Easily Bridget

Your thoughts are so distorted when you’re depressed. I know this from personal experience. I am going through a depression right now. I am losing weight. Sometimes I don’t take care of myself as well as I should. This all came to pass after I was forced to be taken off of a medication. This particular medication can cost upwards of $1500 per month for my parents (as I am simply too broke to pay for my own medication) and we needed to try stopping it because money was tight. Life is not pleasant while off of that medication. Generic replacements aggravate my parkinsonism horribly and don’t even work that well. We had to make it work with the expensive medication. I don’t know how. I don’t ask.   But now, just as in December of 2021, my depression is back. Did it ever go away? I have been mildly depressed all this time, but it has been manageable. As of February 2023 it has been raging like an unbearably cold snowstorm, muddying up my memory and my ability to think straight.   If there

Sometimes revelations come from unexpected places and sometimes they come from obvious ones. My mother is a font of knowledge. You become smarter just by being in the same room as her. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that she hit me with a nugget of wisdom, but there I was, in the car, riding in the passenger’s seat and putting on my makeup as she spilled out something that changed my feelings regarding my parkinsonian tremor and the application of cosmetics.   I have been doing the inner corner eyeshadow look since the 90’s began and my tremors developed. It was purely by accident. I kept doing it because I liked the look and it began to trend. Back to the car, as I shakily dabbed some lime eyeshadow on the inner corners of my eyes, my mom told me that she developed the look in a similar way but always thought of it as a mistake.   I thought to myself, how many times have individuals with movement disorders made glorious discoveries with their cosmetics simply because they hav

Well, that’s it folks. It’s the end of a very complicated year. We have seen some people come to justice while others narrowly escape its grasp. Women have suffered terrible attacks against their reproductive rights. It seems like this world is getting crazier and more terrifying by the day, but I propose a thought – When the clock strikes midnight tonight, it’s a new year!    We should restart! Renew our efforts to fight for our rights. Look at the world through clear eyes and not ones foggied up by hate and bias! I believe that if we do these things that 2023 could be a better year. Starting small, I know that it will be a better year for me.   Look, you can step into the New Year cautious and afraid to break things or you can bust in with a celebratory attitude, ready to start running on this new road at a furious pace. Maybe you’re like me and you ended December with good news – I’m carrying a 4.0 GPA into the Spring Semester, which means I’ll likely graduate with good grades. Endi

Christmas is a time to unleash your inner decorator and it’s the perfect time to incorporate live plants. Poinsettias are an obvious choice for ringing in the holiday spirit or perhaps even Peace Lilies, but if you really want to celebrate the season of giving with peace, happiness, and most important of all, love, you’ll want to look for the classic beauty of the floral world – the rose.   What looks better right next to a lit up Christmas tree than an arrangement of red roses in full bloom? I dare you to tell me. If fragrance is what you’re looking for, nothing mingles with pine, fir, and peppermint than a lovely, smooth rose note carrying through the room. It’s all about atmosphere, and when you have roses, you definitely have atmosphere.   Roses make perfect gifts or holiday decorations even for people with canine or feline friends as they are safe for both animals. The best place to get them? Grace Rose Farm, of course! Their blooms never disappoint and come with their perfect vel

Winter can be looked at one of two ways. You can see it as being cold and miserable with the streets lined with grey slush courtesy of the salt trucks. Annoying and repetitive caterwauling playing over store speakers and radio stations no matter where you go. Peppermint EVERYTHING.   Or… You can look at winter as I and so many others do. Tiny crystalline flakes fall from the sky to either make their home in a bed of snow or melt away just as quickly as they were formed. As you walk the sidewalks you can smell the aroma of chestnuts roasting. Trucks are set-up peddling every kind of hot chocolate imaginable and it’s almost guaranteed that you will find your favorite (or a new favorite!) among them. The storefronts are all decorated in beautiful sparkling lights.   That is my wintertime fantasy made real every time I visit New York City with my mother, a time-honored tradition. There are so many holidays in the winter months it’s easy to get wrapped up in one or two or maybe even more th

I understand what it’s like to have flowers as your passion. Ever since I was a little girl, I had a garden. Learning about each plant’s needs fascinated me and taking care of them made me feel like some kind of mystical nature spirit. I guess that’s why I absolutely melt when anyone gives me truly high quality fresh cut flowers.   I was lucky enough to collaborate with the geniuses behind Grace Rose Farm, where roses truly are their passion. In my room sits the proof – a lovely bouquet of two dozen roses in beautiful shades of peach and pink, also known as the Mara Bouquet. I like to think of it as my sweetly floral serotonin, because every time I look at it I smile. The owners of this business, Gracie and Ryan Poulson, have a story that might as well be considered a love story. Their rose garden, which at 500 bushes was nothing to sneeze at, was built at the first home they shared together in honor of Gracie’s grandma. As gardening projects do, this one grew and grew until it became