Author: Jen Rios

I am a little bit frustrated at the fact that I cannot read as quickly as I used to! I was hoping to finish the book I’m reading today but my eyes let me know that I needed to stop ringing. I am very much enjoying, The Gratitude Diaries!

In my reading today, Kaplan talked about Dr. Jacano. He is a renowned plastic surgeon and he goes to Laos to give children free cleft lip surgery annually. The moment I read that, I thought fondly of the student I had so many years ago! He’s got to be 24 now and I don’t know if he’s had surgery about it or not but I really hope he has! It was actually Sean who reminded me of this story.

It had to be during my first two years teaching English when I posed a question to my students. It was for, “Writing Wednesday” and I asked them what they would do if they we’re given $100,000. For extra credit, the students could volunteer to read their writing to the class and to give the class opportunity to hear it. I really liked it! It went with all aspects of the GLCE’s that we were supposed to be teaching at the time. (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening – if I remember correctly)

Then, I had a student volunteer to read his writing that really affected me! I can’t remember his name but I can see his face and his glasses. He had a cleft lip. He went right into how he would spend his $100,000. He talked about paying bills for his parents, buying them a house, I think he said he would buy them a car, and then he ended his essay with a sentence that made me gasp and bite my lower lip and will myself NOT to cry!

He ended his essay with, “If there’s any money left over, I will get my lip fixed.” I remember telling my mom about that essay when I got home and Sean must’ve overheard it when he was in his room. He reminded me of that story I told him not too long ago and again it made me cry just like writing this post made me cry also!

I have to start this blog post by saying that I am NOT a back scratch-er! I would say for at least the last decade, when Sean’s back itches, he has to get someone else to scratch it. Sometimes he would wake up and come to me and tell me that his back itches and ask me to scratch it. Because my hand-eye coordination has been not good for so long, I will tell him, “I scratch, you move.”

He has always told me that I am a terrible back scratch-er! That’s partly why I got him a set of back scratchers for Christmas a few years ago. He will tell me that I have really good nails but my technique is terrible and that is because I really can’t control my hands all the time.

Last evening, Sean was sleeping when my Mom got here and she needed her back scratched. I was the only one awake in the house! She also knows that I am a terrible back scratcher! Her back itched and she had to make do with me! She told me to, “Scratch as hard as you can with those little hands!“

I began to laugh because, yes, I DO have a little hands and I think that because feeling is difficult to have in my hands I don’t scratch backs very forcefully. I scratched her back the best I could but I don’t think it was very good! I’ve thought about my, “little hands” all day long!

I joined Facebook just after I was done working and currently, I am rarely on. (except last month because it was MS Awareness Month and I HAD to spread awareness with my friends!). Well, my brother posted a picture of his hands today. I was immediately reminded of my Dad‘s hands!

My nephew and my cousin shared pictures of their hands on that thread as well. When Sean got home today, I asked him to take a picture of my hands. There’s not really a reference point so you can’t tell how big or little they are but I think they are kind of small because I still fit in plastic rings meant for children.

I think I might have been a sophomore in high school when my friend, Mary, told me that I had, “Snuffleupagus eyelashes.” We had played softball together and we were both cast in the chorus in the spring musical. We were getting ready in the girls locker room and that is when she told me. All of us were doing our makeup before the play and she noticed and told me that I had “Snuffleupagus eyelashes.” I remember laughing when she told me this!

She was and is COMPLETELY correct! I DO have, “Snuffy Eyelashes” because they do NOT curl (I can think of my Dad for this fact!), they look really long. I had a friend curl my eyelashes once and laughed because she had to curl them twice for each eyelash because they were so long. I dismissed that fact because the only reason they are long is because they do NOT curl.

My Mom reminded me of this fact this morning. I have been wearing contact lenses for 25 years and it has never been a problem to just pop both of them them into my eyes without a mirror. I think it’s a combination of my reduced hand-eye coordination, my inability to multitask, (Thanks MS!) and my, “Snuffleupagus eyelashes.” Because of all of these facts, I have recently lost a number of contacts! I now have a difficult time getting them into my eyes! The contacts are also very cold in my eyes in the morning so it is very difficult to get them into my eyes!

