Drought-Schmought

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As you know, I live in Southern California. And as you probably know, we have had the driest couple years on record. I think I can count the rainy days we had this past this winter on both hands. Actually that might be a tad generous.

But I’m so sick of hearing about how badly we need rain! Everyone acts like it’s something we did. You can’t drive down the street without seeing banners attached to streetlights nagging us to be “Water Wise.” We are encouraged to buy things like low-flow toilets and washing machines that use less water. Governor Jerry Brown made restrictions like how often you can water your lawn. We are encouraged to rip our yards out and go with a “desert landscape.” We haven’t (and won’t), but our next-door neighbors have stopped watering all together. Personally I just think they’re lazy, but shouldn’t we get twice the water allotment since they’re using none?

It’s hard to take the drought seriously when city sprinklers are on on a rainy day, which often happens. Make up your mind: save or don’t.

…even in the rain.

Image courtesy voiceofsandiego.org

A Long Road

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Courtesy zenpsychiatry.com

I love my brain. It allowed me to graduate high school number 30 in a class of over 500. It allowed me to receive my AA and even take online classes to this day (I’m actually enrolled in a creative writing class as we speak). On the other hand, my ?!#$%ing brain (I’m too much of a lady) is my nemesis.

My condition is very similar to multiple sclerosis: the white matter in my brain was destroyed. But as MS is a gradual process, my damage happened all at once. The best doctors in the country are still scratching their heads. I went from being a high school freshman in a prestigious honors program to being in a coma a few hours later.

I think the most frustrating part is that I remember exactly how to do everything. Walking, for instance: you simply (ha ha) bring up your calf, bend your knee, and bring your hamstring forward. I remember how, it’s just my !#$% brain who forgot.

I still have physical therapy, and as anyone with MS will tell you everyday is different. I have therapy on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Tuesday could be a good day, where I do everything perfectly, then I can’t do anything on Thursday. You get the point.

On my bad days, I tend to beat myself up. But something just clicked with me. I have no idea why it came so late on this journey, but I finally realized it’s not ME doing things wrong, it’s my bleeping brain.

That’s good news. I guess.

It’s All in Your Head

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This is me. Exactly.

Let me tell you how awkward this post is going to make me feel, as it’s not my personality at all. But I said I was going to speak my mind!

I don’t think I get embarrassed easily. Especially when I am reliant on other people for absolutely everything. I have help in the shower, while aides I know only on a superficial level wash the most personal of areas. You get the idea. I don’t know if I have just gotten used to it or what, but it doesn’t bother me nearly as much as it used to.

What truly bothers me is TV and commercials! It’s like with TV the networks try to outdo each other with the references to sex and they would be just as funny without them. I thought it was a new thing, but I started watching “Friends” reruns on Netflix last night, from ‘96. It’s a very funny show, and I will definitely watch it again, but let me tell you, if I were watching with someone else I would have turned it off. Why is that?

According to Time.com, I can blame my brain! I’m no neurologist, so I will let them do the explaining, but next time you see someone come out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to their shoe or watch a kid make a basket for the wrong team (my one and only basket in my youth basketball league), imagine how their brains are working!

Image: Jokideo.com

My Special Friend

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Faithful Friend

Faithful Friend

The medicinal scent, an artificially sweet scent mixed with chemicals I can’t pronounce, permeated the room. It was a scary place. I looked over at the nightstand of my “home” for the past ten months. There was George, my best and only friend at the time.

His once-pristine jammie top was stained. Spills from careless nurses and miscellaneous hospital grime. His smile, though stitched on, told me that he didn’t mind. “Erin, we’re in this together!”

To me, it feels like maybe five years ago. I still can’t believe it has been seventeen years. I have aged, fourteen to closing in on my 31st year. A little too old to have a stuffed animal.

But George isn’t just your run-of-the-mill plush toy. Every time I look to the left of my bed sitting on my gunmetal gray loveseat, I see him, smiling widely. “Erin, this journey is scary, but again, we’re in this together!”

Looking at my friend is bittersweet. I purchased him, probably with babysitting money. When I could walk, talk, you name it. Obviously, that was pre-1998, when all possibilities were open to me. George got me through this terrifying place. A place where I survived; survived a virus predicted to take my life. Survived against all odds.

All I can say is thank you, George. But thank you isn’t strong enough.

New and Definitely Improved

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I freely admit to being a people pleaser. Even with dumb things like watching TV! I will even sacrifice something I’ve been looking forward to, just so the other person won’t be unhappy. Stupid, right?

I’ve tried so hard to break this habit. It works for a while, but after a few days, but then I am exactly where I started. I need People Pleaser Anonymous!

My last post, about the Bruce Jenner interview (I basically compared him to me, that it is brain mechanics) might have caused for some people to disagree with me. I don’t mind at all! It is a confusing issue!

