Good healthcare

I've been in pain a lot lately, and I don't feel like listing everything that's been wrong. Fortunately there isn't anything in particular that's serious, but I've had a few bad days and everything is adding up.

On the up side, I've had a couple good experiences with my healthcare recently, and to cheer myself up I want to share them.

The eye doctor

Due to the visual aura I have with my migraines I was sent to the eye doctor, just to check things out and make sure that my eyes are fine. And yes, they're perfectly healthy. Which is definitely good news.

Funny thing was, whoever I spoke to when making the appointment put me down for a regular eye exam. This was despite me explaining the reason for my needing the appointment. So the eye doc only expected to check my vision, and do a couple other simple tests. She certainly didn't expect to need to take the time to dilate my eyes and discuss my migraines.

It was late in the afternoon and I suspect the doc had to stay late to do what I needed, but she did it. I cannot say how much I appreciate that. And when she found that my prescription has changed just slightly from when I got my previous lenses about nine months ago, she worked things so that I got new glasses at no cost.

How nice can someone get?

The chiropractor

When I was about twelve years old a swing set basically collapsed on top of me. I hit the ground hard, and things weren't pleasant. Since then I've had back problems on and off, with it mostly being fine but sometimes getting bad. In the past couple weeks it's been bad, even reducing me to crying on one day out of pain and frustration. Finally a certain someone (ok, my boyfriend) firmly suggested that I see a chiropractor, which is something I've never done before. After bit of hesitation, I decided to see one after work yesterday.

...why have I never seen one before???

I'm hardly pain free yet, but there's a definite improvement. I'll be going back a few times as I recover from this particular case of my back's grumpiness, and I suspect that I'll be checking in with one regularly to keep my back's bad moods under control.

It might not be a stretch to say that a good chiropractor will change my life.

Empty Swing

ps. Despite that injury, I still love swing sets. They're excellent stress relievers. :)

They're stealing my gummy bears

Mom had a favorite coffee shop when I was young. It was locally owned, and in a convenient location for our family. Unfortunately it closed down, but fortunately it reopened recently. Under a different name, but apparently in the same place and run by the same people. And presumably the coffee tastes the same, though we haven't put that to the test yet.

Although I wasn't a coffee drinker as a kid, I have very fond memories of this place. I loved their hot chocolate, and if the baristas knew the drink was for a kid they would put gummy bears on the lid. Delicious hot chocolate. Yummy gummy bears.

However...

...a certain someone would steal those gummy bears. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that mom took the gummy bears to give to my younger brother, since he doesn't drink hot chocolate. So he got the gummy bears, and I got the hot chocolate. Which I prefer anyways, and I don't recall being bothered by this fact at the time, but that's beside the point.

He stole my gummy bears.

This discussion came up recently when I shared the news that the coffee shop was back in business, and mom promised to buy me gummy bears to make up for all those Tall One stole.

Let's just say that now mom is in on stealing my gummy bears.

I hope she buys me lots of hot chocolate to make up for it. Or coffee, now that I'm a coffee drinker.

Coffee

Bi vs. Pan

At one time I defined bisexual as being attracted to men and women. At that time I also defined pansexual as someone for whom gender doesn't play a role in who they are attracted to.

Since then I've learned a bit more about the history of the words, seen some infighting as to their definitions (really, people...really), and have had questions about whether the above definition of "bisexual" actually excludes the trans community.

Long story short: my understanding of the term "bisexual" has changed.

Apparently it's mostly us youngsters who define bisexual the way I did, whereas the older generation usually defines bisexual as being attracted to your own gender and others. (Here the "bi" doesn't mean "two genders," it means your own and other gender presentations. Just an important little detail.) This ultimately means the same as pansexuality in terms of who you can fall in love with. The difference is in the approach, which can cause heated arguments.

It was when I was on the verge of coming out as pansexual that I rethought things. (Oh, wait, I may have actually outed myself as pan in a bi Facebook group...fortunately no one complained.) After a bit of consideration, I wound up being more comfortable with the definition of bisexual that the older generation uses, and returning to identifying as bi.

Of course I will continue to consider the definitions of these words. After all, our language is still evolving, and there is still debate about what we should be called. Ten years from now I may call myself something else entirely, some word that no one has yet dreamed up. Or I may accept being called this new word, but still refer to myself as bi. Perhaps all the various "non-bi but not-monosexual" terms will have disappeared, and we'll all call ourselves bisexual. Ok, so I sort of doubt that last one will happen.

Yes, I realize that I'm addressing issues that will leave anyone not involved in the bisexual community asking "Wait...um...what?" And that will probably be most of my readers. I'm raising various questions that I'm not answering in this post. Why was I concerned about the definition of bisexual excluding trans individuals? Why did my definition of the meaning of "bisexual" change, rather than me just switching to me calling myself pansexual as I was on the verge of doing? (Actually, I'm not sure that I can explain the timing on that one...) What are all these other "non-bi but not-monosexual" terms that I refer to? Why is there an argument about what we should call ourselves? Is this worth arguing about?

And the why the heck are people so worked up over this?

This particular post is just to address my own changed understanding of what bisexuality means, something that I thought was important before writing any more about LGBT topics. The other questions can be topics for future posts. I do want it noted, however, that even though I think that we do need to reach a consensus eventually, I am not going to take it personally when someone uses words differently than me.

On spinning yarn

I still have some roving lying around that is begging to be spun. In particular there was (was...note the past tense) some lovely pink roving that was an absolute joy to work with, and after spinning half of it I somehow came up with the idea of photographing each step to share here.

This isn't really a how to post, it's just sharing photos of the various steps. 

First, how it looked to start with.

Of course I had to open it up before I could begin to do anything with it. I measured it at 26 inches by 21 inches, in case anyone is interested.

That would be a bit much to take directly to the spinning wheel, so I tore it into strips. If the strips have a name, I've either forgotten or never learned it. My proper training on the wheel was a bit limited, unfortunately.

Or maybe it's still called roving...?

There's still a bit of yarn from several previous projects on the bobbin. They're sort of important to starting any new project, since I attach the new roving onto them to spin.

If the yarn isn't there then I either need to find yarn somewhere else that I can (hopefully) attach my work to, or I have to start it off by hand. Which I've done. And it's annoying.

Here you can see where I've got the new yarn attached to the old. The new is the thinner stuff.

Ta da! The bobbin is full. Magic. :)

Here's the newly spun stuff next to what I had previously spun.

I wrap the yarn around my hand to make it into a ball. The trick seems to be to keep your fingers open as wide as possible, since the yarn tends to pull the fingers together...which can get awkward.

The finished thing. :)