Saturday, January 15, 2011
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Chi-blogo...
the title sounds like "dr. zhivago," but not...
well. so it probably isn't a big deal, and many of you have already heard, but i got laid off from work last friday. luckily i did all the footwork last winter, scrambling here and there to find work, so i knew where to call and got most of the things set up i needed to in the last 2 days. now all i can really do is wait...
on another note, my birthday was on the 3rd and i flew back to illinois and spent time there with family and friends from the 5th through the 12th. i sorely needed the break.
a friend of mine drove up this way on her way to montana and stayed with me saturday night. we were going to go to a neato island by my town, but we ended up going to another nearby town, poulsbo, because i told her it has some neat shops and it is a norwegian village, my friend being of scandinavian descent and all might find that interesting, right? they happened to be having the viking arts & crafts festival that day, so there was a heap of food and a few live bands on the main street. we jumped into the poulsbo bakery. i think if i had the cash i would have bought everything there. i loooooooove bread. is it part of the 5 food groups? if not, it needs to be. give me a good loaf of bready things, a slab of excellent cheese (the stinkier the better), and i'm happy.
after the lay-off and everything, it was sure nice to just forget about everything and take in the atmosphere of this small and sleepy port town, the smell of the dead fishy water, the strains of bad country music in the background, having marines letting us park in a no-parking area by the main street because of my disability... sometimes it's ok being gimpy... :))
the next day, after church, we went to seattle. my friend had never been there before and it was a stunning day. so we took her car onto the ferry, made the hour ferry ride to seattle, and hung out at seattle's wonderful pike place market all afternoon. there are so many smells, sights, and sumptuous foods there. quite delightful. i've been there a million times, and i used to live three walking minutes away. but it's much better, fresher, when you see it through a first-timer's eyes. later we said our goodbyes and i hopped on the ferry while she drove off to spokane and montana...
as you might know, it's been incredibly hot here. just before i left for chicago we spent a week or so with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees fahrenheit (37.8 Celcius, for my european friends...), breaking a 100-year-old record. i thought it would be cooler when i returned from illinois, but it really hasn't been. it's been around 80 (26.7 C) each day. i know that's pretty normal for most places, but not here...
this is quite unusual for western washington. it is usually around 70 (21 C) every summer, with occasional rain. i LIKE that!!! but this summer has been pretty brutal, and last winter was terrible for this area. when it was so cold last winter and we had tons of (unusual) snow for weeks and everything shut down for a period of time, everyone was saying "OH I WISH IT WAS WARM!!!" now that it's been so hot everyone is saying "I WISH IT WASN'T SO HOT!!" make up your minds already!! i think, since most people here got what they wanted and now it's hot, they need to SHUT UP this winter :))))) i mean, i have a friend visiting africa, and i'm sure that's HOT. i have other friends living in scandanavia, and i'm sure that's COLDER. to anyone living in the northwest who doesn't like the heat/cold we've been experiencing, MOVE TO THOSE COUNTRIES :D a big reason i moved back out here from illinois was the weather. i dare you frail northwesterners to spend a winter/summer in the midwest. dare ya. it can be quite brutal. so we don't know how good we have it here in the NW...:)
i FINALLY have some pictures to post from my time in illinois, and i'll post them. but I DON'T KNOW HOW TO POST PHOTOS ON A BLOG, so bear with me...
stay out of the heat, and drink them there fluids...
well. so it probably isn't a big deal, and many of you have already heard, but i got laid off from work last friday. luckily i did all the footwork last winter, scrambling here and there to find work, so i knew where to call and got most of the things set up i needed to in the last 2 days. now all i can really do is wait...
on another note, my birthday was on the 3rd and i flew back to illinois and spent time there with family and friends from the 5th through the 12th. i sorely needed the break.
a friend of mine drove up this way on her way to montana and stayed with me saturday night. we were going to go to a neato island by my town, but we ended up going to another nearby town, poulsbo, because i told her it has some neat shops and it is a norwegian village, my friend being of scandinavian descent and all might find that interesting, right? they happened to be having the viking arts & crafts festival that day, so there was a heap of food and a few live bands on the main street. we jumped into the poulsbo bakery. i think if i had the cash i would have bought everything there. i loooooooove bread. is it part of the 5 food groups? if not, it needs to be. give me a good loaf of bready things, a slab of excellent cheese (the stinkier the better), and i'm happy.
after the lay-off and everything, it was sure nice to just forget about everything and take in the atmosphere of this small and sleepy port town, the smell of the dead fishy water, the strains of bad country music in the background, having marines letting us park in a no-parking area by the main street because of my disability... sometimes it's ok being gimpy... :))
the next day, after church, we went to seattle. my friend had never been there before and it was a stunning day. so we took her car onto the ferry, made the hour ferry ride to seattle, and hung out at seattle's wonderful pike place market all afternoon. there are so many smells, sights, and sumptuous foods there. quite delightful. i've been there a million times, and i used to live three walking minutes away. but it's much better, fresher, when you see it through a first-timer's eyes. later we said our goodbyes and i hopped on the ferry while she drove off to spokane and montana...
as you might know, it's been incredibly hot here. just before i left for chicago we spent a week or so with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees fahrenheit (37.8 Celcius, for my european friends...), breaking a 100-year-old record. i thought it would be cooler when i returned from illinois, but it really hasn't been. it's been around 80 (26.7 C) each day. i know that's pretty normal for most places, but not here...
