This category is full of randomness that really doesn’t fit nicely into any of the categories having to do with my road to walking.
This commercial constantly plays on NFL Network so I had heard it many times before Sean was home one time when it was on. Before they said it, I said, “Dilly! Dilly!” It’s catchy! Sean thought so too. And then I saw this commercial last night for Sunday Night Football. Apparently, I am not the only one amused by this! I don’t even drink but I thought it was funny!
***CLICK PICTURE TO SEE MODIFIDED COMMERCIAL***
This is the first year I have been able to stay up to watch Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football. I noticed this the first week of football and I wasn’t able to get a picture until the Lions played the Packers on Monday Night Football. The Lions won.
Sean thinks it is crazy that I watch so much pregame football but when I saw Mike Tirico, I looked at his eyes, gasped, and had to catch my breath. He has eyes like my Dad! Sean thought so too but that didn’t matter because I think he does! I don’t really listen to what he is saying because I can’t stop staring at his eyes! Most of the time my eyes well up and I whimper a little trying to hold back the tears.
I’ve been missing my Dad SO MUCH lately that I find it kind of comforting to stare at Mike Tirico. Tonight, for example is the Eagles versus the Dallas Cowboys and I’m not a big fan of either team but I’m watching the entire pregame broadcast so I can see Mike Tirico. But let’s be honest, I’m going to watch the game because football is football and I’m in a good mood because the Lions won earlier today!
So, I just wrote a post about Mike Tirico having eyes like my Dad.
it took me a minute, but I found pictures of my Dad’s eyes. These pictures are kind of old (I was only 17) but it is my family at its BEST!
My Dad really didn’t like taking pictures so there aren’t a lot of them and he very rarely smiled in them. We were at a wedding and I’m sensitive so I was crying. Don’t judge!
I think there’s a resemblance! The resemblance is close enough for me to make me cry! This picture is one of my favorite pictures even though my eyes are closed and my nose is red because I was crying because it is just me and my Daddy!!! ❤️❤️❤️
I am used to being awakened by my MS pain in the middle of the night by now, even knee pain by now but tonight by some random cosmos at 4:34 this morning I was awakened by a combination of both. That, and I REALLY miss my Dad. I have a playlist of all of the songs that remind me of him. It starts with:
“El Rey” Jose Alfredo Jimenez
I came across a shortened, translated version here. The song TRULY IS my Dad even though he had a Queen in my mother but I STILL cry and cry…
I hit “shuffle” on the play list hoping to fall back to sleep with some cathartic tune… it was:
“Sometimes You Can’t Make it on Your Own” U2
So, I listened to it, cried, and was reminded of driving to work in the dark just after he died, listening to that song on loop, crying the whole way there, putting my sunglasses on in the dark before I went into the building because my eyes were red and my face splotchy. Well, it’s after 5 now. I just had to write this post and send it off into the cosmos because it’s cathartic.
Cathartic: providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions; causing catharsis.
“crying is a cathartic release”
so yeah… maybe I can get some sleep now. Happy Thanksgiving.
This morning, I wasn’t up and ready by the time Good Morning Football came on; but when I turned it on, Will Selva was talking about U2!!! Their new album, “Songs of Experience” is coming out on Friday. It cut to Kay Adams and she told me (well, everyone watching) that Bono is going to be on the show on Friday! I get so excited! I tweeted them a bunch about this fact! It feels like my worlds are colliding on Friday! Football AND U2! It’s as if Friday’s show is just for me! At least that is the way I’m going to look at it!
It was really cool that every time before they broke for commercial, GMFB played U2 songs! I really dug that! So, as I was doing the dishes after dinner today, I put my U2 playlist on random on my phone. Of course I could sing along to EVERY song! I paused for a moment and then decided that I was going to choose which U2 songs I wanted to hear. I pulled up the best of 1990 to 2000 album. “Electrical Storm” This song reminds me of winter time and working at dfcu financial. It takes me a long time to do the dishes because it is warm as the hot water is running semi-close to my face because the sink is kind of high compared to me sitting in the wheelchair.
Next, it played some songs that reminded me of working at 7-Eleven just before I started working at dfcu financial. “Stay (far away, so close).” I decided my first year of college that U2 was my favorite band. That was the year they were named, “Band of the Year” from Rolling Stone magazine. (2000 – I’m old!) They are my favorite band!
One thing is for sure though, I don’t share them! I do not attribute guys I may be dating with any of their songs. That would mean the song would be ruined once we break up. It’s too risky so, there are some things I just don’t share and U2 is one of them! I’ve only been to one U2 concert and that was the Vertigo tour my first year teaching with a few other teachers and I took my brother. I remember I had a countdown to the concert on the corner of my whiteboard in the front of the classroom.
I incorporated a U2 song as much as I could when I was teaching. I played my student teaching kids at Fordson, “Kite”my last day with them. I am so excited for Friday! I hope I can contain myself and I will have to find a way to get that album! U2 is spattered all over this blog in the tunes section! I would put more links to my favorite songs but I got to catch Monday Night Football, the Ravens ARE playing the Lions Sunday…
So, U2 has been my favorite band forever but I was asked in college who my favorite band was and I said without hesitation, U2. I started watching NFL football in 2009 when Sean started playing city football for Dearborn. He was on the same team as my nephew and started when he was seven but he played as if he was an eight-year-old because his birthday is in November. My nephew’s birthday is in December so he turned 10 at the end of the season.
