So, my latest blog for the Huffington Post is up, in which I’m talking about a subject which can get many people up in arms (just read the comments if you don’t believe me) – disabled parking spots.
Why Parking in a Disabled Spot Without a Badge Is Never Okay
The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.
1. I was supposed to post this yesterday for ‘Friday (Non)Fiction’ but I forgot. Oops. Anyway, I have written another piece for the Huffington Post about hair-discrimination (I kid you not). I guess at least my hair colour is a choice, unlike race, gender, disability etc…
2. Talking of yesterday, whilst I wasn’t posting the above link, I was feeling extremely happy. Nope, not for any exciting reason. I was just happy for no reason at all. It was most splendid!
3. I now have two-thirds of my Regency article written, and am enjoying it more and more. I need to pull the strings together and write a conclusion (possibly “if leeches and blood-letting were conventional medicine, I think I might try alternative routes, too!”), and then edit the hell out of it. (Pretty much all writers will tell you that ‘editing the hell out of it’ is a big part of their job.)
4. My ex-work have very kindly offered to let me keep the baby dalek…. sorry, the small mobility scooter… that the Access For Work scheme provided. This makes me almost as mobile as an able-bodied person, so it is extremely exciting!
Also, on a brief digression, I got the baby dalek two years ago from Herne Bay Mobility – an excellent place with an Actual Dalek in their shop! The lovely David there also told me about Sci Fi By The Sea – which by a coincidence I will be attending again tomorrow 🙂
5. I’ve been planning holidays for this summer and next easter/summer (date as yet undecided), which is very much fun.
6. Having been attempting and failing to do anything with dieting over the last month or so, I actually lost some weight this week. I then went out for a lovely meal as it was my father’s birthday, which probably means that I lose all the benefit, but both the weight loss and the meal were very pleasing.
The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.
1. Wow, I am really happy that my blog entry ‘Five Things People With CFS/ME Would Be Happy Never To Hear Again (And What We’d Like You To Say)’ has done so well. Obviously, after 22 years living with ME, it’s an area really close to my heart and I’m so glad that it resonated with so many other people. (Well, sort of glad – I’m really sorry how many people with this illness have heard the same unhelpful things I have, but I hope that maybe a few more people might understand now.)
2. The ‘Dark Lord Funk’ version of ‘Uptown Funk’ (a beautiful Harry Potter parody) has made me so happy. I have no shame in saying that I’m a Harry Potter fan, and it incorporated so many parts of the original books and films into it – words, phrases, even the film’s theme music – that it was perfect. Love it.
3. I have a new (to me) car! After a couple of weeks without one, it is so great to have the freedom to get about. When your mobility is as limited as mine is (very), life is very curtailed without a car. I’m still getting used to its quirks, but I’m sure it will come.
4. On a slightly more mundane level, I managed to take my anti-migraine medicine the other day before the migraine took hold. I was still under the weather, but when I get migraines I can get frighteningly ill, and I managed to avoid that.
5. I had a parents’ meeting at Child’s school last week. Child is doing very well at maths (which doesn’t surprise me – he’s the sort of kid who thinks ‘mental maths problems’ is a great game to play in the car) and he seems happy at school. (That doesn’t surprise me, either – I ask him after school each day whether he’s had a good day and he always says yes. I got paranoid that maybe it was just a reflexive response, so I asked him if he’d tell me if he hadn’t had a good day, and he said “Of course!” So apparently, he really does have a good day every day!)
6. I’m really looking forward to going on holiday next week with my extended family. Thirteen of us! I’m expecting chaos…
So, I wrote my first piece for the Huffington Post blog today, so I think that really has to be today’s FF.
Hello, I’m Penelope Friday. I am a disabled mother: I’ve had a diagnosis of moderate to severe ME/CFS for 22 years, and a diagnosis of fibromyalgia for 1 day (yes, really. No thank you, in the nicest possible way, I don’t want to know what you advise for either of them). I have a very wonderful son of nine, but when he was a pre-schooler, I had a horrendous amount of trouble getting him to pre-school. I have been reminded of this recently because my car – fairly vital when you can barely walk – has unfortunately gone the way of all things mechanical. And I’m back to relying on… well, that little (or, in my case, big) bit of help from my friends.
penelopefriday 