I am a lover of fashion, who,no matter what size I happen to be, am lucky enough to have bought and worn off the rack comfortably. I could hold a pair of pants, a dress or a shirt in front of my body and know if it would fit. I shopped quickly. It used to take me less than 90 minutes to scour the mall for a change of season wardrobe 

I can’t shop malls anymore. The stores don’t have enough room for my wheelchair, let alone the tiny  dressing rooms that I now must use. Shopping for clothes has now become a tedious and exhausting chore. There is only one store in which I can now shop in relative comfort, where the dressing rooms are big enough for me, my husband who is necessary because I cannot dress my upper half without help,  and my wheelchair. That store is Old Navy.

 I’ve gone from designer shops to one step below the Gap,at least the clothes are alot more affordable. . My winter coat is now a puffy vest because of the paralysis in my left arm, I can no longer wear fitted  sleeves

. Thankfully, Old Navy has the best quality yoga pants,since I can’t work a button or a zipper.  

I have several pairs that still look and fit like new after 10 years, all of which cost less than  $15 .The designer sweaters I own, I can’t wear because the neck opening isn’t large enough,,thankfully, Old Navy has great slouchy sweaters with roomy 3/4 sleeves that work well. I was able to find a great poncho style sweater that has become my favourite.because it’s easy to get on and off.

 Kudos to the designers at Old Navy for making cute clothes that are versatile enough for even the hardest to fit customers, the disabled. 

The joy I used to feel while shopping is now mostly gone, with only one store available to me, that now takes me at least 3 hours to find an outfit I like,that fits my challenged body. Even trying on said outfit can take up to an hour I am no longer built for a quick trip to the mall, I’m now built for comfort and making a day of it.  There was nothing I loved shopping for more than clothes, except cars My husband and I are currently looking for a new SUV.  Well, new to us. So now we get to try on cars We currently own a 20 year old GMC Jimmy that causes me pain when I’m in it for more than 45 minutes. In order to visit my husband’s parents, I must be able to tolerate riding in a car for 2 hours. It’s been 2 years since we last visited them, during which time they’ve moved into a new house which hopefully will be accessible to me. Whatever car we  buy must not only be relatively easy to get into and out of,not too high or too low  but must have room enough for my manual wheelchair and have a smooth enough ride as my neck is still problematic when it comes to bumps in the road. The car with the best ride I’ve ever driven was a Mercedes-Benz E320 that I drove from Los Angeles to Montreal without issues , and so, we have our first outing planned for Thursday morning starting  at the local Mercedes-Benz dealership. I fully expect it to take a few weeks of trying on and  test driving every SUV on the market before we find the most comfortable one for me. I can only hope that it’s not wickedly expensive and that hubby likes to drive it as much as I would if I could still drive.  I will keep you posted. as to what we buy. 

Just when it seemed my daily pain in my left side caused by the massive stroke I had a year and a half ago was under control with the help of one triple strength Marijuana gummy bear in the morning and one at night ,a couple of weeks ago, I woke up with a horrendous new  pain on the left side of my jaw . It was swollen and it affected my speech. I got into see the dentist who put me on the advil diet for 7 days. Then he canceled my follow up appointment and made me wait for a week to reschedule at the next appointment i was given a referral to a periodontist,with whom I’ve been trying to get in with for a week now for acute TMJ  During all of this I’m still in pain, which is all too slowly getting better, or at least responding to the pot gummies.  The jaw is less swollen and has stopped throbbing.  If all of that isn’t enough, all of my usual pain is underlying and making itself known with all encompassing, full  body spasms which are both painful and shocking, in that I don’t feel them coming. It’s amazing I was able to describe the situation with more letters than just AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! 

Fortunately I think of pain as my bitch. And no bitch is gonna break me.  I’ve booked a standing appointment for a weekly massage because my neck and left shoulder aren’t helping the situation by being so tense. That’s the thing about being paralyzed, ifyou come out of it, you do so  tiny bit by tiny bit, so slowly you’re not aware of it even as you pay close attention. You expect your body to snap back like it used to but it doesn’t.  When it’s paralysis caused by a brain injury it’s even slower as the brain must heal around the intrusion. And the pain is mostly nerve pain, the bitch of the bunch. 

