Sometimes it rains...

I have been sorely neglecting this blog...I know.  I think of stuff to write, but the words do not come to me.  Maybe if I pound a few keys, the juices will flow and melt my writers block.

For the last month and a half I have been driving Jodie to Salem for a special project for work.  I have been working remotely from Salem on a very slow connection.  It is nice that the district allows me to transport Jodie and that my manager is supportive of that.

It has also been nice to work with Jodie again.  Jodie and I use to work side by side twelve years ago.  We worked well together.  My weaknesses are her strengths and vise versa.  I used to tell people "Yeah, we work well together.  She does everything I say!"

Last week was the final week of the first phase of the project in Salem.  No more three days a week in Salem, except for one week of phase two of the project next month.  It will be nice to be back in my office this week.

For the past couple weeks, the highlight of our life has been seeing our son's baseball team, Portland Christian, take second place in district.  They did so by beating Gaston 14-4.  Eric pitched well, the boys were hitting and fielding well - a beautiful game.

A week later, last Thursday, we were at Kiger Stadium in Klamath Falls for game one of the state 1A/2A playoffs against Lost River.  The game was at 5:30.  The team left at 7:30 in the morning for the six and a half hour drive.  It gave the boys a couple hours to unwind from the drive and to prepare for the game...perhaps not long enough though.

Jodie and myself, along with Jodie's mother and sister, Denise, drove our van, Jet White, down to see the game.

Observations from our road trip:

• The Oregon 58 cut-over to US 97 does not have many accessible restrooms along the way.
• It was snowing in the pass on the way home. 
• The closer we  got to 80 mph, the more our van starts to shake and rattle.  I'm not sure how we figured that one out ;)
• When you are leaving a motel at 5 in the morning and you see a guy hot wiring a sports truck as you are turning around in the back parking, you can stop and tell the girl at the front desk, but there really isn't much she can do.

Hmm...seems like I'm forgetting something...

Oh yeah...the game...how did it go?

Eric pitched well, we thought. The ump did not concur with our assessment.  He was calling "ball" on everything Eric threw unless it was dead center in the zone.  Our fielding and our bats were off.  Perhaps car lag?  I'm not sure.

Our throw-out at home mysteriously became a "foul ball", much like the foul ball by Gaston mysteriously became a "grand slam" off of Eric earlier in the season.

We lost to Lost River 10-2.

Pastor Mike had the wisest words: "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."  I Googled it.  The quote is from the move "Bull Durham".  Great quote!

It says everything.

First day at SOOR

My first day in my volunteer position at the Special Olympics of Oregon.  I pushed and held the button to open the small, open top, elevator door.  Instead of the door opening, the elevator went up.

Arthur walked by and asked me if the elevator was working.  He went upstairs to help send it back down.  When I made it upstairs, he showed me how to jiggle the door so the contacts meet.  An elevator with a personality disorder.

I made it to to the cubical where the interns and community partners sit.  My supervisor, Ryan, helped me to sign into their system.  They use Microsoft Outlook for their email.  I found that interesting because at my regular job with the State they just changed us over from Groupwise to Outlook email, so I am now familiar with Outlook.

Ryan wanted to know how I take notes.  Basically on the computer...or memory.

I was having trouble with the computer keyboard.  It was one of those Dell keyboards that don't have much of an edge to it.  He offered me an ergonomic keyboard.  I don't do well with those either.  For people without the dexterity issues that I have, this is hard to understand.  I need time to get use to computers...the keyboard and the mouse.   My unruly fingers need to learn where to go and where to not go on the keyboard.  I also need to get use to the sensitivity of the mouse.

I don't do well with people watching what I am doing.  I get nervous and my CP really acts up.  Ryan was really patient with me.  I know it sounds weird, but I hate when other people have to deal with my disability.  I fear that I look awkward, or even incompetent, as I figure out  how to do things in a new environment.