To combat all of these things in addition to my, “Snuffleupagus eyelashes,” my Mom has to watch me put my contacts into my eyes because they fall out of my eyes often. If she is not here with me, I will lose them on my shirt, on my pelvis stabilizer, or the floor. Today was more difficult for me to put my contacts in this morning than normal and my Mom mentioned my, “Snuffleupagus eyelashes.” I laughed and remembered Mary being the first person to tell me that!

I remember one morning in my second apartment, I was rubbing sunscreen on my son’s face when I noticed a couple things. The first thing was that he has the same lips as me. I asked him if I could put lip liner on his lips because I knew how! He declined. I also asked him if I could put mascara on him because his eyelashes are NOT, “Snuffleupagus eyelashes.”. They curl and additionally, they are taupe not black like mine. He also declined from allowing way to do this as well! Since it was in our second apartment I think he may have been around five years old.

It has been years since I thought of Mary telling me that I had,“Snuffleupagus eyelashes,” but after my Mom reminded me of it, I haven’t stopped thinking about it! Sean does not have,“Snuffleupagus eyelashes,” which is good because he does NOT wear mascara! But, I don’t either now. It’s still a whole hand-eye coordination thing, thanks MS! And by, “Thanks,” I mean, “NO THANKS!”

I awoke to the sound of rain falling on my roof and on the windows. My Mom was not even here yet and I knew it was going to be another long, hard day! Getting me out of my bed was difficult but of course my Mom managed! Sean was making eggs for all of us as I washed my hands and drank my morning Kiefer. Sean makes excellent eggs! Every time I eat his eggs, I tell him how my Dad was so good at making omelettes! Sean makes the best scrambled eggs! As my Mom and Sean sat at the table eating their eggs and I sat close to the table because my wheelchair is too high to allow me to sit at the table and with my feet are extended outward but I sat close to them.

I had a really good view out my kitchen window of my backyard. It was gloomy and raining! I knew I was NOT going to feel well today! As I ate my delicious eggs, I thought back to a picture that my friend and former colleague shared on her story on Facebook. She took her class to the Detroit Zoo! I commented with three hearts! As I looked out the window, I thought of the time that I took my kids (students) to the Detroit Zoo!

It was cold and gloomy and rainy on the day I took them. It was so unfortunate because the day before and the day after were beautiful but NOT the day my kids were at the zoo! I taught a novel to my class (It was my second or third year teaching and I still taught English back then) and somehow I was able to tie in a cross curricular, “Butterfly Project” and the zoo trip with my kids based on the novel. I only taught that novel one year but it was quite a memorable one with lots of fond memories!

I will have to re-read that book, it was, Surviving the Applewhites because I can no longer clearly remember the storyline or the characters. I know I showed the movie, The Sound of Music as well. I remember having so much fun with that entire unit! I’m pretty sure my kids had fun too! When I started the unit off, my cousinT, Shannon came to my classroom and painted butterflies on the three windows of my classroom.

I thought about that zoo trip all day today trying to remember what I had done probably about 11 or 12 years ago. I appreciated that rather than focusing on how badly my body hurt, I was trying to remember fondness from that trip! I remember that I had a scavenger hunt for the kids to complete and a big part of that trip was indoors at the butterfly house (more tie-in to the novel). I remembered that I had pizza ordered and delivered right to the zoo. I also remember being so obtuse that I forgot to bring paper plates with us!

My kids were so great though! I remember telling them in the pavilion where we are eating that they looked so cute with their pink faces because it was pretty cold and how the pizza they held in their hands (no plates remember) was going to warm them up. A number of kids made sure to tell me of an indoor museum part that had a cicada shell in a little glass box on the wall with gales of laughter! I had told them about how I was scarred from my childhood when my brothers would constantly throw cicada shells at me And on my head!

I have constantly been thinking about seeing a student in a hood walking to the bus completely soaking wet from the rain. I apologized to him and he just simply said to me, “Beats being in school.“ I remember apologizing to all my kids and they still liked the zoo trip!

I have so many fond memories from teaching, English, as the Reading Specialist, and with my colleagues. Some of them I taught with for my full 12 years there! Somehow, those fond memories of teaching are keeping me warm during this horrific weather! Those kids have to be 24 or 25 years old by now and I wonder if they still remember that rainy zoo trip?! I know I do! Those memories helped me get through today!