My old friend, Ben

Andy Griffith as Matlock

I remember the show Matlock being on (1986–1995) when I was a kid, but I didn't really become familiar with the show until I was older. I liked watching the reruns of the show that would play in the afternoon, especially when I was in college. I'd go to school in the morning and I'd get back home early afternoon and I'd watch Matlock every day while I ate lunch. It was my ritual to watch Ben Matlock defend his innocent clients (he was a defense attorney) while at the same time finding out who committed the crime. I could always count on Matlock to A) find out the truth in the last few minutes of each episode and B) wear his light gray suit!

Police/crime/courtroom dramas sure have changed in the past 25 years since Matlock made his debut on television. The use of computers and cell phones is just one thing that's so prevalent in all of today's television shows, but 25 years ago computers and cell phones didn't play near as big a part of life as they do today. It's crazy how things change! Things change slowly and gradually, but then when you look back you see just how apparent these changes are!

Fond memories

After my accident, my older sister Annette decided to move home to help my mom care for me. One of our afternoon rituals was to watch Jeopardy!. We were huge fans of Ken Jennings, and it was fun to watch to see if he would win another day. Ken's winning streak lasted for 75 days, but he was finally defeated on his 76th appearance. During that time Ken won more than $2.5 million. We were definitely sad to see Ken lose, but all good things must come to an end, right?!

Ken has returned to Jeopardy! twice since his initial winning streak; once in 2005 for the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, and most recently for the IBM Challenge where Ken and Brad Rutter faced off against "Watson" – a supercomputer with knowledge that would take a human 250,000 years to sort through. Watson definitely made some silly mistakes, but in the end, he prevailed and left his human opponents in the dust.

Finale of Jeopardy! IBM Challenge

Although I don't watch Jeopardy! every afternoon these days (I usually watch Dr. Phil nowadays), I do enjoy watching it every now and then when they have special tournaments, like the IBM one.

The saddest day of the year

For the past week I've been hearing on the news that January 17 is the saddest day of the year. The reasons that they gave are that the holidays are over, the Christmas bills are starting to roll in and people are starting to slip on their New Year's resolutions (if they haven't already completely given them up).

Ironically, January 17th is the day that my dad died, so it has the potential to be the saddest day of the year for me, but it's not. The anniversary of my dad's death isn't a sad day for me at all. It's actually a happy day as I reflect on the good times and look forward to the day when I'll see Dad again. If I didn't know that I absolutely would see Dad again, then it would be a sad day. What do people who don't know that they will see their loved ones again do? Now that's a sad thing to think about!

It's hard to believe that that Dad's been gone for so long. 11 years of growth and changes! When Dad died I was still in high school and I could still move! Three new sons-in-law/brothers-in-law have been added to my family, as well as all 16 grandchildren. I can't imagine my life any other way than it is now, but it would definitely be interesting to see what life would be like if Dad were still living.

I hope everyone's having a great day, but if you aren't, hang in there and know that things always have a way of turning up! :)

Lucky #7

November 17 is a very special day for me because it is the anniversary of my car accident. I can't believe it's already been seven years! In some ways it seems like just yesterday that I was a normal person, but then again so much has happened since my accident, so it seems like a long time too. Isn't it weird how something in your life can seem so recent and so far away at the same time? When I think back to what life was like when I first came home to live a few months after my accident I remember how difficult things were for my mom and me. It was quite a mental and emotional adjustment as we both learned what life was going to entail for the rest of our days. However, even though things were difficult and still occasionally are, we've both adjusted well and we can honestly say that we really enjoy our lives.

November 17 is also the anniversary of when I got my diaphragm pacer. I'm still unable to breathe on my own, but now that I have my diaphragm pacer I don't have to be tied to a ventilator anymore. I've had my pacer for four years now, which is longer than I was on a ventilator (three years). This has been such a blessing in my life! It's definitely not a cure for paralysis or anything like that, but not being dependent on a big ventilator to breathe for me is so wonderful!

