Month: October 2019

83 Cents OR Two Dozen

OK, so today marks the 24th time I have watched Hocus Poocus this October. That’s two dozen times! I post the amount of times I’ve watched it every day on Facebook. Many of my Facebook friends think that I’m nuts but I’m OK with that. I like it a lot! It reminds me of being young and able-bodied. My YouTube feed is flooded with tons of videos regarding that movie! I have shared like 10 different videos on Facebook so far. I’m going to see the movie at the IMAX theater by my house on Friday and I am super excited!

But, I know that part of the reason that I am watching the movie so much is that I purchased it on Xfinity on October 1st. I really wanted to watch the movie because I figured it would be my tradition because I watched it 11 times last October. I didn’t purchase the movie but it was available OnDemand. Because it was not available, I just had to purchase it so I splurged on the $19.99 it cost me.

I figured out that since I have watched the movie 24 times so far that it has only cost me $.83 each time I watch it. I had to use the calculator on my phone to figure it out because I am NOT a math person.

It will only cost me LESS each time I watch it until Halloween!

PT, OT, and Barwis

After I saw my neurologist in September, my neurologist’s nurse arranged for me to receive physical therapy in my home. A woman named Sajada came over to see me a few weeks ago. She took my blood pressure and asked me a bunch of medical questions. She asked me what my pain was on the pain scale that I am very familiar with. She is a doctor of physical therapy and she told me I need to get an occupational therapist to come see me because she was not able to work with my legs. She had me work on a portable arm bike and put weights on my wrists to do certain exercises. She left Thera Bands for me to work with.

I was extremely familiar with all the exercises I completed with her and it made me miss Barwis a lot. I saw an occupational therapist named Guen last week and she watched how I navigate in through my home. She documented how I transfer with my Mom and wrote orders for an electric Hoyer lift. Sadly, it’s like that now. We talked about my pain level and the fact that I experience most of my pain in my right knee and I told her about my injury and subsequent surgery. She asked how the rest of my body feels and I told her that I have been in pain for so long that I can’t gauge what my pain level is.

She accepted my answer and it made me miss Barwis even more! It is my hope to get back there one day but I have some difficulty imagining that my knee will stop hurting so much. Given that both of my teams lost this weekend (Michigan and the Detroit Lions), everything hurts more. I’m not even finding solace in that Jewel song even though it’s in my head a lot.

ALMOST Forgotten Tune #58

So, I am binge watching Ballers at the suggestion of a representative for Xfinity. This was her second suggestion for a show to binge and her first one was good as well! It was Euphoria.I think I have binged the entire first season in four or five days.

I am about to start the second season finale and on Season 3, episode 8, Spencer get fired and he is driving around town and this song is playing in his car:

I can’t remember what the situation had to be but my Dad talked about renting a flatbed truck and playing this song at his work. He never did but I remember him singing this song in our house when I was young. I REALLY miss my Dad!!!

ALMOST Forgotten Tune #57

I sat in my kitchen eating my lunch by myself today and I turned my Apple Music U2 playlist on shuffle. I heard this song and I think it enormously strange that I seriously, ALMOST forgot about it because it’s not foremost in my wheelhouse of favorite U2 songs but once it started, I was immediately taken back to being an undergrad and working at the Livonia branch of dfcu financial. It was during the winter when I was playing the Best of 1990 – 2000 album on loop in my car.

I heard this song off and I’m on my way to work or maybe it was on my way home:

U2 has always been my favorite band! I started thinking about this, I think, when I saw this video show up on my YouTube feed.

I shared the video on Facebook on October 2, 2019 when I saw it and I had to say this about it:

That video is showing up again in my YouTube feed now. I can ALWAYS listen to some U2 songs! That’s how I thought of my #57th ALMOST Forgotten Tune. I also have had U2 on my brain because of Sean‘s Parent-Teacher conferences that I went to last Wednesday. Because it is Sean’s senior year, he has “Senior Privilege” which means that he has a shorter school day (only six classes) and multiple classes are electives because he has already obtained a majority of credits needed for graduation. He currently has a, “Music Appreciation” class.

I have asked Sean pretty much every day since school started if they talked about u2 in class. He shakes his head and smiles at me and tells me that they haven’t. I gave Sean basic facts about them, just in case. I told him that U2 formed the band in 1975 and their first album was not released until 1981 and it was titled, Boy.

