Still a 20-something

One thing every disabled person I know struggles with on some level is socialization. Let's face it: simply getting around and performing ADLs (Activities of Daily Living) is more exhaustion when you're struggling with a portion of your body not working. The more exhaustion and pain a person faces, the harder it gets to get out there and have a normal social life. 

From the get go, I've refused to let my health issues stop me from getting out there and having fun on occasion. I know this isn't possible for every person who struggles with disability, but so far, it's been possible for me. I make sure I make it to library Knitting Group days and I occasionally hit up the local spinning group for some fun spinning wheel and drop spindle chatter. But some of my favorite memories? Having a night on the town with my girl friends. 

Our usual bar of choice is a local dueling piano bar. I can't drink, but watching drunk people try to sing is flat out hysterical, especially when you add in the antics of the piano players. Last night, however, we tried something different- we went to a drag show. Now, despite the fact it was a lesbian bar, I assumed (and I know my girlfriends assumed the same) that it would men dressed as women performing. Turns out, it was women dressed as men, mostly, with only a single guy dressed as a woman. It was still fun, just very different music than I expected. All of the performers did a great job, especially the woman who danced last, despite it being her very first night on stage. My girlfriends and I sang along, slipped the performers singles (it's apparently tradition when watching a drag show to give the performers a single dollar bill when they dance by), chugged pop to wash the smoke out of our throats, and gabbed.

Jessie and I at the show. (Jessie is on the right, I'm on the left.)

I did learn something new about my body, though. I'm not normally around cigarette smoke. In fact, I'm allergic, but thanks to spring time allergy meds, I didn't react beyond the burning throat and lungs. The big surprise of it, though? Apparently, the exposure to 7 chain smokers in one tiny bar for 2+ hours will set off my CRPS and trigger a flare in pain levels. I'm hoping this is temporary and I've spent the day resting to see if it will help. Fingers crossed. 

I have a confession

My deep, dark secret isn't really much of a secret. Truthfully, I'd describe it as a well-known fact. It's pretty obvious if you've ever heard me discuss cultural traditions. 

My "confession"? I'm Southern. I was born and raised mere minutes from the Mason-Dixon line. I'm from the suburbs of a large city, so I have zero accent 99% of the time. But so much of the cultural traditions I grew up are decidedly unique to the southern portion of the US. This means I've always known home canned jam is better than store bought, I know the true meaning of the saying "bless her heart!" (it's not nice...), and all emotions, be it happiness, worry, sadness, grief, celebration, or anger, are all dealt with the same way: with food. 

So when I was told today that my mother injured herself yesterday and her knee is now in a rigid brace while they figure out what ligaments/tendons/muscles are torn, I promptly turned my car around and headed to the grocery store. She and my father are both currently working two jobs (mom used to be a teacher and now tutors in addition to her job, and my father is an adjunct professor in addition to his regular job), so having time to cook good, healthy food is hard enough already. Add in Mom being down for the count with the knee, and I knew they'd be stuck doing a lot of eating out, which they are trying to avoid. 

I got down to business, and in a matter of a couple of hours I had a large insulated cooler bag stuffed full with food: pulled chicken barbecue with homemade sauce, coleslaw, pasta salad, fruit, and a frozen, easy cook meal for later in the week (chicken fajitas). 

This is just the normal, right thing to do in the way I was raised. It's the same way many of my friends and neighbors think. Heck, the sweet elderly lady up the street feeds me just because she can! But what I don't understand is why this ISN'T the normal way of doing things in other areas of the world. 

Think about it: when your child/spouse/parent/friend/whoever is in the hospital, do you want to cook? What about when you've just broken your leg? Or when a loved one dies? Most of the time, cooking is the last thing on peoples minds during times of stress. But it's during these times when a good, nutritious meal is most important. 

So I leave you, my readers, with a challenge. Give it a try. Next time there's a tragedy, illness, or even a cause for celebration (who has time to cook when a new baby enters the family?), feed your friends and family. Make a good, healthy meal and drop it off. I can guarantee you'll bring a smile to someones face and let the people who are important to you focus on the important events unfolding in their life. 

Sheep!

The KY Sheep and Fiber Festival was this weekend, and I managed to snag a ride with friends from my knitting group. As always, it was a blast! I got to shop, enjoy the colors and textures everywhere, see sheep, pet llamas and alpacas, and meet some online friends in person finally. One of my favorite parts of fiber festivals is the amount of non-wool options out there. I'm mildly allergic to wool, so I can't work with it (brief contact is okay, but no wearing it or knitting with it). But at places like the KYSFF? Racks of alpaca and silk roving for spinning! 

I wound up choosing to buy some dyed, unprepped alpaca locks, instead. I've never spun straight from the lock, so this will be an experiment for me. I want to eventually turn the brown/dark/red batch into fingerless gloves. No plans yet for the pinks/blues/purples. 

