Category: A Bit Of Randomness

I got this text from my friend earlier and it is absolutely heartbreaking for me:

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Sean texted me to ask me if I was okay. I texted back, “ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!” Because I am not!!!

I remember ordering Cheeseheads on NFLshop.com one year during the playoffs.

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The Packers were eliminated before I was able to wear it. I but them for Sean and me to wear in our house during the playoffs. I figured that I would save the Cheeseheads for the following year seeing that the Packers were eliminated.

I was talking with my Mom recently because I was thinking about getting them from the basement to wear because the only team I want to go for was the Packers. She recalled coming here one time when Sean must’ve been 12 and we were watching the Packers play and we were both wearing our Cheeseheads.

She recalled coming into the house and seeing us wearing, “Those ridiculous hats.” Now that they are eliminated from the playoffs again this year, looks like I will have to wait another year to bring them up from the basement

I have been living in my memories for a while now but I remember watching the game with Sean wearing our Cheeseheads and I would repeat Aaron Rogers’,’ “Green 19” throughout the game. I also remember that I bought Sean Packers sweatpants for Christmas when he was 12 I think. I had visions of buying him another pair of sweatpants this year if they made it to the Super Bowl. I don’t have money for that anyway so. it seems that it is just as well.

I texted Sean this afternoon and asked him to pick up a prescription for me from the local CVS because it was ready. He came to drop it off in the mailbox after work and shoveled the snow.

I heard him on the porch and called him. He told me that he was shoveling and there was a little something in the mailbox for me with my prescription. I told him that I was kind of excited! He told me that it wasn’t a big deal and was just a little something but some thing I had said that I wanted.

My Mom opened the door to get the stuff out of the mailbox. This was the, “Little Something”;

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I texted Sean pictures of this commercial and told him that I wanted to try it out months ago. When I talked to him on the phone, he said that it was something small but something that I had wanted for a while. After I was finished with it, I texted him that it was:

“DELICIOUS!!! THANK YOU!!! 💜💜💜

He told me that I had wanted it but he had not seen it at any stores but while he was picking up my prescription, it was there and he had to get it!

NICE! I think it was an excellent, “Little something.”

My Mom asked me the same question she asked me two days ago as she helped to get me out of bed. She asked me what I was smiling about. Today, seeing that this was the second time that she has asked me this in a couple days. I told her that I was NOT smiling. I told her that I was gritting my teeth.

My sleeping habits have changed so much over the years! While I was still working, I used to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to be at work by 7:40. As my disease progressed, it got progressively harder to get out of bed and ready for work. I had first hour prep and after providing a doctor’s note regarding my condition, and I was able to arrive to work as late is 8:45 because second hour started at 9:15.

While I was still working and before I started working out at Barwis, I slept like a vampire. I laid flat on my back and did not move the entire night. Once I started working out at Barwis, I was able to move around a little bit in bed as I slept because I was regaining muscle strength and flexibility.

Michael Rhoades challenged me to lay on my stomach for 10 minutes before I went to sleep to help my muscles that stay contracted all day because I am seated. This was extremely difficult in the beginning and I could only last four or five minutes at a time.

Now, fast forward to a second knee surgery and it’s painful to sleep on my back because it really hurts my knee. Rather, now, I sleep on my left side so as not to put pressure on my right knee because my right knee is on top of my left knee.

Fast forward a little bit more and being four years after surgery and four years removed from working out at Barwis things have changed again. My Mom will help me to get into bed and she will cover me as I am laying on my left side. Then, she will tuck the covered underneath me and grab my right hand and pul me toward her so I can lay mostly on my back and will mindlessly play Word Connect or solitaire on my phone as I try to relax in order to fall asleep.

Currently, I am watching Bridgeton which helps me to get into a mindset to drift off to sleep. Because my Mom has tucked the covers under me, I can roll over to my left side by grabbing the edge of the bed. And now, almost 4 years removed from knee surgery, I can lay on my stomach for most of the night. I really should tell Michael Rhoades about this!

Anyway, so when the morning comes, or almost afternoon, sometimes I can roll back over onto my back by myself so my mom can put my shoes on for me and other times I need my Mom to help me. As I am rolling over onto my back by myself or she is helping me, I grit my teeth because it is painful. I kind of like that my struggle looks like a smile even though it is NOT!!!

Yesterday evening, Leia talked to my Mom. In the 10 months that we have had her in our house, she has become accustomed to taking two walks a day. One in the morning and one in the evening. On these walks, she prances around, will spin in a circle, and hop. She’s a really happy dog!

But, we got her at the end of April when it was warm outside. Last night, when Leia started talking to my Mom, it was 25° outside and it felt like it was 14°. It was dark outside and my Mom was tired and just didn’t want to go. She made that video to send to Sean to have him come over and walk her.

My Mom says that she wasn’t speaking sweetly to Leia like she normally does and didn’t like that it sounded that she was not sweet to her in the video.

My Mom is COMPLETELY sweet with Leia all of the time! So much so, that I had to kind of check her a little bit when she was speaking to Leia and loving her up, she called Leia, “My baby girl!” I had to stop her there because I AM her ONLY ”Baby girl!”

after my Mom sent that video to Sean, she got up and put her coat on and took her for a walk. This was Leia 30 minutes after they got home:

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I’ve had my blog for a long time but haven’t figured everything out yet so I will post the video of Leia talking to my Mom on both Facebook and Twitter in a little bit. You can hear music in the background because I was watching a Hallmark movie not because I am sophisticated and listen to classical music for recreation or something.

