Tag: London

Posted in Blogs, Chocolate, Food, kindness, satire

We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Blog

Posted on by D. Parker

The last few months have been chaotic and I think it’s made me into a Cotton-Headed Ninny Muggins! I’ve been inattentive to my blogging family, that’s on me, not you; I’m sorry I ruined your blogging lives and crammed 11 cookies 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪 into your blogging VCR.

Life has been having a tantrum: throwing snowballs, gum drops, lemons and even some chocolate covered curve balls at me – I’m working hard to catch them all without injuries.

Watched a lot of TV shows and Movies (more on that in next post), read and re-read some books, organized, played cards with friends (learned Quiddler which sounds vaguely dirty but is actually just a fun word game). I traveled through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest (London is called “The Forest City”, but I think a more apt title would be: “The Concrete, Cannabis, Callous and Construction City”, past the sea of twirly-swirly gum drops (eww, I don’t think those are gum drops), and then I walked through the London streets (and alive to tell the tale, more or less)…

A delightful friend treated me, as a birthday (yeah. had another one of those) treat to Elf: The Musical here at The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. It was a delight. The cast wasn’t just talented, they were effervescent. They sparkled. They shone. They danced and sang their way into our hearts. From young to old (er), they were brave and bold (er), giving us the gifts of their song, laughter, movement, and magic. It’s just nice to know another human who shares my affinity for elf culture.

My health has been most disagreeable. My body isn’t a winter wonderland. And on top of that I’ve made a life decision or maybe life made it for me, I’m moving away from the city where I’ve lived for over 35 years, to be closer to family.

Feeling like I’m in a perpetual state of sticker shock every time I go into a grocery store or any other store, including online. Inflation is fun. So like many, I’ve had to make some lifestyle adjustments though we vague meanderings of the broke and obscure bloggers try to stick to the four main food groups: chocolate bars/candy bars 🍫, chocolate chips (and even in pancakes https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/17/well-always-have-pancakes/ 🥞🥞🥞), chocolate cake, chocolate brownies, chocolate fudge, chocolate donuts/doughnuts 🍩, chocolate ice cream, hot chocolate (tip: if you have extra or leftover chocolate, wait, is that even a thing, use it to make yummy hot chocolate or add it to hot tea or coffee, it’s addictive).

And chocolate lovers, don’t be chocolate killers, don’t throw out your chocolate because it looks grey or white – that’s just bloom! Yes, fat and sugar bloom make chocolate look weird, but it still tastes great and has the same shelf life. Fat bloom is when there are changes in the fat crystals in the chocolate. Sugar bloom is when crystals form by adding some form moisture on the sugar (you’ve probably seen this when you try to store chocolate in your fridge or freezer, but a moist cupboard can do the trick too). 🍫 Also, there’s a trick to fixing it. If you melt down your bloomed chocolate, stir it, pour into a mold and let it cool, boom no more bloom! Honestly chocolate goes so fast for me it never has time to bloom! 🍫🍫🍫

I’m glad I’m finally back here with you. I’ve planned out our blogging days. First we make blog snow angels for two hours (I’d really last about a minute and someone would have to help me up), then we’ll go blog ice skating (which will consist of me falling down a lot), then we’ll eat a whole roll of blog cookie dough (doh!) as fast as we can (sounds like an average day), and then to finish, we’ll blog snuggle. Hmm, we’re gonna need a bigger blog…

https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/02/02/theres-no-crying-in-blogging/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/

I made mistakes, including but not limited to going into stores (especially in December, it was just like Santa’s Workshop except it smelled like mushrooms and everyone looked like they wanted to hurt me, or spray me with smelly stuff or offer me samples of, um, food, sure let’s call it that)…the only thing scarier than stores is getting to them. People keep saying self-driving cars worry them, I say, bring them on, they really can’t be worse than many drivers out there. Talk to me, Goose.

I’ve tried to keep my spirits up, so I keep singing! I was in a store and I was singing! If they don’t want you to sing in stores why do they play music? Fair question.

The best way to spread cheer all year round is singing loud for all to hear. Again, if they don’t want you singing loud for all to hear, why do they play music in public places like: stores, malls, restaurants, etc.? Seriously.

Until next time, I hope you can find some peace in this turbulent, topsy-turvy world.

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Posted in Chronic Conditions

They’re creepy and they’re kooky…

Posted on by D. Parker

Guess what? I won! I entered a contest, on a whim, to win tickets to the Seniors (High School) London Performing Arts Academy (London, Ontario, Canada Not-for-Profit School of The Arts) interpretation of The Addams Family musical.