I also managed to snag 2 skeins of Wolle's Color Changing Cotton. This stuff is very popular in the world of knitters and as it's all handmade by a very nice woman, there are limited quantities each month. Getting it online can be tricky, especially the big skeins made for making shawls from, so I was thrilled to snag a Shawl Skein (185g) and a regular size skein (100g) at the fair. 

Ms. "Wolle" herself posed for a quick shot of her sweater, knit from her fabulous yarn.

Oh, and I got to try weaving! Decidedly fun. 

The day wound down with some Bunny Therapy (it was soooo hard to not give this fluffy little guy a new home, as he was up for adoption)...

... and some fluffy, and not-so-fluffy, sheep. The naked sheep always look so fed up with us silly humans. 

And the Games are over...

The Olympic Games, that is.

The Olympics are always an exciting time for me, for several reasons. First off, I enjoy a lot of the Olympic sports and they aren't ones you normally see on TV, like arial, bobsled, skeleton, ice dancing, etc. I have a blast getting sucked into the emotions of the athletes.

But the biggest reason the Olympics are one of my favorite biennial events? The Ravellenic Games.

First off, for those of you not familiar with Ravelry, it is one of the largest social media websites out there. And it's exclusively for fiber artists, including knitters, crocheters, spinners, and weavers. During the Olympics, a group of intrepid and very hardworking volunteers run the Ravellenic Games. The Ravellenic Games start when the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics starts and end when the torch goes out at the end of the Closing Ceremonies. The point of the Ravellenic Games is to challenge yourself as a fiber artist, just as the athletes are doing in their sports. We even have events, like the Shawl Short Track, the Lace Luge, and the Hat Halfpipe.

This year, the team I compete on, Team No Spoons (in reference to the Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino), elected me their Fearless Leader. Okay, so the real title is "Team Captain", but "Fearless Leader" is just more fun. Team No Spoons is team for the group* the Chronic Bitches. The Chronic Bitches, or CBs, as we call ourselves, are a support group for chronically ill/disabled fiber artists who are a touch irreverent, fond of naughty words, able to laugh at themselves, willing to talk about anything, and, most importantly, incredibly supportive. I can turn to my CBs about anything and everything, and have for 4.5 years now. They are my rock. We share knowledge, tips of dealing with difficult doctors, discuss the frustrations of being ignored by yet another doctor with a god-complex. It's been a privilege getting to return some of that awesome support by leading the team.

I'm a rather slow knitter, and crochet is out as my autoimmune arthritis has my hands, wrists, and elbows extra swollen lately, so I picked small. I opted to knit Petunia the Patio Monster from the Big Book of Knitted Monsters by Rebecca Danger. She made out of a self-striping rainbow yarn called Serenity Garden, sold by Jo-Anne's Fabrics. 

Also during this years Games, I decided to do a bit of spinning on my trusty Lendrum DT spinning wheel. A friend bought me a batt (fiber prepared in a sheet) that is black alpaca overlaid in rainbow dyed silk. I decided to separate the silk from the black alpaca and spin the two separately, into different plies (the individual strands that are then together to make yarn). Then, once I ply the black and the rainbow plies together, and knit up the yarn, you'll get peeks through the black of a very vibrant rainbow. I'm happy with how it came out in the end- I have about 86 yds of a dk-to-worsted weight yarn from this. Though, I am quite glad to be done trying to spin silk in very dry air- it was Attack of the Static Monsters around here. The one night, my mom started laughing at me, and I looked down to find my ass being attacked by a glob of green silk- which had launched itself more than 3 feet across the room to attack me. 

The batt, as it came in the mail:

The batt, once I had separated the silk and the alpaca:

And finally, the final yarn:

I'm very happy with how my projects came out, and I'm very proud of my team. They are truly some of the greatest women I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and it was a pleasure working with them during the Games. Can you really ask for more? 


* Groups are basically sub-forums within Ravelry- you have to go looking for the group you're interested in to read anything posted there. You can join groups to get them to show up on your main page when you log in, which is very useful. The groups represent a wide variety of interests, from the fiber arts related like lace knitting and Sock Knitters Anonymous to non-fiber arts topics, like politics, TV/movie/music fan groups, and even health/wellness groups.

Ode to Ikea Bathrooms

I was at Ikea with a good friend this weekend, looking for things for both of our new homes, and was struck once again with how accessible my local Ikea is. I honestly don't know if that's a nationwide trend, but I can say for certain the West Chester, OH Ikea is a good one. The handicap spots can be a bit further out than you're used to, but the lot is extremely level, so getting in isn't tough at all.