My Mom and I watched a movie last week that I had not seen since I might’ve been six or seven and my parents, my brothers, Jimmy and David, and me walked down to the Camelot theater to see. It was super close to my house growing up and we walked there often:

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The theater is no longer there and it is now a fruit market. Pulling up this map on Google made me laugh because to show the distance from my house going up to the theater, they chose to use Miller Road as a way to get there.

I will never forget the debate we had as to the shortest way to get there. My brothers said that we should take Miller Road but I thought we should go down our street and turn once we got to Warren Ave. to the corner where the theater was.

It was decided that my Mom would accompany my brothers and walk down Miller Road as my Dad and me would walk down our street and turn on Warren Ave. and then get to the corner.

So, we all walked down one block on our street and then at the corner, my brothers and my Mom walked to Miller Road. And before they got to Miller Road, we all set the rules. There was NO RUNNING ALLOWED and whichever group got their first would be correct and have bragging rights.

My brothers and my Mom walk to the corner and my Dad and I stayed on our street. Once they had gone to the corner we yelled, “Go” and we all began walking.

I think my Dad and I must have walked six or eight steps before he turned his head to the right and looked down at me and told me to, “Run!” Now, I was only six or seven, so of course, I was going to do what my Dad told me to but I had NEVER seen my Dad run! I think we ran for a block and a half before we stopped and he told me that was good enough.

We all got to the theater at the same time and a few years ago, I told my Mom about seeing my Dad run and she laughed and told me that they also, ran. I found these pictures of the Camelot theater:

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The one on the left is how I remember it and the one on the right is how it ended up looking before it became a fruit market. My Mom and I watched, Quigley Down Under on Netflix and we reminisced about this exact day because this is the movie we saw at the Camelot.

I first started watching professional football, (Lions football)in 2009 when Sean began playing football when he was 7 for the Dearborn Lions. That was when I first fell in love with Matthew Stafford. I can’t even begin to think about what next season is going to look like without him as a Lion but that’s a completely different subject.

I clearly remember going to my brother, Steve’s, house to watch the Super Bowl in 2011. It was the Steelers versus the Packers. I wanted the Packers to win and I think it was a couple years later that I ordered Cheeseheads for me and Sean. I received them after the Packers were eliminated from the playoffs.

it was in 2009 when I first began watching the NFL network religiously. Sean and I would wear our Cheeseheads during the playoffs but we have never got to wear them for the Super Bowl. I was hoping that would change this year but they were also eliminated.

The Super Bowl in my house has been a holiday every year! I save money to get my “Bandwagon T-shirt” (as Sean calls it) ordered after it is decided who will be playing in the Super Bowl.

I go all out for Super Bowl food! I would order pizza AND cinnamon sticks or I have placed an order at B Dub’s at noon for a 6 o’clock pick up of family size boneless wings, artichoke dip, AND cheese sticks.

But this football season has been completely different! Now that I am sheltered in place with my Mom, someone who is definitely NOT a football fan, this whole season has been strange! I checked football scores on my phone rather than yelling at my TV. I did NOT order a shirt to wear for it because I’m indifferent to both teams in it and I don’t have money for that anyway.

I’n not going to order food this year and that feels weird. But I AM going to watch the game because STILL LOVE football And I have four Rocket Mortgage squares riding on this game and I could win “50,000 smackers!”

But, it does make me a little bit sad that this Sunday will NOT be a holiday!

I have a number of takeaways from yesterday’s Super Bowl. The first takeaway being that I have missed watching football immensely! I turned the TV on with three hours and 37 minutes to go until game time. I ABSOLUTELY love pregame! I turned the TV on during a commercial, (which was one that I love and maybe will write about soon) But when CBS programming started again, Nate Burleson was talking to us! I had to exclaim, “Oh Nate, I love you! I miss you!” I haven’t been able to wake up early enough to watch GMFB as a result of the progression of my disease. I was so happy to see him! He has cornrows now and I really liked his suit jacket! As I watched the pregame, I realized how much I had missed football and I loved seeing the plays even though they were two teams that I’m not very interested in. Football is football! I had already told my Mom that I was going to watch the Super Bowl!

To NOT keep you in suspense, I did NOT win the, “50,000 smackers ” from the Rocket mortgage football squares but I enjoyed watching football again!

it’s second thing that I took away from the game was that I haven’t been that indifferent to who won the game since the Giants and Patriots Super Bowl. During that one, Sean watched the game by himself while I made Kiefer for the first time with my Mom. I bought a cleaver specifically to do that but left her in charge of using it because I did not want to lose my hand and at that time, my hand-eye coordination had already begun to slip. My Mom made the Kefir until the price of young coconuts got too expensive so it was better to buy the kefir already prepared from the B.E.D. website. It’s been a minute since I purchased that because money is an issue for now but I have not ever really watched a football game when I was not cheering and screaming for one particular team!

The last takeaway I have from the Super Bowl is that I am old!!! I was not interested in The Weekend’s performance because I wasn’t very familiar with his music.

Sean came by and sat with Leia as we were double masked and watched the halftime show. He let me know that one of the songs was, “From that dirty book you liked” which made me laugh but he definitely was NO Bruno Mars which was an EPIC halftime show that we watched together.

As for the commercials, they were mediocre but the one I liked the best was the Geico commercial and I cannot get over how OLD the guys from Tag Team are!!! They are old enough to have a white hair, that means that I am old too! If they were in my kitchen, I would be dancing like the parents in the commercial were and Sean would roll his eyes like the teenage girl does.