Funny jokes, snap snap, cotton candy, snap snap, audience laughter, snap snap, and musical notes surrounded us, offering the most elusive thing as society struggles…joy. For a couple of hours I was in the Addams mansion, laughing, tapping my feet, and snapping my fingers.

Some highlights: George Crosby as the dashing Gomez Addams brought smiles, laughter, and applause (cara mia).

Uncle Fester, played to distraction by Juan Ambrosio-Ungson stole every scene he was in.

Maddie Carrick brought her vision of the enigmatic Morticia Addams to life death with soaring vocals, dance, tight black dress, and humour.

Lauren Atkinson was a love-struck version of Wednesday Addams, whose impressive vocals pulled us in many directions.

Dylan Lale was comedically candid as Grandma Addams.

Leland Chafee was a treat as the tortured teen, Pugsley.

Mackenna Van Massenhoven was a sheer delight as the ever-changing Alice Beineke, wow, what a voice.

Also, kudos to Will Deman as Lucas Beineke, Xavier Kitching as Mal Beineke, Max Loblaw as Lurch and The Addams Ancestors were entertaining and diverting, in the best way possible.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but this ain’t your Mom’s high school musical; I was impressed by the talent, enthusiasm, and effort all the players brought to the stage. The singing was superb, the choreography swell, and the sets subtle (but effective).

London Performing Arts Academy The Addams Family

Only time and love can brew such a darkly delicious stew. They were, as promised, creepy and kooky, mysterious and ooky…Thank you all for the magical night.

London Performing Arts Academy
They're creepy and they're kooky...thankfully. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/20/hide-and-shriek-with-the-addams-family/

Yup, they’re out there, the indies (independents, not the big bucks), waiting. Indie authors (https://yadadarcyyada.com/2021/05/21/how-i-met-your-author/), artists and performing artists galore. Your community and other communities have so much to offer, locally. Art classes and exhibitions, bird watching, cooking/food, nature walks, theater, concerts, plays, gardening, trivia nights, history, craft shows, haunted walks, plants, pottery, paintings, poetry, films, fashion, festivals, fantasy…fun. I visited Museum London for an art show/tour (free).

Meryl McMaster (Canadian, b. 1988), Edge of a Moment, 2017, archival inkjet photograph on paper, Collection of Museum London; Purchase, John H. and Elizabeth Moore Acquisition Fund, 2017

Know what else is indie and free? The support group I founded to help those with chronic conditions, Chronic Not Hopeless (chronicnothopeless@gmail.com), yup, free Zoom activities for anyone, anywhere. Sadly, lots of stuff isn’t free, like chocolate, candy, ice cream, and tea, but with inflation, shopping the sales makes you patient. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2022/01/21/cant-buy-me-love/

So it’s good to step outside your comfort zone, literally and figuratively. For those with chronic conditions, anytime leaving home is can be a big adventure. You have to have a plan within a plan within a plan, so basically, planception. You need your gargoyles in a row, or at least know where your gargoyles are, in the relative scheme of things. So I had a plan and everything went as planned…no, better than planned.

Sometimes, creepy and kooky is a good thing. Does anyone remember The Addams Family motto? “Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc” or “We Gladly Feast on Those Who Would Subdue Us”. Maybe we should update it to, “Veritas numquam perit” or “Truth never perishes”…but the truth can be bought, sold, stolen, hidden, maimed, incapacitated, disfigured, kidnapped, horribly mangled, lost. We need to protect it before it does perish.

Posted in Fibromyalgia, Uncategorized

Chronic Suckage

Posted on by D. Parker

Lazy. Crazy. Whiner. Hypochondriac. Attention-seeking. All in your head.   “Fibromyalgia is just another word for lazy.” yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/31/fibromylagia-is-just-another-word-for-lazy/ 

And the classic, “But you don’t look sick”. Feel free to add more. I think I’ve heard them all…but you never know.

Yup, I got 99 Problems and Fibromyalgia (Fibromialgia) is all of them…or at least it makes any problem much much much much worse.

I won’t bore you with all the symptoms:

  • Extreme, endless fatigue (I’ve never heard, “everyone gets tired”…sigh).

  • Extreme, endless all-over-body-pain 24/7/365 (“everyone has pain, especially as they get older” – how do you presume to know my pain or anyone else’s pain but yours?).

  • Dry eyes/mouth.

  • Hair loss.

