Month: March 2020

ALMOST Forgotten Tune #86 OR A Random Memory

A friend/former colleague, and Facebook friend shared this video yesterday on Facebook regarding the coronavirus and washing your hands:

I clicked the heart button when I saw it because that song has ALWAYS been my jam! In fact, only a few days ago, I remembered a random memory from my first do years teaching and I told Sean about it.

I told him that one evening, A few of my friends/former colleagues, Jaci, Suzie, someone else, and me went to a bar to watch our friend/colleague, Shannon, sing with her band. They were a cover band and we sat at a table upfront. The band did an excellent job and she really could sing!

She started walking around as the band started to play, “ I Will Survive“ and of course, I was jammin’ And she thrust the microphone in my face so I HAD TO continue to jam! On Monday morning, she walked into my classroom and told me that I didn’t know I could sing! I just laughed and said that I had to do with the microphone in my face. I used to be in plays in high school, and I sing in the shower and in the car. Young Sean thought I sounded pretty good but nothing serious.

I have forgotten about that time singing in the bar for about 12 or 13 years! I’m not sure what sparked this memory in the beginning of the week but I finally remembered what song I sang and then to see her Facebook post and it made me laugh, made me think fondly of the memory, and took my mind off this pandemic that is kind of freaking me out a little bit because I am a person with a compromised immune system.

My Mom is an EXCELLENT caregiver to me and I do pretty well with washing my hands and the whole “Social distancing” thing. but, since yesterday, this song has been in my head. Now, I will sing it the next time I wash my hands!

38

Yesterday, Sean sat on the couch and he let me know that tomorrow is my birthday. I nodded and asked him If he remembered us having a conversation the night before he started first grade. He asked me how old I would be when he was a senior in high school. I thought for a moment and did the math and I will never forget the look on his face when I told him that I would be 38.

He remembered that conversation and I told him that the time is here now. He is 18 and a senior in high school and I am 38 today. It’s crazy that I remember a conversation from so long ago but I can still conjure up the look on his face in my head! 38 is so old! is the kind of luck he had.

It may be but I don’t mind. I told him that turning 38 today makes it sound a little better that I have an 18-year-old. It’s been a pretty low-key day but I like it. I’m wearing my new sweatshirt that I got today from Sean!

Tune #65 Inspired by GMFB

Nate, Peter, and M.J. talked about Jalen Hurts today and Kyle who was in Chicago talked about him too. He is a quarterback prospect for the draft. He was the quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners.

Kyle suggested John Mellencamp and, “Hurts so Good” but Nate suggested R.E.M., “Everybody Hurts” I liked that suggestion more! When Nate Boyer was on the show during the next segment with Jay Glazer we’re talking about their project, MVP (Merging Players and Veterans) commented on that song too. So here it is: my 65th song inspired by GMFB:

… Through Memories

Last Saturday, my Mom brought up a photo album from high school from the basement. I didn’t know what it was until I saw the cover:

It kind of blew me away because I wasn’t sure what pictures were inside. Once I opened it, I saw this:

There ended up being a few blank spots in the album and I knew they were of a really good picture but I had no idea what it was. I shared over 65 pictures on Facebook with my Facebook friends, but some of them I saved for me.

I shared this one because I remembered taking it and I thought it was so funny!:

That’s what a selfie looks like when there is a one foot difference in height between the people and you have to send it away to be developed. I like it because I thought it was funny! But then, I saw a few other pictures that reminded me of the life I used to have when I was able-bodied:

It started when I saw this picture. Look at me acting like that was my car and it made me think about it back when I used to be able to drive. I told Sean yesterday that I could still walk in all of these pictures. He told me that was the first thing he noticed. Wow, I can’t anymore.

I remembered taking this picture when we were on senior retreat and I thought it was really cool to see my last name spray-painted on the door. It all seemed like a lifetime ago!

I made that sign for the gym for our basketball game. That was back when I could still paint and write.

That picture made me laugh, from the looks of it, it looks like I could play basketball! I really couldn’t.

That one made me laugh because I was the one who took the over developed picture but I was sitting at the top of the bleachers so back then, I could get all the way up to the top of the bleachers!

This one took my breath away because I remember running around and banging on the pep jug. I’m sure that someone told me to go back to class or something.

But, shortly after all of these pictures were taken, I was diagnosed with MS. 19 years later, I am confined to a motorized wheelchair. Given the weather, I rarely get out at all but I did go with Sean today to vote. It was his first time and I remembered going to vote with my Dad my first time:

Sean let me chronicle this moment by taking a picture. I saw another picture today and I think this is where it all started:

Porath park. It is where I practiced every day during the week in the Spring and had doubleheaders twice a week. I was a catcher. The park was closed due to high levels of lead and mercury the year after I graduated. Reading research, it may be linked to my MS diagnosis. That and I also had mono during my senior year. From the looks of all the pictures, did we ever go to class?! We actually did; I wanted to be in the yearbook class but I got AP Calculus instead. I’m glad I put that class to use! Actually, I am lying but I seem to be living my life through memories now… It kind of hurts.

