#northernslug

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a love letter to the mad

a zine by me

[lesbian-fig]

If you spend a lot of time house/bed bound — get a recliner!! My wife found a recliner at the restore for $20 and it has been a game changer.

I can recline/put my feet up comfortably, and get out of the chair more easily. Add a heated blanket, a hot water bottle, and a crochet project and boy howdy, you’ve got yourself a good setup.

I’ve been able to actually be out of the bedroom since we got this recliner and that is huge!!

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Sometimes you just have to drive 35 minutes on a rainy day just to go and sit in the window seat at your favorite queer coffee shop. Knitting slowly, watching the rain streak the windowpanes, and listening to the joyful buzz of people mingling — oh how I miss this. I wish I could justify frequenting my favorite coffee shops the way I could before the start of the ongoing pandemic, but it’s too high of a covid risk right now for me to do more than once in a blue moon. I miss it.

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My sweater shirt is finished!! Sorta?? I still have half a mind to make it long sleeved but I think it’s pretty cute as is. It’s my first (adult sized) raglan sweater!! I definitely learned a LOT and am excited to make another.

Holidays often mean being in bipedal mode, as I jokingly call it, which is a whole lot of strain on my body. Praying I can prevent a PEM crash but it feels unlikely. We shall see!

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in bed hooked up to tube feeds dinner under the stars!!

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Living in a rural place as a disabled person is filled with dichotomies. If we wanted to, we could find a way to move to a more accessible area of the country. But oh how I could never.

As a wheelchair user with multiple chronic illnesses, I often feel cut off from nature. I can’t go into the woods and wander looking for rocks and bones. I can’t go to most hiking trails. Sometimes I can’t even get outside of my apartment.

That’s why living in such a rural place is so important to me. I can feel the pulse of the earth even when confined to my bed, because the soil isn’t smothered by concrete.

Our roads are dirt and my wheelchair gets stuck when there’s mud (which is always), so I can’t just go for a stroll in my neighborhood. Most of the shops around here aren’t accessible unless they’re a big box store. Reliable public transit?? Good luck. Specialists less than two hours away? Nah. But yet I still love my home.

I love that I can look out the window and see the mountains smiling back at me. I love that when I’m driving to the hospital for my appointments, the roads follow the bends and twists of the rivers and streams. I love curling up under my heated blanket as the earth too is blanketed by snow. I love this little corner of the world and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

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currently 😌