  • IBS (Oh joy, love nothing more than talking about my bowels to: doctors, family, friends, strangers, interns, readers…”What did you want to be when you grow up?” “Constipated.”).

  • Dizziness.

  • Clumsiness.

  • Nausea.

  • Depression (tough not to be depressed by all this).

  • Sleep issues (screw off Alpha waves, no one wants you here).

  • Mood disorders (maybe my many, many moods are just as ordered as they should be).

  • Headaches/migraines.

  • Restless leg syndrome.

  • Anxiety (pick a kind, any kind).

  • Tender points (misnomer, not tender, excruciating, but trigger points make sense).

  • Fibrofog (what was I saying?).

  • Memory and learning problems, like, aah, like, well, there’s Fibrofog (what was I saying?).

  • Scattered thoughts (dust in the wind, all my thoughts are dust in the wind).

  • Numbness.

  • Tingling (not the good kind).

  • Shakiness (not the good kind).

  • TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome).

  • Painful and frequent urination.

  • You may notice a pattern here, #Pain!

  • Sharp pain, stabbing pain, dull aching pain, burning pain, throbbing pain (Beavis and Butthead laugh for 5 minutes now about “throbbing”).

  • Extreme sensitivity to: light, noise, sounds, smells, temperatures, humidity, dryness, changes in the weather (especially extreme heat or cold, fun in Canada, eh).

  • Also, to tastes, textures (Princess and the Pea was written about someone with Fibromyalia, for sure).

  • Stiffness (not the fun kind).;

  • Especially morning stiffness (not the fun kind).

  • Let’s not forget Allodynia.

  • Itching (like, bugs-under-your-skin-when-jonesing-kind-of-itching, er, for chocolate, my drug of choice).

  • Waking up feeling like you’ve been run over by a truck or attacked by a Terminator or zombie (brains?) – We are The Walking Dead.

  • And don’t even get me started on surviving the Holidaze, er, holidays – Christmas, New Year’s Eve, birthdays, Easter, Thanksgiving, Black Friday (it’s counted as a holiday now, right?), actually I can do CyberMonday, and they’re lined up to take me out for Valentine’s Day…

I could go on and on (really), but you get the point.

It sucks.

Chronic suckage.

What can anyone do to try to help chronic suckage?

  • Pills/medications (anti this, anti that, pro this, pro that, SSRIs, SNRIs, NSAIDs, PB&J – checking if you were still paying attention, lotions, notions, rubs, gels – not the fun kind – vitamins, supplements, opioids, snake oil, gargoyle oil, and on and on).

  • Exercise.

  • Natural remedies.

  • Injections.

  • Yoga.

  • Meditation.

  • Deep breathing (keep breathing).

  • Tai Chi (saved my life).

  • Change of diet (I do FODMAP, look it up, you’ll hate it).

  • Massage (no happy endings).

  • Physical therapy.

  • Rest/relaxation/Self-Care.

  • CBT, CBD, CBC, CBA, COD…

  • Trials.

  • Errors.

It’s all just fleeting moments of feeling almost human.

And if all wasn’t bad enough, many people assume this invisible disability is and let’s see if I have this right, a conspiracy wherein the medical profession has effectively implemented a fake syndrome just to cater to lazy people (wasn’t that nice of them?). Perfectly reasonable, it’s not as if doctors have anything better to do. Or have reputations and licenses to protect. Or have ethics. What exactly would their motivation be? Why make up an illness, aren’t there already enough? Cancer alone should keep them hopping.

There are many health issues that can not be found through standardized testing, for example: Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, Cerebral Palsy, Parkinson’s, Autism, Lupus, ADD/ADHD, wheat or gluten ‘sensitivity’, acute back pain, as well as many mental health issues. So they don’t suffer, don’t feel – it’s all some magical conspiracy…

People like to mock. I get that. It’s become a past-time, even a job for some people, especially in the internet age. I also get those same people would want/expect doctors and people to believe them if they were ill, even if there was no standardized testing for their illness.

To the best of my knowledge, there’s no standardized testing for ignorance or stupidity yet either, but I’d buy stocks for that booming business.

I didn’t ask to be ill. Given the choice I’d be “normal”. I certainly didn’t ask to be mocked and harassed because I’m ill. Even if it was just ‘in my head’, shouldn’t anyone with a health issue be treated with dignity and respect? Maybe we need a standardized test for intolerance.

