I called Barwis when I pulled up after talking to my Mother to request a “spotter” because it was a very warm day and my Mom put a hex on me so I needed to have someone there because disaster was imminent if I transferred on my own. If you know my mother, she has a hex power. My brothers know it, my Dad knew it, and I know it. If she says something is going to happen, it WILL happen. If we don’t listen to her, it is disastrous on our part.
Connor came out to get me and was just “there” when I transferred just in case. It was warm but Mike told me on Wednesday that we would be standing today. I wore my “standing shirt” just to be ready. My “standing shirt” is a shirt I got from the RA on my floor in Harvey Hall in Valley II at WMU the end of my freshman year. That shirt is 15 years old!!! I came with pictures of me at Barwis standing at the Keiser machine with Jesse my first summer at Barwis.
As I came in, I saw Mike Barwis and I told him that I had to hug him. After we hugged, I told him that it has been hard as of late and I can’t believe it’s been almost 22 months. He asked me if I was stronger than before I started coming and when I said yes, he assured me that I’ll get it. I sat by the chairs for my time and I showed Mike these pictures that I texted myself from my blog’s archives when it was my time, I told Mike to take notice of my shirt and then showed him the pictures:
After the pictures of me standing with Jesse, there were these pictures of Phil just because these are my faves (these and all the selfies I made him take with me):
Lastly, I had this picture that was a screen shot from the American Muscle trailer. It was of me in the background crying as I watched Katie walk:
I showed Mike these pictures to prove to him that I could do it; I could stand. He looked at them and exclaimed, “Rios!” I told him that I knew and he pushed me to the blue table to loosen me up. As he kneaded and knuckled me and stretched my legs out, they began to feel like Jell-O because of the heat. I got nervous if not scared. I began to glisten.
Mike looked around and told me that we weren’t going to the Keiser machine because there was no one there to assist. He told me that he was going to put me in the stander instead. He pointed to the Easy Stand Evolv with the glider option and I told him, “No!” and pointed to the other stander and told him that I liked that one better. Mike took some time trying to figure out how to use it as I periodically announced that I was glistening. It ended up being a no-go but I didn’t mind because I was glistening A LOT (almost “sweating”) and had begun to melt. Mike continued to stretch me out and I kept saying that I was glistening and I was scared because I didn’t feel well. The heat was getting to me.
I didn’t like that last week, I was wearing my gloves to work because it was 40 degrees and today it was 87 and I was melting! FRUSTRATING!!! Mike put me in the car and before he started working on putting my legs in, I started the car and blasted the air conditioning. He told me that we were going to get in the stander first thing on Monday (so I knew to wear my “standing shirt” again). When he closed the door, I passed out in my car for like 20 or 25 minutes. When I opened my eyes, I saw Deeds peering out of the door at me like a concerned older brother. I know that look because I have older brothers and it was the same look even though Deeds is younger than me. It made me feel that everybody at Barwis cares about me and that felt good.