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Friday night is one of the two biggest concerts of the year in Pittsburgh – Taylor Swift. The other is Beyonce in August. The news has devoted multiple segments for the past two weeks, nightly, to the concert – the fans, the hotel rooms being rented, the restaurants, the parking, etc. As someone who lives […]
I’ve written about this many times, but June is a very difficult month for me. This year, a particular challenge has been my trauma processing work – digging in deep to some stuff that’s so hard to face, so painful, so so so much I can’t discuss with anyone except my therapist. And my therapist […]
Came across an article today about the “generation wars” between the shopping cart. Here in Pittsburgh, we tend to call them ‘buggies’ but that’s a geographic distinction. It seems the smaller, lightweight carts are being labeled ‘Millenial Shopping Carts’ as opposed to the tradition deep basketed carts we are most familiar with. And that makes […]
I’ve been home alone for five days. Laura took a much-deserved mini-break with a friend. I relaxed for two days. I had two events on my calendar. First, a Pride event in New Castle that was lovely. Unfortunately, I ate a late dinner coupled with heat and not enough water so I was sick most […]
The biggest challenge of getting real justice for LGBTQ+ community members is to have judges who are culturally competent and lack bigotry. Judges need to use proper names and pronouns, of course, but judges also need to understand, and to be willing to understand, the particular problems and needs of members of this community, and […]
I am not of Indigenous or Native descent. I am a descended from white European colonizers, mainly from the British Isles and Western Europe who settled in what we now label as Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina. I do try to listen and learn from my Indigenous friends, colleagues, and trusted sources. I’ve tried to […]
The banning and/or criminalization of gender-affirming healthcare, reproductive healthcare, trans youth’s participation in sports, and forms of self-expression, such as drag, are hugely important right now. While these attacks are being primarily advanced through the legislature, any expansion of existing criminal codes as well as any arrests made during demonstrations against such legislation will be […]
I speak to people all across the county and the state in my current job as a State Representative and now as a candidate for Allegheny County Executive and the high price of housing and rents is something I hear about more than nearly any other issue. It is on the minds of everyone, whether […]
Today, my therapist and I did a symptom review where we ‘sorted’ my current and very recent symptoms into three categories: Anxiety, Depression, and Hypomania. Then we looked at the intersection of these symptoms, this sorting, with my trauma symptoms. I was struggling to distinguish between Anxiety and Hypomania, so she literally created a divide […]
Easter brings to mind a lot of bullet point memories In 1983, things were bleak financially. I was 12 years old and in 7th grade. So, of course, my Dad decided to join my cousins on a spring fishing trip to the Outer Banks over Easter. They weren’t high end, but it was still money […]
