Heliotropist
@heliotropist.bsky.social
genX (she/her) tugging at the delicate eye area 🌈 Upper Valley🌈 🐈⬛✡️⛸️🦻🏼🥄🎶💿🎨💅🧶🌳 Talkin’ ‘bout my Sandwich Generation / profile pic is a tabby cat lying with his paws across a long, old, elaborately carved knife; banner is a partly cloudy sky over a rural road
Having a rare morning off from caregiving! What’s the occasion? Getting new tires put on my car, and my 2nd shingles shot. (I used to know how to have a good time…)
December 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Having a rare morning off from caregiving! What’s the occasion? Getting new tires put on my car, and my 2nd shingles shot. (I used to know how to have a good time…)
I’m constantly trying to find new TV shows to watch with my Mom, who has dementia. We stumbled upon a dystopian sci-fi series called #The100, and got into it before I realized there are 100 episodes and it’s leaving Netflix next week. Stop now? Or get as far as we can?
December 10, 2025 at 10:48 PM
I’m constantly trying to find new TV shows to watch with my Mom, who has dementia. We stumbled upon a dystopian sci-fi series called #The100, and got into it before I realized there are 100 episodes and it’s leaving Netflix next week. Stop now? Or get as far as we can?
I put off dealing with Medicare open enrollment until today’s deadline, because I knew it’d be bad. Well. For 2026 I only get 2 Medicare Advantage plan options. Two! Last year I had at least a dozen plans to choose from.
December 7, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I put off dealing with Medicare open enrollment until today’s deadline, because I knew it’d be bad. Well. For 2026 I only get 2 Medicare Advantage plan options. Two! Last year I had at least a dozen plans to choose from.
My mom’s vascular dementia is progressing quickly. 😢 It’s so limiting for her, and by extension, me as her 24/7 caregiver. I wish we could go to Boston with the rest of the family for Miss 19’s college band concert, but I can’t get Mom out the door this early. Fortunately, there’s a livestream.
December 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
My mom’s vascular dementia is progressing quickly. 😢 It’s so limiting for her, and by extension, me as her 24/7 caregiver. I wish we could go to Boston with the rest of the family for Miss 19’s college band concert, but I can’t get Mom out the door this early. Fortunately, there’s a livestream.
Reposted by Heliotropist
What a gift a trusted reader is for a working writer! Here's a poem I wrote about one particularly trusted reader. Thanks, Lavender Review, for including it in this latest issue.
www.lavrev.net/2025/12/liz-...
www.lavrev.net/2025/12/liz-...
Liz Ahl
Trusted Reader —for K (as much as any reader could be trusted to close their hands—not too tightly or too loosely—around what you put there...
www.lavrev.net
December 6, 2025 at 4:24 AM
What a gift a trusted reader is for a working writer! Here's a poem I wrote about one particularly trusted reader. Thanks, Lavender Review, for including it in this latest issue.
www.lavrev.net/2025/12/liz-...
www.lavrev.net/2025/12/liz-...
Reposted by Heliotropist
An excellent piece by Yasmin Khan in @theguardian.com – and I’m very relieved the preposterous case against her has been dropped. www.theguardian.com/food/comment...
I called my recipe book Sabzi – vegetables. But the name was trademarked. And my legal ordeal began
The granting of patents and trademarks to foods and words from the global south is part of a long colonial grab. It’s time to realise we share what we cook, and what we call it
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:39 AM
An excellent piece by Yasmin Khan in @theguardian.com – and I’m very relieved the preposterous case against her has been dropped. www.theguardian.com/food/comment...
This card on my kitchen table is the reason I’ve had an Everclear earworm for days. My brain is cursed.
December 4, 2025 at 1:26 PM
This card on my kitchen table is the reason I’ve had an Everclear earworm for days. My brain is cursed.
Reposted by Heliotropist
*not shopping at Target intensifies*
December 1, 2025 at 8:31 PM
*not shopping at Target intensifies*
The private boys’ prep school in town opens their ice arena for free public skating a handful of times each winter…today’s the first one! ⛸️ When our girls were very little, the boys who attend the school would help lace up their skates… 🥹
November 30, 2025 at 3:55 PM
The private boys’ prep school in town opens their ice arena for free public skating a handful of times each winter…today’s the first one! ⛸️ When our girls were very little, the boys who attend the school would help lace up their skates… 🥹
My earworm for today is a parody clip in the style of Sammy Hagar: “I can’t be…FIFTY-FIVE!” 🎶
November 29, 2025 at 1:43 PM
My earworm for today is a parody clip in the style of Sammy Hagar: “I can’t be…FIFTY-FIVE!” 🎶
Reposted by Heliotropist
Hegseth must be prosecuted to the absolute maximum extent allowed by law.
