My Back Hurts But... Then Again I’m Sitting In A Way That Curves My Spine Exactly Where It’s Curved

Thanks @uglierthanyou​ for the questions!

1. What is your mother tongue?

English.

2. What are the official languages of the country you live in?

Just English (Australia be boring)

3. Are there any minority languages in your country? Are you interested in them?

There are hundreds of Aboriginal ones. I’m only really interested in Turrbal (general Brisbane area).

4. Are there any minority / extinct languages you are interested in?

The only minor one I’m interested in is Turrbal.

5. How many languages can you speak and on what level?

Ich spreche Englisch und Deutsch. Mein Englisch ist sehr gut weil, du kennst. Mein Deutsch ist Scheisse zwar.

(I speak English and German. My English is very good because, you know. My German is shit though.)

6. When did you start learning your second language?

In 2014 I started learning German. A lot of life stuff happened though and I’ve only really just continued progressing.

7. Is second language a mandatory subject in your country and how many hours per day do children learn it?

I’m pretty sure it’s mandatory in every school to have at least one language subject (elective or not). At my schools Japanese was mandatory from grade six to grade eight. Hours would most likely be just one in each school.

8. What do you think about immersion? Have you ever / would you like to try it?

I’d like to try it. However, I think I’d freak the fick out at first.

9. How many languages are you learning at the moment {self-study counts} ?

German and Hungarian. If you count that gosh darn mandatory secondary education, I’m still learning English, too.

10. What languages would you like to learn in the {near} future?

Dutch and French. And, of course, Turrbal.

11. Do you prefer attending courses / classes or learning on your own? Why?

I’ve had to do Japanese for three years and I’ve found I much more enjoy learning at my own pace. Even if it takes four years to become fluent in one language.

12. Is there a language you have just given up on although you really wanted to master it?

French. However, I was six.

13. Is {are} there word{s} you just always misspell?

English- odyssey (I end up screwing it up like ‘oddysey’)

German- their spelling is pretty straight forward (though I do sometimes forget the ‘ä‘ in ‘Mädchen’)

Hungarian- goddamn szepen

14. Do you have favourite words?

Of course I do! It’s Scheisse, duh.

15. What aspect{s} of language interests you?

The formalities. Take English for example. I love and appreciate how we have an informal and formal version for just about every phrase.

16. What linguistic category interests you the most? {lexicology, semantics...}?

*googles linguistic categories* It’s probably ethnolinguistics.

17. Favourite language teacher?

My grade seven Japanese teacher was amazing. Mostly because she didn’t really mind that I didn’t have a great interest in the language.

18. What does your name mean and from what language does it come from?

My name is a combination/mash-up of two names. The first one’s Northern English and is derived from the place name Hailey (apparently). The second one’s Anglo-French and is derived from the occupation tailor.

19. Native speaker or not, as a teacher?

I find native teachers really awesome since you get to learn a lot about the culture of where the language you’re learning originates.

20. In case you are planning to have children, would you like to raise them bilingual {multilingual}? Or in another case, what do you think about teaching such young children languages?

I’d love to raise my (future) children bilingual. Their first word might end up being Scheisse though...

21. Do you think that one day we will speak only English?

With something as monumentally popular as the Internet and our habit of documentation, our world’s knowledge is only going to grow.

22. What is the hardest language to learn in your opinion?

Every East Asian language.

23. Favourite foreign name{s}?

How Julia’s pronounced in German. Yoo-ya!

Addicted / Calloway Sisters series

The first character I fell in love with: Lily Calloway The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Loren Hale The character everyone else loves that I don't: Charlie Cobalt The character I love that everyone else hates: Connor Cobalt! The character I used to love but don't any longer: Mmmm, that'd be no one The character I would totally smooch: Ryke Meadows OR Maximoff Hale (have you seen the DLU cover?) The character I'd want to be like: Daisy duh The character I'd slap: fking Wendy that bitch A pairing that I love: all of them A pairing I despise: lul no

SEND ME A FANDOM

 I’ll tell you:

The first character I first fell in love with:  The character I never expected to love as much as I do now:  The character everyone else loves that I don’t:  The character I love that everyone else hates:  The character I used to love but don’t any longer: The character I would totally smooch:  The character I’d want to be like:  The character I’d slap:  A pairing that I love: A pairing that I despise: 

Man (30) dies after living on diet of chocolate, wine, Coca-Cola and Pringles alone - Independent.ie

A MAN who lived on Pringles, chocolate, wine and Coca-Cola died after his internal organs wasted away as a result of his poor diet, an inquest heard.

True story, bro

Happy international women’s day!

Ayyy it’s Vitto

Some days I feel like ✨ I am slaying it, I am queen, none of you peasants can touch me 💖. But other days, most days, I feel like a sad lump of potato. 🥔

Today is one of those Slaydayz! YAssS GuRLLLLL! 😘😍😘

On May 28th, my sister, Edna, turned 31.

 Her mental age is about three years old. She loves Winnie the Pooh, Beauty & the Beast, and Sesame Street. Even though the below picture is unconvincing. 

Edna and “Cookie.” I think she was trying to play it cool. 

My name is Jeanie. I’m Edna’s younger sister. I’m also her guardian and caregiver. 

That’s me on the left. (Hey, you never know. After a year of writing a blog about online dating - Jeanie Does the Internet - I’ve come to learn that there are A LOT of fools on the internet.) 

ANYWAY, I’m not “doing the internet” anymore. I’m taking care of Edna full-time, after completing my MFA in Writing for Screen & Television at USC.

