Author: Jen Rios

Top 5 Christmas Songs

I have just realized that I have not posted my ‘all-time Christmas faves list’ since 2015! That is because my knee was injured in October 2016 and the subsequent surgery in July 2017 did not leave me any room to think of anything other than the pain that I have been in!

But now that I am homebound, I have time. I think that I am just going to post my top five Christmas songs:


I just saw this short of George Michael talking about the concept of the video:
https://youtube.com/shorts/t6OUQ15-mXg?si=NMnADUCJ9VpS_zLP

I got these Christmas songs because the first one is Wham! duh!!!

This second song is my Mom‘s favorite song and reminds me of my childhood at 6020:

This third song is Sean‘s favorite song. He’s such an old soul! I dig this one too!:

This one has been one of my favorite Christmas songs since I was seven years old and my cousins, Belinda and Sal, sang it at the piano with their friend! This was my only warm Christmas that we spent in Texas where we barbecued on the deck for Christmas Day?!!!!

this last song has to be on my list because this was a conversation with my cousinwhen I was 17 and she was 19. She does not like wham! but listens to it because I love it. So I don’t like this song but I listen to it because she loves it!!!:

Low-Key

My Thanksgiving this year was low-key. I think holidays from here on out are going to be low-key for me. I had some cheesy potatoes and a soft dinner roll. I just added that to my normal dinner.

My Mom found another Netflix movie that we watched tonight, and I loved it! It was a sequel to A California Christmas. It’s called: A California Christmas: City Lights.

After we saw that one, we said that we completed a review and said that we loved it and hope for a third installation!!!

Beaming!!!

This last ‘go time,’ I forwent my haircut for my Mom to get my chair serviced. We should have gotten the van the night before because my chair needed to be in Troy at 1:30 but we were able to do it! My Mom was not able to pick up the lasagna though.

I talked to Sean because he is ending the season with irrigation. He actually picked up the lasagna and brought it to the house. He put in the oven. and I was beaming as I was sitting in my manual chair, unable to move at all!

He actually put Amazon prime on my TV and then he started perusing the viewing options. He was excited about all the series that were available. He was looking for a movie for us to watch and he asked if I wanted See Doctor No from 1962. Sean Connery, James Bond.

I agreed, and I told him that I DID name him after Sean Connery, but I think it might have been Sean O’Reilly, who was in first grade when I was watching his class at lunch when I was in eighth grade. That’s a possibility! That kid was really cute!

We only saw about 20 minutes of it before my Mom got back and he already got with four different women! We didn’t finish watching the movie when my Mom got home but I think that is something I will watch later just because I want to see what it was all about.

“Open.”

This morning, well this afternoon, I was out of my bed, and I had already drank my nutrition shake. I was squeezing my therapy putty as I do every morning as I was listening to a rosary.

Then, I had a thought. An 18-year-old thought and then from before that. The first thought I had was more than 18 years ago. Thanksgiving at our house. I am remembering my Dad carving the turkey.

My Parents tag-teamed making the turkey every year. I have never had a bad turkey! One of us kids, usually one of ‘the three little ones,’ would sit next to my Dad as he was taking the turkey off the bone. He would sit there methodically working in silence except for one word. He would stop for a moment and say, “Open” and one of us kids would open up the big roaster my Mom had to keep the 12 to 15 pounds of turkey meat in.

We would open the lid and my Dad would put hot, freshly cut hot turkey in it. We always were able to sneak a piece every time before he told us to close it! It was only when we took too much that my Dad would say, “Hey, now” or something like that.

I was thinking fondly of that, as I was squeezing my therapy putty And then I thought of my first Thanksgiving without my Dad. I remember that I was at my Mom’s house and Sean was not with me because he was with his dad because it was too sad for me!

I think it was just my oldest brother and his girlfriend at the time, my Mom, and me. I remember when it was almost time for dinner that my older brother was sitting in my Dad’s seat, kind of with a pained look at his face.

I didn’t understand why he was making that face until he took the knife and the sharpener and clicked them above his head just like my Dad did every single Thanksgiving of my life!

I remember that I started to bawl just like I did this morning and the 18 year old memory. I can still hear my Dad say, “Open.”