November 28, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Hegseth must be prosecuted to the absolute maximum extent allowed by law.
Could my Mom NOT sound like she’s dying in the bathroom when there’s a contractor in the house?? 🤦🏻♀️ 🫠
November 26, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Could my Mom NOT sound like she’s dying in the bathroom when there’s a contractor in the house?? 🤦🏻♀️ 🫠
Miss 19 is on her way home from college for Thanksgiving!! 🎉
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Miss 19 is on her way home from college for Thanksgiving!! 🎉
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My friend Emily Walton wrote a book about racial exclusion, studying the place where we live, the Upper Valley of NH/VT. Pretty wild to read a study of the place you live! Anyway, out tomorrow, very well done with lots of data and interviews. www.amazon.com/Homesick-Rac...
Homesick: Race and Exclusion in Rural New England
Homesick: Race and Exclusion in Rural New England [Walton, Emily] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Homesick: Race and Exclusion in Rural New England
www.amazon.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:09 PM
My friend Emily Walton wrote a book about racial exclusion, studying the place where we live, the Upper Valley of NH/VT. Pretty wild to read a study of the place you live! Anyway, out tomorrow, very well done with lots of data and interviews. www.amazon.com/Homesick-Rac...
Reposted by Heliotropist
Crimes against women and children aren't crimes, example # infinity:
November 23, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Crimes against women and children aren't crimes, example # infinity:
Watched Wicked Part I with Mom. Within 5min she was complaining about Ariana Grande’s voice (fair), but got over it. She also claimed not to know the basic story of The Wizard of Oz, so I supplied background where needed. We enjoyed it, but I’m still feeling sad about Elphaba.
November 23, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Watched Wicked Part I with Mom. Within 5min she was complaining about Ariana Grande’s voice (fair), but got over it. She also claimed not to know the basic story of The Wizard of Oz, so I supplied background where needed. We enjoyed it, but I’m still feeling sad about Elphaba.
Reposted by Heliotropist
Reposted by Heliotropist
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad
Yesterday was rough, and last night we dealt with some ultra challenging behavior. But a full night’s sleep hits the reset in my mom’s brain and this morning we’ll start fresh again. 😅 #dementia #caregiving
November 19, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Yesterday was rough, and last night we dealt with some ultra challenging behavior. But a full night’s sleep hits the reset in my mom’s brain and this morning we’ll start fresh again. 😅 #dementia #caregiving
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Serenity Now! #caregiving #dementia
November 12, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Serenity Now! #caregiving #dementia
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Alice wrote so many wonderful things. Thinking of this essay today.
"The cycle of living and dying is a reminder that we do not exist as humans divorced from one another and nature."
"The cycle of living and dying is a reminder that we do not exist as humans divorced from one another and nature."
In Praise of Peaches - Orion Magazine
Sometimes a peach is just a peach. But sometimes it's a portal.
orionmagazine.org
November 16, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Alice wrote so many wonderful things. Thinking of this essay today.
"The cycle of living and dying is a reminder that we do not exist as humans divorced from one another and nature."
"The cycle of living and dying is a reminder that we do not exist as humans divorced from one another and nature."
Reposted by Heliotropist
Here is an obituary for Alice Wong from The Sick Times, a publication aligned with disability rights and disability activism, if you are looking for an alternative to reading the nyt one: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...
Alice Wong, disability activist and luminary, dies at 51 - The Sick Times
Alice Wong platformed and uplifted people with Long COVID in her final chapter as a lifelong disability advocate and storyteller.
thesicktimes.org
November 16, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Here is an obituary for Alice Wong from The Sick Times, a publication aligned with disability rights and disability activism, if you are looking for an alternative to reading the nyt one: thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/a...
Reposted by Heliotropist
Honoring Alice Wong's life and legacy with gratitude, in solidarity and sorrow, this morning. I was a fan; thinking of all who loved and knew her personally.
Alice's words speak to us still. As a chronically ill person, I will keep listening. What a beautiful, bold, *brilliant* life well lived.
Alice's words speak to us still. As a chronically ill person, I will keep listening. What a beautiful, bold, *brilliant* life well lived.
November 15, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Honoring Alice Wong's life and legacy with gratitude, in solidarity and sorrow, this morning. I was a fan; thinking of all who loved and knew her personally.
Alice's words speak to us still. As a chronically ill person, I will keep listening. What a beautiful, bold, *brilliant* life well lived.
Alice's words speak to us still. As a chronically ill person, I will keep listening. What a beautiful, bold, *brilliant* life well lived.