The Seated View

Settle in, people, this one's bloated… Arizona has just passed a very interesting new law and it was almost enough to make me barf again (make sure you read the comments). Lindsay Lohan has fun with her own image and if you're going bald , have fun with it (no, there is no reasonable segue in any of this post so far, just take the whiplash as it comes). Amazing pictures from the Icelandic volcano eruption and tips on how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull . A woman takes defending her spouse to the nth degree and while we're talking about books, here's an article about the typo that pulped 1000 of ‘em . A fascinating article about Danish company that only hires artistic autistic people (Dragon misunderstanding - thanks LynnM for spotting it) , what happens when there's no support for those who are vulnerable (a.k.a. going to extremes to keep your roommate around), an evolving correspondence regarding permission seeks to an Easter play and if you can't ...

We're doing something new on MyRACentral - this week, we launched an area on the site for teens and young adults living with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (when I first got it 40+ years ago, it was called Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis). There isn't a lot of information and meeting places for that age group out there and I'm very proud that we are creating a space for them to connect. The launch piece is a review of a book about JIA an interview with its author: "In the US, 300,000 children and teens live with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis or JIA (previously known as Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis ), but most of the resources about the disease is geared towards parents. Until last year, when Juvenile Arthritis: The Ultimate Teen Guide (It Happened to Me) by Kelly Rouba was published." The rest of that post is here (it's a great book) and tomorrow, I'm posting about body image, self-esteem and identity. I can't wait to see where this goes...

After mor's party last Sunday, Morgan and I played a game. She was a fire fighter, I was (no surprise) the firetruck and the balloon served as the hose. I don't know which one I like best. This one, for the look on Morgan's face Or this one, for the sense of sheer abandon (Photos by John/TinkPapa)

I've had a spectacular weekend. That was sarcasm. The unvarnished truth - and this is where the title of this post begins to make sense - is that I picked up a stomach bug. Ordinarily, one of the benefits of having limited shoulder, elbow and wrist movement is that you'd can't touch things like door handles, elevator buttons, etc. (except with a collapsible stick you carry in your purse), which blessedly means I tend not to pick up too many of whatever maladies that are floating about and deposited on public surfaces. Considering my suppressed immune system, this is an excellent thing. However, there's a stomach thing trotting about and despite not knowing anyone who has it, I somehow ended up hosting a rather enthusiastic party for it. I’m thinking of blaming my doctor - she's the one who told me about the thing, citing evidence from the nursing home where she works. I may start calling her Typhoid Mary. It's been fun (again with the sarcasm). It started Thur...

Two things have me confused this week. Thing the first is an article in the Wall Street Journal about President Obama ordering a change in regulations governing hospitals that participate in Medicaid/Medicare programs, requiring such hospitals to respect advanced directives and other legal documents designating people outside the immediate family for visitation rights. As well, the new regulations will require hospitals to respect legal documents that designate people other than family, including same-sex partners as decision-makers for healthcare if the person can no longer make decisions for themselves. This will finally grant gays and lesbians the right to designate their partners as not only decision-makers, but also the basic right of being allowed to visit. A man named Peter Sprigg who works for the Family Research Council (socially conservative, as many organizations with a name that includes the capitalized version of the word family) is quoted as no objection to gay and les...

My mother recently purchased a kitchen knife. One of the really good ones, the super efficient scary looking kind of knife . So scary that I wouldn't want to have one in my kitchen - just having it lurking in the drawer would make me nervous. You can see where this is going, can't you? So last Thursday, shortly before Survivor was about to begin, I get a call and mor tells me that she'd been cutting up pork tenderloin for a stirfry and had chopped off about a quarter of the tip of her finger, including the nail. After I suggested that she go to the emergency room instead of calling me and she grudgingly agreed that perhaps she should risk missing that nights episode of Heroes versus Villains, I asked her if she had the part she’d chopped off, in case they could reattach it. Nope. She looked through the pieces of pork, but hadn't been able to find anything that looked like it might belong on her person. She goes to the emergency room, comes back and reports no stitches...

