My Political Crush

Okay okay aside from our President...I think the hottest guy in politics has to be....



Drum roll please



George Stephanopoulos

Come on...he is totally hot in that chipmunk cheeked kinda way doncha think?

Who is your political crush? Do tell all!

Got some links for ya.

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In an attempt to get some conversation going on Health Central's Sexual Health Connection I will be asking a question each and every Thursday. Please feel free to join the discussion. We can all learn from each other.

My question for this week is...

I am not gonna tell you this time! You have to come over to read for yourself. Pretty please? With sugar on top? Just follow this link!

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To find out what my Depression Connection question of the week is come and read and join the on-going discussion right here.

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Mood Disorders and MS? You betcha! They seem to go hand in hand. To find out what other MSers say about this topic click here.

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Detecting the Early Warning Signs of Autism

It seems that there is more awareness than ever about autism these days. When I go to the bookstore there are multiple shelves reserved for books written about this disorder. There are more news articles, more research and more public discussions about autism than ever. This greater awareness may be due to the growing rates of children being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Some estimates report that one out of every one hundred and fifty children living in the United States may be diagnosed as having an autism spectrum disorder.

Yet with all this greater publicity and awareness, autism continues to be a most perplexing and mysterious neurological disorder. I contend that autism is not an easy disorder to detect early on because the child may not show all the signs right away. Add to this, every child on the autism spectrum is unique and may show vastly different symptoms than another child on the spectrum. All we really have to diagnose autism is a list of possible behaviors which the child may or may not display at any one time.

My two sons could be a case study in this confusion.

Want to read more? Just follow this link!

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How to Deal with Difficult People

Sometimes I think Sartre had it right with his infamous quote, "Hell is other people." Okay not all people by any means, just some particularly difficult people. We have all had the experience of dealing with a difficult person in our life. This person may be a neighbor, a co-worker, a boss, a friend, a parent, or even your spouse. A friend of mine once said that some people go to therapy and some people cause other people to go to therapy. Let's face it, how many therapy sessions are probably spent discussing the difficult people in our life?

What defines an individual as being "difficult" is totally up to the observer. I have met plenty of people who I feel are pleasant personalities only to find that others may view this person as totally abrasive. Then there is also a range of difficult as some people may only be mildly annoying while others may be abusive and downright toxic to our mental health.

Follow this link to read more...

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Playing the MS Card

I can hear your indignant cries right now. What does she mean, playing the MS card? Well, I mean using the fact that you have Multiple Sclerosis to get out of doing things you would rather not be doing. You know like chores, attending boring social engagements, or in my case, using my MS to save face for quitting martial arts.

I have never been athletic. As a kid I was always one of the last chosen for sports games. I still remember the humiliation of standing on colored circles in gym class according to height. There I was at the beginning of the line in my blue zippered gym suit standing next to August Soldano, the other shortest kid in the class. We would look at each other like stranded Lilliputians on an island with a tribe of tall, well coordinated savages. These savages would take out their god given gym talents by beating us smaller kids at every competitive game and sport.

To read more of this story just click right here.

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I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I will see YOU next week!

Sex and other stuff!

Now here's something fun!

Come and participate in my Sexual Health Connection question of the week which you can find right here!

The question is..."What do you wish your parents had told you about sex that they never told you?"

And for those of you who would like to present your writing to a wider audience, the theme I want to initiate on the sexual health site is....share your story about "the sex talk" you received from your parents. I imagine for a lot of us of an ahem...older...generation....there may have been no talk at all. Anyways...everything is all set up on Sexual Health Connection for you to set up a profile (you can be anonymous) and share your story.

Come on...it will be fun...something different than the norm to write about.

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Next I want to tell you that a friend of mine and fellow MS blogger has joined MS Health Central and will be writing some posts about her experiences in living with this disease.

Please do stop by and say hello to Vicki Bridges in her introduction which you may find right here.

What I love about Vicki is her kindness and compassion and hey...she is one terrific writer to boot. She used to be in journalism and it shows. Vicki is also one of the most positive people I know. In reading her posts...I feel like I can handle what comes my way. I can't say enough good things about her. So do pop by for a visit.

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My latest post on the depression site is about my father. It was a little difficult to write but I am very proud of this piece. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about my father despite the fact that he died forty years ago. I am 44 in case you are wondering. He died from his alcohol addiction.

My fondest wish is that someone will read this piece of writing and some little girl or boy will not have to live life without their parent as I did.

You may find my writing here.

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On the ADHD site we are continuing to discuss Autism Awareness Month. I had the honor of interviewing Stephen Shore by telephone for this purpose. Stephen Shore is a fellow co-contributor to the book, Embracing Autism and he has written more several books himself. Stephen is on the autism spectrum himself and is a wonderful advocate and speaker about how to best help those individuals who share a diagnosis of autism or Asperger's Syndrome.

