Category: Tunes

It’s a #DirtyHairDontCare Day for me AGAIN but last night, we listened to Journey as we washed my legs and I clearly remember watching this video laying on my Parents’ living room floor back when we had green carpet. I watched the video today and it was just GREAT as I remember it!

I have always loved having a routine. I remember growing up that both my Mom and my brother thought it was strange that I was okay being alone. My brother asked me once, “What are do you do all the time in your room?” My answer was simple. “Read.” But now that I have had MS for 21+ years, unfortunately, reading is NOT that easy anymore.

I always think about that horrible doctor who told me that I had MS and the fact that she told me that like this`, “Look, you have MS, you are going to go blind, and then you are going to die” before spinning her on her heel and leaving. I HATE that this is 100% true. My eyes ARE failing but I am not blind… yet. It is really crazy how much I have to modify or discontinue doing things that I used to enjoy. I loved to, “puzzle!” But now, my hand dexterity and hand-eye coordination do not allow me to do that. Now enter technology. I CAN “Puzzle” with my Puzzling app:

I need to, “Puzzle” on my phone because I usually, “Puzzle” after I have taken my contacts out for the evening and my Mom is taking a nap. This particular puzzle took two days to complete! That’s a long time for me! But, it is complete now.

I heard this song as I was, “Puzzling” two days ago. But after a while, I realize that I need to concentrate a lot while completing this puzzle so I finally completed it yesterday in silence. When I heard it, it’s one of my jams and it was from back when I was still teaching. This came out in 2010 and that’s when I got my masters degree so I was the Reading Specialist. I remember liking it because I liked the band but that seriously, it’s insane to do! I was well past thinking that a drunk guy professing his love for me what’s something good. Even back when I was 28:

I had a crystal clear memory as I was drinking my lunch pro Tien shake today. I was instantly reminded of sitting in the stands at Dearborn high school and hearing this song and seeing my son and all of his friends dancing to it in the end zone after they had scored:

I also remember hearing the opening with guitar of this song and then it was interrupted with the announcer. I told my brother that I knew what song it was and I told him it was U2 and once the announcer stops talking, the song continued and I was correct!

You have to love random peewee football memories!

I watched the halftime show and the end of the game AGAIN today! I think it’s crazy that the sixth time watching this game And the seventh time that I have watched the halftime show that I am STILL noticing new things! At the end of the game, just before the defense takes the field for the final time, I heard this song as I watched Matthew Stafford sitting on the bench:

I had seriously forgotten about this song until it showed up in my Apple Music shuffle. This song was a song that came out when I was still teaching! I shared it on one of my Faves in my “Tunes” tab.

I do have visible, physical scars though. If I’m thinking about the order that I received the scars: Chicken pox cars when I was 13, ACL reconstruction on my right knee when I was 17, C-section scar when I was 19, meniscus repair on my right knee again when I was 35.

I remember showing my ACL reconstruction scar to a colleague just after he came back to work after he had his ACL reconstructed. He had two little dots on his knee and I told him to close the teachers lounge door and to never discuss how white my legs were but I showed him my ACL reconstruction scar and I told him that’s what ACL construction is supposed to look like! It’s about a 4 inch scar down the center of my knee. They have come along way with knee surgeries and they didn’t need to cut him open like they cut me open.

The most noticeable scars that I often forget that I have are my Chicken pox scars. I have two pocks on my forehead and a less noticeable mark on my nose. The pocks came when I rubbed my face on my pillow while I was sleeping and my eyes shot open when I realized that I had just pulled off two of the scabs on my forehead. I remember telling my students that I licked my finger put it on my forehead and put the scab back into place (LIKE THAT WOULD WORK?!)

I think I told that story pretty close to the end of me teaching because it was already in the spring time when a student commented on it and wondered how I got it so I told them the story and I was surprised that I hadn’t already told them that.

So again, I am late to the party but in my defense, my son is 20 years old! The days of me going to see a new animated film opening weekend are long since past.

I enjoyed this one throughly! I laughed and I cried as well and I’m not even embarrassed about it. I can’t control my emotions anyway! I liked the Abuela‘s song though because for different reasons, I too, “I thought I would be a different woman.”

My Super Bowl shirt arrived yesterday. I will wear the Rams’ NFC Championship shirt but I had too much of an “MS-y” day to post it. I won’t unveil it until Super Bowl XVI!!! I’m so excited!!!

This is the first Super Bowl of my lifetime that I have been seriously invested in!!! I’m so glad that my man got here! I’m sorry that it wasn’t with us (Detroit) but I’m glad he’s there now and I can’t wait to watch him and then the EPIC halftime show that will be signed as well!!! Yay inclusivity!!!

Yesterday, my Mom washed my legs and changed my socks. We have a routine for this and I remain sitting in my power chair in the hallway as she uses the bathroom sink to use the water to wash my legs.

We listen to music as we do this and we normally switch off between a song I like and a song she likes. But yesterday, I wanted to hear just the songs she likes exclusively.

We started off by listening to the Fleetwood Mac, “Rumors” album. That album is the soundtrack of my Mom cleaning the house when I was growing up. We listened to this entire album and she just had finished washing my right leg and putting a clean compression sock on my right leg.

So, I turned around in my living room and then backed up into the hallway between Sean‘s room and the bathroom so then I would be facing my living room so she could wash my left leg. The other album that my Mom would listen to as she was cleaning the house was Journey. I just searched, “Journey” and the “Journey Essentials” playlist showed up in Apple Music.

I know so many of those songs because my Mom listened to them during my whole childhood! But, it wasn’t until this song came on where as she was soaping up my leg, she let out, unbeknownst to her, “The unmistakable aria” that was the REAL soundtrack of my childhood! I immediately felt my heart warm and a smile form on my face and hearing it and I was taken back to being six years old and laying on the green carpet in my living room probably watching the Disney Channel. My Mom was probably washing dishes or scrubbing the tub.

I want to sleep with clean legs and new compression socks and was most content at remembering being a child and thinking of the sights and sounds of a simpler time. A time before MS definitely!

I texted all of my brothers and it was a long text to describe how I heard my Mom singing last night and I set the stage as to how it was when we were kids. I sent it to them in a group text and all of them have loved my text because they remember that too and hearing this song I’m sure they can hear ‘the unmistakable aria’ in their heads!

I wasn’t going to post about this but when I showed my Mom my progress and she rolled her eyes, I KNEW that I HAD TO!

this is my cocoa mint Chapstick. If you recall, a couple weeks ago I lost the cap but I am a very OCD person and needed to finish the entire tube! Call me Christian Wolff! So when I lost the cap, I told my mom to get a Ziploc and it would keep the Chapstick fresh so then I could finish the tube. I am so close! Almost!:

cue Bobby McFerrin because that’s what it’s about!!!:

After my hair was blow dried, hi got back into my wheelchair and wheeled to my ‘normal’ spot right in front of the TV. My Mom was in the kitchen preparing my dinner and was on the phone so they decided to play my song. I’m talking about Sara Bareilles call my MOM thinks it’s depressing but her song, “She used to be mine” is EXTREMELY cathartic for me! It hurts because it’s true for me; I also am “No longer anything like I used to be.” What does still remember that girl. It’s starting to get a little hazy but I still remember. So, my song played and then my Apple Music just put songs I listen to often and shuffle and then this one came on! I actually had to do a little research and see when this song came out because I clearly saw myself driving myself to Barwis after work. This album had just been released and I was listening to it on my drive when I heard this song and football season was coming up and I thought my Lions would do great things because there was a song now!:

Well, in 2014, the Lions did NOT win the whole shebang but this year, for this Super Bowl, it is quite possible that my man CAN win the whole shebang! My friend texted me this picture which made me laugh but it IS true!: