but fat micro-aggressions for me would be this list:
1. Chairs with arms and going into doctor offices without any non-armed chairs.
2. Hip restaurants that have all high stools and little uncomfortable chairs.
3. Stores that always stop at size 26 or even 32.
4. People who say at buffets, "That's all you can eat?" One time I ate 2 plates of food at a Chinese buffet, and the owner came up to me and said, "Don't you like our food?" I said, I ate two plates, I'm full, she didn't believe me.
5. Being told if I ate a certain diet, it would fix all my bodily problems.
6. People who don't understand that bodies do not work the same.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
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