Please do come by to read and comment upon Stephen's fascinating interview right here.

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Lastly but not leastly....

I will be writing for Health Central's Friends of Quinn site which you can see right here.

Quinn is a more than remarkable fellow who writes about his first hand experience as a young adult who has learning disabilities. He was just on The View with Barbara Walters just the other day. His site is absolutely going gangbusters with lots of wonderful support and feedback. I would absolutely encourage you to join the site.

I am absolutely thrilled to be able to contribute in any way to this site and I will begin doing so come May.

I think that is it! Happy Over the Hump Day everyone!

Beyond Synchronicity

Been more aware of synchronicity lately. I have always promised to write about my personal experiences with it. But I fear that in the translation, I will lose the magic. Ya know?

It is like this secret that I share with the universe.

Let's just say that I am grateful. I am so damn thankful for so many things...so many chances...so many opportunities.

I will just relate one moment in time which is about more than synchronicity. I suppose one could say that it is about faith? It was shortly after my diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis. I was having a bad day. I was having symptoms and feeling both exhausted and dizzy. My youngest son who has autism was also having a bad day which had resulted in tears of frustration. I remember sitting down on the living room chair and staring at the wall. It seemed time was slowing down to accommodate my inner bleakness. There was this sideways glimmer of light cast on the wall coming from the window blind slats. I watched it creep almost imperceptibly across the wall.

I became entranced with this light.

It felt as though the light was a warm bath warming my body and warming my soul. There was just something so hopeful about it.

I thought about my life and wondered where it would go. I wondered the things that you never want to think about. What would become of me? How could I keep on caring for a child who needs so much care when I now have neurological issues myself? I was on my way to drowning in my fears when I saw that light.

And this still voice inside me told me that it was going to be okay. The voice wasn't something you hear. It was something you feel. It came from inside of me yet it was as big as the universe.

Strangely...I felt that what was happening in my life was meant to be. I *knew* that as difficult as things might become, I would be given the tools with which to handle it. And I strongly intuited that my writing would be one of these tools.

I know this sounds like crock of doody. But seriously...I will never forget that moment I had. I don't want to ever forget it. I don't want to ever lose that connection to something deeper...something so certain.

I will not label it.

Is Twitter for Twits?

Need a good mystery?

Well all you gotta do is go to the internet. It is full of intrigue! Just imagine that someone out there may not know what I am doing minute to minute on Twitter! OMG! Is she picking her nose? Sorting laundry? Eating a twinkie? Alert the media at once!

We are all...so...damn...important on the internet.

It is like we are the Pied Piper...come "follow" me. You don't have friends anymore...you have "followers." Sounds like a stalker's paradise to me. (and it quite often is. *wink*)

Our attention spans are so small now we are reduced to so many characters of expression.

It seems to me that our internet evolution is more like a devolution. Make no mistake that we are morphing into more primitive forms. Soon we will need no words at all. Just send an emoticon.

Have you noticed that people aren't talking anymore? We are just shouting out mindless drivel into the ethereal space.

"I LIKE CHEESE"

"I ONCE TOOK THE HEADS OFF ALL MY BARBIE DOLLS"

" MY DOG'S FARTS SMELL LIKE BACON!"

"IT LOOKS LIKE A SASQUATCH TO ME. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF IT?"

(warning...never let bloggers blog whilst drinking spiked lemonade)

Well holy Pastrami my fellow bloggers and bloggettes! We must hold some sort of standard for ourselves. We shall use complete sentences! We shall form complete thoughts! We will not fall into the Darwinian Internet cesspool!

Just say no to twitter.

(okay at least until tomorrow. Don't make me come there and give you a twittervention)

Now what was I talking about?

Oh yes...I am happy! You know why? Sex.

It is totally true. In my quest for health site domination I am now the community leader for the sexual health site on Health Central. I ain't lying. Seriously...I am. And to prove it, I spent some of this past weekend writing about gonorrhea. Yeah you try to spell that word over and over. Okay a bit of trivia...do you know why it is called "the clap"? Because the treatment they used to use for men was to clap the sides of the penis to rid it of green or yellow pus. Yeah...that sounds...pleasant. Do you know any historical figures who had gonorrhea? Huh? Do ya? Well I do.

To find out the answer to this and even more questions I know you must have about this particular STD...go here! And did you know...it is STD awareness month. Yes indeedy.

You all are welcome to the sexual health site. This is my personal invitation to you. The focus of the site is going to be more on fertility and pregnancy but both men and women are definitely welcome. Come on over and answer my question of the week at least. Pretty please?

All right enough about sex!

Now for a little depression. Okay let me rephrase that. Now it is time for some mental health!

Have you ever wondered how Buddhist philosophy would help with regaining mental health?

Well I did. I did an interview with a friend of mine who is very knowledgeable about Buddhism (he is the editor of a Buddhist magazine) and gave me a unique perspective on hope and healing from depression. I hope you will be as enlightened as I was to read what he had to say. You can find that interview right here.

