Questions

I posted this terrific post by Wheelchair Kamikaze regarding CCSVI to a couple of Facebook groups. This post is thorough and thoughtful and explains better than I could why I am cautiously optimistic about CCSVI and the "Liberation procedure" but not completely sold.

I was then attacked via Facebook messages by people who were completely happy to drink the Zamboni Flavor Aid and were *ANGRY* at me for not being as thrilled and ecstatic about the *cure* as they were.

Oh "ye of little faith"! I, like a lot of us with M.S., am very excited about this treatment if only for the spotlight that this discovery casts on this disease! Don't dash our hopes with your negativity!

That's the only one I didn't delete. The other ones were just fucking rude, like I was purposely trying to piss all over their day by pointing out the obvious unknowns about CCSVI!

I was told that I must be so incredibly disabled that I've just lost all hope and now I can't stand to see other people happy.

I was told that I just needed to get on the MS Recovery Diet and I'll never have an attack again.

I was told to "Think Positively", "Accept Jesus into (my) heart!" and "Count my Blessings! (I'm) not Dying!"

(All Y'all KNOW how much I love being "Brightsided". Fucking gives me the warm fuzzies ALL OVER.)

To recap, all I did was share a well thought out and researched post about CCSVI and then people felt it necessary to send me messages trying to make me feel bad for not believing what they believe.

WHY do people do that?

I disagree with a LOT of what people post to the internet (I have a Twitter account for crying out loud.) but I don't find it necessary to privately message them to tell them that they are wrong for what they think or believe about their own medical condition, even if they are wrong and I know that they will suffer for it. ;)

It's not like I'm some Glen Beck fan spouting crazy in public.




PS.

I'll be back tomorrow, it's a big day.

Listography 9 - List the People You Love the Most

(Other than the first three the remainder of the list is random as long as its understood that I love Lady Gaga MORE than Simon, Finn and Virgil. Possibly combined.)

1. Joe Kidwell
2. My mum.
3. My grandma.
4. Erin
5. Drew
6. Joe's mum.
7. Lady Gaga
8. Simon
9. Smart people.
10. Mrs. Gillespie (though I'm pretty sure she's dead. What the hell, I'll add dead people to this list.)
11. Finn
12. Whomever created the Colagallo. (It's a cocktail that includes tequila AND Coca-Cola!)
13. Louise Arbour
14. Coco Chanel (see? More dead people!)
15. Virgil
16. Cathy Hickson (also dead, but most of you don't know her)
17. Sherry Trafford? Meuris?
18. Christian Louboutin
19. Oscar
20. Ben
21. Donna

"If you say you're not a feminist, you're almost denying your own existence...

...To be a feminist is to be alive."

- Margaret Cho

It was almost 20 years ago *exactly* that I had my first feminist awakening, though I wouldn't have called it that at the the time. I was 15 and passionate about very little but partying, carrying on and trying to be accepted by my peer group. I had had my introduction to the greater human rights community about a year earlier, but it was all a little bit "big" for me to get my head around . The problems of the women of the world certainly would never come to affect me and my life in small town Ontario.

I'm not sure if it was the next day or the day after that that I saw the newspapers and saw the "honour roll" of young women's faces, with their names and ages listed below, but the events at École Polytechnique on December 6, 1989 changed my life forever even though I was miles and miles from the blood and fear. What was becoming clear to me was the fact that there were men in this world who hated me.

They hated me, not because I had done anything to harm them, but because I was a female who had the crazy idea that women were equal to, but different from, men. I was young teenager moving far too quickly to adulthood, but I understood at that moment, on that day...

by looking at the faces, the names and the ages on the front page of the newspaper...

that my life as a woman in Canada would never be the same.

I was 15 years old and I was taught the lessons...

- that there were men in my own country who would like to kill me for going to school.

- that there were men in my own country who were threatened by my mere existence on this planet.

- that there were men in my own country who saw me only as a house cleaning, 5'6" blow job & baby birthing machine, there to pander to the whim of any man who would graciously have me.

That's a big moment. That's the kind of moment that inspires fear and loathing, but also a little bit of hope.

By the time I was 25 I had fully embraced the feminist descriptor for myself, but it probably took me another 5 or 10 to fully accept the responsibility that goes with that.

I'm not a "Feminism 101" type, but I do subscribe to the radical notion that women are human and equal and have the right and ability to make their own choices... even if those choices aren't what I would agree with. Autonomy and choice. That's what feminism is to me.

When I think Geneviève, Hélène, Nathalie, Barbara, Anne-Marie, Maud , Maryse, Maryse, Anne-Marie, Sonia, Michèle, Annie, Annie and Barbara, I'm sorry that it had to come to this. I think of them often, not just on this anniversary, but when I think about the responsibility I have for my own life.

It was in their lives ending that I started my own and I feel as though I am standing on the shoulders of giants. I will never forget sitting down at my parents' kitchen table with the front page of the newspaper looking at those faces, names and ages.

I will never forget.

Listography 8 - List Things Most People Probably Don't Know About You

1. My bladder is one-third larger than it should be.
2. I only watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas up to the point where the Grinch steals Christmas and then I change the channel.
3. My favourite holiday is my birthday, but I tell everyone its Thanksgiving.
4. Pepsi is NEVER a substitute for Coca-Cola.
5. My heroes are Louise Arbour, Margaret Cho and Joe Kidwell.
6. I know the lyrics to every Def Leppard song from the Pyromania and Hysteria albums.
7. I don't like plain chocolate, even really expensive plain chocolate. I need to have nuts, caramel or nougat in it for me to eat chocolate.
8. I've never had cornbread. I had never had biscuits and gravy until I was 33.
9. I am pro-gun control mostly because people like me should never be allowed to own guns.
10. I cry every day, but I never do it in front of anyone.
11. I realized that I felt bad about not having a relationship with either of my sisters because it makes my mum feel bad, but I would LOVE to have a greater relationship with my brother.

Listography 7 - List the strangest places you've had sex

Uh, mum?

Hi.

I'm not going to do this list. For your safety and mine.

Not that I am a member of the mile high club or anything, it's just that you might read this and that would be gross.

Quick update:

1. I am working 40 hours a week for an over 80 year old accountant. Yeah, it's as fun as it sounds.

2. Fatigue and heat sensitivity are still largely at bay.

3. I know what I have to do but I really lack the discipline and/or interest to do it.

4. Football day has inspired me to dance to ABBA, Lady Gaga, Diana Ross and Madonna. I also got the much needed manicure and pedicure out of the way.

5. I've figured out that wine isn't really for me, so I'm going to become a connoisseur of cocktails.

6. I've decided that whatever it is I end up doing with my life, it should come with a large gay following.

7. I cut my left index finger in a tragic bagel incident a few days ago and man is it gross. I just changed the dressing today and realized I probably should have went for a stitch or some glue. Meh.

8. I don't think there is a number 8. I can't think of anything else.

9. Any questions?