The lesson I learned after Monday’s ill-fated blood test, is that you’re not supposed to take a glucose tolerance test on a ketogenic diet. My doctor said that I should be in ketosis right now, to help manage the symptoms of my new diagnosis of poly-cystic ovary syndrome. I did some research and found there are studies confirming that it might work, so I’ve been on that diet since just after Christmas. I find it actually does help a... Read more
I have been saying “I need to speak about Abby Johnson one last time” every so often for about three years now. Today, I’m saying it again. And I’m going to be as brief as I can because, believe it or not, I can’t stand talking about Abby Johnson. But I don’t see how I could live with myself if I don’t continue to speak out against her abusive, heterodox, anti-life and anti-Catholic behavior. An organization at the Catholic... Read more
It snowed hard this week. Last winter was so warm it didn’t snow more than once; there was nothing but overcast and an eternal drizzle that kept us all on the verge of madness for three months. We all knew that wasn’t normal, but I didn’t hear much about it because people in Northern Appalachia they mock you if you talk about climate change. This is year has been closer to our normal cold, but abnormally dry. We finally got... Read more
I saw his Roman collar as he walked by– between the blue disposable face mask and the heavy down coat, a stripe of black with a square of white. We were in the waiting room just outside the lab at the hospital, before dawn. I still don’t know why a lab that’s open until three in the afternoon only schedules its glucose tolerance tests at seven in the morning. You’d think the hospital of all places would understand that some... Read more
I have to get a glucose tolerance test tomorrow, which is not a punishment. That’s what I keep telling myself because I feel like it is. I have suffered from random medical conditions my whole life: juvenile rheumatoid arthritis as a toddler and preschooler, and then it went into remission. Irritable bowel syndrome from the time I was a colicky baby; that goes away if I eat scrupulously gluten free and don’t have anything too spicy. Insomnia, anxiety and... Read more
Rosie handed me a piece of brown construction paper with circles drawn on it. “Can you cut these out?” I did. She arranged them in plates on her dollhouse table, and put a yellow dot of construction paper confetti on each. Then she arranged the action figures around the table in a tableau of domestic bliss, eating pancakes. Later the action figures got into their usual trouble, walking the dog and running into the increasingly silly neighbors that live... Read more
It keeps getting reported over and over that Mike and Karen Pence are “homeless,” which is technically true. They don’t own or rent a house of their own, currently. They have no fixed address. They bounce back and forth between the houses of family and friends in Indiana; one article said they were living in a cabin owned by Indiana’s current governor. I am almost envious of that cabin, having had a great deal of fun in cabins as... Read more
I have a friend I follow on social media, who is driving across state lines this week, to rescue three people. The three people are a pregnant mom, her unborn baby and their four-year-old. The family was almost murdered by gang violence– as it was, a neighbor child was killed in the crossfire. And the gang is threatening her again, so my friend is driving the family to a safe house. This is the kind of mischief my friend... Read more
I am hilariously bad at self-promotion. I just realized I’ve shared news about my book on social media but not officially on the blog. I’m actually hilariously awkward at showing off my work and was even nervous to talk about this on social media. But in any case: veteran readers know that I published a nice booklet version of my Way of the Cross meditations last year, which is still available from Apocryphile Press and I hope you stock... Read more
This letter was written by my friend, an American citizen, who married an undocumented man and then “voluntarily self-deported” with him and her American citizen children back to Mexico. The lived in extreme poverty and danger in Mexico for a year; then she went back to America to work and send money to the family, and then brought her children back with her for their safety. Her husband is trapped in Mexico under a 10-year immigration ban. She wrote... Read more
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