Category: Uncategorized

27th

So, recently, it was brought to my attention that I have watched the movie, Hocus Pocus 26 times in the past two years. It is my Halloween movie. I remember a former colleague told me that she watched it often and I just started doing it a couple years ago. I watched it 11 times last year and so far, I have watched it 15 times this October.

I was never really into Halloween until I had Sean. Given that his birthday is two days after Halloween, he has had many Halloween themed birthday parties growing up. I asked my Mom to bring up my Halloween bins from the basement the other day. She brought one up but it was only filled with Sean’s costumes growing up that my friend Ami had made him. We smiled at the box and reminisced about the good times trick-or-treating when he was young.

She closed it back up and brought my second Halloween bin upstairs. In that bin is all of my Halloween PartyLite candle holders. I had almost forgotten all of my Halloween accessories and candleholders until she opened the box and I smelled the smell of the Halloween candles. I have a warmer that I’ve had for over a decade. Just today, we lit the candle and I asked Sean if it smelled like Halloween when he left to cut the grass. Later, I asked him again before he left to go watch football with his friends and he told me that it did.

It smelled like Halloween but my Mom blew out the candle when she left so the candle was not on when I am by myself. It went from smelling like Halloween to smelling like a birthday party but at least my house will burn down!

Sean has always liked pumpkins and I think that is one thing that encouraged me to get Halloween candleholders and decorations. My Mom recently brought upstairs an old photo album of mine and this was the first time Sean went to a cider mill:

It has probably been seven or eight years since I’ve put out all of my Halloween decorations but the smell of these candles completely took me back immediately! I didn’t watch Hocus Pocusyesterday because I wasn’t feeling well. Hearing that Michigan wom didn’t really make me feel much better. Given that the Lions don’t play until Monday night, I’m still feeling a little wonky. My Mom left to pick up some Chinese food for me so I think when I eat my food, I will have to watch Hocus Pocusfor the 27th time.

“15 Years” OR A “Purple Day” OR “Blogtober”

It was NOT a good morning for me today! I was extremely groggy as I watched GMFB.

Peter talked about Teddy Bridgewater and the shirt he wore on Sunday at the press conference after the Saints win. I noticed that shirt on Sunday when he gave his press conference. Peter said it had been 15 years since he had worn that shirt. I thought about it and I think it was more like 25 or 27 years since I wore the same shirt because I think I wore when I was like 10 or 12. I’m close to his age. I’m close to all of their ages except for Kay, she’s younger than me!

I was groggy through parts of the show but I eventually woke up so I watched the beginning of the show as the second broadcast of it began at 10:00 a.m. I swear that I can’t Miss a second of that show because Kyle Brant is absolutely hilarious! In the beginning of the show, the breakfast table talked about the dominating win the Steelers has over the Bengals last night. Mason Rudolph was the quarterback because Ben Rothlisberger is out for the year. They showed a picture of Mason Rudolph at the press conference after the win and the table was silent for a moment:

Peter said something about Mason Rudolph looking like Taylor Lautner. Kyle always says hilarious things off the cuff! He asked Peter who is that he looks like and he said Taylor Lautner and Kyle said that he is #TeamEdward anyway. 😂😂😂 Even though I was the rebroadcast, I tweeted him anyway:

Once I had seen everything, I stopped watching and posted my October faves in the Tunes tab on my blog.

Today as my Mom and I completed our morning routine to get me ready for the day, I told her that I didn’t feel very well. I thought of a book that I read to Sean a lot when he was very young. Dr. Suess’s My Many Colored Days:

I told her that I felt like the purple dragon. It is “A purple day” that I am trying to shake off.

Once I was ready for the day, I fell in and out of sleep as I watched TV still not able to shake the purple day feeling off. Then, I realized it’s October 1st and now starts, “Blogtober” which means for the month of October, a blogger needs to post every day on their blog. I Sara doing this probably in September but I want to keep it going!

Also, because it is October 1st. It’s time to watch Hocus Pocus!I bought it today and I probably will watch it 1 million times until Halloween! It’s basically tradition!

Sir Paul McCartney

So this video just showed up in my YouTube feed:

So, I HAD to watch it! When Stephen asks sir Paul McCartney what his favorite cover is, he didn’t really answer it. I have heard so many covers of Beatles songs but I had to add in the best one according to Stephen:

I have to say that that cover is really good! I have heard so many that I don’t think I could choose just one but I think I will have Jew watch Across the Universenow!

ALMOST Forgotten Tune #53

OK, so it’s pretty much an every day occurrence for me now but I constantly fall asleep while sitting in my wheelchair and watching TV. Today was no different! I dozed a couple times after GMFB but I fell into a deep sleep in late afternoon. After a while, I awakened and I thought of this song:

I was eight years old when this song came out and it was in the height of videos on MTV. I thought it strange that the song was in my head until I caught a commercial break. Is this song preally in a commercial for T-Mobile?! I think it’s nuts that music from my generation is used to sell mainstream things now. I am old! This still is a really good song though, and I forgot about it until I saw the new T-Mobile commercial.


Euphoria

In one of my MS support groups, the question was posed what we are binging these days. A lot of people in that particular group are like me so they no longer work and are wheelchair-bound as well. I saw trailers for this series for a while and it kind of interested me. I called my cable company not too long ago and got into a conversation with the representative helping me. She suggested this series and another one for binging. Well, I am hooked! It’s a bit crazy! By no means, is this a ringing endorsement but I just watched the season one finale.

WOAH!!! I’m glad that I got through high school relatively unscathed by this series’ standards (except for the normal high school drama that is a bit laughable now that I am an adult).

This song played in the beginning of the finale and I immediately thought of my Aunt Rita. This was the version that played in the series:

But Gloria Estefan‘s version will always remind me of her:

To my young self, she was the a epitome of cool with her 1980s style and what I thought was a, “Huge house” when I was a child. I could go on and on about my memories of her but that will make me cry even more…

The Burn Continues OR “You Nawake?”

This morning, my Mom woke me up a little bit after 6 AM. We had our routine started a couple minutes past 7 AM. It was another truncated routine and I had to fight with my body to get it to move so early in the morning! She needed to pick my nephew up by 10 AM. So naturally, the burn continues. The MSU burn.

I missed the first hour of GMFB while we completed our routine and I explained it to my Mom how different it was this morning with me being forced to move so early. I am very happy that there is a second broadcast GMFB right after the first so I watched it until 11.

Sean had left for a work meeting at 9 AM this morning and when he got home, he hard-boiled us some eggs for us. When they were finished, he brought them to the living room. We laughed, or rather HE laughed AT me for being such a, “Weenie” when it came to touching the just boiled eggs. They were really hot! He was finished with his three before I even started to peel my two. I told him that I did not want to eat warm eggs and he peeled them under cool water in the kitchen. He made really good hard boiled eggs!

At this point, it was maybe 10 minutes after 11 and I decided to read my book. He left to go outside to cut the front and back grasses. I had read for a very short time before I turned the light off and leaned my wheelchair back and fell asleep. The only reason I woke up a little after three was because the door bell rang because a package was delivered.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that Sean was also sleeping on the couch. I was reminded of him being very young and when we still lived with my Parents. We used to nap together all the time usually when I got back from class because on days that I worked, I was gone until 6 PM. He had already taken his naps at that point. He took two, one hour long naps until he was about three.

We used to nap together in our room. He would be in his crib and I would sleep in my bed next to him. When he would sitir, I would wake up and ask him if he was, “Nawake?” That is how he used to say it and I thought it was so darn cute! I decided to move into the kitchen to have a protein bar and drink my water. I didn’t want to wake him up!

He began to stir a little bit on the couch and I asked him, “You nawake?” He kind of grunted a little bit and fell back to sleep. I don’t know how long he has slept and I’ve always felt that sleep is good so he is still sleeping and I am trying to get my bearings together.

Right now, I am reminded of my, “Baby Sean.” My Dad would play with him even when it was just after dialysis because Sean would want to play. The time came when my Dad was too tired to play after dialysis ti which he won’t apologize to Sean and explained that he had to sleep. My baby has ALWAYS been wonderful and he would just say, “Okay Gandfadder” and he would climb into bed with my Dad and snuggle up to him and they both would sleep.

I am reminded of those tender moments when we still lived with my Parents before I finished undergrad. The doorbell rang again for another package and thanks to MS, I have no idea what those packages are! I will just have to wait until Sean is, “Nawake” to go retrieve them.

“Git!”

With Father’s Day being on Sunday, I miss my Dad more than I normally do! I remember when he first died that I asked my friend whose dad had died the year before if it got any easier. He looked at me in my eyes, did not skip a beat, and matter-of-factly told me, “No.” He didn’t yell it or even emphatically say it. It was a simple, “No.”

I didn’t believe him back then, or rather, I didn’t WANT to believe him back then. I don’t know him anymore but I can’t believe how right he was! My Mom and I have had that conversation often and we’ve decided that it doesn’t get easier but it’s just different.

I’ve been watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers pretty often now that I own it. I probably have seen it 20 times in the last few weeks. Sean is sometimes home when I watch it and he will come in and sit down for a moment with me. I recently noticed that both Milly and Adam tell their brothers too, , “Git!” When they want them to leave quickly.

My Dad used to tell me and my brothers that all the time! He especially liked John Wayne movies and I think it was the, “country” that made him say that to us. Millie had just told Benjamin to, “Git!” an d it reminded me of my Dad. Because Sean was sitting in the living room, I looked at him and told him that Grandfather used to say that and that I said that to him once.

I don’t remember the circumstances of why I said that to him but it was in our second apartment and my Mom was seated at the table with me. As soon as it came out of my mouth, I looked at her in shock! I couldn’t believe that I said that because it used to drive me CRAZY as a child when my dad said that to me. Sean did not remember me saying this to him because I think he had to be five when I told him to, “Git!”

My Dad said so many things that I have only heard him or his brothers and sisters say. I’ve written about a few of them before and I am sure that I will write about the rest of them at some point. I just really miss my Dad right now and Ed told me almost 14 years ago that it would not get better and he was telling the absolutely truth because it hasn’t. And I don’t think it will…

Handsome OR Lovestruck Teenager

Rather than calling my son by his name, my Dad always referred to or addressed him as, “Handsome” for Sean‘s entire life while my Dad was alive. In fact, he called all of his grandsons, “Handsome.” I remember my brother, Jimmy, continuing to call all of them, “Handsome” while they were young.

Yesterday, my Mom told me a story of her younger days just as she started dating my Dad and I’m STILL trying to wrap my head around it! I really appreciate that she begins to tell storied of her and my Dad‘s beginning years of their relationship!

Yesterday, she started telling me about being at my Dad’s house (really my grandparents’ house) and he and, “The kids” (my aunts and uncles) were going to wash my grandpa’s car. She started the story by telling me that my aunt Lis was hanging on the fence. She added that my aunt Lis ALWAYS hung on the fence. She told me that there were tons of kids around my Dad which makes sense because he is the second oldest of 10.

Then, she got this far away look in her eyes and had the look of a lovestruck teenager when she told me that, “[My Dad] was SO HANDSOME!” WHAT?! My Dad is my Dad! He’s NOT handsome!

Now that I am an adult and am able to witness my Mom recounting her younger years of dating and marriage first hand, I am seeing my parents’ relationship in a whole new light! That’s who they were! Love struck teenagers! To me, that’s crazy because they are just my parents. I recently head someone remind me that they DID have five kids! Which is true.

Since I saw that look in my Mom’s eyes yesterday, I recognize the depth of their relationship but I am still trying to wrap my head around it! To me, that’s crazy! They are just my parents! But now, I see them as so much more!

Even though it is difficult for me to wrap my head around, part of me really appreciates that my Mom (AND my Dad) was just that, a lovestruck teenager and even though it’s hard for me to fathom, I appreciate being able to see them in a different light, I only wish my Dad was here to corroborate her story! Not that I doubt her at all but it would be nice to hear what he has to say about it from his perspective.