Author: Jen Rios

Real or Pretend?

I had difficulty falling to sleep yesterday night because it was raining and that made my body and ESPECIALLY my knee hurt a whole lot! When I awakened this morning, I didn’t even know it was daylight savings. As I was waiting for my Mom to come by, my knee popped out! It’s been one year, 10 months, and nine days since my surgery and I can’t believe that I am still dealing with this!

So, as my Mom gets to my house and gets me into my wheelchair before I ask her to pull my ankle up and so she slowly raised my right foot up as I put the back of my chair down until I heard the loudest crack I have heard to date as it popped back into place. Surprisingly, I didn’t cry at the pain but I groaned and closed my eyes.

Sean was up and watching the Pistons when my Mom started saying it. It was either Sean or I who asked the time and she looked at the clock on my stove and asked, “Do you want the real time or the pretend time?” Sean was confused by that question and looked at his phone to get the answer. I told him how my Mom asked that question every day for two weeks that we were in Texas and in a different time zone.

I think I was about seven years old then and so I just answered with, “Pretend.” The, “Real” time was the time that it was in our normal time zone. Sean tried explaining to her that there is only real time but I stopped him and told him that she has been doing it for almost 30 years. She’s not going to change it now. Hi guess that daylight savings time really only affected me when I worked and had to get up at a certain time but now, since I don’t, it really doesn’t matter. That really sucks if/when you think about it!

High Fidelity

I REALLY MISS MY DAD A LOT LATELY!!!

In the beginning of the movie, High Fidelity, John Cusack ends up breaking up with his longtime girlfriend, Laura, and then her dad dies. Because I’ve been missing my Dad so much, I can’t stop thinking about this part of the movie! I almost passed out three separate times and my Dad’s funeral mass and in the cemetery because I cried so much. Back when I saw this movie, some 15 years ago, my Dad was still alive and I was about 22 and an undergrad.

(EXPLICIT MOVIE CLIP)

Because it is close to Easter, I’ve been seeing this Reese’s commercial for the peanut butter chocolate eggs all the time now! Every single time I see, or rather hear, this commercial I think of that movie I saw close to 15 years ago.

When I see that Reese’s commercial, I think of Jack Black singing Marvin Gaye. This part of the movie made me laugh really hard!

When I tried to find a movie clip of jack black singing, I came across this video first. I think I will have to see High Fidelity again but when I watched this movie clip, I realized how explicit it is so, just a warning anyone who watches the following video clip…


Do you Want a Potpourri?

I’ve seen this commercial so many times recently and it makes me laugh EVERY SINGLE TIME that kid asks Amy if she wants a potpourri.

I searched YouTube to find that commercial to post it because it makes me laugh so much but all I could find was this one. It’s probably from another take that I have not seen before but I like hearing her say that potpourri comes from nature and then she tastes it!

Books I’m Reading 3.9.19

First off, I just want to say that my Mom is super cool and has her finger on the pulse of contemporary hits! She was watching a movie at her house on Netflix and when she got to my house, she wanted to finish the ending of the movie. I wasn’t paying attention to the movie she was watching but then this video showed up in my YouTube feed that night:

I thought, “Oh, hey, that’s the movie my Mom was watching!” I really dug the interview and once I heard that it was based on a book, that immediately got my attention! I looked up the book on Amazon and it was fairly cheap so, OF COURSE I had to get it! After I am finished reading the book, I will have to watch the movie so my Mom and I can discuss it. It has subtitles so I can’t watch it on my TV in my living room but rather I will need to watch it on my phone so I can keep it close to my face to be able to see and read the subtitles. I remember having to do that for my Dad as his vision was fading and my son does it for me now.

“What About the Top of Your Head?

When my Mom allows me to choose the music we will listen to in the morning, lately, I’ve been choosing this song:

This song was released on June 22, 2010 as a single from Train’s album, Save Me San Francisco. That was around the time I started seeing Parker Whitaker in Plymouth. He was my MRT (Muscle Release Technique) therapist who I saw just before I started going to Barwis Methods.

There are so many good songs on this album but, If It’s Love is one of my favorite songs! It’s catchy and has memorable lines for sure! My favorite line is: “On a spinning ball in the middle of a space, I love you from your head to your face“ which demands to be yelled out as loud as I can!

Right after I finished yelling those lines, as my Mom drove the car she asked the question, “What about the top of your head? I told her that, “face” rhymes with, “space” and talked about artistic freedom. Every single time I belted out those lines with the song, my Mom would always ask, “ What about the top of your head?” I would tell her that I had already explained it and, “Way to ruin it Mom!”

As we listen to this song in the mornings now, I always ask that question after my favorite line. Then I kind a laugh a little bit. My Mom did not remember saying that but I let her know that she completely ruined the song for me! (NOT REALLY! I STILL LOVE IT!!!) I also LOVE the memory of hearing her say that as we drove to Parker’s so many years ago!

“Cherry, cherry, cherry.”

I posted this picture on Facebook this morning:

I wrote with it that hiding your books in the bathroom vanity was a good idea as well. No one can argue with, “I’m in the bathroom!“ and tagged all four of my brothers. Three of them have responded laughing and two of them have called me a nerd! I am completely comfortable with being a nerd! In fact, I KNOW that I am a nerd!

I got my own room around the time I was 13. My brother asked me one time what I did in my room all the time for so long. I told him, “Read.“ I used to read a Babysitters’ Club book a day in the summer. Going along with that thread, my Mom and I have been doing something for probably the past two or three months.

