The last week of July 2010

Originally written July 2010

Alexa's 8th birthday
Kate and Dave held a joint birthday party for their kids - Joel's birthday fell at a very busy time in the past year and they were unable to have a party for him at the time.  They ended up having a party for both kids at the Wave House in PB.  The kids were given an hour to play on a wave machine (the Flow Rider) and then they were given two hours at an indoor pool with  party hosts who played games with them and lifeguards that looked out for their safety.

 Kate did me the honor of asking me to help make the cake for the party, Kate had seen a cake that she loved but decided that she could make it bigger and for she felt that she could make it for alot less money.  Of course, their was a small amount of drama because Kate is Kate and somehow she always seems to face obstacles in everything she does.  (I love you Kate, but you know that I am not lying)  Kate had visions of a cake that would have been possible if I would have started planning it two weeks in advance and if I had access to and industrial size refrigerator.  Unfortunately the party was the next day, it was 3:00 in the afternoon and we still had to go to the grocery store.  I managed to talk Kate into cupcakes and I was able to make them with ocean-colored icing and we found really cool sugar pieces to decorate them with.  I think they turned out pretty good - if I do say so myself!

icing colors

 

This week was also Sean's birthday at the Local.   I had really wanted to go but couldn't figure out how to get downtown and then home again at a decent hour - and yes, it does feel like I am 15 years old and worried about a ride and my curfew...wait, my boyfriend in high school had the curfew - not me!  Caryn offered to have me spend the night at her house the night of Sean's birthday celebration, it was great fun to be back out around people that I have known for a long time.  I was able to wish Sean  "happy birthday" in person and I got to see alot of people I hadn't seen in a long time.  It was fun to see the Local in full swing and I did take note of the fact  that I can still be out and amongst people in a "normal" setting.   The music was a little too loud for my taste and alot of that stems from the fact that I have a harder time hearing people now - I think that I have to concentrate on so much on everything else, therefore my hearing suffers.  All hearing tests have come back with my hearing in a normal range, I don't have any physical impairments with my hearing so the only thing that makes sense is that I don't seem to be able to handle too much going on at once.

TBI info

Originally written July 2010

I am so happy to see more information about traumatic brain injuries (TBI) available to the public lately, there have been programs on TV making brain injury more of a reality to everyone.  I have seen brain injury covered on MTV's 'True Life',   'Army Wives', and its much more common in newspaper articles.  I am so grateful that TBI is becoming more common place and people don't look at me like I'm crazy when I have to tell them about my injury.  Its also so unfortunate that TBI has become so much more common because of the war and the dangers that our soldiers are up against.  I have an interest in working with TBI in the future, I am not trained as a therapist and I have no interest in going back to school but I feel like there has to be something I can do to help.  I'm thinking about something in the bigger picture, something I can do to actually make a living.  I feel like I could be more understanding than a "regular" person, I would be able to talk about my actual experiences which might in turn help someone else suffering from TBI....how does that get turned into a paying job?

I have been given the green light to return to therapy for a short time, and thankfully we have found that I am still getting better.  I am always so pleased to hear the outcomes of the testing from the therapists.  There is a part of me that believes things would be moving along quicker if my medical insurance wasn't evil and simply permitted me to have the therapy they say I need in order to get the most recovery possible.  Then there's the other part of me that believes that no matter what obstacles insurance throws in my way I will persevere.  I am awfully stubborn and I believe that being stubborn will work in my favor this time, it has to, there just aren't any other options.  Yes~ I get tired more quickly than I used to, yes ~ I beat myself up a little every time something is hard for me now when it didn't used to be, yes~ I get angry when I think about why I am in this position in the first place, there is nothing I can do about all of that.  All of that frustration is the fuel that will get me through to the next level of recovery.

7/10/2010

Its been a good week - I made it to the gym three times and I can stay on the elliptical machine for 20 minutes now, its amazing that I feel such a sense of accomplishment at something that used to be so simple for me! I went with Kate and the kids to Belmont Park in Mission Beach and watched Joel practice his body boarding in a wave pool.

I also got to have the Taintors over for dinner as they are on their way back to Washington after a vacation to their property in Mexico.  It has been decided that it is time for me to get a passport so I can visit them in Mexico, why do i foresee all kinds of adventures (read: trouble) for Lauren and I in Mexico?  The most beautiful part about meeting Mark and Renee is that I feel like they have been a part of my life for a very long time, even though in reality I only met them in 2007.  I went to WA with Lauren and I was fortunate to meet her parents and become a part of their family.  It doesn't seem strange to me that it was so easy to fit into her family, my friendship with Lauren has been easy from day 1, it makes sense to me that there was a space in Taintorville for me to fill.

napkins that Jamie snuck into my Christmas stocking...