Tonight the moon will be 76% full (Thanks, farmersalmanic.com) but it might as well be full. I’ve decided to change up my blog. It was so liberating to speak my mind! The new one will be so out of my comfort zone, but I guess bloggers do take chances. You can’t please everyone!

You may not agree with what I have to say, and that’s fine. Feel free to comment, and get a dialogue going.

Disclaimer: I am not a Celine Dion fan. But the song worked, and the video adds interest. Don’t you think?

I’m Sorry, Mr. Jenner

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I had been itching to see the Bruce Jenner interview since ABC announced it. Friday night I DVR’d it (ending at eleven is a little too late for me) and was looking forward to a complete train wreck. I love drama!

Mom and I watched it yesterday afternoon. It was windy and rainy: perfect weather for settling in for what I was positive would be pure entertainment.

Let me tell you how ashamed I am. Mr. Jenner, aside from being transgender, is just like me. A Christian Republican.

I’m ashamed for another reason, too. I was being such a hypocrite. I just assumed that his lifestyle was something he chose, which made him a freak. I learned, and the fact was also validated by a psychologist, that being transgender something to do with brain mechanics, not a choice. Just like my condition wasn’t something I chose. I absolutely hate how people make snap judgments about me, like just because I can’t talk, I can’t think for myself. Or that they need to talk s-l-o-w-l-y and deliberately. I was doing the same thing: judging.

Mr. Jenner said instead of staring, why don’t people just ask him, that he’s not shy. Exactly!

God doesn’t make mistakes. Whatever the reason, he is the way he is, just like I am the way I am.

Dead? Or Very Much Alive?

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I am uant-flay in ig-pay atlin-lay (I am fluent in pig Latin, for you non-speakers).

I love words, as I said in my About Me page. I could literally read the thesaurus as though it was a novel and I love coming up with other ways of saying things. Hot dog becomes sweltering canine, baby carrots, infant roots. There are more, but you get the idea. If I had the chance, I would study linguistics. Everything about the English language fascinates me, from synonyms to punctuation, even grammar.

Although it’s technically a dead language (another thing fascinating about language—how can an entire way of speaking just become extinct?), Latin is so interesting to me.

Courtesy myenglishkey.com

But I suppose it’s because we are surrounded by Latin. Maggie is a canine, which is from the word “canus,” which means dog.

Others include alter ego (alternative self), bona fide (genuine, sincere), circa (about), et cetera (and the rest), and alibi (elsewhere). There are many more where those came from!

I guess people need to check their facts: In English alone, Latin is alive and kicking!

150 Years Ago Today

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Courtesy successify.net

Who would you say had the best presidential accomplishment? Bush leading us through the dark days of 9/11 was the biggest one of my lifetime so far—I still remember very clearly that morning Mom coming into my room and telling me what happened. We were glued to the TV the rest of the day. It was so surreal. Over the next few days we saw how the country could put it’s differences aside and work together.

My elementary school was big on patriotism: at assemblies we sang songs like “America the Beautiful” and “My Country tis of Thee.” We also had memorization challenges: the Preamble to the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address. I did it because I had to, and didn’t really pay attention to what I was memorizing. Now, 20 years later, I kick myself. I was reciting some of the most important documents in American history!

Take the Gettysburg Address: Without it, America might be two countries, and who knows when slavery may have ended?

Today marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. I know even today America has its differences, but because of Lincoln we are ONE COUNTRY.

Be Brief: Life in 100 Words or Less

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Courtesy huffingtonpost.com

Dear God, the letter read I came across on my jog. I felt nosy reading some child’s correspondence with The Big Guy. I found it endearing, but it also troubled me. As a postal worker, I knew what would come of it. Dead letter pile. I couldn’t let that happen. With two parents out of work and a brother with cancer, this youngster needed some help! Back home, I called my boss. I explained the situation. “We’re really not hiring,” he said, “but we can find something.” Another call, remembering our church secretary just quit. He works in mysterious ways.

Planet Erinon

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Courtesy viralnovelty.net

God designed Earth, actually the universe and even us, in six days. I would say He did a pretty good job! Although we do have problems, war and famine for instance, overall it’s a pretty good system.

But, just hypothetically of course, if I were able to design a new planet in some far off galaxy, this is what it would look like:

*Always at least 90 degrees (You can tell I’m a California girl. Anything below 80 is freezing!)

*Replace water with chocolate, preferably dark

*Dogs can talk

*Junk food is healthy; we actually depend on it.

*Cars are rubber; it’s fun to crash

*There are still humans, but not superficial; it’s what’s inside that counts.

There’s my planet. The thought boggles my mind, but the universe is infinite: who knows, maybe there is one EXACTLY like this. Let’s move!