Six Hours to Go!

WE DID IT! 6 hrs left to go and the Nothing Without Us anthology and all its stretch goals, including an audiobook, an illustrated version, and enhanced author pay, have all been funded! Thanks so much for supporting this own voices project and the disabled authors and publishers trying to change the literary landscape one accurate depiction at a time. If you want to hear more about why this kind of project is so important, check out my author interview where I discuss disability rep, chronic illness narratives, why they both matter, how they impact the real world on a micro and macro level, and why I had to ragequit watching The Flash.

Save Healthcare

Spring Break 2010 because I know how to party

In September 2008, I was a seemingly normal, healthy college student. I was active, I had friends, I’d done well in all my classes, and I was just starting my sophomore year. Then, one day, I was walking home from the dining hall and collapsed. In October 2008, I was unable to get to class because I couldn’t stand up without collapsing. The next few years I fought to stay in college (against medical advice) and to find a diagnosis for why I kept collapsing, having seizures, and experiencing tachycardia along with numerous other symptoms.

The Five Stages: A Dance of Dysautonomia

A dancer with POTS by the name of Rebecca Webb choreographed the following dance about her grieving process when POTS sidelined her from dancing. It’s a beautiful performance regardless, but this video really captures a lot of the feelings involved in coming to terms with a chronic illness like POTS, or another another similarly life-changing event. Whether you have a chronic illness, know someone with one, or just like watching good dancers, I highly recommend giving it a watch.

Stone Soup #2: Greek Green Goddess Soup

Over the holidays I obtained a crockpot. Remember that awesome feeling when you were a kid and you got that awesome thing that made everything aweseome forever? I am not afraid to admit that’s how I feel about this crockpot. As I said in the last Stone Soup, I like making soup because it is a healthy way to get salt and veggies and I can hoard it like a dragon playing disability roulette and not worrry about making food on days when standing is hard. However, when making soup on the stovetop, I usually end up on the kitchen floor approximately 1-3 times. The crockpot allows me to throw everything in (just when I would normally have to take a break anyway) and not deal with food again for several hours.

Stone Soup #1: An Inexact Recipe and a Mythology Major Overthinking Soup

Can you cook with all the colors of the farmstand?

If you don’t want to read all of my pseudo-anthropologically-minded ramblings, feel free to scroll down to the actual soup.

A Mythology Major Otherthinking Soup

I grew up in a UU Church where On the Day You Were Born and Stone Soup were childhood staples used in sermons themselves, a shared community mattered much more than a shared creed, and food and fellowship went hand in hand with worship. Holy day rituals were followed by a potluck and a bardic circle.

Salt of the Earth

You may be wondering what “salt and iron” means or why health is listed alongside mythology and writing. What does salt have to do with writing? What does health have to do with mythology? Well, a great deal actually.