And of course I welcome you to be a part of the depression connection discussion of the week which you can find right here.

I would be happy if you ignore everything else I write but came here instead to read my interview with Robert Parish who does some amazing work in creating documentaries about autism. He was my editor for the book I am in....Embracing Autism and...in honor of Autism Awareness Month I really want to get the message out about this topic. Writing about autism is my first love. Writing is my way to give back.

So if you could...come and read and comment. It would mean a lot to me. Just follow this link.

And lastly but not leastly...

I wrote about vacationing when you have Multiple Sclerosis. I wrote about going on a trip to hell...oh I mean Walt Disney World during the time right before my diagnosis. I didn't know I had MS and it made for an exceptionally "interesting" trip. If you have MS and you have a story to tell about vacations or travel please do stop by and either share it in a comment or sharepost. I could sure use some tips and I am sure our readers could too.

Okay so...I know I am a total loser for not visiting you more often. I will get there....sometime soon...like after I eat some more jelly beans and the rest of that rabbit and the ham and...the rest of the christmas candy in the back of the fridge and...

I will be by soon by golly! Or my name isn't matilda magillucutty. Okay it's not but that is beside the point.

signing off now...

toodles!

A question and some links...

Oh lordy I am so tired! Seriously. My bones are weary. I am in the mood to watch bad tv and go to bed early. But the one happy thought I have right now is that today I bought myself a chocolate easter bunny! I know...I need to get out more. Hey...the little stuff makes me happy...what can I say?

Ummm....okay....how about a question? Let's see...what do I want to know about you?

What do you hope the Easter bunny brings you?

I never tried using a different colored font. whoohooo! Excitement! See...I told you I need to get out more.

And now it is time for zeee links!

Contain yourselves. All three of you. I fear that I have permanently lost readers due to my negligence. I am trying to find balance and sanity. I have been very happy with my writing. It is just hard to find time to connect. I do apologize. I promise to visit soon. Now where have you heard that before? :>)

* Do you know someone who has a child who has just been diagnosed with autism? You probably do. The incidence of autism is rising exponentially. In honor of autism awareness month I have written another article specifically targeted to parents. If it helps but one person then I have done my job. Follow this link to read my post on Health Central.

* Sexual assault is not something we like to think about but it happens everyday. My sister was almost a victim but she actually talked her way out of being assaulted. I think this is unusual. What can be done to minimize the chances of being sexually assaulted? I give but some suggestions. I am hoping others can chime in with more. You can find my article about sexual assault right here.

* My journey towards a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis is a very interesting tale if I do say so myself. I have not even told the half of it on these videos. Much of it involves synchronicities which I still find hard to believe. Did you know that I had no idea I had MS for ten years? And then I went to see an eye doctor for reading glasses, told him about a single eye incident which happened over a decade ago and he warns me about MS. I had no symptoms other than optic neuritis. I had no symptoms when I saw this eye doctor. But then...after he talks about MS...I start having symptoms. Was I crazy? Noooo. Turns out I had it. Want to hear the whole story? Come view my videos. We are on Part Three.

* I have initated a Question of the Week over on MS Health Central. No I will tell you the question here....you gotta come over and see what it is. Curious? Stop on by and join the discussion already in progress.

* Can you imagine a world without antidepressants? Did you ever wonder how the world survived without them? It seems...not very well. Treatments for depression over the ages have been um...not so great...to put it mildly. As much as we may complain about the treatments today for depression, at least we have some choice. I give a tongue in cheek romp through the history of depression treatement with my biased commentary. I really enjoyed writing this piece and it is one of my better writings if I do say so myself. I hope you stop by to read and to chime in with your own insights.

* And lastly but not leastly...come and join the on-going discussion about what you would want someone to say to you when you are feeling depression. Just follow this link.

I also wrote a piece for a chemical dependency newsletter but I am still awaiting a link!

Okay so now you understand why I am tired and in need of a chocolate easter bunny.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Save some bunny ears for me....

Question for the Day!

What would make you happy at this exact moment in time?

And now...for some linkys!

* Did you know that April is Autism Awareness Month? Yep. And I wrote a piece that I am really proud of. Actually it is an excerpt from a diary I wrote when my son was in the process of being diagnosed. It is very pure as it was happening right then. If you want to read any of my pieces today...please come to read this one as it is very personal and has a lot of meaning for me.

Just follow this link.

* I made some videos recently to tell the tale of my journey towards diagnosis for Multiple Sclerosis. If you want to see Merely Me up close and personal here is your chance.

Here is Part One of my story.

And here is Part Two.

* How does a parent handle when their teen is depressed? Find out here.

* And lastly...a very serious topic. How can you decrease the risk for sexual assault? Here are some safety tips from my research.

That's all for now...I hope you are all doing well!