She Is More Than That...(Bif Naked 2016, to start)

When the announcement posted on my Facebook Wall, I literally jumped of the couch. Our town and county mayors announcing Bif Naked (and some other people - just kidding) would be playing this year’s free admission Party In The Park, Labour Day long weekend, 2016. And then I proceeded to gleefully jump around the house making loud “Yes. Yes. Yes.” and “Oh my god. Oh my god.” I then went to work and subjected my co-workers with copious amounts of Bif Naked history, without any shame and included a full declaration of girl-crush. I also booked off time to make it to her performance, weeks in advance.

Have I lost my mind? That is really not the right question. Will I lose my mind? That is what I’m trying to prevent when Miss Beth Torbert and her band, Bif Naked come to town. Then I read comments re: my raving post on a local community page. It went something like (exactly) this,

-   “wish the town would live in 2016, not 2003.”

-   “I didn’t even know that she did anything anymore.”

And even as far as,

-   “I heard she was a mega-bitch in person.” That one both made me laugh and want to throat-punch the person, personally. Simply because, everybody is a ‘bitch’ sometimes.

And all these comments were to be expected from certain folks, previous history dictates. I also couldn’t resist to urge to reply a knock’em-all’down reply back, as follows,

-   “Pretty sure this Bif Naked: Forever (Acoustic and Other Delights) was released 2012 and her new book, just hit bestseller across North America. (So who's living in what year again?) This woman rocks anything she gets her hands on, including breast cancer and stuff. And she's sexy as hell through it all. Living super woman.

BIF NAKED ~I Bificus [FULL ALBUM]

I’m not a fanatical fan by any means of the word, or psychological profile, really. I just really love and appreciate this woman for her accomplishments, her talents (which are so many), and her ability to share so openly about such personal moments, whether just waking up in her kitchen in Paris, or waking up in her hospital bed, after chemotherapy. Beth Torbert (Bif Naked) is just that way.

In short form, her resume reads experience and success in song writing, singing, poetry, Animal Rights activist, acting, philanthropy, motivational speaking, non-fictional writing, blogging, (take a breath), and more.  

Moral of this post: Just because you think that a musician is no longer performing, or (at the extreme) falsely dead, maybe a person should use their wonderful Facebook and Google apps and they will probably find out that they themselves stopped ‘rockin’, not the artist.

©Dominique Clark 2016

When You Have The Change...(RUFKM, I Thought It Was Done With!!!)

(Caution: Language pertaining to the woman's anatomy and functions will be described in the following article. This is important and should be shared with anybody you feel has not been upgraded on their education of what to expect in Peri-menopausal and Menopausal)

      I'm not an expert on health by any means but what I've been experiencing for the past few years (stopped counting after 5 or so), is no less than an incessant inconvenience of all sorts. I've had body pains, night-sweats (just pure pleasure that is, not!), and some other debilitating symptoms. I had inquired with several doctors within my town regarding these ailments and was told,

     "No, you are not menopausal. Get more exercise." And that was the extent of it.

     January, 2016 comes around and everything is pretty much going the same, minus all the symptoms listed previously. Then February, and no period. Then March, and no period. As I etched into the end of April, I was getting ready to pop the champagne and begin life without the baggage of feminine hygiene products, ever. I also wasn't feeling the best, physically, either. There was sharp pain in the upper back by the spine that was causing some much grief. Not enough to send me to the doctor as I was managing and the discomfort seemed to be easing, as 4- 5 days went by.     

     On April 30, as I prepared for evening sky-watching through YouTube, a sudden urge to urinate sent me to the bathroom where I discovered that Mother Nature was not finished with me yet. This first frustrated me. Quite a lot more than just a bit. I grumbled as I went to bed and was still grumbling when the alarm went off. Almost talked myself into thinking it was the wrong day and would have gone back to bed. I blame my period for that, because I just spent two months of pure bliss. No cramps, no bloating, no back-pains from hell and especially, NO PADS.

     But no, overnight, my jeans are sausage-tight, no joke. And my skin feels like it's going to breakout any minute. I'm too old for this shit!!! And I don't want to, nah! I spent almost every other hour of the following day (today) hoping that it was just a 'blip' in the schedule and would be done by the end of the day. That didn't happen, either. 

     I know that my BFF just went pure hell as she seemed to have all the symptoms  x 10 and even referred to feeling like a pig being bled-out, for days on end. I wanted to ask her about my current circumstance, but considering how awful her experience was, I couldn't. So I did the next best thing: Googled it! (And it worked. Imagine that.)

     First off, I'm not nuts and you ladies out there, are not going nuts either. We are stuck in the 'Perimenopausal Stage' (Premenopause). And this can last for what seems like a second lifetime. And it is common for 'Aunt Flow' to come in and out of her cycle until full Menopause takes over. And yes, it might get more painful, complete unpredictable and seem like the bleeding is heavier than in previous cycles. This not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to feel like a teenager again.

     

     Second, big, huge Thank You to the people at Canadian Women's Health Network, who put together one heck of a website that is going to help me figure all this crap out. Third, doctors need to start giving women more information on what's going on with their own bodies. We don't all have a gynecologist available, a big sister who's been through it or a mother who's comfortable enough to share her experience. Even if the doctor is male and is uncomfortable himself discussing female events, the least he could do is guide us towards the right source for our own information quest, as I've done here.

     There is lots of information out there from professional individuals and women's clinics and other fantastic sites. I would hope that this site and the information on both phases of Menopause are helpful to somebody who, like me, has to find out somethings on their own.

©Dominique Clark 2016

#Menopause #WomensHealth #Perimenopause #Health #Postmenopause #CanadianWomensHealth