In the morning, when we begin our routine, my Mom needs to transfer me from my motorized wheelchair to begin our work getting me ready for the day. Each day, my Mom hugs me as I wrap my arms around her neck. She needs to pull me up to a standing position and then lower me down to sitting.

While she does this, we both say, “Up, up, up.” And then after I lock my knees to a standing position, we both say, “Down, down, down.” And as she lets go of me, I always say, “Cherry, cherry, cherry.” Those were some of the first lines from the very first book I “read.” I remember one day, my uncle came over and was not impressed by my, “reading.”

Now, as a forner Reading Specialist, I understand that was the beginning stage of exactly that, READING! I read tons of Word Bird books which ultimately were building up my recognition of site words and my own automaticity when it came to reading!

Go Mom! That Word Bird book was the building block of my love for reading. I have always read tons and still do! (as much as my vision will allow me to) I was reading the other day when Sean got home from school. He told me that it was good that I liked reading so much. I appreciated him saying that because it helped me put things into perspective because that’s pretty much all I can do now!

My Mom kind of chuckles every time I say, “Cherry, cherry, cherry.” I have so much to thank that little blue bird for! So much more than I knew back then, I appreciate that I can get lost in a book while sitting in my wheelchair and not being able to leave my house.

“Just One of Dem Days”

This morning when my Mom came over and helped me out of bed, I sat in the kitchen drinking my kiefer and I felt pretty badly! She told me that I did not look good and that my eyes look bad! Well, they feel bad! She was puzzled because it wasn’t snowing and I just kind of shrugged a tiny bit and played her this song:

I was in seventh grade when this song came out but I could not think of a more perfect instance to play it. Hopefully, it will get better as the day wears on… We will have to see because it’s, “One of Dem Days!”

“The Game Ain’t Over”

The other day, as my Mom and I were getting me ready for the day, I moved in such a way that put some strain on my right knee as we were getting me ready. It really hurt! I looked at my Mom and told her more than I asked her but it was a statement and a question rolled into one. I said, “I have a bad knee now.” It was a statement and a question because I could not believe that that is true. My Mom just answered me with a simple, “Yes.”

My knee popped out this morning and when my Mom came over to help me out of bed, my knee popped back in as she was helping me to transfer into my motorized chair. When my knee pops out now, (because it does often), I no longer gasp when it happens but rather, I scream! Often, tears will accompany that scream and it’s been one year, 10 months, and one day since my surgery.

A few days ago, I was sleeping in bed when I kind of rolled over to my back and it popped out! It was probably around 4 o’clock in the morning and my eyes shot open and I called to my Mom! She wasn’t at my house (OF COURSE!) and she laughed when I told her when she got to my house if little bit later. She told me that she must be a good caregiver for me to call to her! I will never dispute that, EVER because as much as it hurts me to realize that I have a caregiver, I couldn’t have a better one than her!

MS is difficult and add it to that, the pain STILL in my knee, just about makes it unbearable! I’ve been thinking about the fact that just after I told/asked my Mom about me having a bad knee and when she answered with a simple response of, “Yes.” I’m not sure if I cried but it was a sad realization! My Mom saw my face and told me that, “The game ain’t over!“

I KNOW it is NOT but it IS difficult! I find myself, “grabbing my guts” even more now and often with tears streaming out of my eyes. I knew what she said was true, and MY TRUTH but it still was a little difficult to hear! As I agreed with her assertion, and I thought of this song:

“Birthday Month”

I told Sean this morning, before he left for school that today kicks off my, “Birthday Month!“. He has been telling me that for a few years now that, “Birthday Month” is NOT a thing!

Oh, it certainly is! I used to just have a, “Birthday Week” but as I have gotten older, it has escalated to a, “Birthday Month!” I do not mind at all getting older so I might as well celebrate it! Sean tells me that I can only have a, “Birthday Month” if I have two things. The first one being a trust fund ( which I do NOT have) and the second being a dog that I carry around all the time. (I do NOT have one of those either).

I call it, “Birthday Month” but I place no importance on receiving gifts or anything. I just simply enjoy celebrating something that I am a big part of. Actually, I am the ONLY part of it! I have known a couple “Birthday Twins” over the years but I just love my birthday!

My birthday is on March 12. I like it best when it falls on a Thursday because I love Thursdays, they’re my favorite day of the week! I constantly remind Sean and my mom about my, “Birthday Month.” It kind of bothers me that recently, there has been snow on the ground on my birthday when before, it was usually spring.

When I was in high school, I always wanted Wendy’s to be my birthday dinner with my family. However, my birthday most often falls during Lent so we needed to eat fish on Fridays which was the day when we would celebrate my birthday with the family.

My Dad told me that we would have a family dinner at Red Lobsster. The Red Lobster by my house did not except large party reservations so, is the youngest with no obligations because I was still in high school, I would have to sit and wait for pretty much an hour until a table with 15 to 18 seats became available. I always hated them! Now, I hold that memory with much fondness.

Now that I will be 37 this year, my birthday is a full blown month and I get to decide where I will have my birthday dinner! I’m not quite sure where I will decide but, I am medically exempt from the Lenten diet so I don’t even know what I will do. I tell Sean that it is all about, “Simple pleasures” when he shakes his head at my assertion of, “Birthday Month.” ☺️☺️☺️