About me
Diagnosis
Mitsy and Buddy
About this space
And what’s up with that fog
Note on copyright
Means of contact

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About me

My name is Amanda(w). I am 23 years old and married to Mattw, whom I met on the Internet and with whom I have shared mutual fancy since age seventeen (he nineteen). We live in a two-bedroom apartment with deep red carpet in southwestern Pennsylvania, with our two “kids,” Mitsy and Buddy.

I was born in central California to a newly single mother. I had two nephews waiting for me before I ever showed face on this earth — late bloomer, I was. My mother struggled to raise me on her own, dealing with social troubles, mental illness in the family, financial instability, and her own disabilities, any and all of which were both cause and consequence of each other. I have lived with both of my brothers and my sister (all three a generation older than I) at various times during my childhood.

Over my years I have shared space with no less than two, and at times up to thirteen cats, two dogs, a miniature macaw and some betta fish.

After two aborted attempts at attending university — for what, I never could decide — I moved across the country, at last, to live with my love, having only spent time in the area for two weeks previously. In the intervening years I have grown quite fond of this small-town metro.

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Diagnosis

I am a woman with disabilities. That is, I have several medical conditions which affect body and mind in various ways, and I face obstacles to full and equal societal access because of them.

I have been disabled in the sense of being un-able; unable to work, unable to make my own food or wash my own clothing, unable to keep my physical self clean and cared-for, unable to leave the house.

And I have been disabled in the sense of having this history, though I am now able to do the things I could not do before.

I live with asthma, fibromyalgia, migraines, anxiety, endometriosis and scoliosis, in approximate order of diagnosis. Each of these conditions affects me to varying degrees at different times, depending on what treatment is available and effective for me, how easy it is to access that treatment, and what sort of obstacles are put in my way because of them.

I do not suffer from these conditions; they are not a tragedy. By the same token, they are not trivial, they affect me heavily and have changed my life down to the very root. I am not imagining them or exaggerating them; on the contrary, I have faced multiple crises in life because I pushed myself too hard because I believed that what I was feeling couldn’t really be that bad.

I am the person I am; these conditions are part of that — only part, but an essential part, one that cannot be ignored or dismissed. My life experience due to these conditions very much informs my world view and affects how I approach my life.

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Mitsy and Buddy

These two were born on April 7, 2006 to a feral cat outside my mother’s home. You can read their story at this link. Caring for these cats helped me through a very difficult time in my life, and I am inordinately attached to them as a result of that.

They are a common fixture at this blog. Get used to it ;)

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About this space

I started 3rf on a moment’s whim back in July ‘07, on blogspot. I wanted a place of my own for writing and exploration, but without the hassle of acquiring web hosting, a domain name, a Wordpress installation, and the like. Later, I decided to acquire such a space after all, again on a moment’s whim. All of my writing from the blogspot blog is here on this site, and I prefer any comments to be left here.

For the name, I settled quickly on Three Rivers, which is both a nickname for the city under whose shadow I now live and a small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in central California, where my husband and I were married.

The Tule fog found its way into this blog’s name by way of the unavailability of “threerivers” as an address by itself. (I feel the need to note, for the sake of accuracy, that Tule fog forms neither in Three Rivers, California, nor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.)

I find that I learn best when I externalize; that is, it helps me to process ideas by getting them outside my own mind, by speaking, by writing, by creating. A conversation is a thing of beauty to me; I learn best by seeing how other people take my own ideas and modify them, or build upon them, or criticize them. I suppose you could call me an open source mind project :)

And that is what this blog is for. These words are mine, but I want them to be yours, too, to work with as you see fit.

This is a safe space. I have not had to moderate this blog thus far, but I reserve the right to control the conversation in this space to prevent the spread of hateful speech. I am willing and ready to employ disemvowelment and deletion in service of this ideal. And because I am not a government entity, this is not a violation of your right to free speech; you have no right to use my platform for whatever purpose you choose. Please keep this in mind as you comment.

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And what’s up with that fog

The fog in this blog’s name is also a reference to what is commonly called “fibro fog,” a state of cognitive dysfunction that occurs in fibromyalgia patients. There are a number of articles that address the subject, but what it means in the meanwhile: I often have difficulty translating ideas into coherent sentences or pulling up a particular word important to conveying my meaning. My writing may be imprecise at times, like describing the buildings, greenery and landmarks surrounding my house without being able to describe the house itself. When I am angry it gets very bad — or maybe I get angry because it is so bad — and I can grow very frustrated at being unable to untangle the mess of ideas in my head and translate them to cohesive, understandable sentences.

So please take care when reading my blog. This is not an attempt to excuse any mistakes I may make. But realize that I don’t really hold to my wording; that is always subject to reworking. If you don’t understand, or you have any questions, please ask, and I will do my best to make things clear. Unfortunately, though, doing my best does not always mean that the end result will actually be clarity. I apologize for that.

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Note on copyright

This work by Amandaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://threeriversblog.com/about#copyright.

Any wedding photos featured here are copyright Lauren Cohn-Frankel (who comes highly recommended!). They were licensed to me for my noncommercial use, so long as she is credited. All other rights are reserved by Lauren (Cohn-Frankel Photography), whose permission must be acquired before any other use of her (beautiful) work.

I do my best to attribute the images I find to use here. If I neglect diligence in crediting a work’s creator, please do alert me so I can correct the matter.

The remaining work — written and photographic — is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license. If you do use any of it, please let me know, for my own curiosity!

The design is based on Jide’s Freshy2 theme, modified for my own use. Jide’s theme is free for your use, as are my modifications, if they so suit you.

Thank you for your cooperation.

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Means of contact

I can be reached at amndaw (skip the second “a” in my name) at gmail.com. Please excuse any delay in response; I am not always available, and even then not always in adequate health. But I promise I will try my best.

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