Attended church this morning for the first time in 5 years (have attended remotely during COVID). I am going through one of the darkest times of my life. Craving connection, I sought spiritual guidance and community… but instead of finding Jesus, I found disease 🧵 I love this church. It preaches a message of inclusion and, for the most part, matches word with action. They truly are Jesus in the following ways: feeding unhoused neighbors, providing refuge during wildfires, hosting legal clinics & AA meetings, truly embracing LGBTQ+ people

One of my family members waited until after we had breathed shared indoor air and been in close proximity for hours to tell me they had been vomiting yesterday.

“I took a test!”

We have been over this. Again and again. I’ve also been sick for MONTHS and have NO IMMUNE SYSTEM RN FYI, this person knows that they should have been masking until they had gotten several negative tests over several days. They know that they can maim or kill me. They have exposed me multiple times before and we have had to repair trust multiple times.

I was an ableist asshole when I first became a teacher. Because that’s what I was taught! In my defense, academic institutions told me a strict attendance policy was required. What changed my perspective & my assessment criteria? Disabled students 🧵 I can’t go into identifiable details of students for obvious ethical reasons. But I will say that, as a teacher, I was a piece of shit who stubbornly held the line my inflexible attendance policy (some permutation of more than X =automatic failure).

My pastor — who wanted to come back to church COVID+ — instead listened to my advice about isolating to prevent COVID spread. He even made a church announcement about his isolation precautions today.

Wish he & everyone else were masking, but glad that chain was broken. He even thanked me for the resources I sent him about isolation (thank you @PeoplesCDC ) and said he would share with others.

Not used to people listening to me about COVID. This gives me hope.

This is my villain origin story. Like literally part of why I’m writing my dissertation. Each year 31-40% of CA wildland firefighters are incarcerated. A lot of it is due to the fire industrial complex (capitalism). & part of it is the Romantic idea of wilderness as curative

https://twitter.com/t_nyc/status/1827777220695499224

Incarcerated firefighters are paid shit wages while in & can’t get hired once they get out. They are on the frontlines at dangerous fires, not to mention their lungs getting toasted b/c wildfire smoke is toxic. Most incarcerated folks POC. Environmental racism at work.

Just think it’s funny that the doctor told me my tonsils “look healthy” but I had a tonsillectomy in 2009 so I don’t have tonsils.

They aren’t sending the best and the brightest to Kaiser. The weirdest tweets take off. Anyway here is my throat for public perusal. Context: I’ve been sick for over a month. If you see anything off please tell me because there is a non-negligible chance strangers on the internet provide better medical care than Kaiser

Disorienting to complete my mandatory 2024 training for my workplace on COVID-19 & OSHA. The training says COVID is airborne! & to wear respirators to prevent illness! & to isolate if you test positive & alert the workplace and all your contacts! Here are the updated “non emergency standards” in effect until 2025 dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavir…

RE: the current mask debate: the lone maskers in otherwise dangerous unmasked crowds can be ambassadors. By that I mean: a lot of people think “no one else is masking so I won’t” because that’s what they see in certain spaces. Survivorship bias. (1/ But even just one mask in a crowd sews doubt, if not cognitive dissonance. My husband and I, on multiple occasions, have walked into an otherwise maskless space. People immediately ask us “is something going around?” “Is COVID back?” Or “are masks required here again?” (2/

Just think it’s funny I called/emailed a healthcare office 3x reminding them to send testing instructions they were supposed to have already sent. They ignored me. & then my husband calls & they send it immediately.

“Sexism is ridiculous!” he laughed.
“I know.” I said. How do people without an America’s Golden Boy husband (deep-voiced white guy Army veteran) get people to take them seriously?

Because, for the life of me, I can’t get anyone to listen to me unless it is through him.

Something that haunts me: years ago my mom, an alcoholic, went to rehab to get clean. My grandparents who grew up soaked in alcohol culture —prolific partiers/socialites their entire lives —went sober in solidarity.

Except it turns out they didn’t…🧵 (an essay on access) My great grandparents on both the Polish/Russian & Swedish sides (1st gen immigrants) were allegedly infamous bootleggers in Chicago. That’s the environment my grandparents grew up in.

I hope every disabled/immunocompromised child’s family sues the school district when their kids are inevitably hospitalized, killed, or end up with long COVID.

The position-holders running this school district are abhorrent.

https://twitter.com/kron4news/status/1747075974733132102

Sue them into the ground. Sue them so hard that their head spins would make Regan from The Exorcist envious. Bonk them so hard with the legal system that money spews out of their mouths in a never-ending font of FAFO.

Twitter: can you help me find this woman? She was my “Big Sister” (from Big Brothers Big Sisters) in early 2000s in Marin County, CA. She saved my life when I was an at-risk youth enduring extreme trauma and abuse.

I want to tell her thank you. Unfortunately I have trauma-related memory loss and I cannot remember her name. But largely thanks to her I made it through. I’ve since volunteered myself as a “Big Sister” to an at-risk youth & also tutored at-risk youth at a rehab facility to help others the way she helped me.

It’s getting real goofy having to beg for access at conferences.

Me: “I am disabled and at high risk of severe COVID outcomes. What safety measures are in place to make this event equitable & inclusive?”

Organizers: “uhhhh...”

It’s been almost 3 years. Figure it out. Accessibility shouldn’t be slipshod performativity after someone asks. It should be built into the event — and advertised as such. It baffles me that folks are complaining no one participating in their events but doing absolutely nothing to protect attendees.

“...there will be very limited remote course offerings, so it may be appropriate to take a leave of absence for fall if circumstances related to COVID-19 impact a student’s ability to attend class in person.” UCD committed to culture of exclusion! @DisInHigherEd (1/6) Y’all know retention rates among those forced to take leaves of absence are horribly low, right? And what if this student’s situation shows no likelihood of improving? If they are ready and willing to learn, why NOT provide accessibility via remote options? (2/6)