Author: Jen Rios

This Time…

I have a shared this Guinness commercial many times on my blog over the years because I can still remember Adam showing it to me for the first time when I was at Barwis working with him and Chris on the white table I am pretty sure that I had just gone to my school’s kick off for the new school year so I had mascara on.

Adam did not tell me anything about this commercial when he handed me his phone as it started to play. I remember gasping and toward the end of it, a tear began to roll out of the corner of my right eye. I tried to stop it quickly with my left hand because I didn’t want black streaks down my face.

I randomly thought of this commercial and I had to search for it in the wee hours of this morning because it seems that sleep is not an option right now. I will look for the other times I have posted this commercial on my blog because I’m not going to be sleeping but I’m not wearing mascara so I let the tears flow freely this time…:

STILL 110.

Because my mom and I enjoyed watching High School Musical so much yesterday that we watched, High School Musical 2 today:

We are still 110. But, about halfway through, my Mom got tired so I just watched the second half by myself. The first time I saw this, I think I was 25 and now that I’m watching it again, at 40, I did not cry when Troy and Gabriella broke up! Mind you, it was so hard wrenching for me, definitely! But, I’m 40 now. With that being said, we still have a third installment of these movies to watch tomorrow! 😂😂😂

110 Years Old.

Okay, I have to confess! This evening, both my Mom and I, who combined are 110 years old, watched High School Musical and enjoyed it! 😂😂😂


it has been so long since we first saw it, it was like it was a brand new movie! I couldn’t get over how young they were! We started watching the second one but my Mom decided to lay down for a nap so we’ll watch it tomorrow. Then we will probably watch the third installment:

It’s good that I have Disney+ because all three are on it! I called Sean after we watched the first one and he laughed at us and called us losers! I told my Mom that I didn’t want her to make fun of me when we watch the second one because she did the first time I saw it because I was heartbroken when Troy and Gabriella break up!!! I think Sean was six at the time we saw it. He’s 21 now.

My Nutritionist

I had an appointment with my nutritionist today. I had to wake up earlier than normal so I feel quite tired right now. I have met with her twice before and she told me that because it’s a new year, insurance may pay for two additional visits this year.

I’m still trying to get comfortable with her but we speak about very good things and she told me that I should switch from proteins shakes to nutrition shakes. my Mom will chime in when I am talking to her and I really like that she told us that she likes that we both are working to keep me healthy!

I really like that she said that because I want to be healthy because this whole weight-loss thing is very uncomfortable for me!!!

A Lifetime Ago

Okay, let me ‘splaying ya:

Whenever I go into my website to write a new post, I can see the site as statistics and I can see which posts people are reading. Yesterday, someone started reading my blog because I got a lot of views and I’m getting the same amount today as well.

I will click on a random post that has been read and then I will read it and remember writing it. But the post I read yesterday, took me back to a lifetime ago! It’s one that kind of blows my mind!

I read that post and listened to that song and reminisced. I think this memory is from longer than a lifetime ago because it completely blows my mind!

So the post I clicked on was talking about a song that I used to love hearing when I was working at Lonestar steakhouse and saloon. It’s not even a restaurant anymore but I Crystal clearly saw my 18 year old self walking up to the bar and grabbing three cold beer mugs with my left hand and intertwined my fingers with the handles and with my right hand, took three beer bottles with my index, middle, and ring fingers and took these to my table.

Wait. What?! I live in my memories and I can see myself doing that and I remember doing it myself but thinking about my abilities now, there is no way in the world that I could hold three beer bottles between my fingers! Beer mugs are heavy! My hand strength is so far gone away now, I could not do any of that now!

Four Fingers

I watched Eddie Vedder’s performance again last night and I was able to snap a couple of pictures!!!

I noticed this the first time I saw the performance and it made my heart warm for a completely different reason! My heart was warmed from my GMFB days with the original crew!:

when he put up his four fingers, I am reminded of K Adams and Nate Burleson giving an interview for some young running back. I don’t even remember who it was but he said that if he got a touchdown the following week, he would put up his four fingers for the four members at the breakfast table!



I just loved seeing Eddie put his hand to his heart! I just loved that experience so I had to put it on my blog for future reference!

All Kinds of my Worlds Colliding

I posted this video because I was popped up in my YouTube feed last night and I watched it twice and cried and then I watched it again the next day and I’m not ashamed to say that I cried again:

But I want to explain how my two worlds were colliding…

I was born in 1982 and I have an older brother, Ray, who is 9 1/2 years older than me and my brother, Steve, he’s 7 years older than me and he recently told me about my brother Ray and him falling asleep to the new U2 album when they slept in the basement of my house growing up.

Retrospectively, this is why I absolutely love u2!!! They were falling asleep to the album and so was I sleeping just above them. I have always felt something about Bono’s voice and when he told me that, it all made sense!

Being born in 1982, made me fit perfectly into the 90s grunge era! Therefore, Eddie Vedder’s voice is so Iconic for that era!

Middle school Jenny:

Undergrad Jen:

I have written so extensively about U2’s song, ‘One’, on my blog over the years because it is easily one of my top five!!! Seeing and hearing Eddie Vedder singing my jam was a bit much for me!!!

Vindicated

A few days ago, my Mom and I had a conversation and I couldn’t remember the word for what I was feeling. I thought it was validated but after some discussion, she let me know the feeling that I was feeling was that I was vindicated!

Of course, I immediately thought of this song but I hadn’t heard it in at least 20 years! I dated a guy whose roommate’s favorite band was dashboard confessional and I thought the music was so enormously profound! Man! This song makes me feel old but I still had to jam out to it!

4 Times

This video popped up in my YouTube app. I watched it twice last night:

This was all kinds of my worlds colliding which I will explore at a later date but I watched it twice again today and I am not in the least bit ashamed to say that I cried… 4 times

4 Years Old OR Remote Program

I have a often said to anyone who will listen that when Sean was four years old, that was my absolute favorite age!!! I wholeheartedly stand by that assertion even to this day when my son is 21 years old. I liked it because at four, I could understand 100% of what he was saying and four-year-olds ask the most incredible questions! That was fun!

my power chair is four years old as well. I will say that this fact is NOT fun!!! I will call RIM in March to get an appointment for me to get fitted for a new chair. My new chair will come in July.

So, today, my four year old chair’s legs got stuck in the extended position. Naturally, I freaked out! NSM (My chair repair shop) it’s not a big company in terms of the office in Troy where I am seen. We called the number to get assistance.

Ken answered and he was able to help us remotely and he was in Louisiana and we are in Michigan. He saw what was going on with my chair and told my Mom to reset some mechanism on the leg rests. He told us that sometimes, the chair forgets the features that it has so we unplugged something and then plugged it back in and then it started to work!

My Mom asked Ken how we can give him good marks for his help with us and he told us to choose option seven when we call back. We did and we got Ray. Ray worked on my chair not too long ago and he explained the remote program to us.

He told us that the program started at the beginning of the pandemic and people needed their chairs serviced and they tried this out and it worked out wonderfully! My mom asked them about after hours. What would we do on a weekend? Both Ken and Ray told us that it’s a money game. They are just available from 9 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday. Wow! I have to think about this because disabled people matter too!?!