Little known fact that I am Batman. Though you may have had some clues given my being an orphan and certainly also having some unresolved issues in regard to the whole “being an orphan” thing. Yet, my lack of extreme wealth may have tipped you off that I’m not really the crime-fighting playboy cape-wielding superhero. […]
Category: Rant
The World Has Lost Its Mind So Don’t Forget to Hollaback
Last week I read the local news headlines for Madison, Wisconsin (I live in Milwaukee which is like Madison on meth) as I apparently long ago signed up to receive these emails and rarely read them and… I honestly had to sit back on my heels and take a breath. Because it’s like the entire […]
Make Your Fun: Mental Health Is Relative
WELL! What a day I had last week. WEDNESDAY I started last Wednesday with being a midwife’s first patient of the day (absolutely no news to share there) and later had a pharmacist suggest I’m insane. That was funny as the woman ahead of me in line at the pharmacy with people selling drugs right […]
Get It Out: Art Saves
I just got news that a rather big happening which was going to change life as my husband and I know it is probably no longer happening. It was all probably not but maybe happening… then definitely happening… and now… probably not happening once again?! Life, man. It’s a real thing. Before that ambivalent-yet-leaning-towards-bad news, […]
SHITTY WIFI + FREE WORDPRESS PLAN = REWRITTEN: The Making of a Stencil Mural
This week’s blog post documents the mural my husband David (muellerlowlife.com) and I recently created. For the record, I hate our really shitty terrible Charter WiFi and also WordPress and also maybe my old PC. I don’t which of them is to blame for this rather ridiculous day of rewriting this blog so I’ll just […]
What Do You See?
This post is about death, grief, loss, unexplained happenings and also murals… Fair warning and, if you’re here for the murals, just scroll down to the end. The Context/Background So I wrote a ghostly storybook ⬇️ And in this book I summarize all the scary, unexplained and sometimes magical stuff which happened when my husband […]
Stigma: Epilepsy, Mental Illness and the Same Old Treatment
Reality is a fickle thing. If you don’t share the reality most others share, life is more difficult. Some people run with their “outsider” status and others fight to change and expand how their reality is seen and experienced. And still others do what they can to hide their different reality and quietly assimilate with […]
The Fantastic Curse of Epilepsy
I recently had the pleasure of reading a friend’s poetry memoir regarding his experiences with epilepsy. He supplements his poetic verse with evocative photographs, and it’s creative, honest, authentic and thought-provoking. Since he’s the second person I’ve recently read about who has broken their jaw (or general “face area”) in a seizure, it made me […]
Bullies, Minions and Balance in the Universe
Last Saturday it was really nice outside… the first genuinely nice day of Spring 2021. So the boy and I decided to venture out to see if we could sit outside and grab some food. We parked and walked around and then… encountered a picnic bench of drunk people who were all staring at us […]
Beware of Milwaukee Drivers: The Rant To End All Rants
I was in a bit of a funk last weekend so, on Saturday morning, I decided to take the car to run a couple of errands because I like driving. Driving relaxes me. Until I remembered that I live in Milwaukee. I try to avoid the interstate interchanges or “highways” in Milwaukee because they feel […]
To All the Spammers and the Real People Whose Comments Didn’t Make It Through
Every month or so, I go through the comments which WordPress deems “spam” and wonder… are these spam? It’s difficult to tell. For me. Of course, I’m desperate for people to say nice things about my writing and demented illustrations so perhaps it’s more wishful thinking that perhaps some of these nice people are genuine. […]
Maybe I’ll Have a Happy Electrified Ending
This blog is a little late this week because I spent Monday and Tuesday doing “real” work aka editing a grant application (for a friend but she paid me my rate and it was the closest thing I’ve done to “real” work in a long time). So that felt good. That update is for those […]
Monday: Electrodes, Needles, Nerves, Static, a Bed and Four Men and an Epileptic Crammed in a Tiny Room
I’m not going to lie. That 👆 sounds like a very messed up porn. Gross. Which is why I don’t feel a lot of people could do an EMG test. Because if you’re not “good with” needles, or have an issue with claustrophobia or with being electrocuted, or being essentially naked on a bed in […]
Curs-ed and Coping
Yeah, so it’s that really terrible time of year for me. The Death Anniversary time of year… oddly, my family died or were born in the first couple weeks of March. And my crisis of confidence continues as I was recently told for the nth time I’m “overqualified” and “will leave after a month” if […]
Hey Brain Wars Subscribers… Got a Minute? 😺
TOMORROW (THURSDAY 3/3/21) IS PITCH MADNESS! Otherwise known at #PITMAD. And I am once again pitching my graphic memoir WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU WEIRD AT PARTIES. UPDATE: Thank you so much for your help! Special shout out to Naomi, Gabi, Meredith and Jesse. Here are tomorrow’s pitches: #1 Diagnosed w epilepsy at age […]
Patience
My PC laptop is very old and our apartment’s WiFi is very shit so it takes forever for me to, say, open a folder. FOREVER. But then, when it eventually, finally, does manage to OPEN A FILE FOLDER and I verbally exhale an exasperated ‘finally‘, my PC makes a satisfied happy sound which I interpret […]
Brain Update: To Fall or Not to Fall
“Are you afraid of falling?” “No.” The neurological specialist nodded thoughtfully and I redirected my thoughts to reflect on how “Stephen Hawking” fell a lot in the beginning of the movie The Theory of Everything. ☹️ The reason for this rant is how I went to the dreaded appointment with an ALS specialist because I […]
Helping: A Dark Art
I’m one of those people who feels compelled to help other people. If I don’t feel like I’m helping other people, I feel as if I have no purpose. And this is why I often have had jobs which paid very little money because helping people is not what people do to make money. In […]
If I Was Rich, I’d Have To Get My Cardio Elsewhere: A Shoveling Tale
Milwaukee got pummeled by snow this weekend (church was canceled even) which meant the weekend was largely spent shoveling. I like shoveling because it provides me with cardio and the gratification that comes with putting work in and having it pay off. Immediately. Our apartment is on a corner so, as we are to shovel […]
Going to Prison
Well, I was called back for a second interview for one of the two Education Director positions I had interviewed for the week before. I’m going to tell that story this week because my brain is consumed by thoughts of this role and as such I am incapable of thinking about anything else. A bad […]
Brain Wars!!! 