Friday, March 29, 2013

Madness and March Hares

As March began our living room slowly filled with rabbits and bunnies from Easter (Spring Equinox Celebrations) past and as I plan this years celebration I am feeling "Mad as a March Hare."

Every year I think Easter comes early and I either start to decorate for the holiday too soon or wait and end up frantically making plans at the last minute. This year I noticed that it was at the end of the month and I am trying to act accordingly.

My level of decorations is generally subdued and I think tasteful. This generous opinion is held only by me, most others find my decor to be childish and cluttering. The combination of my lifestyle as a mother and needing to rest and limit some activity around my illness means I spend a good deal of time in my house.

The recent cold front has kept me in pain (previous posts have covered the link between the weather and chronic pain) and indoors, so I have been contemplating my decorations and it's the only news I have!

My goal is to decorate to look engaging to the eye and mind. When I had an office I would decorate it with a rotating selection of small objects and always have fresh flowers. I discovered a new love for putting gel cling window decals up in our kitchen window for me and the baby.

Somehow these bright reminders that another fun Holiday and Spring are coming cheer us both up.

The most obvious and annoying of this round of rotating decorations is the March of Hares into the living room. We have a tradition that each family member is given a new stuffed bunny every year for Easter. Over the years, our daughter is 12, we have an amazing collection of stuffed "some bunnies." Now the bunnies are holding a meeting to entertain the toddler.

We have had fun remembering which bunnies were from which year, who has the matching bunny and where we were for the party.

In other stories we remember the lost bunny from a good year and the dog that ate him. (it was the perfect purple bunny!) Lost bunnies and some bunnies that we used to know are my favorite since I never have to dust them.

Fun with bunnies is that they occupy the guest chair. Some people sit on a pile of bunnies, others move them politely and some just toss them to the floor. How you treat the bunnies in the chair is a crude personality test so I am going to stop here.

Since the bunnies are already spilling over, I realize with my new daughter that I need more storage space or different family traditions.

Instead, I'll just keep buying bunnies and let them multiply.

The Hares are moving from every dusty corner of our house to prominent places.This goes way beyond just bunnies.

The truly mad and maddening hares are the collection of bunnies that I inherited from my husbands grandmother. She was a fascinating and captivating woman who collected only interesting rabbits for a few years. When people noticed and started giving her rabbits she grew bored of bunnies and gave some of them to me. She also warned me never to let people know you collect something or they will ruin it by trying to add to your collection.

So, no, I don't collect bunnies, they come to me.

I'm told that this is an unusually cold Spring. This weekend we will head South to a beach where I will be warm and happy. A few bunnies will come with us.

I hope however you celebrate the Spring Equinox there is a chance for rest.

Cheers,
ALJ



Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Ides of March Madness

This morning when I came out of the shower I was delighted to find three things of deodorant on my vanity. The delight came from the fact that I've been looking everywhere for one for the past twenty-four hours. It was as if they materialized overnight.

My house isn't filled with fairies. The cold rain has kept me inside with a sick toddler who is recovered enough to wipe her nose on everything. Sadly, she's not quite well enough to risk exposure to other children. So we are playing at home.

I've cancelled our activities saying the baby is sick. The statement isn't accurate. The toddler is sick. When her fever breaks and she has an hour where she feels better this girl is fast! (Missing deodorant, one lives in our swim class bag, unpacked, one in overnight luggage, in closet, unpacked, the toddler is an evil elf. She also hides keys and throws away phones.)

My Father was visiting. He lives in Colorado, a very cold place that I can't visit comfortably during most of the year. He doesn't read blogs. He also doesn't have a smartphone which made me change my social media ways during his visit.

I put the phone down. My virtual world went silent. Life continued with a few less breaking news stories.

I did glance at twitter where I have my own special world. A friend of decades, who is a RN, forwarded an article about women with chronic health issues. I am going to find a way to link twitter to this blog later today.

The article is about how doctors don't treat women in pain or with any other chronic condition the same as men. It mentioned that many women never get a "real" diagnosis and instead are diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.

The story also described the disparity in women in research for new medications which is as old as research studies. I was saddened to see it printed again that Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of last resort. To me it is a specific condition that I have lived with for a decade.

Once again I'm blogging from my phone and don't know how to link the article to the blog.

It made me realize that after a decade, nothing has changed in the world of women living with chronic pain. At the same time the existence of this blog means everything has changed because at least now the women with smartphones are complaining about it.

I will update and edit this post throughout the day. So if you come back and re-read this blog in a week it will have an article attached and be completely different.

After I have more tea.

Cheers,
ALJ

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