“Lasagna Fatty”

Sean came by today and my Mom shared some food she got from my aunt and uncle. He ate some stuffed cabbage and some sauerkraut as well. My Mom told him that she thought it best to share Polish food with a Polish person!

My Mom also told him that Leia got the last two pieces of lasagna that he bought last week for us. He did come over twice and was able to get two big pieces which was about half the lasagna.

Sean sat on my couch and called Leia, who was getting all in his face, “Get back lasagna fatty!!!” Well, she is! Lasagna is the ONLY thing I can eat now! I normally have a combination of my overnight oats, or eggs, or stovetop stuffing, and crackers. I will just have to wait until December to eat more and I hope she doesn’t get it then!!!

Terrible Reminder

I will never forget that I woke up on October 28, 2023 with both of my hips burning!!! I was diagnosed with osteoporosis in my right hip the following January. I have been on supplements for my bones since I was diagnosed. My hip is slowly feeling better. That is until yesterday!!!

Well, I woke up on November 23, 2024 with my right hip killing me!!! I already knew that I had osteoporosis and this hip but this was the first time I FELT it!!!

I will never have surgery on my hip because my body cannot handle that. But man, that was so incredibly rough!!! I know that I am going to have days like that again, but I was shocked that it hurt so badly!!! But that probably WON’T be the last time! Unfortunately!

All I could do when my Mom and I were working together was cry! Tears were just screaming down my face, and my Mom could not understand why I was crying, and I just looked at her and reminded her, “I have osteoporosis!” This pain was a TERRIBLE REMINDER and I hope it does not come back anytime soon!!! #MSsucks!!! 😒😒😒…

Rando Tune #58

I have a watched A California Christmas three times this year and it’s not even technically Christmas time officially yet! I was not feeling any of the Hallmark movies that were playing and were set to play for the rest of the evening, so I just put that movie back on.

My eyes are thing now that scares me. I knew that I recognize this song from back when I was working I think? Well, I found it again today:

4 for 4.

Today was the second day of ‘go time’ for November. Yesterday, I did NOT leave the house, but my Mom took my chair to get serviced. The pelvis stabilizer is working now and so is the actuator. My wheelchair reclines all the way back smoothly without laboring!

Today was a difficult day to say the least!!! Everything got done, and I only have an appointment with my naturopath in December.

I have the first quarter of next year already scheduled and I know how to schedule April and May. I will do that in January and February. I cannot tell you how much I never thought my life would be like this!!! it’s getting harder now!!!

Today, I had my mammogram. Now that is something really necessary and also private but I must say that it is 2024 and I cannot believe they DO NOT have handicap accessible mammogram machines?!!!! That is so difficult!!! I had to learn that the hard way when I was 40.

Note to anyone who will be in a power chair in the future: take a manual chair with you to use while you are using the machine. I could not get a clear reading when I was 40 and my doctor told me that I should have another scan ‘sooner than later.’ So, I had two mammograms when I was 40! I am only 42 and I have just finished my fourth mammogram and I must tell you that I am STILL 4 for 4.

I have cried at all four mammograms!!! Today, I thought I was going to be in the clear because last year I cried a whole lot because it hurt a whole lot. But today, it wasn’t until we were in the waiting room and finished when I started to cry. I had the same tech from last year and it was smoother this time.

I have been thinking about this because I have recently gone through a change. I have been left-handed, my entire life and no one else in my immediate family is left-handed. I have made adjustments in dealing with a right handed world for my entire life!

I was telling my Mom that I can feel my brain changing because I have had MS for going on 24 years in a little over a month. I no longer can make those little adjustments or accommodations. I no longer can reach my left hand across my body to get my toothbrush from my Mom. She has to come around and hand it to me on my left side.

I wonder what else is going to change and how much but I am glad that it’s kind of slowly changing but changing nonetheless.

I just can’t believe that able-bodied people would be that obtuse because there are women power chair users who need mammograms so they need to make them easier to get!!! my Mom talked about someone designing it with an engineering mind and I told her that is NOT me!

Now, I am just going to Dr. Clark’s office and getting a haircut on December 18 and that’s it.