The Monarch for me is Canada. I don’t remember when I first learnt about or first saw the Monarch butterfly, but she’s fascinated me always. Imagine: the endurance to migrate the length of an entire continent; the beauty to attract the eye wherever she flies; the fealty to milkweed and the fragility of that choice;…
Tag: Personal
Gamma Wave Biofeedback, Day One
It’s been a roller coaster the last few months of hope and regression. I got a taste of what having more GABA in my brain means to good functionality. But then I was tossed out of the research trial in which I’d received the GABA-boosting research medication and the commercially available previous version didn’t work…
Recounting the Original Story for the Umpteenth Time
I have told my story a gazillion times. Well, okay, maybe not a gazillion. But between insurance docs, my docs, vocational and functional assessments for the insurers, therapists, new recent docs, it sure seems like it’s been a gazillion. So you’d think by now it would be no big deal. I could go into some…
Going into Camp NaNo Deficit
It was a tough week, writing wise. I was having trouble with where my teen romance novel was going; worse, I was having trouble with how to navigate the writing life in Canada itself. As many of you may not know, there is anti-female writer and anti-visible minority bias on the part of reviewers (and…
Has It Been Eleven Days of Camp NaNo Already?
My, time flies when you’re novelling or rather dragging your feet as your fingers make futile efforts to type. On the up side, though I fell behind in word count, though I sank into a lull, though I wanted to chuck the whole thing, I only ever missed one day of writing. And I’m pretty…
Sleep Study in the Raw: The Results
I got my results. They weren’t anything unexpected — for the most part. This was my fifth (I think … I’ve lost count) overnight sleep study, and the results of each have been pretty much the same. And the solution has been as well. I did this sleep study in the raw, that is, without…
Kouign Amann, The First Time
I was flipping through David Lebovitz’s Flipboard articles on my iPad when I came across a recipe for Kouign Amann. I’d never heard of it before, but the photos, his descriptions – I wanted! I had the ingredients on hand. I read and reread the recipe. I studied the comments from people who’d actually tried…
Jan Wong and the Muzzling of Free Speech in Canada
I caught the end of Jan Wong’s interview on Metro Morning on CBC Radio 1 Monday last week. Matt Galloway asked her why she wrote her book Out of the Blue. She answered with an experience I find so familiar. People think we have freedom of speech in Canada, but lawyers routinely muzzle Canadians. Privacy…
Clinical Trial Woes
Sooo … I was in a clinical trial recently. It was, uh, interesting being on the other side of the guinea pig fence. The drug did more than expected. And then it was taken away! But I get ahead of myself. It was March 1 when this story began. I saw a new specialist and…