Author: Jen Rios

Beauty and the Beast

So, since I haven’t been feeling well for a couple of days with the weather and stuff, today is no different apparently. So, yesterday, I started to watch the animated Beauty and the Beast. I was loving every minute of it and I was seven years old again!


I can’t sing along with the movie anymore, at least not very well. Ir was reminding me of when Sean was 11 or so. We used to go to the movies all of the and he agreed to go with me to see the 3-D version! As always, the library scene took my breath away! He told me he would not tell his friends that he went to see it at the movies with me but I absolutely LOVED it and the fact that he went to see it WITH me! He was a little kid so we really didn’t have a choice but…

Because I finished the animated version today and I was watching it on Disney+, the movie after it was the one that recently came out with real actors. I didn’t force Sean to see it with me but I did see it with my Mom about 12 times.


The Disney+ app started being glitchy and stopped so I wasn’t able to finish the most recent version but even watching that one, I felt like I was seven again as well and back then, I did not have MS and the weather didn’t bother me!

Take Your Pick

Well, I can’t decide if it’s. “One of Den Days” or #DirtyHairDontCare but I think it’s a combination of the two. Change in weather is always hard on me, harder now that I am 20 years into this mess but Take your pick what’s up what you want to call it but this one’s a rough one!

Yesterday, the final leg of the u2 virtual tour was on but I have felt bad yesterday. Well, I don’t feel much better today! That seems to be happening a lot more these days but I slept with my window air conditioner on last night because it was too warm (and yes I still have those!) and this morning, my house was cold. So I turned the heat on! The fact of how much I cannot control my body temperature anymore really hit me when my heat turned on when I started to watch the u2 concert from last night.

It wasn’t from last night though, it was from:


it was from France and they still knew all of the words! I could only watch a few songs at a time and it’s taken me all day to watch the entire concert. They ended with, “One” and the sun before that was, “Bad” so I dug it, actually, I thought the whole thing!

Bad

This song has been in my head since last night when I could not find a comfortable spot in my chair. I thought about this song more today because of my body spasms that accompany the weather change. I think I will write about it further another time but this song is still playing in my head because I absolutely LOVE Bono!!!:

Great Teeth!

So, yesterday was the seventh time I have been out of my house in a year? My Mom and I went to get our teeth cleaned. I was able to remain seated in my motorized chair to get my teeth cleaned and it all was super easy for me because I didn’t have to transfer from my wheelchair to the hygienist’s chair. Sean‘s hygienist cleaned my teeth because my Mom made the appointments for us to get our teeth cleaned at the same time so she was with my normal hygienist so I was with Sean’s.

I talked to Lisa about my teeth brushing. I told her that my hands are having difficulty brushing so I tend to scrape my gums which really hurts! She saw evidence of my gum trauma that happened a couple days ago. She gave me tips on ways to brush so I don’t hurt my gums with my lack of hand control until I can save enough money to get an electric toothbrush.

The only time I have missed getting my teeth cleaned every six months since Sean was three was right when Covid started. I have been going to the same dentist since I was a child and I got my braces through there as well. I liked seeing my orthodontist’s wife when I went there. She does some kind of billing there now. She has been doing that since shortly after my orthodontist passed away. I think I was six when I first started going there so Dr. Fox has been my dentist for the past 33 years.

When he came into the room to check my teeth after Lisa was finished cleaning them, he said that I always have, ”Great teeth!” I loved hearing that and I smiled and told him that, “My dentist told me that when I was a little girl.“. He smiled and turned and said, “ well, you listened!“

Three of the seven times I have been out of my house I’ve been to go to the dentist. I feel extremely comfortable there!

It was extremely warm yesterday and I started to melt in the 80° weather. Today’s weather is NOT much better as I hear the rain on my roof and the thunder. Last night, when I was getting for ready for bed, I had forgotten how terrible the weather change is for me! But, on the bright side, at least I have a great teeth!

The Princess Bride

This clip showed up in my YouTube feed early this morning:

I posted it on Facebook and wrote that I HAVE to see this movie again! I searched it on my TV using my voice remote. It looks like Disney+ got their stuff together and I was able to get this movie on my TV!

it’s still as good as I remember it! This movie is my childhood and my Mom kept asking questions like she’d never seen it! I guess she really hasn’t because she was cooking or something.

Such a great movie and now Disney+ is downloaded onto my TV!

A New Phone

So, I watched the NCAA Championship game last night. It was the second time I was able to watch a basketball game on TV without wearing my eyepatch. It’s not like my eyes are better or anything but I wore my glasses instead of my eyepatch. It looks a little more normal than wearing a patch. I can see clearly with them on even though I look like, “Squints” from The Sandlot.

I really wanted the Gonzaga to win because I LOVE saying the name! I Tweeted that a few years ago when they were eliminated from the tournament. The only other game I saw with my glasses was Michigan versus UCLA. I am bummed that Michigan was eliminated but I still bought a UCLA shirt right after they eliminated State. Sean says that I am petty but I love a new shirt! I wanted to get a championship shirt if Gonzaga won but I did see a commercial during the game while Gonzaga was losing.