Mor's birthday party was held yesterday with a fantastic turnout of almost 60 friends and family, ranging from 3 months to 90+ years. The Birthday Goddess was suitably attired in a tiara for the duration Stewart has a serious discussion with Morgan The youngest, Aryka And on the other side of the continuum, Edith Then we discovered the playground Three friends who've known each other for decades

It’s all about the right cat at the right time. I’d expected it’d take longer before I was ready to share my life with another wee furball, but once Janet pointed me in the direction of Petharbor , things accelerated (OK, got a little obsessive – that site’s dangerous. Enter at your own risk). And last week, I decided to send out the message to the universe that I might be getting ready, called my vet and asked them to keep me in mind should a cat need a home at some point. To which Eric the Cat Whisperer – immediately taking on the additional role of Cat Pimp - said they had three, all about 2 years old, transferred from the shelter to be spayed and adopted out. So Saturday, we went on a meet and greet there and at the Toronto Animal Services South Shelter. I met at least 10 cats that day and it was the first one who stood out as having everything I was looking for. Don’t think I had much choice, actually – she obviously chose me from the word go. She came home...

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the US (in Canada, it's in May), so my latest post is about staying safe when you live with physical limitations: "The official stats say that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 33 men have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives, but that just reflects the cases that were reported - estimates of true numbers are much higher. As stated in the Presidential Proclamation of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), the term sexual assault covers rape, as well as verbal harassment and molestation (e.g. unwanted touching). Much as we don't want to admit it, living with a chronic illness like rheumatoid arthritis that may affect how fast we can move and how strong it seems we are and can therefore make us more vulnerable. How do you protect yourself if you live with chronic pain?" The rest of the post is here .

The new season of Dancing with the Stars has started with what they call "the most talked-about celebrities ever!” and if you're preparing to click right by this post because dear god, the woman is rabbiting on about reality shows again, please stick around, because DWS is incidental to this post. Much as I'm enjoying myself watching the show, it's serving as a jumping off point today. Kate Gosselin is one of the contestants and… hang on. Brief sidetrack. I had no idea who she was before the divorce from her husband. I'm pretty connected to entertainment news, know about shows even though I don't watch them, but somehow, completely missed Jon and Kate Plus 8 for years. When I found out about it, I was gobsmacked. Sure, raising that many kids is expensive and you do what you can to bring in money, but seriously? I mean, seriously ?? Anyway, she's now on DWS, representing (I guess) regular people who can't dance. And boy, she really can't dance. ...

I want to thank all of you for your comments on Wednesday’s post . They warmed at what is for various reasons a pretty bleak time. I’d like to email you all personally, but my blasted comment system won’t record your emails/URLs (I’m working on changing that, stay tuned), so this will have to do. Thank you. Each and every one felt like a hug. And now on to other things... The other day, I read an article in the Toronto Star about two men who are on trial for trafficking in marijuana after their church was raided. The men are turning the tables and are doing a constitutional challenge regarding Canada 's drug laws infringing on their right to freedom of religion because, they say, in their church, The Assembly of The Church of the Universe (COU) , cannabis is used in worship as a sacred substance enabling worshipers to connect to the divine. The church is small - 4000 members across Canada - and its practices and beliefs are somewhat unusual and to some, may sound silly. But...

It's been the kind of week that makes you crawl gibbering into a corner, rocking as it all finally catches up to you. And then, because you at last stop moving, are no longer barricaded against it all, what you need to know arrives and the learning starts again. Last week, there was a moment where I caught myself, having disappeared far into work for a very long time, rendering me oblivious to what I was doing, just focusing on doing, doing, doing. There were seven tabs open in my browser and I was actively working in three of them at the same time, switching tabs as one page loaded, writing something there and clicking post, then moving on to tab 3 to read another paragraph or two in an article, only to switch back again to, #1 while I was thinking all the time about the four other tabs, the notifications in my inbox, the document open on my desktop and the list, as ever longer than is possible to get done in a day. And by the time Thursday arrived, I was gasping for the long we...