I’ve been thinking about the phrase she battled cancer, lately  battling a severe medical issue isn’t putting on boxing gloves, it all in the head, even when the pain is not in the head.

Day before yesterday, I finally saw the specialist who would answer the looming question, when will I get the hysterectomy my family doctor says I need. I was fully prepared for battle as we, hubby and I, rolled into the office.  I asked the nurse if she needed me on the exam table, to which she replied, I think he just wants to talk with you, but if he decides he wants to examine you, he’ll let you know. We waited about 10 minutes,. Then,the doctor came in and explained that, after looking at all of the images taken over the last year and a half, CT scans,MRI images, Ultra sounds, he sees no red flags everything my family doctor was worried about was entirely normal  … for a woman entering menopause. NO HYSTERECTOMY NEEDED! All the little pains I was having were caused by the appendix acting up. Since the appendectomy has healed I’ve had no pain. So we went shopping, then home to celebrate. No surgery this year, unless I get another life and death surprise. We ate a lovely dinner, had some pink champagne and swayed romantically to slow music. It was a great night. Since then, I’ve noticed my daily pain is lessened and my stress is gone. I can’t believe a doctor did all that with the words, you don’t need surgery. 

Cheers to me 

I’m from Canada. 

This is the new leader of Canada, Justin Trudeau. He’s young, smart, not bad to look at, comes from a political family, has a good heart  and  is respected around the world, most certainly by women because he says things like this 

His mother has famously struggledwith mental illness and he honours her like this https://www.liberal.ca/statement-by-liberal-party-of-canada-leader-justin-trudeau-on-world-mental-health-day/

He loves his wife and kids 

He does things like this, 

Trudeau helps man in wheelchair

Trudeau welcomes Syrian refugees

Canada to legalize Marijuana this spring

Trudeau is the first Prime Minister to march in the Pride parade. He’s done so,since before becoming leader

Has he made mistakes? Of course, but to my mind, the pros outweigh the cons. 

 All in all, a leader of whom we can be proud. 
Recently, I posted a poll on twitter, asking if you approve of the person who leads your country, so far the results are interesting, but there’s no way to know where each vote comes from. I’m posting this in hopes of opening a discussion on world  leaders, the good, the bad and the bigly ugly.

So please use the comments section to introduce your leader and tell us what you like or dislike about them 

  I never thought I’d see 2 old school gangsta rappers singing Barbra Streisand, but here it is 

 https://youtu.be/Cgnfm-EyFEs

Canada we have an opportunity on Monday, February 13th prime minister Justin Trudeau will be  un  welcomed by Donald Trump at the white house. Trudeau will have the so called presidents undivided attention as long as the meeting takes place early in the day,when he’s focused. We need to appeal to the famous business man ,the deal maker.

 We need to tempt his vanity by assuring he would go down in history as doing the  biggest deal EVER.Appeal to his greed MOST MONEY MADE ON ONE SALE EVER.MOST MONEY MADE IN ONE SALE EVER. Sell the United States of America to Canada and a few other countries for 2 trillion dollars you can say that you were a trillionaire 2 times over before Bill Gates crossed the trillion mark. How do we get the money?  In this global climate think about who you want to live next door to.  I have a list;

Sweden, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland Japan, France ,Iceland, Slovenia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, the UK. All countries that hold spots in the top 11 for human rights if we all pitch in we should be able to make it happen or at least several installments big enough to turn his head. We will happily run your country for you and life WILL BE MUCH BETTER. 

I have the world’s weirdest cat,in the best way. Boo,likes it when I boop her nose,so much so,she lets me keep my finger on her little nose for minutes at a time. She likes to lick my fingers during these long boop sessions and likes it when I try to capture her sandy little tongue between my forefinger and thumb. Today, it seems I was pretty quick because I caught her tongue.  Weirdly she loved it.   She wrestled her little tongue away and began to groom my forearm for about a half hour. It’s rare in life to get the opportunity to turn the tables on such a  silly saying, but proud tell you that it’s not only possible for you to get your cat’s tongue, but one of the coolest feeling experiences I’ve had with her.