Benny-Bear Pt. 3

I shared my two previous posts about Benny with him. He set a couple things straight for me. He had a shaved head the entire time he worst at Fairlane east and he didn’t start growing it out until after he left. Sean and I continued living there but I still saw him. He also told me that I called him,”Benny-Bear” to his face. At least I’m consistent?

I just remembered that I had texted him a few weeks ago, when Sean was sick because we were binging Prodigal Son and I totally thought that Malcolm looks like him!

At least that is what I think now. I haven’t seen him for a while!

ALMOST Forgotten Tune #86 OR Benny-Bear Pt. 2 OR Its in the Eyes

So, yesterday, as I took pictures of the pictures that were in the album that my Mom brought upstairs, I listened to music on my phone. I chose to listen to Kings of Leon. I listened to the album, Only by the Night about three or four times:

I remembered listening to the CD on loop in my car for months when it came out. Sean and I were still living in Fairlane East at that time. So when I would get home and would slow down to roll by the guard shack, I would wave to, “Benny-Benny.” I thought of him as I cropped the pictures. I decided that I really dug one particular song that I had at but forgotten about:

I laughed at a particular line, and it’s my favorite now!:

I love that line! I told Sean that, “I am no expert but I don’t think that’s how it works.” He laughed. I thought about that song this morning as well, after I texted my Mom, I played it again. It got me thinking that Benny has not even accepted my friend request on Facebook! But I think that’s because the last update he had was in 2014 and I didn’t join until 2016.

His profile picture:

Well, you can’t see but I met him with really short hair but over the years, he grew it out. I always told him he reminded me of Caleb Followill, the lead singer of Kings of Leon:

I remember that I texted him when I was watching, Ms. Potter because I told him that he looked like Ewan McGregor because he does. He told me that he has heard that before.

I don’t know what his hair length or facial hair status is but hearing Kings of Leon reminds me of him as well, it’s in the eyes.p

Where are You Going to Go On Dates, Now?!

My brother posted this on Facebook on Thursday and I shared it:

Art Van has been close to my Parents’ house for my whole life! My Dad used to read in the paper about the annual tent sale in the summer and he would ask my Mom if she wanted to go on a date. He was taking her to Art Van to eat free hotdogs at the tent sale. He always told us that one year, instead of hot dogs, they had bratwursts.

I think my Mom went with him once and they ended up buying furniture. My Dad always went to the tent sale by himself after that. My Mom came with me to buy furniture for Sean and my first and our second apartments. I still have the same furniture some 15 years later! Well, it’s paid for!

I still have the same couches and they are beginning to wear because Sean is grown now but I’ve never sat one them. I have the same dining room set and Charlotte is the only broken one chair. Hi purchased my bedroom set when we moved into our second apartment and I am currently trying to sell it on Letgo because it doesn’t work out for a disabled person anymore.

My Mom was bummed out to hear that they were closing but neither one of us have any money to buy closeout furniture at the liquidation sale. As if she handed me my tea, I asked her, “ Where are you going to go on dates, now?!“. She smiled slightly as she thought about my Dad and the tons sale.

“You and Those, ‘Baby Hands’”

I had heard this before but it took my Mom telling me this a couple days ago that made me really shocked to think about and I started to laugh.

So here is what happened a couple days ago:

My Mom and I were sitting in my kitchen and eating some lunch. Sean really likes cashews so she brought some over in a bag. As she ate her lunch, she got a few out and began to eat them. They smelled so good to me and I asked her if I could have 10 of them. I held out my right hand and kind of cupped it so I would be able to hold the nuts and eat them with my left hand because I am left-handed.

As she counted out the nuts and put them in my hand, at probably around seven or eight, they began to fall out of my hand. She was disgusted as they bounced off of the floor and she shook her head and said under her breath in disgust, “You and those, ‘Baby hands!’ “

I started to laugh because I began to think about where I have heard that before. If I put all of these incidences in order, the first person to tell me that I had really small hands was my first wheelchair tech, Ty. Adam Schlitt had to hold my hands as Jesse stretched me and he commented on how small they were.

One time, in 2015, Mike Morphitt first told me that I had, “Baby hands” because he had to adjust the straps on a medicine ball that I was holding and working with. Sean and I received mugs as a gift and we were sitting at my table eating dinner. We both had something to drink and I told him that I didn’t think that I particularly liked these mugs because the handle was so big. He looked at me holding it and was shocked that my entire four fingers could fit easily inside of the handle. He only had two in the handle.

Also, my sister-in-law, Melissa, sells Paparazzi jewelry and I have bought some pieces from her. I found out in December I that I fit into and can wear little girl bracelets:

My Mom purchased a mug for me in the beginning of February and her hand does not fit in the handle but she thought that mine would. It does! So, thinking about her comment made me laugh because I recently bought another, “Little Girl” bracelet from Melissa not too long ago. She tried it on and it DID NOT fit and she laughed when I put it on with ease.

My Mom is not as much of a firm believer in the, “5 second rule” as I am but I still think that whole exchange was really funny because I have heard that from many different people that I have, “Baby hands.” It’s a, “Rios” thing because I remember my grandma having small hands and my aunt Crissy has small hands as well so, we ALL have, “Baby hands!”