Although my life is very physically challenging, I still maintain that I would never take back my accident if given the choice because I've gained so much more than I've lost. I know who I am, I know where I'm going and I'm full of joy in the meantime. Life really is good! There are so many able-bodied people that can't honestly admit this, so I feel blessed to be so happy.

Some people think it's weird that I celebrate the day that my life changed so tragically, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's just another excuse to eat good food and have fun! I celebrated my day by having a special dinner. I requested chicken Caesar salad with garlic cheddar biscuits and triple chocolate mousse cakes for dessert. My sister Kristin kindly obliged my desires and made my dream dinner become a reality. (Thank you, Kristin!) I didn't do anything special other than my dinner, but that was enough since I was surrounded by my loved ones. I'm having a special get-together with my friends this weekend, so I look forward to celebrating with them.

It's so good to be alive!

Long walk home

I have a funny story that I wanted to write about. This incident happened on Tuesday, June 18, 2002; the day before my 18th birthday. I'd just been promoted the previous Friday to an associate manager at the movie theater where I'd worked since my 16th birthday. I was the manager in charge of closing that night, so I was the last one to leave the theater. My mom was out of town visiting one of my sisters, and since I didn't have my own car yet I was depending on friends to take me to and from work while she was gone. (I usually drove her car to work, but since she was gone I wasn't able to.)

Anyway, my boyfriend was supposed to pick me up from work and take me home that night, but when I called him he didn't answer his phone. I called him over and over, but he never answered, so I knew that he must've fallen asleep and was "dead to the world." (This was something that had happened before, so that's how I knew that he must've fallen asleep when he wasn't answering his cell phone.)

It must've been about one in the morning and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know anyone to call. I decided that I would just have to walk to my boyfriend's house, which was about five miles away. Like I said, it was the middle of the night and I was dressed in my nice work clothes -- a turtleneck sweater and a wool skirt. It was a muggy June night, so I definitely wasn't dressed for my five mile trek, but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do, right?!

So I set off for my boyfriend's house in the middle of the night dressed in my nice work clothes. The road I was walking on was quite dark at that time of night, so I tried to stay as far off the road as I could to be safe. The edge of the road was very uneven, so I tried to walk slowly and carefully so as to not trip and sprain an ankle, while at the same time walking quickly enough to get to my destination. I think it took me about two hours to walk the approximately five miles, and once I got to my boyfriend's house I had to knock on the door for at least 20 minutes before his sister heard my persistent knocking/doorbell ringing. (My boyfriend's parents weren't home, so it was just my boyfriend and his sister at home.)

My boyfriend naturally felt really badly about falling asleep. I wasn't mad, but I couldn't help but feel annoyed that he irresponsibly fell asleep when he knew that he was my ride home. (I started calling him Rip Van Winkle after this incident.) In my head I vowed that I would never tell my mom what I had done! However, I did tell her several months later.

As I look back on the situation, I realize how stupid I was! So many bad things could've happened, but fortunately nothing did.

The Karate Kid x 5

It might be hard for you to believe, but I'd never seen The Karate Kid until last month. Actually, I'm pretty sure my family saw this movie in the movie theater when I was a kid, but I don't have any recollection of this. I was inspired to watch The Karate Kid movies when I found out that a remake of the original movie was coming out. I watched the first movie a few weeks ago, and then I went on to watch The Karate Kid Part II, The Karate Kid Part III, and even The Next Karate Kid. I have to admit that I liked all of the movies, but The Karate Kid Part II was my least favorite.

All of this Karate Kid movie watching was to prepare myself to watch the new Karate Kid movie that came out on DVD last week. I was glad that I had watched all of the old movies recently because I was familiar with them and with the story. I thought that the new movie was fairly true to the original, although it did differ in some significant ways, one big way in particular is that there is no karate in this movie, only kung fu. (I kind of wonder why they didn't call it The Kung Fu Kid, or something else altogether.) Also, the main boy in this movie was only 12, and the main boy in the other movies started out as a 15-year-old boy who turns 16. All in all, I think this was a pretty good remake, even though there were obvious differences from the original.

Trip down memory lane

Last Friday was my nephew Kaleb's "bring a special friend(s) to school" day, so my mom and I went. Kaleb is a first grader, so it was fun to be able to go and spend an hour with him and his classmates. Each child was supposed to read their guest a story, and then there were cookies and milk for everyone. I love kids, and it's especially fun to watch them doing their "school" thing.

What made the day even more special was that I was in MY old elementary school. Freer elementary school was a full kindergarten through fifth grade facility when I went there, but now it's just kindergarten through third grade, and next year I've heard that it's just going to be kindergarten through second grade. I can't believe how much things have changed in the past 15+ years, however at the same time so many things are just the same! I saw a few teachers that I still recognized, and the school secretary is still the same one that worked there when I started going there in 1991.

After the hour with Kaleb, my mom and I went around the school so that I could see where all of my former classrooms were, and so that I could see all the things that have changed. Being in an elementary school setting was so much fun, and it reaffirmed to me how much I would've loved to be an elementary school teacher. Ultimately nursing won out over teaching, but there was a time after high school when I seriously considered going into teaching.

Kaleb's teacher told me to come back any time, so when she said that I asked her if it would be all right if I came and talked to the kids sometime about people with disabilities. She was really in favor of this idea, so I can't wait to be invited back sometime soon! This was such a wonderful trip down memory lane!

Graduation

May is the month of high school graduations, and every time another year rolls around I always think about my high school graduation in 2002. I can't believe that it's been eight years since I graduated high school. Although the time seems to have gone quickly, on the other hand, so much has changed in my life in the years since I graduated that it almost seems like a lifetime ago. Isn't it weird how things can seem so long ago and not so long ago at the same time?

When I graduated high school I was still a "normal" person who had endless possibilities ahead of me. I was just beginning to emerge in the world as an adult, and I had my whole life ahead of me. Fast forward eight years down the road and I haven't accomplished any of the things I wanted to. I'm almost 26 years old, unmarried, childless and completely disabled. I have no control over my body and I can't even care for my most basic physical needs. Although I have some college under my belt, I don't have a degree and I will never be able to work or have a career. (Or at least not the career I wanted... nursing.)

However, despite all of the physical changes I've encountered since graduating, I'm still happy and positive. The fact that I'm happy despite not having the life I always thought and expected I'd have is one of my best accomplishments, if not the greatest. I may not have all of the things that I always wanted, but I'm one of the happiest people I know, and I think that's saying a lot since there are so many people in the world who do have "everything," and yet, happiness still evades them.

This is a picture of my mom and me on my graduation day. This is one of my favorite pictures of myself of all time for several reasons. I love the colors because they are so rich and vibrant. I reached a milestone and this picture depicts that. I look happy and beautiful, and most importantly, I'm standing with my best friend.

Celebrating New Year's

I had lots of fun celebrating New Year's Eve this year. Most of my friends were either still out of town or busy with other plans, so my younger sister Laura and her husband Brett came over to celebrate with Chandra and me. Laura brought chicken wings and a cheese ball -- homemade cheese ball is one of my favorite things to eat on New Year's Eve! After we had our unhealthy dinner of wings, cheese ball and other snacks, we played two games of Phase 10. The game consists of 10 rounds, so it took us several hours to play the game twice and we didn't finish until about 11:30. We watched TV and saw the ball drop in Times Square. This makes me sound old, but this was the first time I've stayed up till midnight to ring in the new year on New Year's Eve in many, many years! (I don't think I've stayed up till midnight on New Year's Eve since before my car accident, so it's been at least six years!)

Laura and Brett spent the night with us and then the next day we went to the movies to see Avatar. We saw the movie in 3-D and it was so neat! I've never seen a movie in 3-D before, so I decided to buck up the three extra dollars, even though I could've seen the regular movie at the regular price just a few minutes later. To be perfectly honest, $10.25 seems outrageous for a movie, especially when I saw free movies for years and years when I worked at the movie theater, but oh well... sometimes the cost is worth the experience.

I actually went to the movie theater where I used to work, and this is only the second time I've done this since my accident. (The first time was actually just last month when I went to see New Moon with my friend Lacee.) When I was going to see New Moon my mom asked me if it was going to be emotionally difficult for me to go back to the place where I used to work. It wasn't... I was excited. It was good to see my old theater again, but the one thing that did make me sad was that no one there knew me anymore. The people working there just saw me as an ordinary patron, when in fact there's a good chance that I knew more about doing their jobs than they do. My feelings might sound silly, but that's nonetheless, that the way I felt.

You might be wondering why I hadn't gone back to see a movie at my theater before now. Three reasons.
#1) I didn't go out in public very much at all the first several years after my accident. Although I was happy, I didn't like leaving the house because it was so much work for my mom to take me out. Home was my favorite place to be and I really didn't have the desire to go out and do things in the community. A couple of years ago I started making what I call my "social return to society." I started going to a religion class every week, and it was there that I had the opportunity to make new friends for the first time since my accident. Making new friends made me want to go out again and do things that normal people my age do.
#2) When I started seeing movies in movie theaters again I did not want to go to the movie theater chain that I used to work at... Wehrenberg Theaters. I worked for the company for 3 1/2 years and during that time I found out what the owners were like. Employees were and are paid terribly. At the time of my accident I was working as an associate manager, but I only made an insulting $6.90 an hour. Movie theaters are open 365 days a year and employees are expected to work holidays at our regular wage... no holiday pay, even for managers. I don't feel like the owners respect their employers very much, so I prefer to give my business to other companies instead of Wehrenberg Theaters.
#3) Wehrenberg Theaters has terrible seating accommodations for people in wheelchairs. Not only do I have to sit in the very front of the auditorium, but I also have to sit on the side, so it hurts my delicate neck. There are other movie theaters in my area that have cutouts for wheelchairs in the middle of the row of seats, so it's much more comfortable for me.

Well, that's how I spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, as well as some of my thoughts about movie theaters!

ABC's

I thought of a funny story that I wanted to write about. When I was in second grade we were taught how to write in cursive. The first two letters that we learned were "i” and "t." I was so excited that I was finally learning how to write like a grown-up, and I went home and wrote the word "it" over and over and over. Each afternoon my teacher introduced one or two new cursive letters. We went through the entire alphabet in lower case, and then we went through the alphabet again in upper case.

When report cards came out later in the quarter I was devastated to find out that I'd gotten a C in handwriting. I've never received a C before and I was sure that I was going to get in trouble for getting what I thought was such a poor grade. When my dad asked to see my report card I was sure that I was going to get scolded for my C, however, my dad didn't say anything about the C at all. I was so relieved! I kept working on my handwriting and by the end of the semester my handwriting grade was an A.

Penmanship was something that I tried hard at, and I eventually ended up with really nice handwriting. Granted, my handwriting wasn't the best in the world, but I always tried to write neatly and legibly. I always felt a sense of pride that I had nice handwriting because it seemed like handwriting (especially cursive) was (and is) becoming more and more of a lost art due to the ever growing prominence of computers.

Here are a couple samples of my handwriting, one cursive and one print: (these are from one of my notebooks that I took notes in for nursing school. On the bottom sample I had to write really small because my worksheets didn't have very much space on them, so it's kind of hard to see my print handwriting. They aren't the best pictures, but hopefully you can see some of the words)

If you can't tell, I always used pens with blue ink. I didn't like black ink at all. I just thought/think things written with blue ink look so much more personal. Silly, I know, but blue ink was always a must for me!

A few more Christmas memories

I've thought of several more Christmas memories since I made my first post about Christmas a couple of days ago. My family also had several Christmas traditions related to food. There were several Christmas goodies that we would make every year, and we always had the same special dinner of clam chowder, meats, cheeses and crackers on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning my mom would always make sweet rolls, usually cinnamon rolls and caramel pecan rolls. I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon rolls, but I dearly love caramel pecan rolls!