this is quite unusual for western washington. it is usually around 70 (21 C) every summer, with occasional rain. i LIKE that!!! but this summer has been pretty brutal, and last winter was terrible for this area. when it was so cold last winter and we had tons of (unusual) snow for weeks and everything shut down for a period of time, everyone was saying "OH I WISH IT WAS WARM!!!" now that it's been so hot everyone is saying "I WISH IT WASN'T SO HOT!!" make up your minds already!! i think, since most people here got what they wanted and now it's hot, they need to SHUT UP this winter :))))) i mean, i have a friend visiting africa, and i'm sure that's HOT. i have other friends living in scandanavia, and i'm sure that's COLDER. to anyone living in the northwest who doesn't like the heat/cold we've been experiencing, MOVE TO THOSE COUNTRIES :D a big reason i moved back out here from illinois was the weather. i dare you frail northwesterners to spend a winter/summer in the midwest. dare ya. it can be quite brutal. so we don't know how good we have it here in the NW...:)
i FINALLY have some pictures to post from my time in illinois, and i'll post them. but I DON'T KNOW HOW TO POST PHOTOS ON A BLOG, so bear with me...
stay out of the heat, and drink them there fluids...
Saturday, April 25, 2009
aaaaaaarrrgggghhh & ggggrrrrrrrrrr
...so.
tonight i go with my sister to seattle to see the bloc party show. i've seen them twice already, but they have a new cd and the show should pretty darn good. if you haven't heard the band, check out their first single "helicopter" or "banquet." good stuff, if you like alternative music. their first cd hearkens back to the frenetic new wave of the early-80's, filled with guitar-driven and break-neck pop.
i went with a friend 2 weeks ago to seattle to see the franz ferdinand concert. another band i had seen twice before. of course, they weren't as good when i saw them 5 years ago, but they were still a lot of fun live. more 80's-style pop, dancey and quirky. their new cd is well below average, but when they cranked out the older tunes it was pretty special.
i was talking to my mom a few weeks ago by phone. i had expressed to her that i don't feel blue, just kind of melancholy. it is because, with all the running around i've had to do and setting up myself with different disability programs, things are pretty well in place now and i have NOTHING TO FRET ABOUT!! i should just be happy that i can relax now. but i've had so many things to keep me occupied for so long; it's weird to be in a position to not have to run off somewhere... i suppose that's what "living" is supposed to be about: not worrying about things & just relaxing.
i fly to chicago on wednesday to take care of a family thing. it's not like i go to chicago to sightsee or anything, and i'm only there for only a few days. but it's just another thing that's kind of THERE. i don't know how to feel about it. but it will be great to see family again.
a high school friend passed away yesterday. he had suffered from cancer for quite a while. when i first moved here in september, i stayed with a neat couple i've known for over 10 years. the guy i know who died is the brother of the father of the family i stayed with. follow me ok? i know the couple i stayed with through my high school friend, if that makes better sense. i hadn't seen this high school friend for quite a while, but we had been in touch.
we've all had people close to us who have died. my dad passed away 12 years ago. but when someone my age dies, i am reminded that i am indeed getting older. certainly i have had my own scares recently, and that shakes me up as to my own mortality. i think what it does to affect me is also because i have never married or had children. i think there is a part of all of us that wishes to seal our longetivity by procreating. we really do not want to leave this world without putting our stamp on it, and that is usually through having children. but that is just in general; everyone is not like that.
i have a brother who is very concerned about having the first male "weber" child. i find this laughable. with having 19 nieces and nephews, i have found it a bit odd that there are no male webers to carry on the family name, but it stopped being a large concern for me a long time ago. none of my brothers who are married have boys, only girls. i only see it now as extremely funny! after all, it's just a name! but again, especially with men, it's a part of "sealing our legacy."
given the good deal of free time i have now, there are a lot of things i could "complain" about... :)
here are a sample of things i could (and really want to) go off about:
bluetooth (Hate them; they look like a big conch shell coming out of your ear and NOBODY talks on the phone THAT much, unless you're a telephone operator...)
people who end sentences with the word "at" (almost everyone in US does it, but after living in europe so long and speaking "proper" english, it still drives me nuts even 2 years later. as in "where are you at?" really bad english! it should be "where are you?" you see, "where" negates the use of "at." so saying the bad sentence would mean "where are you where?") i guess that means i don't like anyone... :D
computer games (waste of time. it's the current disease with a lot of men. COMPLETE waste of time. if you're single, you spend all your free time playing world of warcraft, staying up from 3pm to the early morning hours, and eat only microwaveable foods and potato chips and drink mountain dew. if you're married, you ignore your family to play another person online who is in new york, and even become friends with this phantom. this puts a huge strain on your marriage and your wife and kids become other characters in your game, not really real. oooooooo i DID go off, and i'm not sorry... but i've seen the same patterns with game-players, and that's very disturbing to me. if anyone reading this is a video game-player, i strongly urge you to stop. i won't get on my soapbox about many things, and i have certainly had my own addictions in the past. but playing video games is a worse malady than gambling or internet porn, in my mind and experience. if you do this please stop. if you want to save your marriage or if you're still single and thinking about marriage, stop with the video game-playing. in europe i had a PS2 and would play the occasional game after work. but i used it as a stress-reliever and would only play for about 30 minutes, and not every day. computer games, though, can really suck you in and not release their hold. i know, this all sounds like a joke, but i assure you it's not.)
i believe i go to chicago in august for a few things. there is the lollapalooza music festival. i have been to it the last 2 years. if you like alternative music, it can be really great. 150 bands in 3 days on 8 stages in grant park in downtown chicago right on the banks of lake michigan. this year, the main bands are depeche mode, jane's addiction, beastie boys, snoop dogg, the killers, tool, and the decemberists. they usually have a great mix of older alternative and new bands. in the last 2 years we've been treated to pearl jam, radiohead, muse, rage against the machine, nine inch nails, daft punk, gnarls barkley, kanye west, even the school of rock all-star band. fun festival. they even had a few country artists last year.