May 16, 2014. I wanted a picture. Edna wanted breakfast.

In case you’re wondering where our parents are, they’re dead. Our mom died of breast cancer when she was just 33. 

Us with mom before she died. (Obviously.)

As for our dad, he peaced-out around the time my mom got sick. His loss - we’re awesome. 

Here we are being awesome at the beach. Pushing a wheelchair in the sand? Not so awesome. 

In case you’re wondering “What’s wrong?” with my sister - as a stranger once asked me on the street  -  NOTHING. Yes, Edna has a rare form of epilepsy - Lennox-Gastaut syndrome - but I don’t know if that’s anymore “wrong” than people who don’t have manners. 

Basically, Edna was born “normal,” and started having seizures as a baby. They eventually got so bad that they cut off the oxygen to her brain, causing her to be mentally disabled. Or impaired. Or intellectually disabled. Or whatever you want to call it - except “retarded,” because in 2010, President Obama signed Rosa’s Law into effect, replacing that word with “intellectually impaired.” 

Which is cool and all, but services for the disabled and the people who care for them are SEVERELY LACKING. Also, there’s a bunch of people working in taxpayer-funded positions who are supposed to help families like us, but don’t. (Big surprise, I know.) They just fill out paperwork (whenever they feel like it) with asinine statements like this: 

YUP. I transport my sister down the stairs in her wheelchair, because that is not only safe, but TOTALLY PRACTICAL. Why doesn’t everyone in a wheelchair just take the stairs, for God’s sake? Stop being so lazy, PEOPLE WITHOUT WORKING LEGS! 

But, as it says above, Edna’s legs do work. Whether or not she wants them to, is another story. 

Edna refusing to go inside. 

These are the stairs that I have to carry her up - by myself - on a daily basis. That is, until one of my legs break and both of us are just sitting at the bottom of the stairs, helpless. 

For six months, I have begged - BEGGED - the State of California to help my sister, which they are required by law - The Lanterman Act specifically - to do so. But they’ve told me “these things take time” and that I “need to amend my expectations.” (That was said to me when I refused to place Edna at AN ALL-MALE CARE FACILITY. Because yes, that was an “option” that was offered to me.) 

Prior to Edna moving in with me in my one-bedroom apartment, she was living with her amazing caregiver, Gaby, back in Tucson, where we went to high school and I did my undergrad. Edna’s reppin’ the Wildcats below. 

But back in November, Gaby also died from breast cancer. (FUCK YOU, BREAST CANCER!) This picture was taken a month before she died. She never even told me she was sick because she didn’t want me to worry. 

By the way, we were raised by our grandma. Edna and her were very close.

She’s dead, too. Surprise.

She died when I was 20 and Edna was 21. That’s when I became Edna’s legal guardian and Gaby stepped into the picture to help me out with Edna. 

So, six months ago, after Gaby died, I moved Edna to California, where I tried to get the folks over at The Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center to help me. I’ve told them I’m worried about our safety - that one of us could get hurt on the stairs -  I’ve told them I can’t afford to pay the private babysitters $15/hour because the ones social services sent me who make $9/hour were unreliable (they didn’t show up on time or at all so I could get to school and work), untrustworthy (one of them let Edna go to the bathroom in the kitchen and then took her into the bathroom because “that what I thought I was supposed to do.”) 

But the people over at the FLRC don’t return my calls, they don’t file the paperwork on time - and the first caseworker that was assigned to us actually LAUGHED AT my sister when he came to our home to evaluate her. When I reported him to his supervisor, she told me, “That’s just [insert name of said jackass].” 

He was one of the two caseworkers that contributed to the report I mentioned above, which also included this: 

So let me get this straight - I have to feed, bathe, dress and help Edna in the bathroom and you can’t deduce whether or not she is able to vote? What in the fuck?!

Now I realize I seem angry. And you can bet your balls I am. I’m also sad. Sad for those who don’t have family to stick up from them and who waste away God knows where, monitored by no one. Or monitored by people who physically and sexually assault them. 

I’m also sad for the caregivers who are SO EXHAUSTED - trying to take care of their loved ones - while also trying to take care of themselves and battling a system that is supposed to help, but does nothing of the sort. And I know a lot of people give up. They let their dreams, their marriages, their friendships slide. All while trying not to resent the very person you’re doing it all for.

Edna wanted to sit next to me the other day while I was writing. Clearly, she’s not impressed. 

Here’s the thing: I REFUSE TO GIVE UP. I’M NOT GIVING UP ON HER OR MYSELF. I’m going to pursue my dreams while taking care of her, AND while ensuring that the people paid to do their jobs ACTUALLY do them.

That’s where you come in. I need you to help me get my story out there. Because I know I’m not alone in this. I want to connect with families who are in similar situations and also show people who have no idea what it’s like to care for someone with a disability (or even a loved one who is sick) that it can be rewarding. Super fucking hard. Exhausting. Painful. Isolating. But, rewarding. 

I’m going to get help for my sister - and others. My hope is that by sharing our story, I can bring awareness to the lack of services and help for the disabled. 

Thank you, 

Jeanie 

Facebook:  facebook.com/eisforedna

Twitter: @EisforEdna 

Kris Gottschalk

@krisforreal for nylonmag

I NEED TO STOP BLOGGING TO THIS BLOG WHEN I WANT TO BLOG TO THE SIMS BLOG RRJGNJKGBRRRBGHDFHBGHDBFHSD