So, I did not order a new t-shirt. But, instead, based on a commercial I saw during the game, Verizon was offering a new promotion to get an upgrade. I called Verizon and ordered a new phone! It is past time for my iPhone 7s to retire but I think I want to keep it for a while anyway even though I won’t use it.

My Favorite Hallmark Movie

I woke up today to the sound of rain on my roof. I opened my eyes and knew it was going to be a long day! My knee has been hurting all day and it feels like it is, ”Popped out.” I’ve asked my Mom numerous times to raise my leg in order to pop it back in to make it feel better. It hasn’t pipped back in or orfelt any better.

I turned the Hallmark channel on as my Mom took Leia for a walk. It was halfway through the movie when I turned it on and I have seen the move a bunch of times. But then, my favorite Hallmark movie started!:

I will not watch this entire movie because I want to watch the NCAA championship game today. But, I have seen this movie so many times but it is my favorite Hallmark movie and takes my mind off of my pained knee!

My 1st COVID Hug

I just finished Easter dinner and I had some pie. Sean came over earlier today and retrieve his Easter basket because I got him one! He’s my ONLY child and he will ALWAYS be my ONLY child! Giftgiving is my love language and even though he tells me that he is, “A grown man” I tell him just to, “Take the d*mn presents!” He will always be my, “Little boy!” regardless of how old he gets!

My brother, Jimmy, came by today to touch up my wax. A spot was messed on my jaw. He came in wearing a mask and I was not. He told me that I was forgetting something and I kind of shook my head. Then he asked me if I was completely vaccinated and when I nodded, he asked me if he could hug me. I nodded again and since he is also fully vaccinated, we hugged!

I hug my Mom every day because she is my caregiver. I put my arms around her when she transfers me so it’s really not a hug even though we have hugged each other purposefully in the past year because we were the only ones in “Our bubble.”

Sean got his first shot yesterday and I am excited and the best Moother’s Day present I could get is to hug him because it has been over a year! My brother, Jimmy, was my first Covid hug. It was SO NICE!!

Given that today is today, I posted this song and both Twitter in Facebook because it’s, ”April 4” and I LOVE this song!!!:

#1 Fan?

I remember way back in the fall of 2005, I had just moved into our first apartment and I used to talk on the phone all of the time with my friend, Joe Wegjet, all of the time! We talked about the most random things all of the time and he used to call me, “‘Fer” and I called him, “‘Seph” because we talked about how people’s names get shortened with the first syllable like us, Jen and Joe. So we decided to call each other by the LAST syllable!

This was back when Columbia Music House was still a thing and I was a member! I told him that U2 my favorite band in the world and I am their number one fan! He asked me if I owned all of their albums. I told him that I did not so he asked me if I really could be their number one fan if I didn’t own all of their albums?! So you know I HAD to order most of them for $0.01. He asked for me back then if there was any album I did NOT like. I answered him very quickly and said, “Pop.” He laughed at my quick answer but I really didn’t like it.

Fast forward to today in 2021 and I have lost contact with ‘Seph and wouldn’t you know that u2 is holding a virtual tour. I have already watched two concerts on my phone at night. One concert was from 1983 but I loved every moment of it! The third leg of the four concert series is:


I was willing to give it a try once I learned the details of the concert:


On my 15th birthday?! My Quinceañera?! I never had one so I thought this would be okay to watch because I LOVE live music and I LOVE BONO!!!

Since we are 16 years from that conversation I had with ‘Seph amd I am so much more physically sensitive now, the reason I didn’t like the album, “Pop” was because it was too, “Techno sounding.” Well, “Techno sounding” translates to having lots of flashing lights which for me is definitely a no-go now.

I am saddened to say that I watched probably 20 minutes of it and had to stop because I was giving me a headache! The concert will be gone from YouTube probably later today if not tomorrow so I will have missed the third leg but I guess I’m okay with that.

There is one song that I really dig from that album though that I learned that I dug it from the best of 1990-2000:

In the little bit of the concert I watched, I did not hear the song but here it is:

My Final, “Birthday Month” Present Continued

So, I wrote about my final, “Birthday Month” present to myself and the fact that I was too exhausted to write about it. Well, when I get that exhausted, I need a day to recover! I did that yesterday and now, I can show you my final, “Birthday Month” present that I gave to myself a couple days ago. I first need to show you the starting point:


So, in just over a year:


Christina has cut my hair and waxed my eyebrows for a very long time and she did just that on March 31! Seems that this kind of stuff can happen once you are fully vaccinated like I am now! She asked me a question and made a suggestion. She told me that since we have the length, we should try something different. If I don’t like it, I can go back to my haircut that I’ve had for 13 years and 19 days now.:


My Mom tells me that the cut is cute but I think I do better with the SHORT, short hair that I had previously (with the 2020 hiatus in haircuts). It is comfortable and does not bother me but I think shorter is better given my physical limitations now.

This song played at the salon when I first cut my hair and I won’t ever forget that:

And this is the song that played on March 31 when I lost about 20 pounds of hair off of my head and mostly my face!: