Author: Jen Rios

Sister Hazel

I’ve always prided myself in recognizing the lead singer of songs that I hear. Today, Sean was flipping through the guide trying to find something to watch. He flips through that too quickly so I can never read anything. But today, I looked up just as the movie, 10 Things I Hate About You passed on the screen.

I have always had a thing for teeny-bopper, high school movies. I’m not sure why but, High School Musical really got to me! Historically, Sean knows my affinity for cheesy, high school movies and he allows me to watch them when they are on TV.

When I saw that movie name, I got excited and Sean changed the channel so we could watch the end of it. It was at my favorite part! I make it a point to tell Sean that the styles were beyond cool when I was in high school. The formal dress that is just a skirt and a top with your midriff showing?! COME ON!!! I’ve never had the abs to pull that off but I’ve let him know that getting your hair done in an updo with curls coming down was beyond cool!

He just lets me get lost in my high school years and he watches the movie with me. Toward the end of that movie, there was a song that played in the background and I didn’t know HOW I know that voice but I KNEW that voice! I was racking my brain trying to figure out how that song sounded familiar to me, or rather the singer‘s voice. Sean, being a millennial, looked it up on his phone. It was Sister Hazel. It was familiar to me because I saw them once in Chicago at the House of Blues!

That song didn’t get radio play but I remembered that voice and I’m glad that I know who it is brcause of Sean. I was never a big fan of them but I saw them in concert in Chicago and they put on a pretty good show!

Books I’m Reading 2.4.19

I read this book for the first time in Dr. Watson‘s class during undergrad. I told him that I thought Hondo was, “hot.” He laughed and then we both went into class and he started it. He said, “Jen thinks Hondo’s hot, what do you think? I then had to defend my position that Hondo was, “hot.” It’s been so long that I’ve read this book that I’m going to read it again but I remember liking it. I wonder if I still think Hondo will be hot?!

2.3.19 Completed.

I saw Mayte Garcia on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah speaking of this book a while ago and it interested me a lot! I’ve just finished this book and ABSOLUTELY loved it! I am no book reviewer but I definitely would recommend this one! It’s not until you get near to the end then you understand why I feel like a kindred spirit with her! I SO appreciated reading this one!!!

Bandwagoner

I started watching professional football when my son started playing football when he was seven. (2009) After watching the first couple games, it didn’t make sense to me! I was just seeing little kids bumping into each other for the whole game. When I was in high school, I knew all of the rules and positions. After watching the first Lions’ game, it all came back and made sense to me! Being from Dearborn, of course, my team is the Detroit Lions! I have not known a Lions’ team without Matthew Stafford!

Given that the Lions very rarely make it to the postseason, I am a post-season bandwagoner! I have become a HUGE football fan and when Sean was younger, he was OK with being a bandwagoner with me. Now, he just makes fun of me for buying a shirt. I choose my team on Wildcard Weekend and it will change once my desired team is eliminated. I usually make my choice after the NFC championship game.

There have been times when I go along with an AFC team, but I like to stick with in our conference. After the NFC championship game, I ordered my shirt to have it for Super Bowl Sunday. I ordered my shirt after the NFC championship game and because of the high demand, it was back ordered and shipped to my house two days later than was expected. I checked the tracking on the package and it is not due to get to my house until Wednesday! The Super Bowl is this Sunday!

I called customer service twice and was hoping to get some kind of discount because if my team loses, what is the point of having the shirt? I was told that since that item has already shipped, there is nothing they can do. That really stinks! I’ve thought about it and for the Super Bowl, I will just have to wear my GMFB shirt. I LOVE that shirt!!!

I’m not sure what I will do when my shirt comes. I ordered a really cool one but I’m not sure what to do if they lose. The second customer service representative I spoke with reiterated what the first representative told me. I can send back the package unopened with “Return to Sender” on it and get a full refund. I still rock my Eagles Super Bowl Champions shirt from last year so I’m not sure what I’m going to do!

When Sean was younger, I was still working and it was not a problem to get both of us a bandwagon shirt. But now, being on a fixed income, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I am all in on my team for the Super Bowl and I guess the outcome will determine if I keep or send my shirt back.

Things to think about! Because I am usually a jinxer of the Super Bowl, (If you are a true football fan, you already know what kind of shirt I got!) I’m not going to say what kind of shirt I got until AFTER the Super Bowl! When I let you guys know if I send it back for a refund or not. It is really cool so regardless, maybe I’ll just keep it!

February 2019 Faves

I have about 100 pages left in the book I am currently reading, The Most Beautiful, by Mayte Garcia. And I am ABSOLUTELY loving it! Growing up, my childhood friend and neighbor, Aseal, loved Prince! I liked his music but I really couldn’t get into it as much as she did! After reading this book, I appreciate that it is a love story between him and her and makes me become more intrigued with Prince’s music so

I thought to post the songs that she references in the book plus one more that makes me think of my days of student teaching and trying to get that song to play for my students when I taught English. I was never able to get it properly download it so I could not play it for my students but I listened to it again to jog my memory. I’m not even finish reading the book but I know I will have to download a lot of princes music on my Apple Music and I’ll make a playlist. It’s better late than never and this will be “the peanut that butter is my jelly.“

*NOTE: I don’t even eat peanut butter and jelly together in a sandwich but prince used to say that to Mayte so…


No, “Betcha By Golly Wow” video will not allow me to share it which is frustrating but she talks about that video too.

Student teaching:

Buttons

My knee popped out again this morning. My eyes were open when it happened just like yesterday. Yesterday, I started thinking about the x-rays I had done of my right knee a few weekends ago. The x-ray I thought of was my second x-ray in the second emergency room that I was in on Saturday after my second ambulance ride. It was the first ambulance ride that I didn’t have any pants on for!

I make it a point to remember everyone’s name if I’m going to speak of them in my blog so I think my Porter was named Sergei who took me for my second x-ray at Henry Ford Hospital downtown this time. I thought about this x-ray because for the past 19 years, I haven’t really ever spoken about this, at least with an x-ray technician! Sergei (I think that’s what his name was) took me into the room and a young woman got me ready for the x-rays.

She asked me if I had any metal in my knee. I gave her this standard answer just like I give a list of surgeries that I’ve had and when I’ve had them. I don’t think I got her name but I told her that I had metal buttons in my right knee and I told her that it was orthopedic hardware so it was OK to x-ray.

Once she took the pictures, the same pictures I took at the Dearborn emergency room she came out from behind the glass and asked me when I got what I got in my knee. I kind of laughed and told her that they are metal buttons that I got from my ACL reconstruction. She told me that she had never seen them before in her life! She added that they DO look like buttons!

I have never really been asked about them before and I had my ACL reconstructed 19 years ago! I was asked about the hardware when my knee was first injured in September 2016. I told the doctor then that it was almost 17 years ago that my ACL was repaired. It really is mind-boggling that I am STILL having problems with my knee!

After the x-rays were finished and I was taken back to my waiting cubicle, the doctor came back in to talk to me about the x-rays and what her plans were for me. I can’t remember her name either but I know that she was really, super pregnant! My Mom asked when she was due and she answered that she was due in February. My Mom let her know that she had three of her kids in February. That’s 60%!

She told me that she was sending me home and my Mom let her know that I needed to go back home in an ambulance. That was my third ambulance ride of the day and the second one that I STILL didn’t have any pants on! I still don’t have any answers about what is happening to my knee and why it is happening! All I know is that it hurts! As I thought about my x-rays from that time in the emergency room, it made me wonder what these buttons look like in my knee.

Pop

My knee popped out this morning. Only, it was different than it always has been. Normally, my eyes are still closed and I’m just starting to become coherent when my knee will pop that causes my eyes to fly open at the exact moment that I am ripped from my slumber. That’s when I call myMom for help!

It is only after my Championship Saturday that I spent in two emergency rooms and after two x-rays and three ambulance rides that I know it is not my knee popping out. My knee joint is still intact when it feels like this. The x-rays showed that! What Dr. Washington told me was that it was a tendon or ligament that is stretching funny that causes my knee to hurt.

It no longer, “pups”out but rather just kind of, “slides” out of place but either way both hurt! A lot! For the rest of the day that my knee, “pops” out, it hurts! Just like right now! I’m trying to wrap my head around it STILL hurting after MORE than a year and a half removed from surgery!

