My brain in blog form.
Posted in Personal
As I briefly mentioned in my BWIPS 2023 post, I’ve adjusted my treatment for ADHD recently. Before I get into it, for those who haven’t read my ADHD journey post, allow me to give you a quick overview of what’s been going on.
Posted in Personal
heal [ hēl ], transitive verb: to make free from injury or disease : to make sound or whole
Merriam-Webster
They say time heals all wounds. I disagree, I think time closes all wounds. After all, if you have a large scar, are you truly healed?
I questioned writing this post because it seemed a bit over the top. But, this is my blog, and I can write about whatever I want.
Also, I could use a chance to write something easy. The recent Athena posts have been exhausting. The posts about her illness and FIP, especially, each required hours of research to turn veterinary and diagnostic reports into something understandable.
A few years ago, I took advantage of a Groupon deal to try out a boudoir shoot. I wanted to improve my self-confidence and thought that seeing myself through someone else’s eyes might help. It was a nice experience, and it did what I’d hoped. We still have some of those photos on the wall in our bedroom.
That shoot led me to research boudoir photographers on Instagram, which is how I found Trevor of Provocateur Images. His posts caught my eye. They’re gorgeous! I especially liked seeing that he’s size-inclusive and LGBTQIA+ friendly. And, while it didn’t apply to me, he takes great couples shots.
But, he’s in Toronto. A bit far to travel for a photo shoot. Jim, though, came up with a fabulous idea to combine a trip for the photo shoot with a trip for Scriptus. Brilliant man.
So, we booked a trip for October 2020. And then the world exploded. Thankfully, Trevor allowed me to put my shoot on hold until things got back to normal.
Posted in Personal
At roughly a year since I first sought help for a resurgence of ADHD symptoms, I’ve learned a lot, especially from meme accounts on Instagram. One of the big things I’ve learned about fairly recently is that sharing a personal story to relate to something someone has said isn’t something everyone does! I legitimately never noticed that I could be somewhat unusual in that.
Posted in Fountain Pens, and Personal
If you read my ADHD post, you know I have troubles with purchasing things. As it seemed that at least some of you found that post helpful, I’d like to share one of my biggest weapons in managing my shopping impulses, especially with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday shopping coming up.
For me, the most helpful thing has been what I call anti-shoping mantras. These short phrases and questions let me pause my thinking long enought to reconsider what I’m doing. This extra moment is often enough to allow me to stop myself.
Posted in Personal
I found your interest in a post about my AD(H)D journey surprising. I included it as a possible topic in my request for help only because I’d recently experienced a lot of new symptoms. I never expected it to be in the top 5 most requested.
I’m going to shorten “ADD/ADHD” as AD(H)D. I’m not an expert on either “variation” of the condition, so I don’t want to imply that what I’ve dealt with or information I’ve found is specific to one or other. Also, some medical professionals are now using ADHD as an umbrella term to to cover hyperactive type (previously referred to as ADHD), inattentive type (previously referred to as ADD), and combined type (also referred to as ADHD).
Posted in Personal
It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since I started this blog. I originally considered writing some great retrospective with a side of holy crap, I kept this going for 5 freakin’ years!! But, then I found a tag to do instead. While I haven’t posted consistently for the full 5 years, I am pretty happy that I’ve stuck with it this long. Here’s to another 5!
This post is inspired by Angelica Nyqvist‘s video Well This Has Been Quite The Journey…. In that video, she credits Erica Conger and notyourbasicsteph with coming up with the idea.
Posted in Personal
The interest you all showed in an update to my experience driving stick shift surprised me. I wrote the first post about 1¼ years ago, and there have definitely been some ups and downs in that time. Let’s start with the lows, shall we? Then we can end on a positive note.
Posted in Personal
A few weeks ago, Jim and I were finally in London for vacation. Let me tell, you, missing out on vacations because of COVID sucks. This vacation, however, was unlike any other I’ve taken as an adult. Going back to London for the fourth time, and knowing that we’ll be back again, removed all pressures to see and do everything.
