Category: A Bit Of Randomness

My Sunday football watching routine starts with Rich Eisen and the NFL network guys. I really appreciated seeing Kay Adams I don’t location in Baltimore today too! At 12 o’clock, I change over to the fox NFL Sunday guys. Michael Strahan was wearing a dark purple suit today! I loved it! I Tweeted him! I also was grateful that the Lions game was on CBS so I get to see Nate Burleson at half time.

I only saw this commercial once but I have seen it many times during the previous week. It makes me laugh every single time I see it!

I’ve seen the other Progressive commercial was Baker Mayfield and them at the football stadium but I did not even put the two together until today. I didn’t even know that was baker Mayfield in the circuit breaker commercial which I really love! I’m not really a baker Mayfield fan.

So then it was the second half of the game and we were still losing! I started to get stressed out in the fourth quarter, so much so that I had to put my eyepatch on because the television was shaking. I have NEVER worn an eyepatch when I watch football, only basketball because basketball is so much quicker!

But I was stressed out! I think my stress started after Prater missed the extra point AND The field goal. He NEVER misses! So, I was watching the final minutes with my patch on and then Darius Slay made a big play! They don’t call him Big Play Slay for nothing! An interception in the end zone is, for sure, a big play!

After that, I could begin to relax. Especially when we took the victory formation at the end! So we are 1-0-1 now! Phew!

This morning, after GMFB, I thought my body had, “Warmed up” enough to begin our morning routine. I had already watched the entire show and had already drank my Kiefer, drank my Atkins shake, and brushed my teeth. I was ready to get ready for the day., or so I thought. My Mom helped me to transfer out of my wheelchair to begin our routine.

I’m grateful that my Mom is the main person to help me transfer. Over the years, my transfer has ended up with me hugging her and her pulling me out of my wheelchair to sit. We normally count as I ready myself for the transfer.

I guess my body wasn’t efficiently, “Warmed up” enough because after our count and my Mom brought me to my feet to transfer, it was accompanied by my involuntary grunting and groaning. My head is right next to hers and we both have our arms basically wrapped around each other. As my Mom had me seated to begin our morning routine, she let me know that it sounded, “Dainty. Dainty like a butterfly.”

I hadn’t really noticed that I grunt and groan so much. I probably have been doing that for a while. My body always hurts and I guess my grunts came on so gradually with my transfers that I really didn’t notice it.

I asked my Mom if I grunt when she gets me out of bed in the morning and she told me that she couldn’t remember. With the weather starting to get cooler, I probably do but I haven’t noticed it. Maybe that’s because it’s so, “Dainty. Dainty like a butterfly.“

*I really KNOW that it is NOT dainty but that is how it is now.

When I was younger, I always remember my brother, Dave, telling me that “It’s on like donkey Kong!” When something big was going to happen. I think we were both in high school or in our early 20s and he was still telling me this. This morning, after I sat in my wheelchair for a while and finished watching GMFB, My kefir and my Atkins shake were drank and my teeth were brushed and flossed, I grabbed my blue therapy putty and squeezed it. Ashley told me that eventually it will get easy to squeeze and then I should move to the next color. The next color was purple. It is firm. I Texted Sean this picture while he was in school.

I added that, “It’s on like donkey Kong!“ so I started working with the purple which is my favorite color.

I shared that picture with one of my MS support group and I just want to let you all know that I am squeezing that, “Fuddy putty” as hard as I can and it’s really NOT giving way at all. And I thought the medium was difficult?! The purple will take some time to become easier but I have been constantly squeezing it all day long! I am continuing to squeeze it as I watch Monday night football.

This morning, when my Mom got me out of bed, I realized that I do NOT grunt and groan when I wake up. That’s probably because I am SO groggy!

This is me in the morning, remember?!:

I always turn on the TV on to GMFB immediately when I get into the living room. I think it is listening to the breakfast table talk about something I love that gradually helps me to wake up. This morning, my Mom was in the bathroom curling her hair and she was talking to me by yelling something so I could hear her. Given her volume, it was POSSIBLE for me to hear her but given that it was so early, I wasn’t hearing her at all!

She asked me something and then stepped out of the bathroom to get my answer. Because I had just awakened, I looked exactly like that little girl and she started to laugh. She asked me if I heard anything she said and then looked at that table beside me and saw that I had not even touched my Kiefer yet.

Hearing and seeing her laugh at my grogginess amused me but my face did not change. On a good day, it takes about three hours for me to completely get with it. This morning, however, was NOT a good day. It took longer for me to get ready today.

Today, one of the, “Nick” slices of bread for the Scott sandwich came back over for K&B to make some adjustments on the control panel in my basement for my generator. Everything is good now and it should pass re-inspection.

