What do Breitbart Texas and an IV Line Have in Common?

That would be me. After months of negotiating and waiting, I have officially been named a Contributing Editor for Breitbart's new brand expansion, Breitbart Texas! The "vertical" will publish news stories and analysis on topics important to Texans, like education, corruption, and immigration. I will be responsible for providing analysis on border security issues and Mexican drug cartel activity in Texas and beyond, and I've already hit the ground running with my introductory post.

To say yesterday evening after the 7pm ET launch was a bit nutty is an understatement. Breitbart News Network has a very broad reach--and following--so my Twitter followers jumped by more than 130 overnight. I had several wonderful welcome messages from new followers and Breitbart readers, and I spent plenty of time just following the progress of the rollout. On top of that, many people becoming newly familiar with my name and my work also looked up and pre-ordered copies of Border Insecurity! I knew my new position with Breitbart would help my book sales, but the fact that people are interested in my work this early on is an absolute thrill and blessing.

So I find myself this morning in the middle of my crazy dual life--at my infusion center getting my monthly dose of Tysabri, an intravenous medication that helps slow down the progression of my MS. It's a very nice and comfortable place with recliners, TV and wi-fi, and the latter is such a great bonus for me. The entire infusion process, between getting prepped, the infusion itself, and the mandatory observation time afterwards takes about three hours. That's three hours without kids yelling or the phone ringing, so I try to get work done on my laptop while I'm waiting for the meds to do their thing.

I wanted to take and share this photo so you could see how the glamorous and not-so-glamorous halves of my life mix in this one little infusion center. You can see the IV bag and line going into my left hand, my custom-painted walker to my right, and me working furiously on my laptop on my monthly column for Homeland Security Today and scouring Twitter for news stories to write analysis on for Breitbart Texas. Take a look at my large head shot and compare it to real life this morning--yoga pants, fleece, no makeup, and my naturally curly (and often frizzy) hair. Fun, right? In all honesty, there's something about the dichotomy of my life that I absolutely love. If one half of it gets to be too much, I can roll over to the other side and indulge for a bit to stay sane, whether that means finger painting with my 3 ½ year-old for a little while or having an adult phone conversation about weapons trafficking for fifteen minutes. My monthly infusions are just one of the MS-related things that pepper my days, and keep me going so I can take care of my kids and do some cool work stuff :).