Belasco

I only know her first name, & I’m not Nintendo.

Just in case it’s not general knowledge: women give out false phone numbers for safety reasons. A truly shocking number of inebriated men don’t react well to the word “no” so many women avoid the possible confrontation via evasion.

There is a woman who gives out my phone number. I was cool with it when she was giving it out to men at clubs, but she's started giving it to all kinds of sales people & along with her political donations (at least she's a Dem,) which is seriously obnoxious!

The world being a dumpster fire is likely contributing to a lot of us ME folk being more ill lately. I’m 100% here for all the complaining, it’s collective action imho. We vent & lean on the ppl who get it & that can help just enough to let us have & bring joy & relieve suffering where we can.

Fingers & toes crossed it all goes well!

But I’ve also spent the whole day listening to Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil with my spouse & our eldest son made dinner & brought it in to us.
So, I’m also feeling really loved & very lucky.

Thank you 🫂
It’s day 2 of my full dose & that + spouse cleaning our room has stopped the reactions. But man I feel foolish, I know how much stress allergies put on my body & yet I still tried to give it time.
Super PEM hit yesterday, & today’s been bad.

It just occurred to me that deciding to try halving the daily antihistamines I take for MCAS while in a crash & spending 3 days trying to tough out the hives & shaking before going back to my usual dose might have something to do with how incredibly ill I’ve been over the last few days 🤦

#neisvoid

Today I’ve swapping between Separation of Church & Hate, Chernow’s biography of Grant, & a lecture series called unsung heroes of the ancient world.
Yesterday I finished Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, & What Doesn’t Kill You.
It’s been a diverse listening journey!

Thanks to the PEM dumpster fire I’m currently in I’ve gotten to listen to a lot of books & Great Courses over the last week or so. That I’ve periodically had enough access to my brain to be able to do this is weirdly bittersweet.
I can’t necessarily speak a full sentence, but at least I can listen.

The Quiet Work of Making Life Possible Why sustainability (not effort) is the foundation of meaningful life. Abby Dec 29, 2025 Here’s a thing that’s easy to miss: Small changes rarely make a scene. They don’t announce themselves. They don’t arrive with a before-and-after photo. They’re not marked as milestones. They don’t even feel especially satisfying at first. Sometimes they feel almost… disappointing. Too small. Too ordinary. Too quiet to matter. Easy to dismiss. Easy to forget. And yet (and this is the part I keep returning to gain and again) they’re often the exact changes that hold everything together. I’ve watched this pattern long enough that it’s hard to unsee. In work with people living with energy-limiting conditions, the moves that restore a sense of life aren’t dramatic. They’re precise. They’re humble. They tend to slip under the radar because they don’t look like progress the way we’ve been taught to recognize it.

No long list of tips in this particular blog post by this knowledgeable OT but I agree with the general points e.g. small changes in things like energy conservation and routines can make worthwhile differences.

onelifelivedwell.substack.com/p/the-quiet-...

#MEcfs #LongCovid #CFS #PwME #POTS

1/

I think of it like incremental gains.
I had a physical therapist who did competitive cycling & he introduced me to the idea. It’s used a lot in high end sports. The idea is every .01% gained is important.
For me, it’s about having that famous last spoon in my back pocket for the ppl who matter most.

Whelp, I’m already in a particularly unpleasant me/cfs crash & doing the groundhog day routine so I don’t think this one will hit as hard as it usually does.

Gotta find those silver linings where one can!

An almost B&W photo (but not!) of waves receding over some rocks on a black sand beach. In the distance are some mountain peaks under thick grey cloud, the tops obscured.

Even without the mountains showing, Stokksnes is still really special. Bit obsessed with these rocks!

#Iceland

having a chronic illness means that i don't have the luxury of waiting until i 'feel better' to live my life

True, but sometimes I can't get out of bed.

"What's something you've never tried in the bedroom but want to?" Me: Getting a full 8 hours of sleep and waking up actually refreshed with a desire to live.

Just laying here, 2hrs after taking an Ambien waiting for it to win the battle against the extreme wired but tired part of this me/cfs crash.

When I’m not in a crash Ambien will reliably knock me out, it’s a decent measure of how bad the PEM is :/

#neisvoid

I feel this.
Thankfully (??) I’m too sick to have a job, but many people I know have had to learn to use various LLMs in order to keep up their addictions to things like rent & groceries.

It’s honestly surprising how many jobs have come to require using “ai” as part of the job just in the last year

Dumbass - I’ll say the rest in DMs because generalizing white, straight, cis women of a certain age publicly online probably isn’t a good idea
<.<

Dear Cis Men of the MAGA Cult,

You’re not fooling anyone.

Sincerely,
Everyone else in the world

Randomly remembering the time I was being transported by ambulance in between hospitals for heart issues w/a f’ing nitro patch on my chest & had an EMT try to start a fight w/me bc I took Norco but am allergic to codeine.
10yrs on & I still hope someone hit her over the head w/a basic chem book 🤬

My spouse got hearing aids a few days ago. He’d put it off bc of the stigma of aging (I’m older), we learned 2 things:
1. His hearing loss is not at all age related
2. Like most ppl, if he’d gotten them sooner he’d have less loss

Bonus:
I was not over reacting to how gross the dog licking sounds!

Every time I have a bad #me/cfs stretch I find myself thinking in absolutes, & forgetting every good moment I’ve had.
I understand the brain wiring reasons for it, but it still really sucks. I’m grateful for my family’s reminders that it’s not always like this, even if I totally don’t believe them
👀

🫂

My recently gained cynicism makes me wonder what prompted the change, though I feel like I should just be grateful that people are masking at all & that you got that extra bit of protection

Good on you for going!!
I know how important that stuff is & how difficult it is to go do.

I haven’t managed even 1 of those yet (& I’m 51). I got sick just before they’re recommended & my priorities shifted. A lot of maintenance med appts are on semi-permanent hold. C’est la vie.

When I was in my 2nd trimester w/my 1st kid one day I woke up & wasn’t hurting. I was 21yrs old, & hadn’t realized I was /always/ in pain. It lasted until my kiddo was a couple of weeks old.
Said kiddo is 30yrs old now & I vividly remember those few months - it was absolutely wild to experience!

Yeah, I’ve decided they’re all just pretending

a comic of a guy in future type clothing looking at rifles on the wall and ammo below it and ghouls or zombies are trying to get int the room "shoot, i forgot why i came in here." Artist: @ToonHoleChris

Artist: @ToonHoleChris on Insta

Thank you!

I’ll look into it tomorrow (provided my brain kicks back in) & I really do appreciate both the hug & the info!

I kept getting part way through writing replies & hitting a wall. I gave up & decided to watch YouTube w/my Spouse. He put on a channel about basic physics we both enjoy & I had to ask him to stop it bc I couldn’t grasp any of it.
I’d be frustrated, but I’m too tired to be anything.

#neisvoid