Kittens also make everything better!

I had so much amazing sushi it was amazing. I watched with amusement as one friend requested lobster miso and got, literally, a bowl of miso with a lobster claw in it... in the shell, and no tools save for chopsticks. I wanted more sushi, and they let me have more sushi because I fucking could, oh my gods, even the waitress was impressed.
I walked around a shopping area at night with friends and I didn't have a cane and it was all fine, and I socialized easily with four good good people, and when I woke up in the late morning, I hurt so badly that the only way I could get out of bed and walk anywhere, say, to the bathroom, was to put myself back into a half-asleep state.

And then... then, I got asked to weigh in on a discussion about how "our organic bodies must learn to heal themselves without medicine blah blah blah" and I was too tired to give a smackdown, so I just warned that HOLY NAKED CATS CHRONIC ILLNESS AND DISABILITY DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT YOU ETERNALLY FLOATING-HEAD HIPPIE WANNABE. Never tell someone who needs certain medications to function to just quit those medications, or you will have to deal with some very, very irritated cripples.
Like, HI, this drug here, synthetically derived from that plant over there, is saving my life, and fuck you. Yes, yes, the medical community likes to "push" drugs and all, but sometimes those drugs keep people alive, so seriously shut your rainbow-dribbling mouth.
I have spent over a decade writing essays and blog posts about this, starting from that floating head holistic hippie phase of Only Supplements and Essential Oils and Meditation, to Okay This Requires a Chemical Drug So I Don't Die But Can I Still Take The Supplements to Goddammit I'm Just Going To Balance Holistics, Botanicals, and Pharmaceuticals forever.
And the next person to use the words "poison" and "Harmacy" in conversation with me will be threatened with getting hidden completely if not blocked from my forum feeds. Because I really am a serious holistic and scientific advocate for various healing plants and botanicals. I am a shaman in training. But chemicals come from various places. And sometimes, the chemicals extracted by scientists have a better effect than the pure volatile chemicals.
You think side effects from FDA drugs are bad? Eat a whole plant and spend a few hours writhing in hallucinatory agony. And GUESS WHAT: some people never even get bad side effects. Trileptal. Zoloft. Baclofen. Soma. Tramadol. Codeine. Klonopin. Guess what? I'M NOT A FUCKING ZOMBIE. Guess what else? I AM BETTER THAN I HAVE BEEN. So you know what? Float on. The cloud are gorgeous up there.
But my body cannot organically heal itself, sorry. If you're on of those people who like to say, "I'm not against pharmaceutical drugs at all, but have you ever considered just letting your body work on itself naturally?" You will be met with raucous laughter that would make the Joker question my sanity.
I have been dealing with this since my early twenties. I'm gone through the ENTIRE gamut of medicines after being raised literally on vitamins and homeopathy and various therapies and acupuncture. I will not claim to be an expert. But I've had life experience.
So hey, if you're going to cheerfully toss out a casual, callous thought about how someone shouldn't take a pill anymore and see what happens, you really don't know. You don't know. And this is why I try to go out there and help educate, advocate and activist. Because if I don't, people will remain head-floating.
I was once head-floating, and it was a good high while it lasted. This is why many of my friends are scientists, medical doctors, medical students, researchers, etc. I ask a lot of questions. Because I never want to be that head-floaty again.

Anyway. I applied a cream with special oils to my chakra points on my feet, palms, and ears, and my forehead. I took my "harmaceutical" drugs. I stretched. I did acupressure. I meditated. I did my personal compensated form of qigong (of which yoga is only a small part, so don't bother), I recited various phrases to relax myself and let my darker emotions drain away.

In conclusion: If I specifically as for opinions about something incredibly specific, I ask that people stick to that topic. Unlike my friend's post, which was derailed by a hippie wannabe who happily invalidated everyone by insisting that all we need is our own organic body to be healed. Sorry, friend. I hope that drug is going to work well for you! I've never tried it, as I haven't needed it. But I'm happy to help with research.

Anyway. Sushi makes things better. Lots and lots of sushi. Lots. Sushi.

Fooding the cats

One cat who needs to lose at least six pounds, one cat who could probably stand to lose three or four, one cat who needs to gain three or four. Since we're still free feeding, we've decided to severely limit the amount of kibble in the bowls. I'm so used to making sure both the downstairs bowl and the upstairs bowl had enough food every day certainly hasn't helped Jupiter. Now it's time to make him slim down. Luna is a little pudgy, too. Calliope is still scampering and burning elder kitten energy, but I realize that she will eat when she wants to eat and she will be fine. I just need to tamp down my anxiety and OCD issues and prepare to listen to mewing cries of "We're hungry!" at night.

Calliope, at 8.3 pounds, has some Egyptian Mau and Abyssinian in her brown striped tabby genetics, and perhaps all she needs is no more that three or four extra pounds. But we've learned that Jupiter is around 24 pounds, which is quite overweight even for a large male ginger tabby with largeness in his genes. Luna could certainly stand to drop from 15 to 13 pounds, I think - she's small enough. I don't feel guilty, just slightly irritated that I kept wanting to keep them fed. Also, Jupiter keeps eating Calliope's food, which seems much more interesting. It's Adult Cat food, since she is at least a year old, but it must have good flavors. So I'm limiting that bowl as well. Calliope has some mild disinterest in the Wysong, Blue, and Nutrisca foods, but she does eat them. I just have to remember to pour as little as possible.

Slightly unrelated:
Calliope has been sleeping pressed up against me, and starts by snuggling in the crook of my arm, her whole body touching the length of my torso, allowing her to nurse quietly against my shirt while nuzzling my neck. Her purring is soothing and very kitten-like: steady and soft and loud and comforting. When she is finished, she will wander the bed until she finds a spot against my ankles or between Adam and me. Jupiter has slept on the bed very close to her, which is very good. Luna, who has a circular bed between our pillows, is still snarling at and smacking Calliope. Females and territory. But Calliope is finding her spots and spaces, and I am definitely her person, and she is definitely my shaman comfort cat. Not like Rose. Her own medicine. Yes.

Disability Binarism is a Thing, and now I get it

You guys, you guys, Cara's post is going viral in all the right places on Facebook! And Tumblr. And other blog places. Like, holyshit, she's slowly getting famous in disability circles. I love you, Caraboo!
(BTW, Cara is a young woman with spastic cerebral palsy who created a private Facebook group for people with cerebral palsy that has exploded with hundreds of members. I have made so many friends just from there. Cara also supports people with autism, fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, all sorts of neurodiverse issues, and is generally a fantastic, truly wonderful human.)

http://thatcrazycrippledchick.blogspot.com/2013/12/this-is-what-disability-binarism-looks.html

My additional comment:

Many times, I don't use a cane to walk those twenty minutes to the grocery store or pharmacy. "Oh!" they say. "You don't have your cane! You must be feeling better!" I honestly don't see that as insulting or offensive, just simply confusing. Usually it just means I forgot the cane. I still limp everywhere.
Also, if I, at a height of four-ten, am struggling to reach a product on a high top shelf, and nobody stops to help and I need to hunt someone down to ask for help, it doesn't mean people can ignore me. I'm not creepy am I? Or worse, when there's a tall person right there in the aisle, catching me out of the corner of their eye... did you know there is a huge difference between me with a cane and me without a cane? Help comes much faster with the cane. That still confuses me. I'm still four feet ten inches. I'm still struggling to reach that shelf.
TLDR, still confused over how people react and act to physically disabled people with and without direct use of mobility aids, yada yada.