Instead of my typical approach of planning something each day, we made plans for every other day. The extra time in the evenings and “off” days let us really relax.
The British Museum was our first scheduled activity. The architecture was surprisingly contrasting, and the sections we walked through were fascinating.
Posted in Personal
Back in the early days of my blog, I wrote a review of Surreal Makeup. In it, I was very clear that I didn’t wear makeup very often. Four years later, that has changed completely.
I wear makeup virtually every day now. I’ve long-since discovered the joy of decorating my face with colors. I look at makeup as clothing for my face. I put it on in the morning, take it off in the evening, and use it to show off my personality.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I take inspiration for my looks from all over: nature, pens, photos, etc.
Posted in Personal
As it is for many, my journey to self-love has been long, with many walls and speed bumps along the way. I also still have a long way to go to love and accept my own body the way I do others’.
Somewhere along the way, though, I discovered my own, personal cheat code: decorations.
My first tattoo was on my hip. At the time, I wasn’t super fond of the area. But, after my tattoo had healed, it was like it’d flipped a switch. How could it be anything but fabulous when I had such a cool tattoo?
Granted, this is more something I realized in hindsight. At the time, I was so excited to finally have a tattoo that I didn’t pay any attention to how I felt about my hip. After all, there were, unfortunately, plenty of other areas I disliked back then.
Posted in Personal
I’ve wanted to paint my stair risers in a rainbow for about a year now, and for the last 4-5 months, I’ve been thinking of painting the kitchen cabinets as well.
With our financial situation back in hand by the end of March, we went out to choose and buy paint. I’ve been industrially painting ever since.
Now that I’m done, I’m delighted with the results. It’s almost hard to believe we had a bland kitchen for so long.
Posted in Personal, and Random Reflections
Some of you may know that I used to be terrified of driving. I didn’t get my license until a couple of months after my 29th birthday. And learning to drive really only diminished my fear, it didn’t eliminate it. In the intervening nearly 4 years, I’ve hardly driven at all. In fact, I didn’t drive on the road at all until December of last year.
That’s because we only have one car, and it has a manual transmission. Jim tried, right after I got my license, to teach me to drive stick. But, he’d driven stick for long long that it was all muscle memory for him. He had trouble explaining to me what to do. And he loves his car so much that it freaked him out when I keep stalling it out.
Posted in Cat, Personal, and Random Reflections
Despite everything that has happened recently, and my last post, I still want to share this, because it holds true. Here’s hoping there are more, and larger silver linings to 2021.
So, 2020 is finally over, after an indeterminate number of years. There’s no denying that it was a terrible year for many. Or that it was a year unlike any ever seen. And, in some ways, it’s not over yet. We’re still dealing wtih most of the biggest issues of the past year.
However, among the plentiful negatives, for me at least, there were little nuggets of positive that keeps 2020 from being an unmentionable black mark in the past. I’d like to take a post to look back on the positive silver linings of 2020 as an uplifting start to 2021.
My top two items tie for first: adopting our kittens and Bumbledore’s improvement.
Posted in Personal
My brain bounces around a lot meaning many random thoughts floating through my mind. I’d like to share some of them with you.
Posted in Personal
This post is a long time coming, and I don’t really know why I’ve delayed writing it. This won’t be like the in-depth posts you’re used to me writing. Rather, it’s a photo-heavy overview to provide a little glimpse at a very special day in my life.
As you may or may not know, I got married in March. Avid fountain pen enthusiasts that my husband and I are, we decided on a fountain pen themed wedding.
We chose our wedding colors based on our favorite coordinating inks — Diamine Aqua Blue and Organics Studio Jane Austen.
Our invitations were pen-related, and, of course, addressed in fountain pen.
Posted in Personal
A little back story to my photo walk: I bought a nice, entry-level DSLR camera last year around my birthday. A Canon Rebel T5. But…
Posted in Miscellaneous Information, and Personal
Writing. The childish fascination of ink flowing unimpeded from the tip of a pen. Forming lines. Curves. Joining together to form letters, words, stories. Color…