My Mom let Nick know that the inspector can’t come tomorrow because no one will be home because I have a Neurology appointment. He told her to call the office and let them know. I think she spoke with someone named Kyle. I asked her to call because my voice and speech is still wonky. I will discuss this fact with my Beurologist tomorrow and I need a new prescription for compression socks as well.

I’m thinking that the inspector will be back on Thursday which is my FAVORITE day of the week and he DID tell my Mom last time that, “[I] was beautiful!” Who could tire of that?! ☺️☺️☺️

In May of 2000, my Mom and I had booked our trip to Ireland. My Mom’s good friend is a flight attendant and she asked me one day in the car if I could go anywhere in the world for a graduation present, where would I want to go? I didn’t even hesitate to tell her that I wanted to go to Ireland. The trip was scheduled for days after my high school graduation with one of my good friends, my Mom, and her friend. My friend and I went shopping and we had received our passports already. We were all set for just after my high school graduation.

My Dad was so sick and my graduation. He ended up needing open heart surgery the day after I graduated. For me, there was no question! I would postpone my trip! He was so apologetic to me as I met him in the room pre-surgery. I told him that Ireland has been there for thousands of years and I will be there for thousands more but he was more important! I told him that I would get there one day.

I haven’t been there yet and my passport has since expired. There is a new Hallmark movie that set in Ireland complete with Irish accents, the green scenery, and the castles! 😍😍😍 This movie is on right now and this is the third time I have sing it. I swear I was Irish in my past life! That’s why my son’s name is Sean!

I recently saw the mishandling of A motorized wheelchair on a commercial airplane on Facebook. I shared the video and cry every rime i see it! Watching this movie, I knew it to find a way to get there! I searched other videos that Talked about being in a wheelchair and getting on an airplane. That video made me cry as well!

The woman who posted the Facebook post originally tagged all of the major airlines and said that something needs to be done. I definitely would appreciate something mean done! I want to get to Ireland. I have to get to Ireland. I was hoping to get there sometime this summer, I looked at it as a trip deferred for 20 years. I think it will have to wait a little while longer because when I watch the person getting onto the plane, I cried at how difficult it was!

I recently saw an interview on the Daily Show about the young Swedish girl who came to New York in a boat. Maybe I will have to look at something like that then. As I hear the Irish accents right now, I have to get there! U2 is my favorite band! The only question left is a pretty big question but, how to get there?!

I have seen that Owl Tootsie Pop commercial three times today.

Each time I hear the little boy talking to the owl, I think of my time teaching. I introduced Tootsie Pops to my kids whenever we watched movies. I would tell/demonstrate for them to, “Take the wrapper off of the sucker, throw the wrapper out, put this sucker in your mouth, and then close your mouth” as a way to get them to NOT talk during the movie.

That ended up being my thing. I gave my kids Tootsie Pops all of the time for probably 11 of the years of the 12 that I taught. I would purchase the 100 count boxes from GFS:

I used to let my kids pick the flavor they wanted and I ended up having a bunch of leftover brown ones at the end of the school year. I think I still may have a bag of the leftovers in my cupboard 2 1/2 years since I have stopped teaching!

The last year of my MS Awareness Week fundraising, I added in an #MSsucks sucker sale for $.25. The purpose of my MS Awareness T-shirt sales and the sucker sale was not so much to raise money but rather to raise awareness. I really had a lot of fun the years I was allowed to have the fundraiser! I will probably re-post those posts on Facebook, at least the sucker sale one! I was only able to have the sale once.

Yesterday, my Mom let me know that my Dad was NOT a football fan. I was bummed yesterday because Michigan lost. I already knew that my Dad wasn’t a fan because I didn’t grow up watching much football. But then Sean started playing Pop Warner. Then she added, “But with you…” I kind of started to laugh but then she started enumerating days which made me laugh even more!

She told me that, “There is Monday, Thursday, all weekend, GMFB for three hours every weekday. I had laugh because I told her yesterday that Saturday is for college football and Sunday is for professional football unless it is wildcard weekend in the NFL.

I thought it was over and it still made me smile until she came back a little while later with, “Then there are the documentaries…” amidst my laughter my response was simple. Well, it IS football season.

My Mom told me that she, “Hates it all! The screaming, the yelling, the cheering…”. What can I say, I AM a football fan! I was somewhat of one in high school because I dated the quarterback but when Sean started playing when he was seven, I HAD to get an example of how the game was supposed to be played because these little kids just bumped into each other for the whole game.

He played for the Dearborn Lions so that is when I started watching the Detroit Lions as an adult. I have never known a Lions team without Matthew Stafford. I was very grateful that they won today because I was really bummed that Michigan lost yesterday.