the other reason for going to chicago in august is that, well, it's my birthday. the awesomely big 41 :D my brother's birthday is a few weeks after mine, and it would be nice to have a joint party. we also plan on getting a family picture done. we're not all together as a family that often, so we probably need to get that done...
enjoy the coming of summer. it's probably getting warm your way. the weather has been up and down here, mostly down. the weird thing is that i've been wearing a coat since i moved here! it would be nice to shed that....
oh! just by the by, for those of you who want to know, i start studying again in june....
talk to you soon, be nice to each other :D
christian
tonight i go with my sister to seattle to see the bloc party show. i've seen them twice already, but they have a new cd and the show should pretty darn good. if you haven't heard the band, check out their first single "helicopter" or "banquet." good stuff, if you like alternative music. their first cd hearkens back to the frenetic new wave of the early-80's, filled with guitar-driven and break-neck pop.
i went with a friend 2 weeks ago to seattle to see the franz ferdinand concert. another band i had seen twice before. of course, they weren't as good when i saw them 5 years ago, but they were still a lot of fun live. more 80's-style pop, dancey and quirky. their new cd is well below average, but when they cranked out the older tunes it was pretty special.
i was talking to my mom a few weeks ago by phone. i had expressed to her that i don't feel blue, just kind of melancholy. it is because, with all the running around i've had to do and setting up myself with different disability programs, things are pretty well in place now and i have NOTHING TO FRET ABOUT!! i should just be happy that i can relax now. but i've had so many things to keep me occupied for so long; it's weird to be in a position to not have to run off somewhere... i suppose that's what "living" is supposed to be about: not worrying about things & just relaxing.
i fly to chicago on wednesday to take care of a family thing. it's not like i go to chicago to sightsee or anything, and i'm only there for only a few days. but it's just another thing that's kind of THERE. i don't know how to feel about it. but it will be great to see family again.
a high school friend passed away yesterday. he had suffered from cancer for quite a while. when i first moved here in september, i stayed with a neat couple i've known for over 10 years. the guy i know who died is the brother of the father of the family i stayed with. follow me ok? i know the couple i stayed with through my high school friend, if that makes better sense. i hadn't seen this high school friend for quite a while, but we had been in touch.
we've all had people close to us who have died. my dad passed away 12 years ago. but when someone my age dies, i am reminded that i am indeed getting older. certainly i have had my own scares recently, and that shakes me up as to my own mortality. i think what it does to affect me is also because i have never married or had children. i think there is a part of all of us that wishes to seal our longetivity by procreating. we really do not want to leave this world without putting our stamp on it, and that is usually through having children. but that is just in general; everyone is not like that.
i have a brother who is very concerned about having the first male "weber" child. i find this laughable. with having 19 nieces and nephews, i have found it a bit odd that there are no male webers to carry on the family name, but it stopped being a large concern for me a long time ago. none of my brothers who are married have boys, only girls. i only see it now as extremely funny! after all, it's just a name! but again, especially with men, it's a part of "sealing our legacy."
given the good deal of free time i have now, there are a lot of things i could "complain" about... :)
here are a sample of things i could (and really want to) go off about:
bluetooth (Hate them; they look like a big conch shell coming out of your ear and NOBODY talks on the phone THAT much, unless you're a telephone operator...)
people who end sentences with the word "at" (almost everyone in US does it, but after living in europe so long and speaking "proper" english, it still drives me nuts even 2 years later. as in "where are you at?" really bad english! it should be "where are you?" you see, "where" negates the use of "at." so saying the bad sentence would mean "where are you where?") i guess that means i don't like anyone... :D
computer games (waste of time. it's the current disease with a lot of men. COMPLETE waste of time. if you're single, you spend all your free time playing world of warcraft, staying up from 3pm to the early morning hours, and eat only microwaveable foods and potato chips and drink mountain dew. if you're married, you ignore your family to play another person online who is in new york, and even become friends with this phantom. this puts a huge strain on your marriage and your wife and kids become other characters in your game, not really real. oooooooo i DID go off, and i'm not sorry... but i've seen the same patterns with game-players, and that's very disturbing to me. if anyone reading this is a video game-player, i strongly urge you to stop. i won't get on my soapbox about many things, and i have certainly had my own addictions in the past. but playing video games is a worse malady than gambling or internet porn, in my mind and experience. if you do this please stop. if you want to save your marriage or if you're still single and thinking about marriage, stop with the video game-playing. in europe i had a PS2 and would play the occasional game after work. but i used it as a stress-reliever and would only play for about 30 minutes, and not every day. computer games, though, can really suck you in and not release their hold. i know, this all sounds like a joke, but i assure you it's not.)
i believe i go to chicago in august for a few things. there is the lollapalooza music festival. i have been to it the last 2 years. if you like alternative music, it can be really great. 150 bands in 3 days on 8 stages in grant park in downtown chicago right on the banks of lake michigan. this year, the main bands are depeche mode, jane's addiction, beastie boys, snoop dogg, the killers, tool, and the decemberists. they usually have a great mix of older alternative and new bands. in the last 2 years we've been treated to pearl jam, radiohead, muse, rage against the machine, nine inch nails, daft punk, gnarls barkley, kanye west, even the school of rock all-star band. fun festival. they even had a few country artists last year.
the other reason for going to chicago in august is that, well, it's my birthday. the awesomely big 41 :D my brother's birthday is a few weeks after mine, and it would be nice to have a joint party. we also plan on getting a family picture done. we're not all together as a family that often, so we probably need to get that done...
enjoy the coming of summer. it's probably getting warm your way. the weather has been up and down here, mostly down. the weird thing is that i've been wearing a coat since i moved here! it would be nice to shed that....
oh! just by the by, for those of you who want to know, i start studying again in june....
talk to you soon, be nice to each other :D
christian
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
whew!!!