 I asked Ryan if I could bring in my netbook to use.  I do really well with the small keyboard and room for my hands on the side.  He said that I could, and that other people do that.

Ryan gave me the assignment of finding the right WordPress them for the website, and then  to send him an email with my top picks.  It was a really good assignment.  I found four themes that I liked and I pitched them to Ryan in an email.

My mind went back 23 years ago when I was a volunteer with the State.  The office drama when I started was burnt popcorn in the microwave setting off the smoke alarm.  Yesterday at SOOR the office drama was a dead refrigerator in the break room.  People were trying to figure out what was still good and what wasn't.  The Drumsticks in the freezer were now Drumstick shakes according to one guy.

After my four hour shift, I headed out to the van.  Ryan was not there because he had a lunch meeting with a group.  Ryan saw me at the van and came over.  He had a chocolate doughnut from Starbucks for me...so nice!

It's invigorating to do something new outside my routine.  I like working on websites, but I have not had much success at it yet.  Eventually I would like to make more of a career of it.

Week one down.

New title: Intern

With humility and joy I would like to announce that I am taking on an additional title for the next couple months - intern.

I'm sure that when Ryan posted the craigslist as looking for a web intern that he was thinking more college student...not a guy 25 years past that.  We emailed back and forth.  He wanted to make sure I wanted to do this.

I was excited about having the chance to work for a great organization: the Special Olympics of Oregon.  Their life affirming mission rates high with me.  Jodie and I participated in some Special Olympics events as kids at Holladay Center, years ago.

I met with Ryan yesterday at the Oregon Special Olympics headquarters down on Macadem.  It was a bold step for me.  I have been dealing with a lack of confidence lately.   I have been working on websites for years as a hobby, but success has been eluding me.  I have been making free websites for years, for people who don't quite know what they want...and giving them exactly that!

Ryan told me that this is not a paid internship.  I told him that was okay, that I am just wanting to get experience.  We shook hands.

I will be working on the Bite of Oregon website.  Ryan wants to move it over to WordPress.  I have been working with WordPress lately.  There is no guarantee that the website that I make will be the one that is used in the end.

I need to step up with ideas, make my pitch, and produce.

Somehow I am going to move my work hours so that I can be at the intern desk down on Macadam.  I look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to learn.

My hope is success for that success to open doors for me in the future.

Prayers and well wishes would be really appreciated for me in this endeavor.

;)

A shout out to some great people

My scooter wasn't charging.  We replaced the batteries last summer, so I didn't think it was those.

The shop close to our house wanted $50 just to look at it...money we don't have to burn.

We called our friends at All in One Mobility.  It was a fuse...no cost to fix.

They remembered us...and called us friends.

A great business!

All In One Mobility, Portland, Oregon, wheelchair vans, accessible roll-in shower, handicap, wheelchair lift, walk in bath, ramps, wheelchairs, ada shower, stair chair.

Chest pains...go to the ER...

I was not feeling good at work yesterday.  I wax working on an adoption assistance case that had been held up because of bugs in the system.  I just wanted to muddle through and git 'er done...and get to 5 o'clock.

Jodie was home on furlough, so I drove straight home after work.  I came in and told Eric and Jodie I wasn't feeling well.  I went down to the bedroom, went to the bathroom, then I was going to lay down.  The pain in my chest was pretty strong.  I have been down this road before.  I did not want an ambulance ride.

I went and told Eric and Jodie that my chest was really hurting.  We all decided I should go in to the ER. I asked Eric to load us into the van and drive us.

We went down to Providence Hospital.  There was a crowd in the lobby, but when they heard I had chest pains, they got me right in.

The nurse tried to get my blood pressure.  He wrapped the thing around my arm.  The machine was having trouble getting a reading.  He told me to be still...not the thing to tell a cp'er because it makes us all the more nervous and makes us shake all the more...but I tried.  I was surprised because I have had my blood pressure taken before with no trouble.  They hooked me up to the ekg machine and everything appeared normal.

Jodie wanted to be with me in the intake room, but there was not room for her power chair.  It seemed funny to us, because last time they made room.  Jodie and I feel that people are used to seeing disabled people with able bodied helpers, but not two disabled people together.

I was hooked up to oxygen...good stuff!  They took me back to one of the ER rooms.  They hooked me up to all the machines, and gave me an inhaler to breathe in.  They x-rayed my chest.

All that was found was some inflammation on the walls of my lungs.  I have bronchitis they think.  It is viral, so there is no meds to prescribe.  They did prescribe an inhaler...and ibuprofen for pain.

I have been sitting out too much in the cold, wet, Oregon spring watching my boy play baseball.  SisD says I need to where a hat and a scarf.  Yeah, right!  So uncool!

Yes, I am going to live.  The pain seems stronger this time than it was last time.

Two days off work, then back to Dilbert cubeville.

;)

"No money...just please, pray for me"

Jodie's birthday is coming up soon.  Yes, she will once again be the "older woman."

Her list of birthday wants is short.  One is this side bag for her power chair - one of the velcro straps tore off the bag and needed to be sewn back on.  It had been sitting on the dresser for a long time.  Jodie wanted to take it to a seamstress shop she knew about in downtown Gresham.

I decided to take it down to the shop and see what they could do.

I parked the bus around the corner, took out my walker and walked a couple blocks to the shop.  With our bus, I prefer to park further away and have more room to pull out than to park in a closer but tighter spot.

I was winded by the time I got to the shop.  The door was propped open.  An older lady was leaving as I walked in.  The seamstress had me sit down and she asked me what I needed.

I pulled out the side bag and showed her where the strap was coming off the bag.  I explained that I could leave the bag and pick it up another day...that it was not a rush job.

The seamstress said she had black thread in here sewing machine and that it would not take long for her to fix it.  Sure enough, she took it back behind the partial wall and had it all sewn up in very quick time.

She came back out with the bag and tried to put it on my walker.  I said  "No," and I took that bag.  Me being winded, with my cerebral palsy, and she had an accents - it  made communication tricky.

I offered to pay her.  I really wanted to pay her, because even though it did not take her long, I realize shops like hers are struggling.

She told me, "No money...just please, pray for me."

Her request did not seem flippant to me.  I sensed there was a real need to pray for.

As I walked back to our bus, I felt determined to keep that seamstress in my prayers.

I know that blessings will come to her.

My greatest discomfort - total brain freeze

No, it's not the back or neck pain that I occasionally feel that causes my greatest discomfort.

Yesterday I drove down to Salem, walked into an unfamiliar office, walked up to the front desk and said, "Hi, I'm here for and interview."

The guy at the front desk handed me a sheet with the interview questions on it.

The first question is the shortest, but I am stymied by it. I skip it an go to the other questions.  I figure out answers to them.  I go back to the first question and I still cannot think of a good answer.

My greatest discomfort - total brain freeze.  Writing and editing words is a gift I have; thinking quick and finding the right words to say is not.

The supervisor came and got me.  She led me to the star chamber.  Four other people we waiting for me. The supervisor said that I could read the questions myself or have them read to me.  I asked to have them read to me; gives me more time to think.

The questions are read and I start to talk.   Words are coming from my mouth, but I cannot tell if the questions are being answered.  I  don't know if the train is on the track or off the track.

"Why am I so darn spacey?"  I wonder.  Is it my cerebral palsy?  Is it my type B personality?  Is it just my overall spaciness?  I don't know.

The supervisor walks me out.  She is chatting with me and made me feel comfortable.

I get back to my van.  I start beating myself up for being so darn spacey.  Why do I do this to myself?  Before I deliver the fatal blow to my ego, another thought pops into my brain - whether or not I get the position, they saw the real me.

And that, my friend, is a good interview.