Friday Links

1. Speaking of women’s health: Is It Perimenopause or the Fascist Death Knell of Late-Stage Capitalism?

Is my insomnia caused by a spike in testosterone, or by the crippling fear that I could be arrested for saying the word “abortion” in 2025? Even if I’m joking. Like now. (This is a joke, for future reference.)

Is my anxiety perimenopausal, or is it a natural reaction to finding out Hulk Hogan might be the new Secretary of Homeland Security?

 

2. When satire is absolutely believable:

 

3. Yes this is true:

Let’s Talk About My Health

I’ve been having “female trouble,” as my friend puts it, and it turns out it’s uterine fibroids. Let’s talk about it in public!

My issues started in July, I got a transvaginal ultrasound in August, and ended up with a biopsy in September–I didn’t handle that news well and also a uterine biopsy HURTS, even with pain meds. (The gynecologist wanted to make sure the thickened uterine lining was benign and not the beginnings of a tumor.) (It was benign, just thicc.)

Then this month I started noticing that everything at the gym felt REALLY hard and I was getting out of breath doing things like going up the stairs or even just walking. I asked my primary care D.O. for blood work, since all signs pointed to an iron deficiency–which makes sense, given that I’d been bleeding since July. Despite her saying, “It could be stress or perimenopause, you could try acupuncture,” it turns out I AM anemic. Good times.

I finally was able to get an ablation scheduled for the week of Thanksgiving, which should help with the bleeding (most of my fibroids are on the outside of my uterus so only a hysterectomy can get rid of them, which I want to avoid). I’ve also started prescription iron this week. So in the grand scheme of Women Trying To Get Treated, this is a pretty good timeline. (It took my friend twenty years to get diagnosed with endometriosis; another friend’s symptoms of DVT were passed off as perimenopause and now she’s rehabbing her leg after a blood clot wrecked it.)

Why am I blogging about this? Uterus stuff and being taken seriously as a woman is on my mind this election season. One of the treatments for fibroids is a D&C–a procedure also used for abortion. What happens if that’s not available? How many women have already died from lack of abortion care? Why are we still begging to be believed when we say something’s wrong?!

I’ve also been waiting for a chance to post this, which–even with my overall positive experience–is way too accurate:

 

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Goodbye For Now, Upper Canyon

It was a cloudy day and the leaves were almost all off the trees, so maybe I can think of the canyon as sleeping for the next two years instead of inaccessible and about to be fundamentally changed?

I’m going to miss that stream at the top, but I have to remember the same water will be at the bottom, too.

Friday Links

1. Jess Valenti burning down the house in her latest newsletter: “Yes, I’m a Single-Issue Voter” (emphasis mine).

I know the phrase is meant to be an insult—a dismissive jab suggesting that women’s political interests are superficial and simplistic—but I’m more than happy to don the label. Because the ‘single issue’ Republican men find so offensive isn’t really abortion: it’s women’s humanity.

That’s why they’re going to lose in November. We are fighting for our lives and they mock us for it.

 

2. I would put the odds higher than 50/50, honestly:

 

3. If you think your job is tricky, be glad you didn’t have to piece together a book found in a bog letter by letter. ‘It was terrifying’: ancient book’s journey from Irish bog to museum treasure.

 

4. Why are people making TikToks about me?

@mamacares9000 is there a hairbrush filter?? we love our quirky doggie !! #dogloversoftiktok #dogsitterlife #dogsitting #longervideos #longervideosontiktok #nobodycaresbutmama ♬ original sound – nobody cares but mama

Wednesday Poem

This is a nice one, especially if you wake up creaky and cranky and wanting to run away into the forest or just sleep all day like your cat.

 

To Be a Person
by Jane Hirshfield

To be a person is an untenable proposition.

Odd of proportion,
upright,
unbalanced of body, feeling, and mind.

Two predators’ eyes
face forward,
yet seem always to be trying to look back.

Unhooved, untaloned fingers
seem to grasp mostly grief and pain.
To create, too often, mostly grief and pain.

Some take,
in witnessed suffering, pleasure.
Some make, of witnessed suffering, beauty.

On the other side—
a creature capable of blushing,
who chooses to spin until dizzy,
likes what is shiny,
demands to stay awake even when sleepy.

Learns what is basic, what acid,
what are stomata, nuclei, jokes,
which birds are flightless.
Learns to play four-handed piano.
To play, when it is needed, one-handed piano.

Hums. Feeds strays.
Says, “All together now, on three.”

To be a person may be possible then, after all.

Or the question may be considered still at least open—
an unused drawer, a pair of waiting work-boots.

Project Pondering: Big Complicated Jacket

Without fail, the weather gets cold and I start thinking about outerwear I could sew. This is how I end up with three tailored coats, two jackets, and more fleeces than I can count. So I don’t really need another coat, but Waffle Patterns just released the “Kikyo 3-In-1 Jacket” and it would be SO much fun to sew:

Look at all the pockets! And all the zippers for the hood and the lining! Plus I could quilt the zip-out lining and use up some fleece for the batting!

AND, this would look like a Barbour jacket if I used waxed canvas, which I haven’t worked with before.

Oh it’s hard not to just buy the pattern and do it. But because it got cold, I switched out seasonal clothes and eeesh I have a lot of clothes. (“But not THIS piece of clothing,” my brain adds.)

Almost The Last Of The Upper Canyon

Millcreek Canyon’s upper gate closes for the winter on November 1, but this time it’s going to stay closed for two years while the road gets widened. (I felt a little better about such a big construction project after I read the environmental assessment, but there’s no way around them taking out trees.)

Anyway, we’re trying to enjoy the last couple weekends at the top. It was a brisk 45 degrees up there yesterday but still so nice to be out.