...ok....so things have kind of settled down. and after this post, i might not blog for a while because, well, THINGS ARE SLOWING DOWN and the whole point of this little blogging experiment has been to let family and friends know where i have been recently, physically and mentally. but as i wrote, things are getting in order and once they are, i can finally relax and just ENJOY living! :D
blogging can only be interesting when you have something to report!!
so where was i before...?
oh yeah... so i've been staying with a family from our church. three weeks ago i got a pretty neat job as the computer lab director for the boys & girls club in my hometown, seated in an elementary school just down the road from where i went to junior high 25 years ago. it's about 25 hours a week (there's that number again...), and suits me just fine. the money's pretty good, and it's certainly nice to have my own money again. i haven't really worked for a year and a half, since the operation.
a week and a half ago they called me about the subsidized housing. i've been on their waiting list since november. it seems an apartment opened up and i was finally at the top of the list. they're fairly small apartments, but i'd have a private bathroom (other people share with the apartment next door), and each unit has a small kitchen with fridge. i move next week.
once i move (AGAIN), i can breathe finally and set about my next task(s). this will be the 4th place i've lived in since january. two months and bouncing around. not fun. but i reeeeeeaaaally appreciate all the help i've received throughout all this.
let's see... in a few weeks i go see the new seattle major league soccer team, the sounders, play against salt lake. it's the 2nd match of the season. it might be cold, but i got my sounders shirt and i think i'm ready :) they play at qwest field, the seattle football team's place, and that's a great stadium, with a nice view of downtown and the water.
i'm going with my sister at the end of april to see the bloc party concert.
i see the band franz ferdinand at the paramount in seattle in the middle of april with a friend i know from chicago. this will be the 3rd time i've seen franz, and they always put on a great show. i saw them in vienna in 2004, and then saw them a few months later here in washington.
I got a new laptop last, so that alone should indicate that things are good... :)
after a few very hairy situations, things are pretty darn good. as i've said to a few people before, money doesn't make us happy, but we really do need money to SURVIVE. working now allows me some flexibility.
i hope all of you are ok. i've heard from some of you here and there, and it's been nice to catch up with those of you who've written. i WILL talk to you soon...
blogging can only be interesting when you have something to report!!
so where was i before...?
oh yeah... so i've been staying with a family from our church. three weeks ago i got a pretty neat job as the computer lab director for the boys & girls club in my hometown, seated in an elementary school just down the road from where i went to junior high 25 years ago. it's about 25 hours a week (there's that number again...), and suits me just fine. the money's pretty good, and it's certainly nice to have my own money again. i haven't really worked for a year and a half, since the operation.
a week and a half ago they called me about the subsidized housing. i've been on their waiting list since november. it seems an apartment opened up and i was finally at the top of the list. they're fairly small apartments, but i'd have a private bathroom (other people share with the apartment next door), and each unit has a small kitchen with fridge. i move next week.
once i move (AGAIN), i can breathe finally and set about my next task(s). this will be the 4th place i've lived in since january. two months and bouncing around. not fun. but i reeeeeeaaaally appreciate all the help i've received throughout all this.
let's see... in a few weeks i go see the new seattle major league soccer team, the sounders, play against salt lake. it's the 2nd match of the season. it might be cold, but i got my sounders shirt and i think i'm ready :) they play at qwest field, the seattle football team's place, and that's a great stadium, with a nice view of downtown and the water.
i'm going with my sister at the end of april to see the bloc party concert.
i see the band franz ferdinand at the paramount in seattle in the middle of april with a friend i know from chicago. this will be the 3rd time i've seen franz, and they always put on a great show. i saw them in vienna in 2004, and then saw them a few months later here in washington.
I got a new laptop last, so that alone should indicate that things are good... :)
after a few very hairy situations, things are pretty darn good. as i've said to a few people before, money doesn't make us happy, but we really do need money to SURVIVE. working now allows me some flexibility.
i hope all of you are ok. i've heard from some of you here and there, and it's been nice to catch up with those of you who've written. i WILL talk to you soon...
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
YIKES!!!!
...well well.
a ton has happened, so i'll try to make this as brief as i can...
...as you might know, i stayed with friends in port orchard, WA until the beginning of january. on jan. 10th, i found an ok room in the basement of a house in the next town, bremerton. my dad was stationed at the navy base there in the mid-60s. there is a big ferry there that goes to seattle in 50 minutes, and there are probably 200,000 people in bremerton. the house i lived in was 2 stops away from the ferry.
a week ago the manager of the place, jay, who also lives there, informed me the house was going to be CONDEMNED by the city because of wiring issues and the neat toxic mold under the wallpaper in the bathroom.... i had to move AGAIN.
my older sister lived about 5 minutes from the house. the next day she stopped by and i gave her the lowdown. since i was already in bremerton, i know she didn't want me to leave. jay had said that he got an apartment back in port orchard and he had an extra room for me. but my sister (and me) didn't really want me over there. i had just gotten settled in bremerton and really didn't want to make a big move again.
when i got to the house originally, i got my 25 boxes out of storage. most of the boxes were filled with cds (about 1,000 of 'em) and books (about another 1,000 of 'em). i hadn't seen any of that stuff for 4 years! boy, that was great getting those things out...
the other thing is that the hard drive on my computer crashed 2 months ago. jay had contact in california with a computer company and could get me the hard drive for about $20 and install it for nothing. every day that clicked by without having that hard drive was excruciating. i have a lot of friends all over the world, and that was the way i kept in touch with them. i also couldn't do job searches, etc....
i was really at my wit's end. i had to move, jay was dragging his feet about the hard drive, my small amount of DSHS money was going for rent and utilities... things looked pretty bleak. i had really wanted my own place, and i was willing to shell out the cash to do so. then it was all falling apart!
thursday of last week it all came together rapidly. my sister texted me that she found me a room just up the road from where i lived, with people from our church. whew!!! i was to move that saturday. jay had also informed me that day that he had ordered my hard drive!! so i packed up and moved 2 days later, gave jay my address so they could send me the hard drive, and the place to where i was moving didn't want any money for rent or utilities!!
but do i have a JOB yet?!?! that was the original goal, wasn't it?? throughout all this, i was still applying for work. and i'm extremely close. i finished up my paperwork to be a substitute teacher at my old high school, i had a lot of contact with the area director for boys & girls club and they have a job for me, and i sent my resume and application to the holly ridge center for individuals with developmental disabilities, upon their request. double WHEW!!!! i'm really close... :)
through the division of vocational rehab, with whom i've been working, i had to do 11 hours of testing as part of a nero-psych evaluation, as i mentioned before. i got the results two weeks ago. the doctor handed me a 15-page report, and we went over it for 2 hours. interesting...
...well, ok, only interesting to ME. but i had to take an IQ test, as well as a bunch of others. for the record my IQ was rated at 115. not bad. the average adult is 90-100. the doctor said that in most of the tests, if every 15 points over the average and you're in the next TIME ZONE, so that was helpful. i had thought that my short-term memory has been pretty bad since the operation, but he said my memory is just fine. it's my ATTENTION that is severely lacking. he said that he is really opposed to labelling me as ADHD, since my other test scores do not in any way point to that. in general, my other test scores were far above average for an adult.
what really stuck out to me, and the doctor, was that my score for "verbal comprehension," which encompasses word knowledge, verbal usage, and all things wordy, was simply off the charts! my score for that test was 98%, which means i scored higher than ninety-eight percent of all the people who have ever taken the test!! he said the average is 60%, so i was more than two time zones above the other people. like i said, i guess i am the only one who would find that appealing. this doesn't mean you all should come to me with word questions... :D he also said it would be appropriate for me to look for work where i could speak before groups or write, proofread, etc. i told him that i've been looking for that kind of work... i didn't tell the doctor, though, that i never capitalize...
another interesting note is that my AUDIAL skills were much higher than my VISUAL. what this means is that i have a far keener sense of what i HEAR, rather than SEE. he said this could be attributed to the fact that i play music. but he said my ears are extremely sharp. i guess that's good to know :) see, all that time in a recording studio paid off!! just don't show me a piece of artwork... :P
all in all, i've come full circle (in the short time i've been here). i really appreciate eveyone who's stuck with me and offered encouraging words. the battle is far from over, though, and i really have to take it all (cliche) one step at a time. i'll get there!
a ton has happened, so i'll try to make this as brief as i can...
...as you might know, i stayed with friends in port orchard, WA until the beginning of january. on jan. 10th, i found an ok room in the basement of a house in the next town, bremerton. my dad was stationed at the navy base there in the mid-60s. there is a big ferry there that goes to seattle in 50 minutes, and there are probably 200,000 people in bremerton. the house i lived in was 2 stops away from the ferry.
a week ago the manager of the place, jay, who also lives there, informed me the house was going to be CONDEMNED by the city because of wiring issues and the neat toxic mold under the wallpaper in the bathroom.... i had to move AGAIN.
my older sister lived about 5 minutes from the house. the next day she stopped by and i gave her the lowdown. since i was already in bremerton, i know she didn't want me to leave. jay had said that he got an apartment back in port orchard and he had an extra room for me. but my sister (and me) didn't really want me over there. i had just gotten settled in bremerton and really didn't want to make a big move again.
when i got to the house originally, i got my 25 boxes out of storage. most of the boxes were filled with cds (about 1,000 of 'em) and books (about another 1,000 of 'em). i hadn't seen any of that stuff for 4 years! boy, that was great getting those things out...
the other thing is that the hard drive on my computer crashed 2 months ago. jay had contact in california with a computer company and could get me the hard drive for about $20 and install it for nothing. every day that clicked by without having that hard drive was excruciating. i have a lot of friends all over the world, and that was the way i kept in touch with them. i also couldn't do job searches, etc....
i was really at my wit's end. i had to move, jay was dragging his feet about the hard drive, my small amount of DSHS money was going for rent and utilities... things looked pretty bleak. i had really wanted my own place, and i was willing to shell out the cash to do so. then it was all falling apart!
thursday of last week it all came together rapidly. my sister texted me that she found me a room just up the road from where i lived, with people from our church. whew!!! i was to move that saturday. jay had also informed me that day that he had ordered my hard drive!! so i packed up and moved 2 days later, gave jay my address so they could send me the hard drive, and the place to where i was moving didn't want any money for rent or utilities!!
but do i have a JOB yet?!?! that was the original goal, wasn't it?? throughout all this, i was still applying for work. and i'm extremely close. i finished up my paperwork to be a substitute teacher at my old high school, i had a lot of contact with the area director for boys & girls club and they have a job for me, and i sent my resume and application to the holly ridge center for individuals with developmental disabilities, upon their request. double WHEW!!!! i'm really close... :)
through the division of vocational rehab, with whom i've been working, i had to do 11 hours of testing as part of a nero-psych evaluation, as i mentioned before. i got the results two weeks ago. the doctor handed me a 15-page report, and we went over it for 2 hours. interesting...