We always would joke because my son was the youngest and my nephew was the oldest and they were on the same team. I knew all the football positions when I was in high school but seeing a bunch of kids with their helmets bigger than their shoulder pads running around bumping into each other, it got a little confusing so I started watching the Lions (post 0-16) to see what it was supposed to look like. I LOVE football now!
It has become my routine since my knee injury to watch Good Morning Football every morning since I was not teaching. All this week, everyone let us know that Bono is going to be on the show. I was beyond excited! I got to see a clear-cut moment where my worlds collide. GMFB tweeted this picture yesterday and I think I may have to frame it!
There are many times that I wish I was in Kay Adams shoes but I think this moment is the moment I wished the most I were in her shoes! I got out of bed early and put my contacts in to make sure I saw the first run of the show. I wouldn’t mind being Kyle Brant either.
But really thinking about it, I think it would be more like when I saw U2 in concert. Bono popped up onto the stage through a trap door below the stage when I saw them for the Vertigo tour in 2005. I gasped when he showed up on stage and thought, “Me and Bono are sharing the same air!” We really weren’t because my seats were not that good but I was so shocked to actually be in his presence.
He started singing my favorite song at that time (“In a Little While”) a cappella and wanted the crowd to sing-along. I belted it out as loud as I could but because I was so far away from the stage, he couldn’t hear me so he stopped singing it. He said, “No? Maybe next time.”
I watched both broadcasts of the show and the interview about six times and I was such a fan! I thought I could draft the blog post in the commercials but I was breathless after seeing him and hearing the breakfast table talk about the interview. I just woke up from a nap because I pooped out because I was so excited this morning! I really liked that my worlds collided today and I liked hearing from Kyle Brandt that Bono is a hugger!
In all my years of writing this blog, I have made it no secret that MS is a mean disease. It strips away your abilities so slowly that you don’t even realize your abilities are being stripped away until you no longer can do something on your own. But, still at this point you don’t realize your ability is stripped away until it is brought to your attention. In recent events, the stripping away of my abilities has been brought to my attention. It didn’t feel good.
I have written about PBA before in this blog and my inability to properly express my emotions is problematic at times. It’s more problematic if that expression of emotion is tears rather than laughter. Laughing, although it can be annoying at inopportune times, tears are just plain disturbing.
My Dad told my Mom years ago, years before he died, that me having MS was going to be, “bad.” How, “bad” it was going to be, I had no clue. I didn’t read about this disease once I was diagnosed, it was just too scary and depressing. I wouldn’t have believed it if I read it anyway! Anything, “bad” was not going to happen to me! My Mom did not tell me that my Dad told her this until about a year ago, A full decade after his death! Now that I know he said this years ago, I am grateful that my Mom did NOT tell me.
It has been in the gradual stripping away of my abilities that my Mom has become my caregiver. I did not realize this until a few months ago. I am her daughter. I thought we were just “hanging out.” But that isn’t the case all of the time. My mom knew this before I did. Well, my Mom is the best caregiver in the world!
I am not going to pretend that this “care-taking” has been easy for either one of us for so many reasons! There are many times when we are not each other’s “favorite person.” Thus far, throughout this almost 17 year journey, I have maintained a lot of my independence on paper. Sean and I still live by ourselves. Today, I realize this maintenance of my independence is dependent upon my Mom.
This realization has been a bit overwhelming for me today. It’s only when it is brought to my attention, like it has been as of late, that I realize how stripped away my abilities are and how dependent I am upon my Mom for my independence. PBA sucks almost as much as MS does. Sean and my mom are less affected by my tears now that they know that I cannot control the expression of my emotions having undiagnosed PBA. It still disturbs me though! I just can’t stop crying!
I am beyond grateful for my Mom for so many reasons! Those of you who know her, know that that is something that is easy to feel! I wanted to write something today because tomorrow is my Tenex procedure for my knee. I am nervous! I don’t know what to expect really. Wish me luck Kids! (I wrote, “Kids” because in addition to everything else, I miss addressing my students as “kids.”) Please offer up or send me your thoughts, prayers, and/or good vibes. It’s SO much appreciated! I promise to write as soon as I can!…
I’ve only seen this commercial twice on TV but both times, it made me cry! I do not, nor will I ever, drive a Toyota (growing up, my bread was buttered with GM money) but this is a really good commercial! Got me in my feels! if my Mom’s name began with an, “S,” it would be over! My Dad’s name is Ramon.
CLICK TO VIEW COMMERCIAL
So, watching Good Morning Football every day, during the commercials, I fill my crockpot or wash dishes or something and lately I have been hearing this commercial.
CLICK RED WORDS OR PICTURE TO VIEW COMMERCIAL
I do not know who sings this song and I do not know if I could dig it for the entire time it plays and not the 30 seconds for this commercial. I will find out and maybe put it in my January Faves for 2018 but I’m diggin’ it right now in the commercial form.
I saw this commercial just after Thanksgiving and still during November so I thought that was a bit premature to share it. I saw it again yesterday and called to Sean to come watch because, “This has been a commercial since I was like 10 years old.” I like the, “Phew” at the end.
Turns out, I was 7, not 10; so, it pretty much has been as long as I can remember, It’s always been a commercial. When I see it, it reminds me of being a child living at my parents house with green carpet in the living room. My Mom has hardwood floors now. My brother did them and he did mine too.