Once in, you're greeted by concrete floors that are all but polished to a shine. A wheelchair nearly flies over them, even years after the store opened. The elevator is only 10 feet or so from the escalator, and it's massive. Seriously, I've been in that elevator with over 20 people and it didn't feel crowded. No waiting for the next load here!! Once upstairs, a few of the demo home layouts are tricky in a narrow manual chair and would be very tough in an electric chair, but they've managed to lay things out so the vast majority of the demo layouts are visible from the main walkway. I was able to navigate a path to every couch I wanted to try out (the friend needs a couch, I felt the need to weigh in on the Comfort Factor- I am, after all, a Comfort Factor Expert). The downstairs shopping area was the same way- I could get to pretty much everything I wanted to see. There were a few tight-ish corners, but I could get around them fine, and I expect most electric chairs would be able to turn around and get back out if the chair is too big for a corner. The tight corners were pretty dang rare. Now, if I could just get the good people of JC Penny's, Sears, etc, to follow suit.

But the star of the day? The bathrooms. There were 2 handicap stalls, both of which I could fit my chair in. A big chair would only fit in the larger one of the two stalls, but it's great that there's a second option for those who can stand to transfer like myself or are ambulatory but need the bars and higher seat, which is normally me with my crutches. The baby changing table was not in either handicap stall- instead, it was in the main area. Which is exactly where it should be. There's a sink that's set low enough a toddler standing could wash their hands unassisted, which is excellent for small children in small, low to the ground chairs. Added benefit I'm betting the installers didn't foresee: it's also a good height for many Little People.

Only improvement I could possibly suggest would be push button openers on the doors. Actually, I think I'll message Ikea and ask about them. :) Never hurts to ask and goodness knows I shop there enough!

Wait- what did you just ask me?!

My father turned 50 today. (Yes, I'm 26. I have very young parents. Grandparents, too.) Last night dad had a big blow out birthday party at my parents home with over 40 guests. Thankfully, my parents home is plenty big enough for that kind of party, so I could manage to maneuver fine even with the extra width of crutches. I made the rounds, as I knew nearly everyone there, even Dad's work buddies since I briefly interned at his company. I got all the normal "How are you?"'s, as expected, followed by the also expected, "How's the hip?" Breaking your hip 3 times before the age of 25 tends to make you the topic of gossip, so I'm used to that one, too. My standard answer is, "Still attached." Most people chuckle a bit and nod knowingly.

But after the normal questions, I kept getting asked a third question. It was one that blew me away that people actually asked.

"How's the pain?"

Most people tend to have issues acknowledging pain disorders. I get asked all the time about my hip, because broken bones and orthopedic issues are normal enough that even though what I deal with is a bit more extreme than normal (though nowhere near what some people cope with), people can relate. The pain, though? Most people have nothing to relate to it. I barely remember not being in pain, since I've spent 1/3 of my life in bad pain. Yet people almost never ask how I am in that regard. My biggest disability is the elephant in the room. I didn't quite know how to answer and found myself stumbling through.

I've been trying to figure this out. It's just... weird. Kind of unsettling, to be perfectly frank. Now to wrap my brain around all of this.

Fall Garden

I've spent the last 2 days battling the dying garden and preparing for the fall/winter garden. This has involved a decent amount of celebration at the death of the tomato plants and gloating at the tomato plants over their demise. Don't me wrong, I love having enough salsa, pizza sauce, and diced tomatoes for the winter. But holy hell will I be excited to can those last few tomatoes in the next few weeks. The last few on my counter need to ripen a tiny bit more, then I can cook them up and be done!!

I had planted some broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce in the last 2 months, all of which plants were still a bit small. But we seem to have skipped fall and gone straight to winter- from barely needing the heat on to nightly freeze warnings in only 2 or so weeks. Not enough time for the cold weather plants to grow. But these are my favorite foods and I didn't want to just give up on the plants. Then the lightbulb went off.

Mini greenhouse! Duh! You build a box round the plants with an angled glass top thats hinged. Then you can open the top during the day to let in fresh air, close in the early evening to trap in some heat, and the plants are safe from frost and freezing overnight. I managed to round up all of the supplies for free even.

I tore out the garden by myself yesterday. I went from this:

To this:

In just a few hours, working solo. Today was for phase 1- the biggest part- of the construction of the mini greenhouse. My good friend Joe came over to help out for a few hours and we made some serious progress. I'm thrilled! Now all thats left is installing a glass panel in the side wall that gets all the morning sun (which involves some caulk and 5 minutes), then building the glass top which will be a cakewalk.

(Yeah, I know, I look mad sexy in sweats and a hot pink bandana!)

The mini greenhouse as it is now:

These last 2 days, though, have left me beyond exhausted and in major pain. My max dose of pain meds is barely touching the pain, heating pads aren't helping, rest isn't helping, muscle relaxants aren't helping. I used both of my topical meds (Voltaren gel and a specially compounded topical pain med) on my wrists and got the pain down from a solid 8/10 to a  6/10. I wish the topicals worked anywhere else. I'm desperate enough to try the contortions needed to get them on my back and see if it helps any. I just wish I could still work on a construction project for 16 straight hours, inhale food, then sleep 6 hours, and repeat. Heck, I'd settle for being able to work 2 hours and not collapse at the end. Tomorrow is errands and I have no clue how the hell I'm going to pull that off. I think I'll call my aunt in the morning and see if she can run with me...