...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...