your drink, is it freezd?

Katniss DOES convince most everyone in the districts. The only district people to question the love story are the other victors, because they alone understand how the Capitol's propaganda works, how stories are controlled and victors are forced to play their part.

But when Katniss visits District 8, everyone seems fully convinced. People assure Katniss that they know Peeta was just speaking under duress. They're so upset about Katniss "losing the baby" that one woman actually weeps over it. The everyday District citizens buy into it fully.

The issue is that Snow doesn't understand how powerful love is. Katniss and Peeta's act fuels the rebellion instead of tamping it because choosing love over violence is rebellious. Like when Katniss and Peeta hold hands and Haymitch calls it the perfect touch of rebellion, or when Katniss covers Rue with flowers, or when all the victors hold hands on interview night. Compassion, love, friendship between competitors, it's all in defiance to the Capitol's agenda.

Snow thought that the districts would hear, "I'm just a silly little harmless teenage girl doing impulsive things because I'm in love! How nice of the Capitol to let me keep my boyfriend!" Instead they heard, "My love gave me the courage to defy the Capitol." They heard, "My love held firm in the face of all the Capitol's power and cruelty. I refuse to kill him or even passively let him die." They heard, "The Capitol is not strong enough to corrupt a steadfast heart." And if the Capitol can't even overcome two teenagers' puppy love, it certainly can't overcome thousands of adults' love for their neighbors, children, and homes, or a unified people's passion for freedom and justice.

ER doctor: you mean if I just send you for a leg ultrasound right now and it's clear you'll leave?

Me, picking up my book: yeah, I'm just gonna read until we get it done

Fastest ER visit ever (it was not in fact a clot but I sure would have felt dumb if it had been)

Or, "hey so this test result came back weird and so I think we have to rule out a benign pituitary tumor."

The more specific I get with what I need the faster they order tests. For the RA diagnosis it was, "hey this is probably some weird post viral arthralgia but could we do an arthritis panel since I've got 27 affected joints?"

If the doctor says something dismissive or they don't know, I ask for them to refer me to someone with more expertise in this area.

I had to go through three different practices to find a spinal surgeon who did not tell me that operating on me would be too dangerous because I'm fat. But the third one was like, "Oh, I'm not worried about you coding, there's just a risk that it won't work. But it has a hundred percent failure rate if we don't try."

I did not code. The surgery worked. Was it perfect? No. Did it drastically improve my quality of life? It gave me my fucking life back. I can sit. I can be out in the world and not in blinding pain.

It is so important to not take dismissals and such as the final answer. I got so much bullshit for so many years. It nearly killed me twice, people blowing off clots as muscle pain or "depression".

Track your symptoms. Make a list. Talk about how it affects your quality of life. Ask for physical therapy, ask for second opinions. If you have an idea of what might be wrong, ask them to help you rule it out. Also ask for patient assistance, nonprofit hospitals have it. You might have to go through their labs and their doctors but it can cover an awful lot.

Take a friend with you, or a family member. My pcp asks if I want a chaperone (I don't) but literally having an extra person with you can help.

'cinema is dying' okay but everyone is flocking to their local cinema to see a beautiful hit musical, and so many have shown up this weekend that licensers decided to extend its theatrical release for another week, a massive rarity in the current climate

the field is a standard football field including the goals, goalposts, and end zones

there are four teams: two football teams, and two football teams

the two football teams play football and follow all the usual rules for it

the two football teams play football and follow all the usual rules for it

at the same time

on the same field

while dodging around the teams playing the other football

To the Person Who Asked If I Was OK

The beauty of it is that you could place that exact same dialogue into any time and place in human history and it would make just as much sense, you could have it as a conversation between sailors in a 1600s ship, a group of bronze-age warriors cleaning their weapons, stone age hunters walking home from a hunt, or a bunch of 21st century redditors on the internet, and it would hit just as splendidly.

There was this conversation about if you could have sex with any specific person from any time through human history, which one would you choose? Famous legendary lovers were brought up, queens, emperors and such were popular, might as well fuck Rasputin just to see what the hype was all about, the kind of answers one would expect.

Then some guy said he would choose his own late wife. He went on to talk about how brutal it is, that you might find the love of your life, but there's no promise that this life couldn't be suddenly cut short. That his body aches for hers and how there isn't much he wouldn't do for one more opportunity to make love to her one last time.

Now, I'd like you to imagine a pause in the conversation. A solemn, contemplative moment of silence, with several of the people present nodding in agreement that this is indeed the finest answer - it wasn't a competition, but there's no doing better than that.

And then someone breaks this solemn silence and says: