I am thrilled to share that today’s post can be found over at the wonderful Brain, Child Magazine.
Category Archives: Progression
Stories
Today when I woke up, my hands felt different. Weaker. It reminded me of when my feet started to get weak, the effort to use them exhausting and involving muscles that you would think have nothing to do with feet. It was like that today, with my hands, as I moved them clumsily to drive my wheelchair. I could feel the muscles in my neck working to help. I tried to observe it from a distance, an impartial witness to an odd bit of impotence. I don’t know if the losses get easier or harder to deal with, and the answer is probably a little bit of both.
Sometimes I tell myself I’m just tired or cold, two things that affect my strength to shocking degrees. And I am tired. We had a nice time in Healdsburg, a little town nestled into Sonoma County, a wine wonderland. But both Rob and I forgot about packing my foot braces, and so the nights were uncomfortable, requiring near hourly adjustments. It was miserable. The days were rainy, so that Scarlett couldn’t swim in the pool, but we had fun taking Otto out into the vineyards to run around and act – – finally – – like the hunting dog he truly is. Although he didn’t successfully hunt anything (phew!), he was driven nearly crazy by the birds and the new smells, and it seemed like he was trying to run in every direction at once.
We knew it would rain and had debated not going, but both Rob and I felt like it would be good to get away for a while. Despite the long nights, we were able to spend two days together just wandering, spending hours in the bookstore. Read More>
Streaming
I took some Dayquil this morning, so bear with me as we go on a journey of my confused consciousness. I don’t handle medication well. Although at the moment I am very calm, slow, and sleepy, none of which are unwelcome feelings.
First off, who’s interested in what’s going on with the van lately? I know I’m not, but I’m living it, so let me just share that we still don’t have our van back. We are on our fourth rental, because they keep having to take the rentals back to service them. Right now, I think we’re driving a Toyota. Or a Dodge? Who cares. The point is that neither Mobility Works nor Braun, which is the company who converted the van, know what is wrong with it. So they will be redoing the entire conversion, an exercise that will take something like three weeks. Everyone’s being really nice about it, and we do have the rentals, so getting around has been fine. Still, I’d like to end the saga of the van and move on to something else.
I have school fundraising calls to make this morning. And I’m still working on finishing up my video for A Life Story, which involves going through photos and boxes to find appropriate items to share as part of the B roll, the stuff they flash up on the screen while you hear my voice talking about what my life used to be like. While the filmmakers were going through a box of my things, they found a gangsta rap coloring book that my former team at work had decorated when I left the Bay Area for New York back in 2005. I don’t think that the gangsta rap coloring book should be a part of my movie, but I was pleased to see it once again. Coloring, like many things, is a skill I no longer possess. Read More>