I told Sean‘s teacher about this in our conference and he asked me which album. I told him that I like both best of albums but I cited one of my favorite songs:

I also told him about another one of my favorite songs that they played when I saw them in concert in 2006 but the crowd didn’t pick up the song so he stopped singing it. I was singing! But I think I was too far away from the stage so..,

Hocus Pocus

Okay, so, it’s pretty obvious that I really dig Hocus Pocus in the month of October. This year is my second year watching the movie TONS of times! I started it mid-October last year and I ended up watching the movie 11 times! So far, this year I have watched the movie 20 times.

I post on Facebook how many times I watch the movie and many of my Facebook friends comment that I am crazy but I like the movie because it reminds me of being young and I was able-bodied back then and I really miss that every day! Because I know the movie so well, I do not have to concentrate really hard and it gives my eyes a rest because I do not have to concentrate on new content. I just like the movie!

Last night, when I posted that I had seen the movie 19 times this October, I got suggestions from my friends on Facebook. One friend told me about a play that is going on in Flint but that is kind of far from my house and I don’t have a vehicle to transport my motorized chair. Then, another friend on Facebook let me know that The Henry Ford is showing the movie next week.

That fact really sparked my interest because I seriously live about two blocks from The Henry Ford. I asked my Mom if she would accompany me to see it. She told me that she would. Sean did not have school today so I called to him while he was in his room and asked if you wanted to accompany us to see the movie at The Henry Ford. Surprisingly, he agreed! So, I have a date!

I feel protected with my, “2 Sacreds” accompanying me. My Mom and I started working out the logistics of how this will work. I will drive my motorized chair to get there and Sean and my Mom will walk. When I called the IMAX to reserve tickets, I explained that I am in a motorized wheelchair and my Mom is a senior. Sean is a senior too but it’s in high school. I just purchased him a regular ticket.

I am a little bit nervous to get there and be in public but I feel protected with my really big motorized wheelchair. I very rarely get to go out and I am kind of excited to go out next Friday!

I wonder how many times I will have seen the movie by then. I told another Facebook friend that my goal to see the movie this year is 31. If I count last year and this year, it well equal 31.

“Sweet Child o’ Mine” OR “Stud”

I still haven’t found one of my favorite pictures of Sean when he was young but I will still look for it! Guns ‘n’ Roses’ song,”Sweet Child o’ Mine” showed up in my YouTube feed this morning. I started to play it while still in bed but then I stopped and looked up my favorite cover of that song! Sheryl Crow:

I really like her version of the song and I haven’t heard it in years! Of coarse I would really dig it because I have a son and he is my only child. I wanted him to have blue eyes and they were gray for the first few weeks of his life. Just before he left the hospital after he was a month and a day old, they turned brown. He looked nothing like me and I actually liked that they turned brown because I KNEW that he got those from me!

I recently came across a bunch of pictures from Sean’s youth. Because it’s, #ThrowbavkThursday, I thought to share some of these pictures until I find the one that I really, really like again! I remember taking this picture of Sean. He must’ve been six and it was when we would go to the Home Depot to complete projects for him. He went with his Cub Scout troop and we went a few times after that.

I told Sean that I remembered taking this picture because it was the day that he smashed my thumb with the hammer. It hurt pretty badly and I gasped and could feel the tears stinging my eyes. The young woman in this picture is named Star and she supervise the boys and she saw him hit my thumb. She talked to him to distract him while I gathered myself.

I asked Sean to choose which picture I could share between a couple pictures that he was okay with me sharing and he chose this one because, “It shows that I am a stud!”

“You Scared Me!”

Parent-teacher conferences were held at Sean’s school today. I very much wanted to go but realized that I cannot be seated in my manual wheelchair for that long of a period of time. I rented a van to accommodate my motorized wheelchair. I really haven’t been in public in my motorized wheelchair. I went to a movie last July and it was during the day so not many people were there.

So here I was, wanting to go to conferences and I decided that I needed to pay for the van rental. So I did! Now, I can no longer drive, I haven’t been driving for a few years now so my Mom drove the van for me. She accompanied me to the conferences to move the chairs when I needed her to and to guide me when my eyes began to shake a little bit.

Sean wanted to go watch the Pistons’ game with his friends, I think they went to B Dubs, so my Mom drove the van back to Creative (formally Advantage). So she dropped me off at home first and then drove the van out to Wayne and Sean picked her up from there after he had picked up my nephew from work.

So, after conferences, and the fact that it was cold and rainy outside, I didn’t feel so well. When I don’t feel well, it’s customary that I watch Hocus Pocus.

My Mom came into my house to use the bathroom during the scene when Winifred Sanderson is singing at the Town Jall Halloween party. The scene where Bette Midler sings, just HAS to be sang along with. Now, I am no longer a singer and I have discussed that before here but I did carry a tune a bit during this song. My Mom opened the door and asked if I was singing along? Of course I was!

She came out of the bathroom toward the end of the movie where Max and Allison hear something upstairs and go up to Max’s room to check on Dani. I have seen this movie so many times that I know what to expect. But what I didn’t expect is to hear my Mom scream at the part where Sarah is in the bed under the covers pretending to be Dani.

Seriously, she let out a bloodcurdling scream! Of course, I jumped because I was scared at her scream! Then we both started to laugh and I told her, “You scared me!” She kind of rolled her eyes and told me that I have seen this movie so many times that I should know what is coming! But what I told her was that what I did NOT know is that someone who is standing behind my right shoulder would scream so loudly! It scared me! FOR REAL! It didn’t even matter that this was the 19th time I have seen the movie this October!

Crazy!

Recently, because I watch so much TV, I have noticed that songs that I grew up with are being used to sell things! The first commercial I saw that I heard a popular song from my youth was the T-Mobile commercial. Then, I saw the Ram commercial. It was when I saw a commercial for the new, “Call of Duty” video game that I realized that I am old. It’s COMPLETELY crazy but I am old!

I just found this commercial on YouTube but I will share the actual song also.

The T-Mobile commercial song:

I couldn’t find the Ram commercial but here is this song:

The new call of duty commercial:

Sean always tells me that I am old but he is my son so of course I am! Hearing these commercials really made me feel old though! It’s just CRAZY!!!

Cold!

I am really feeling the cold for the first time today! It is the first time I have busted out my winter hat to wear while in my house. So I have sat here with my arms folded inside my sweatshirt and my mouth and chin in my sweatshirt as well. I think it’s a little bit crazy that I can’t afford to just blast the heat!

But, I was able to watch Hocus Pocus another time today and I am getting ready to watch the Lions. Sean is at work and I am recording it. I also am wearing Sean‘s Lions hat because I can’t find mine and I am way too cold!

The game is going to start now and I hope the Lions win so I can hear the breakfast table talk about them nicely tomorrow morning!

27th

So, recently, it was brought to my attention that I have watched the movie, Hocus Pocus 26 times in the past two years. It is my Halloween movie. I remember a former colleague told me that she watched it often and I just started doing it a couple years ago. I watched it 11 times last year and so far, I have watched it 15 times this October.

I was never really into Halloween until I had Sean. Given that his birthday is two days after Halloween, he has had many Halloween themed birthday parties growing up. I asked my Mom to bring up my Halloween bins from the basement the other day. She brought one up but it was only filled with Sean’s costumes growing up that my friend Ami had made him. We smiled at the box and reminisced about the good times trick-or-treating when he was young.

She closed it back up and brought my second Halloween bin upstairs. In that bin is all of my Halloween PartyLite candle holders. I had almost forgotten all of my Halloween accessories and candleholders until she opened the box and I smelled the smell of the Halloween candles. I have a warmer that I’ve had for over a decade. Just today, we lit the candle and I asked Sean if it smelled like Halloween when he left to cut the grass. Later, I asked him again before he left to go watch football with his friends and he told me that it did.

It smelled like Halloween but my Mom blew out the candle when she left so the candle was not on when I am by myself. It went from smelling like Halloween to smelling like a birthday party but at least my house will burn down!

Sean has always liked pumpkins and I think that is one thing that encouraged me to get Halloween candleholders and decorations. My Mom recently brought upstairs an old photo album of mine and this was the first time Sean went to a cider mill:

It has probably been seven or eight years since I’ve put out all of my Halloween decorations but the smell of these candles completely took me back immediately! I didn’t watch Hocus Pocusyesterday because I wasn’t feeling well. Hearing that Michigan wom didn’t really make me feel much better. Given that the Lions don’t play until Monday night, I’m still feeling a little wonky. My Mom left to pick up some Chinese food for me so I think when I eat my food, I will have to watch Hocus Pocusfor the 27th time.