...well, ok, only interesting to ME. but i had to take an IQ test, as well as a bunch of others. for the record my IQ was rated at 115. not bad. the average adult is 90-100. the doctor said that in most of the tests, if every 15 points over the average and you're in the next TIME ZONE, so that was helpful. i had thought that my short-term memory has been pretty bad since the operation, but he said my memory is just fine. it's my ATTENTION that is severely lacking. he said that he is really opposed to labelling me as ADHD, since my other test scores do not in any way point to that. in general, my other test scores were far above average for an adult.
what really stuck out to me, and the doctor, was that my score for "verbal comprehension," which encompasses word knowledge, verbal usage, and all things wordy, was simply off the charts! my score for that test was 98%, which means i scored higher than ninety-eight percent of all the people who have ever taken the test!! he said the average is 60%, so i was more than two time zones above the other people. like i said, i guess i am the only one who would find that appealing. this doesn't mean you all should come to me with word questions... :D he also said it would be appropriate for me to look for work where i could speak before groups or write, proofread, etc. i told him that i've been looking for that kind of work... i didn't tell the doctor, though, that i never capitalize...
another interesting note is that my AUDIAL skills were much higher than my VISUAL. what this means is that i have a far keener sense of what i HEAR, rather than SEE. he said this could be attributed to the fact that i play music. but he said my ears are extremely sharp. i guess that's good to know :) see, all that time in a recording studio paid off!! just don't show me a piece of artwork... :P
all in all, i've come full circle (in the short time i've been here). i really appreciate eveyone who's stuck with me and offered encouraging words. the battle is far from over, though, and i really have to take it all (cliche) one step at a time. i'll get there!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
the end of Fall & product placement ...
"the things that i used to do... I aint never gonna do them no more..." - G. Love & Special Sauce, "The Things That I Used To Do"
"no i'll never do that again. well, not until the next time..." - The Smiths
i actually wrote this on december 9th, but for some reason the thingy at the top wants to say december 2nd...
i wrote an article about christmas in slovakia for my friend jenie's e-magazine. you can read it here: http://foodlorelibrary.com/feature/ritual/bathtub-carp-and-walnut-tossing-christmas-dinner-adventures-slovakia
her magazine is all about FOOD, so pass along comments to her if you like it :) the magazine isn't online yet, i don't believe.
a few things have happened. well, they're seismic only in relation to ME, but i would imagine those reading this to find it boring.
i guess i'm still in the same position regarding work and a place to live as the last time i wrote. really not much change there. i just keep trying, and eventually something will work out...
i was thinking the other day about my life in slovakia. it seems like so long ago. but a lot has happened to me in the 2 years since i've been back.
on the lighter side, and not getting all maudlin about my life in europe and missing my friends, i was thinking about the plethora of weird product names i came across in my time there. that's a weird thing to be thinking about.
after i first moved there in 1995, i lived in a teacher dorm and became friends with the guys a few floors below me. they also had a washing machine in their apartment, while i had none, so that was a plus. one day, i loaded the washer with my clothes and attempted to put my powdery detergent in. my detergent was called "Tix." ok, no comment. i spilled a handful of detergent onto my pal's bag of detergent, and sheepishly went to tell him after i got the load started. "hey," i said, "i'm sorry, but i got some of my 'Tix' in your 'Colon.'"
there are a lot of soap products in the country called "Colon." for those of us english speakers, that's odd...
there's a great czech maker of jeanswear that's available in central europe called "Kenvelo." really good stuff, and pretty cheap. they have many stores, and they make all kinds of shirts and other stuff, too. they advertise on MTV europe and are fairly popular. but they're mostly known for their blue jeans.
when i was there, i had an idea for an ad (to the tune of 'hello goodbye' by the beatles)
"you wear levis, and not kenvelo..."
"-velo -velo"
"i don't know why you wear levis, not kenvelo..."
funny and ludicrous and not very imaginative, but for some reason this stuck in my head for many, many years. i suppose the lawyers for levis would have cracked down on me, anyway...
when i was in the hospital in prague, czech republic in 1994, my mother bought me a pair of jeans on the street in prague. i did tell her that you never buy stuff on the street in foreign coutries if you don't want to get ripped off. but she said the jeans were pretty cheap... anyway, the jeans were called "Lehi." other LDS can see the humor in that. suffice to say, the button snapped off when i tried them on...
it's getting colder here, but still no snow. and that's all right :) winter isn't officially for a few more weeks.
i sleep on an air matress at my friends' place. i can deal with that. i had a king-sized matress, really huge. a few weeks ago, i would wake up at 3AM with my butt touching the ground and literally swimming in plastic. the matress was pretty thick, so it must have sprung a ginormous leak. for 4 nights in a row this would happen: me swimming in the matress and fumbling for the light, taking 20 minutes just to get out of the bed, what with my disability, sunken into the plastic mould like some giant cut-out figure of a person. i would stumble down the stairs those 4 nights and sleep on the immobile couch.
when i got a little money, i bought my own air matress. AIR MATRESS?!? why didn't i get a cot or a hammock or even a SLEEPING BAG? there's nothing like waking up on a brisk fall morning with your posterior on the ground...
i recently had to do a neuro-psych evaluation at a shwanky clinic about 30 minutes from me. i had to do this evaluation for the division of vocational rehab. they were paying for everything, so what the heck?
the first part consisted of me having to pour my guts out to a dapper and well-meaning psychoanalyst. he basically wanted to know my recent biography, especially the medical stuff. he said, upon conclusion, that he didn't want to make a diagnosis for me at that time. i had hours on hours of testing yet to do. but he said that my memory problems (which are far better than they were when i had the operation), are associated with DEPRESSION. those of you who know me, have i ever seemed depressed? i know that people who are depressed don't KNOW they are. and while my instinct is to vehemently deny his initial response, it has sure got me wondering...
asking any of you who know me that question about being depressed is certainly unfair. i don't need any validation so that i feel more sound. a big part of me found the whole thing to be humorous, and the other half was panicking. it's like when you pick up that big psychological diagnostic book, the DSM-IV. almost everyone who's picked that up thinks they have just about every psychological abnormality that ever existed. i think it's pretty normal to succumb to that. so until i receive the final results from the doctor, i can't really worry about that, and i don't...
if i don't have any communication with you during the christmas season, i wish you good days!
"no i'll never do that again. well, not until the next time..." - The Smiths
i actually wrote this on december 9th, but for some reason the thingy at the top wants to say december 2nd...
i wrote an article about christmas in slovakia for my friend jenie's e-magazine. you can read it here: http://foodlorelibrary.com/feature/ritual/bathtub-carp-and-walnut-tossing-christmas-dinner-adventures-slovakia
her magazine is all about FOOD, so pass along comments to her if you like it :) the magazine isn't online yet, i don't believe.
a few things have happened. well, they're seismic only in relation to ME, but i would imagine those reading this to find it boring.
i guess i'm still in the same position regarding work and a place to live as the last time i wrote. really not much change there. i just keep trying, and eventually something will work out...
i was thinking the other day about my life in slovakia. it seems like so long ago. but a lot has happened to me in the 2 years since i've been back.
on the lighter side, and not getting all maudlin about my life in europe and missing my friends, i was thinking about the plethora of weird product names i came across in my time there. that's a weird thing to be thinking about.
after i first moved there in 1995, i lived in a teacher dorm and became friends with the guys a few floors below me. they also had a washing machine in their apartment, while i had none, so that was a plus. one day, i loaded the washer with my clothes and attempted to put my powdery detergent in. my detergent was called "Tix." ok, no comment. i spilled a handful of detergent onto my pal's bag of detergent, and sheepishly went to tell him after i got the load started. "hey," i said, "i'm sorry, but i got some of my 'Tix' in your 'Colon.'"
there are a lot of soap products in the country called "Colon." for those of us english speakers, that's odd...
there's a great czech maker of jeanswear that's available in central europe called "Kenvelo." really good stuff, and pretty cheap. they have many stores, and they make all kinds of shirts and other stuff, too. they advertise on MTV europe and are fairly popular. but they're mostly known for their blue jeans.
when i was there, i had an idea for an ad (to the tune of 'hello goodbye' by the beatles)
"you wear levis, and not kenvelo..."
"-velo -velo"
"i don't know why you wear levis, not kenvelo..."
funny and ludicrous and not very imaginative, but for some reason this stuck in my head for many, many years. i suppose the lawyers for levis would have cracked down on me, anyway...
when i was in the hospital in prague, czech republic in 1994, my mother bought me a pair of jeans on the street in prague. i did tell her that you never buy stuff on the street in foreign coutries if you don't want to get ripped off. but she said the jeans were pretty cheap... anyway, the jeans were called "Lehi." other LDS can see the humor in that. suffice to say, the button snapped off when i tried them on...
it's getting colder here, but still no snow. and that's all right :) winter isn't officially for a few more weeks.
i sleep on an air matress at my friends' place. i can deal with that. i had a king-sized matress, really huge. a few weeks ago, i would wake up at 3AM with my butt touching the ground and literally swimming in plastic. the matress was pretty thick, so it must have sprung a ginormous leak. for 4 nights in a row this would happen: me swimming in the matress and fumbling for the light, taking 20 minutes just to get out of the bed, what with my disability, sunken into the plastic mould like some giant cut-out figure of a person. i would stumble down the stairs those 4 nights and sleep on the immobile couch.
when i got a little money, i bought my own air matress. AIR MATRESS?!? why didn't i get a cot or a hammock or even a SLEEPING BAG? there's nothing like waking up on a brisk fall morning with your posterior on the ground...
i recently had to do a neuro-psych evaluation at a shwanky clinic about 30 minutes from me. i had to do this evaluation for the division of vocational rehab. they were paying for everything, so what the heck?
the first part consisted of me having to pour my guts out to a dapper and well-meaning psychoanalyst. he basically wanted to know my recent biography, especially the medical stuff. he said, upon conclusion, that he didn't want to make a diagnosis for me at that time. i had hours on hours of testing yet to do. but he said that my memory problems (which are far better than they were when i had the operation), are associated with DEPRESSION. those of you who know me, have i ever seemed depressed? i know that people who are depressed don't KNOW they are. and while my instinct is to vehemently deny his initial response, it has sure got me wondering...
asking any of you who know me that question about being depressed is certainly unfair. i don't need any validation so that i feel more sound. a big part of me found the whole thing to be humorous, and the other half was panicking. it's like when you pick up that big psychological diagnostic book, the DSM-IV. almost everyone who's picked that up thinks they have just about every psychological abnormality that ever existed. i think it's pretty normal to succumb to that. so until i receive the final results from the doctor, i can't really worry about that, and i don't...
if i don't have any communication with you during the christmas season, i wish you good days!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
...the middle of Fall
...etc. so i've been urged by many to keep this updated. but i really don't have a whole lot to say right now. things are still static-y this way, but i'll do my best to throw it all into one medium nutshell..
let's see, i was accepted into the program run by the division of vocational rehab. they help you find work. through them i met with a guy in charge of the special ed program at my old high school about a job as a paraprofessional. i have to take a skills test for the school district on wednesday, which is one of the steps in the application process. i was accepted to receive disabled benefits through the DSHS last week. the benefits include food money, a few hundred bucks a month in $ help, and a medical I.D. so i can see a doctor. i feel like a homeless person... i have to take a neuro-psych exam the day before thanksgiving through the vocational rehab to asess what kind of jobs i can do noe, blahblahblah. see? it's really not exciting.