So how do I cope with ongoing agonizing pain, debilitating fatigue and all the other heaping piles of steaming sh*t that comes with Fibromyalgia aka chronic suckage? If you’re a reader of my blog you know, I think laughter is the best medicine. Laughing even if it hurts sometimes still makes me feel better. I go to a happy place like Psych or George Carlin, Seinfeld, Friends, The Office and more. Tons of laughter a day doesn’t keep the doctor away, but it gives me some quality of life.https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/12/31/lessons-learned-goodbye-2017/

For example, this was one of my Tweets, “When I see a thong in a store all I think is, how would I explain to #EMTs all my multiple injuries were caused by just trying on a thong. Huh. #ThatsHot #thongs“. @yadadarcyyada 

I love to share the laughter. If I can make someone smile, laugh, giggle, chortle, spew liquid from their nose, then hey, I feel better. Treatments, medications, family, friends and finding a community that gets you, that understands when you have to cancel plans (again)…

Or you can’t remember, ummm, can’t remember, er, huh…and the only good thing you can say about your day is you’re “above ground”, well, anyway.

The thing is, people are just people – no matter how rich or poor; sick (this is an equal opportunity destroyer) or well; all sizes, shapes and shades; known or unknown – you don’t know what you’re missing if you don’t give people a chance. Some will let you down, disappoint, hurt your brain, your heart, your body, but they’re oddly beneficial, they help us appreciate the good ones even more.

Get out there, in person, online, by phone, text, email, do stuff, I don’t know, play cards, smile, knit, donate (give what you can, including your time and talents), bowl, cuddle, talk, sign, sing, walk, dance, embrace your crapathy https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/25/crapathy/

swim, skate, scuba (gate?), especially smile at children, jog, blog, snog (probably not at the same time unless you’re uber talented), ignore, don’t keep score it’s a bore, read, write, compose, doodle, paint, play, bike, hike, “Like”, bake (me a cake? https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/09/16/you-had-me-at-cake/),

listen, learn, love, add to the world, be part of the solution, go out with friends, care, share, spend time with family, get to know people, smile some more (and more and more and more)!!!

Be kind, be thoughtful, be compassionate https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/20/compassion-never-goes-out-of-style/

Consider others, let your mind soar. I can’t say you won’t ever be sorry, some folks are baffling, but on a whole, you’ll be better for it (and they will be too).

Not asking anyone to feel sorry for me (although compassion and empathy are always welcome), just a reminder that everyone has problems, 99 or less, 99 or more, just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there…so don’t be one of those problems.

Originally published: https://yadadarcyyada.com/2019/11/22/99-problems-and-fibromyalgia-is-all-of-them/

 

Posted in Autism, Books, Movies, Televison

Sherlock

Posted on by D. Parker

holmes7Just the name is shiver-inducing.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s timeless masterpiece continues to capture the imagination of millions worldwide and so the adaptations of the occupants of 221B Baker Street continue.

While I still have a soft spot for Basil Rathbone, my first Sherlock, I find room enough for Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller.

holmes1

Though the BBC series, Sherlock is darker and more true to Doyle’s vision of his Aspergerian detective who solves cases not because he cares as he feels compelled.

I enjoyed Monk with the truly amazing Tony Shalhoub which I always thought was a thinly-veiled Sherlock adaptation.

Also, House MD starring the incomparable Hugh Laurie in which Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as a doctor who detected.house1I also see some of Holmes in shows like Psych and The Mentalist. All characters are amazing detectives who appear to lack empathy and social skills yet end up helping people massively.holmes2

Other actors to have played Sherlock Holmes on screen, stage and radio include: Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Peter O’Toole, Matt Frewer, Frank Langella, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Brent Spiner, Stewart Granger, John Gielgud, Peter Cook, Raymond Massey, John Barrymore, Harry Arthur Saintsbury, Leonard Nimoy, Jonathan Pryce, Jeremy Brett, Charlton Heston, Rupert Everett, James D’Arcy, Viggo Larson, Christopher Plummer, Larry the Cucumber, Orson Welles, and more.I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the first three seasons of Sherlock (4th on the way) and am still enjoying Elementary on CBS.holmes5

So what is it that keeps so many of us returning to Sherlock Holmes over and over?
Is it the mystery?
The intrigue?
The clues?
The brilliance of his mind?
I think it’s all that and the friendship between Holmes and Watson and Mrs. Hudson.
As much as Sherlock can be annoying, he is also strangely endearing and we want to visit his exceptional, fascinating mind…just visit.holmes4

So whatever adaptation of Sherlock Holmes you enjoy, it’s lovely to see the game is still afoot after all these years.holmes6