irene speaks

My Photo

View Full Size

On Blogger since February 2012

Profile views - 4552

Report Abuse

My blogs

Blogs I follow

About me

Gender Female
Location United States
Introduction I'm a mom, a wife, a best friend. Sick with CFIDS/ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia since 1975 as a result of a nasty flu while still in grad school, it wasn't until the late '80's that I received a diagnosis. Until that flu I'd never really been ill before. With each year I get progressively worse and add to the bucket load of symptoms I'm living with. I've been blessed with an incredible family and best friend who've stayed with me through my struggles as we continue to find a way out of this monstrous illness and its complications. We've tried seemingly every approach to find my way back to health. Often I think our best weapon in this undesirable and unasked-for adventure has been laughter.
Interests CFIDS, CFS/ME, Fibromyalgia, Insomnia, migraines, body migraines, family, marriage, motherhood, friendship, reading, dressage, coping with chronic illness, gardening, thinking, sleep, cooking and baking, eating healthy, beauty, fashion, laughter, humor, travel, literature
Favorite Movies East/West, Burnt by the Sun, Barber of Siberia, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Charade, The Trouble with Angels, Anna: 6-18 with Nikita Mikhalkov, The Madness of King George, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Romantic Comedies
Favorite Music DDT (ДДТ), Elton John, John Denver, Alla Pugacheva, Carole King, The BeeGees, Brad Paisley, Filipp Kirkorov, Elena Vaenga, Lady Gaga
Favorite Books Jane Eyre, A Town Like Alice, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Anna Karenina, Dr. Zhivago, Eugene Onegin, From Fatigued to Fantastic!, The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500, 000 Years, Industry of Souls, Cancer Ward, Days of Grace, Asleep, The Man Who Couldn't Eat (Crohn's), Harvest of Sorrow, Spirit Catches You and Then You Fall Down, The Things They Carried, The Good Earth, Crime and Punishment, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Waiting (Ha Jin), English: A Novel (Wang Gang), Years of Wonder, Morgan's Run, The Greenlanders, Mountains Beyond Mountains, The Siege, The Color of Water, Child-44, Gone With the Wind, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Tim Gunn, The Bronze Horseman Series, Simon Winchester - anything he writes!, Mystery fiction, The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own, The 150 Healthiest Food on Earth, Tracy Kidder, The Power of One, Inspector Lynley Series (Elizabeth George), Ruth Rendell, Les Miserables, The Handmaid's Tale, Barbara Kingsolver, Taras Bulba, Marge Piercy, Brick Lane, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, Rebecca, The Rice Mother