Now that I’ve started taking showers in the shower rather than supine in bed and am thus able to wash my hair the old-fashioned way, I've become, for perhaps the first time in my life, open to the possibility that expensive shampoo, conditioner, and styling goops might make a difference. To clarify, I in no … Continue reading (Win)hair
Although I met G by a stroke of pure luck, our friendship now seems as meant to be as anything possibly could. She and my husband were participating in the same forum at their place of work when they discovered their mutual connection to epilepsy—she lives with it, and he lives with me. After asking … Continue reading Friends with Benefits
Just a quick post to wish you all the best, no matter what/if you celebrate, in this final stretch leading to the new year. The last week has been eventful for me—the suspense!—and I’m full of gratitude, optimism, and resolve as I approach whatever 2024 has in store. At this time a year ago, I … Continue reading Solstice Wishes, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year
On Saturday, one of my best friends swung by, picked me up, and brought me to the Textile Museum of Canada (which I highly recommend, by the way). It was the first time, I think, that I’ve gone out with a friend beyond the confines of my neighbourhood, without my husband, and for such a … Continue reading Friendly Acts of Wheeling
In the space of three or four days, an unusually late burst of summer turned to weather that’s unmistakably appropriate for autumn—early winter, even. I ripped the tags off my new coat, which I felt ridiculous buying a few weeks ago, when it was uncomfortably hot out, and wore it for the first time on … Continue reading Thanks(giving)
I spent most of Saturday catching up with a friend who lives in Ottawa. It occurred to me while waiting for him to arrive that I’d last seen him more or less exactly a year ago. The circumstances then were quite different: I was in acute care at the time, I heavily relied on help … Continue reading (Re)visiting
Sometimes it seems as if my recovery is proceeding at a snail’s pace—three steps forward, two and a half steps back—and then, out of the blue, I notice a cascade of changes. Friends very generously stopped by to hang out with me on Wednesday so that my husband could go to a work function. (Thanks, … Continue reading On My Own Two Feet
That’s right, friends. In approximately an hour and after nine months, give or take, I’ll be discharged. I’d be lying if I claimed that I’m not a little nervous. Change, especially change this big, is hard. As I wrote about in much greater detail in my last post, there are major ways in which my … Continue reading Happy Home Day!
Every spring for the past many, my husband and I told ourselves that we were going to make better use of our patio, which is remarkably large for one belonging to a city apartment. In March, April, May, those shoulder months when the weather is periodically warm enough to allow you to imagine being outside … Continue reading The Patio
We celebrated the official start of summer—and my husband’s birthday, and the solstice, and amazing, lovely people—last weekend with a trip to a cottage on Lake Huron. Friends whom we consider more like extended family have a cottage in the area, and their daughter (who's also like family!) owns the one next door to theirs. … Continue reading Cottage Time
De Morbo Sacro: Life and/with Epilepsy 