I wonder if continued damage is being done to my knee?! Dr. Moore has been through all of my MRIs multiple times. Now, I am just waiting to get an appointment with Dr. Bitar. He isthe PMR (physical medicine and rehabilitation) doctor that Dr. Moore has referred me to. To me, it is further proof that my knee is broken! I need ongoing care!

My knee, “pops” out multiple times during each week but what makes this time different is that I was awake, my eyes were open, and I thought I had bypassed the pain! Not so much!

Heartwarming Memory

This morning, I yawned and covered my mouth. It was one of those long, drawn out yawns and once I was finished, I started laughing! I laughed because I thought of a memory from my first years teaching. The memory is from back when I taught English. My Mom looked at me this morning quizzically and asked me why I was laughing.

I laid the entire story out not really thinking she would laugh but my heart was warmed at the memory! I was teaching a novel, I’m not sure which one it was, (The Outsiders, Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, or Surviving the Applewhites) but I stood on the right side of the overhead projector in front of the class. (This had to be in 2008, hence, the overhead projector). Because I was teaching a novel, I had printed out the vocabulary words and definitions onto the overheads so I had a stack of overheads that had the various definitions on them in my hand.

I felt a yawn coming on so I turned my head to the left and covered my mouth with the papers that were in my right hand. The papers that were in my hand were clear overhead sheets! It was again, one of those long, drawn out yawns. My students saw the ENTIRE thing because they were clear papers that I was holding. My students did not start laughing until one of them let me know that they could see my mouth as a yawned.

We all started to laugh as I apologized for them having to see that! My heart was warmed thinking of that entire class of seventh graders laughing. I hadn’t thought of that memory in a very long time but my long, drawn out yawn this morning made me think of it. My heart has been warmed by this memory all day!

My Dad’s Voice

Tuesday, my Mom was humming a song that is on my “Daddy” playlist. I haven’t listened to it in a while so I asked my Mom if she wanted to listen to that playlist and she helped me get ready for the day. She did so that is what we listen meg to.

OF COURSE it made me cry! The playlist started playing for a second time when I was completely ready for the day and was seated in my living room picking a shipping label off of a package I received. I was picking the label off to get rid of my information so as to write my niece’s information on it to send her a care package while she is away at college.

So here I sat having a difficult time picking at that label and I felt a bit melancholy because these songs on the playlist, my Dad‘s playlist, the songs that were on the CD I made for him for his 55th birthday which was titled, “The Daddy Mix.” I gave that CD to him four months before he died. My Mom has told me that he’d listen to it often before he died.

I was engrossed in concentrating on picking that label off and listening to the music. I’m not even sure which song it was but I heard my Dad‘s voice singing along with it! I picked my head up and glanced to where I thought the sound was coming from. Obviously he was not there but I gasped and told my Mom that, “I heard Daddy’s voice!”

I’ve only heard his voice twice before in dreams I have had in the 12 years since his death. It was shocking to hear his voice crystal clearly singing along with the song while I was awake. My brothers and my son have similar voices to him when they say things that he would always say but they aren’t the voice I heard singing as I was concentrating at picking that label off. Hearing my dad’s voice has made me miss him so much more but I am grateful to have heard it!

ALMOST Forgotten Tune #42

Sean had a doctor’s appointment this past Monday; so as his sole, legal guardian, I needed to accompany him because he is still a minor. I was not prepared for the cold! That’s for sure! Sean and my Mom ran into her house after the appointment to get some stuff. I was left alone in the car listening to the radio.

As I have stated before, I am OLD! Nowadays, because I no longer am a morning commuter, I don’t listen to my morning talk shows on the radio that I have in my car on my way to work. I no longer go to work. So, when I was left alone in the car, I listened to the 90s on nine. I heard this song. I inmediately thought of Dawson’s Creek even though I was NOT a huge watcher of the show.

As the song continued to play, I was reminded of an assignment I was given when I was an undergrad in college. It had something to do with artistic freedom and the fact that the rules of grammar are not always followed closely by artists. A girl in my class who I often talked with cited this song. I can still see her standing in front of the classroom presenting her paper but I can’t remember which professor or even which class it was.

I don’t even remember what example that I used! She cited the first lines of the song and the fact that they are NOT grammatically correct but no one really pays attention to that.

I have NOT stopped thinking about this song and that girl presenting that paper in my English class. I can’t even remember that girls name but we had a lot of English classes together in the CASL building at U of M Deerborn.