The Seated View

I used to start the day crying in the shower. The pain was so great that waking up and beginning to move was torture. So I sat in the shower, salty tears mixing with the fresh water. Every day. And then my doctor gave me a prescription for opioids and the pain subsided. No longer did I start the day by dissolving in tears. Instead, I hummed in the shower, looking forward to my day. I have used opioids for 12 years now and at no point have I been addicted or stoned. I take these medications for strong pain, which means they have something to do other than make me high. Namely control the pain so I can get on with my life. Because of these and other medications, I am able to be an active part of my family, nurture my friendships, volunteer in my community, and do the kind of work that enables me to pay taxes and feel that I am a productive member of society. I’m not alone. For thousands of people who live with chronic pain, opioids are a literal lifesaver. Without th...

I love my camera . It is a really excellent compact camera (a.k.a. point-and-shoot), with a killer zoom. The latter is really important when you can’t always get close to what you’re photographing. Nonetheless, I have been drooling at The Boy’s camera for the past two years. It’s a Sony Alpha , and it’s as close at DSLR as I can get and still lift/operate it (with some of the lenses, not all). But it didn’t belong to me, so I only borrowed it occasionally. (click photos to embiggen) Every time we’ve gone out on one of our adventures, carting our own cameras, we’ll spend some time looking at each other’s photos afterwards, grumbling about how we hate the other person. Me because of the things that camera can do. Him for the exact same reason (aforementioned zoom). For a while now, my beloved has been talking about upgrading, telling me that I’d get his camera when he did. I’ve tried to be relatively restrained about asking when he was going to upgrade — dignit...

“You should own what you love.” Joe Goldberg is in love with Beck (first name Guinevere, can’t blame her for going by her last name). So naturally, he tries to woo her and that starts with research. The kind of research that involves watching her and hacking her email, and that’s just for starters. You , an absolutely brilliant debut (!) novel by Caroline Kepnes , is about Joe and his pursuit of Beck. It’s also about Beck and her friends, who we get to know intimately through their emails. It’s a story of obsessive love and it is in so many ways recognizable. Isn’t therean element of obsession every time you fall in love? The book starts like this: "You walk into the bookstore and keep your hand on the door to make sure it doesn't slam. You smile, embarrassed to be a nice girl and your nails are square and your V-neck sweater is beige and it's impossible to know if you're wearing a bra but I don't think that you are. You're so clean that y...