Health is overrated Articles

How to spend all your money without really trying

Whoops, I left another one of those long gaps, huh? I didn't mean to. I've just been so busy crying, you see. [Sidebar: EVERYTHING IS FINE. It's so fine, it's all-caps fine. I have to keep reminding myself of this. EVERYTHING IS FINE.] When I last left you, my awesome rainbow chairs were finished, but also so was our fridge. I was trying to just go with it, you know? Because the rainbow rockers truly are awesome. (In fact, they're so awesome, recently a gruff, busy-on-his-cell-phone UPS man embodying every stereotype you might imagine came up the walkway, saw the chairs, and when I greeted...

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This post is covered in pollen

Hello! Sorry it's been so long. In my defense, I was busy dying. I mean, OKAY, not DYING dying, just dying a little bit. Dying in the "dear God, I have woken up with a massive headache every day this week" and the "do I have a cold? a sinus infection? BUBONIC PLAGUE IN MY NOSE??" sense, which is to say: it's springtime in the south! The whole world is covered in a grainy yellow coating, my eyes are itchy, etc. Everyone is making the same joke about how meth dealers are trying to turn their product back into Sudafed, and we all laugh every single time, because what else can you do? Well, I...

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Our healthcare dollars at work

Before I begin, let me just say 1) I didn't mean to leave you hanging on that last post, I swear, and 2) THANK YOU for all the nice comments and emails. February/March (Farch, as one commenter called it, which I shall use forevermore) is hard on a lot of us, huh? I'm really glad it's almost April. Also I am (finally) feeling somewhat better, so do not fret. But that is not why I am here today. OH HO HO HO, no. I am here today to tell you the story of why for-profit health insurance companies do not work and why when politicians start wringing their hands about how EXPENSIVE universal...

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You’re gonna be so sorry you asked

Hey, Mir, how's your week been? OH WELL I HOPE YOU HAVE SOME TIME TO SPEND! Pull up a chair! Grab a cup of tea, and maybe a few benzodiazepines. Whatever. Let's start last Saturday, because why not? Monkey has had a cold which has morphed into a sinus infection, and Otto has remained healthy because 1) Otto never gets sick and 2) Otto is rarely actually home, and I spent most of my spare time since the first sniffle washing my hands every ten seconds. Because I would NOT get sick, damnit! I have no time! And this time, I would escape it! So: SATURDAY Otto and I puttered around the house for...

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A very special love language

Obviously my husband is a very special person TO ME, but in 2018 he became a lot more important to a bunch of other people as well, people like his boss and several boards of various Important Things, and so it seemed like he was busy or just plain not here for large segments of the year. Well, 2019 would be different, of course, because he's really going to pull back on the travel this year. He said. And he meant it, I'm sure. That was the intention. Otto has very good intentions. (Also, he's cute. And recently our dishwasher drain clogged up somehow and he fixed it like some sort of home...

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So those things happened

And now it's 2019. Remember all of those years when Otto and I approached the new year swearing that 20whateverwascoming was gonna be "our year" finally? We don't do that, anymore. As we approached 2019, Otto turned to me one evening and said, "2022! That's definitely going to be our year." At first I was horrified, and then I couldn't stop laughing, and Otto grinned and said, "At least I can still make you laugh." It's a good thing we don't need a special year for that. I know the last post was a big ol' wall of catch-up. On Christmas one of the gifts I unwrapped was a pen and a journal,...

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Pretend this is our belated holiday card

Dear Everyone, Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Festive Festivus! Joyous Kwanzaa! Happy Freakin' New Year (please dear baby Jesus let 2019 be less of a dumpster fire than 2018, amen)! Or enjoy grumpy Grinch-ing. Whatever. You pick. I just wanted to wish you and yours a bounty of whatever floats your boat during this ridiculous season of both joy and frustration, generosity and over-commercialism, gratitude and guilt. Or maybe that's just me. Again: whatever the season means to you, hooray! Enjoy it. This letter is both overdue and far less interesting than you probably suspect. 2018 has been...

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Hurricane, redux

I recently received a kind but somewhat plaintive "If you're never going to write again could you at least TELL us" message and then I felt guilty because guilt is my go-to emotion. (My second go-to emotion is anger, which is a real treat for those around me, lemme tell you.) I never INTEND to stop writing. I just... don't... for a while... and then inertia kicks in, and before I know it, months have passed. I do miss the days when my children were small and cherubic and uncomplicated and everything out of their mouths was entertaining and I had endless blog material simply from the...

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How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Or: Summer's Almost Over And All I Have To Show For It Is A This Eye Twitch. Or: My Children Came Home From College And All I Know For Sure Is That There Are Now Cheese Stick Wrappers In Weird Places All Over My House. Or: Summer's Almost Over But My Saltiness Shall Go On Forever. So HEY, remember how I mentioned that this summer has completely and totally sucked and most of it I can't even talk about but long story summed up, I strongly suspect I was a serial killer in a former life, and am now karma's bitch? No? Well, I did. And I do. And we're just a few weeks away from school starting...

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Things I Might Once Have Said

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