when i don't have those meetings or make phone calls, i end up sitting around. for long periods. so it will be boring for several days, then i'm involved in a flurry of activities one or two days. i haven't done that much in the way of "leisure" activities since i arrived. once things get settled i'll be able to do more for myself along those lines...
being disabled now has SOME advantages. i don't have to run. i never liked running, and i can only manage a kind of skip-jog now. i have always had a problem with bees, though, so running away from them could be a problem.
those family members who are reading this can hearken back to last memorial day. we were all sitting outside enjoying a barbeque. i was sitting, and i had a plate on my lap loaded with bratwurst and salads of many kinds. a bee landed on my right arm. i freaked out and my arm, through stroke-induced uncontrollability, flexed its meandering reflexes and threw my plate into the air. suffice to say, the food went everywhere with most of it, including the bratwurst, plopping onto my lap. my dear brother-in-law said, "wow, you have a weiner between your legs!"
if i'm ever confronted by a bear or a burglar, i guess they won't take any heed to my cries of "i'm disabled, leave me alone!" i just better hope i'm not confronted by bears or burglars. or buses. or anything else that begins with a "b." oh, and bees, too.
i've never shied away from physical work, but i've never LIKED it. who really LIKES it? but i don't have to do it any more! even unloading a dishwasher can be a chore, and that poops me out, and i end up taking a 3-hour nap from simply unloading the dishwasher. i wrote "unloading the dishwasher" twice in that sentence, sorry!
and my memory? forget it! as i've said to some of you, i can remember everything except the last few months leading up to the stroke. but i don't remember immediate conversations now or phone calls or e-mails right away. how conveeeeeeeenient. that's getting much better, though.
i took a college class online a few months ago. i passed it with a B. but i would have to reread the text just after i read it. if i took the class now, i think i'd get an A :) my reading skills have gotten much better. i've read 8 or 9 books since i've been here, and that has retrained my brain, so that's a good thing.
yes, i've tried to work around the disability, but i'm still learning. i'd say it was "fun," but it just ends up as frustrating most of the time. still, i'm really thankful that people around me have been patient with me. as you readers have been, also. if i didn't get help from those around me, and the organizations i've been working with, i'd be extremely lost.
we didn't have a compter for over a week. it went kaput, so i haven't been online and haven't been able to update this. but since i've been back online, i haven't heard of any major calamities befalling anyone i know. i hope that still holds true! let me know how you are, whenever you get the chance. as they say in slovak, do videnia...
let's see, i was accepted into the program run by the division of vocational rehab. they help you find work. through them i met with a guy in charge of the special ed program at my old high school about a job as a paraprofessional. i have to take a skills test for the school district on wednesday, which is one of the steps in the application process. i was accepted to receive disabled benefits through the DSHS last week. the benefits include food money, a few hundred bucks a month in $ help, and a medical I.D. so i can see a doctor. i feel like a homeless person... i have to take a neuro-psych exam the day before thanksgiving through the vocational rehab to asess what kind of jobs i can do noe, blahblahblah. see? it's really not exciting.
when i don't have those meetings or make phone calls, i end up sitting around. for long periods. so it will be boring for several days, then i'm involved in a flurry of activities one or two days. i haven't done that much in the way of "leisure" activities since i arrived. once things get settled i'll be able to do more for myself along those lines...
being disabled now has SOME advantages. i don't have to run. i never liked running, and i can only manage a kind of skip-jog now. i have always had a problem with bees, though, so running away from them could be a problem.
those family members who are reading this can hearken back to last memorial day. we were all sitting outside enjoying a barbeque. i was sitting, and i had a plate on my lap loaded with bratwurst and salads of many kinds. a bee landed on my right arm. i freaked out and my arm, through stroke-induced uncontrollability, flexed its meandering reflexes and threw my plate into the air. suffice to say, the food went everywhere with most of it, including the bratwurst, plopping onto my lap. my dear brother-in-law said, "wow, you have a weiner between your legs!"
if i'm ever confronted by a bear or a burglar, i guess they won't take any heed to my cries of "i'm disabled, leave me alone!" i just better hope i'm not confronted by bears or burglars. or buses. or anything else that begins with a "b." oh, and bees, too.
i've never shied away from physical work, but i've never LIKED it. who really LIKES it? but i don't have to do it any more! even unloading a dishwasher can be a chore, and that poops me out, and i end up taking a 3-hour nap from simply unloading the dishwasher. i wrote "unloading the dishwasher" twice in that sentence, sorry!
and my memory? forget it! as i've said to some of you, i can remember everything except the last few months leading up to the stroke. but i don't remember immediate conversations now or phone calls or e-mails right away. how conveeeeeeeenient. that's getting much better, though.
i took a college class online a few months ago. i passed it with a B. but i would have to reread the text just after i read it. if i took the class now, i think i'd get an A :) my reading skills have gotten much better. i've read 8 or 9 books since i've been here, and that has retrained my brain, so that's a good thing.
yes, i've tried to work around the disability, but i'm still learning. i'd say it was "fun," but it just ends up as frustrating most of the time. still, i'm really thankful that people around me have been patient with me. as you readers have been, also. if i didn't get help from those around me, and the organizations i've been working with, i'd be extremely lost.
we didn't have a compter for over a week. it went kaput, so i haven't been online and haven't been able to update this. but since i've been back online, i haven't heard of any major calamities befalling anyone i know. i hope that still holds true! let me know how you are, whenever you get the chance. as they say in slovak, do videnia...
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