Yesterday I thought of another favorite Christmas gift that I received as a child. When I was in kindergarten we had to tell our teacher what we wanted for Christmas so that she could write it down on a piece of paper. Then we had to draw a picture of the thing we wanted. I was embarrassed to tell my teacher that what I wanted most for Christmas was a microphone and a radio. I'm not sure why this embarrassed me, but I remember thinking I should come up with a gift that was a little more girly, like a doll. However, I ended up telling me teacher that I wanted a microphone and a radio even though I felt embarrassed.

I did get my microphone for Christmas. It was actually a little red keyboard that had a microphone attached to it with a cord. I'm not sure why I wanted a microphone so badly, but I thought it was so neat how microphones amplified people's voices. Anyway, this red keyboard and microphone was a huge hit the Christmas of 1989!

Christmas 2003 was definitely different for me since I had just gone through a complete physical transformation and I was spending my holiday season in the ICU that year. I definitely missed participating in all of the usual Christmas festivities, and especially being at home with my family and friends.

One thing that especially disappointed me was that I wasn't able to make my mom's Christmas present. Earlier that fall I'd come up with a really good idea of something that I wanted to make my mom for Christmas that year. From the time I was a little girl my mom had often given me little love notes in my lunch or on my pillow. I saved them since they were special to me and I had them all in a box. I thought it would be really special to glue some of these notes around a picture of my mom and me and then I would frame it and give it to her so that she could display it in her bedroom.

Needless to say, now that I was paralyzed I couldn't make this gift like I had originally planned. I was still determined to get the gift made, so I asked my good friend Adam to help me make it. He went over to my house and got the supplies that I needed, and then one Friday he came to the hospital and we spent the entire evening alone making this present for my mom. I told Adam what I envisioned the finished product looking like, and then we worked together, Adam doing all of the physical things like cutting and gluing, while I provided the artistic input. The finished product turned out well, and I was so pleased that I was still able to make this gift for my mom, and it was made even more meaningful considering what the two of us were/would be going through.

I scanned a picture of the finished product (minus the picture frame), but it's so big that the entire thing couldn't be scanned. Hopefully you get the gist of what it looks like, though.

How could I forget?!

I can't believe I forgot to mention one tradition that we always did as a family -- we always read the Christmas story out of the Bible either on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning. When I was a very young girl it was always so hard for me to be patient while my dad read the Christmas story because I was eager to get to my presents.

Christmas 1998 with my dad's last Christmas. He was dying of pancreatic cancer, so we were all aware of the fact that it would be our last Christmas with him. Dad read the Christmas story to our family for the final time that Christmas morning and we tape recorded him doing this. Now we usually listen to this tape recording every year. It's good to not only hear the Christmas story, but to hear my dad read it. I'm glad this is something my family always did.

A few favorite Christmas memories

We didn't have very many Christmas traditions in my family when I was a child, but we had a few that have made lasting impressions on me. One tradition that I always loved was that we would always decorate our house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. We'd set out early in the morning and we would go to a tree farm and cut down a Christmas tree. I loved that we always had a real tree, and it was a lot of fun trying to pick out the best one. When we would get the tree home it was time to put the tree in the tree stand. We all crossed our fingers and hoped that the tree trunk wouldn't be too big for the tree stand and also that the tree would stand up straight and not lean to one side or the other once it was securely in the tree stand. My dad was always the one who put the lights on the tree. He was very good at this and he made sure that all of the lights pointed towards the ceiling. I loved decorating the tree and it was always so fun to see the finished product -- especially when all of the lights were turned off!

Our trees always turned out well, but the tree that I remember looking the best was in 1998 -- my dad's last Christmas. The tree was so big and the perfect proportion for our home. I have such fond memories of that Christmas and how beautiful our tree was.

We continued getting a real tree for several Christmases after my dad died, and I remember several of those Christmases where I was the one who took on the task of putting the lights on the tree (This was always a painstaking process and took a long time since there was a clip on each light so that it could attach to a branch of the tree.)

We stopped getting a real tree after I had my accident because we didn't have as much room anymore since our living room had been converted into my bedroom. Nowadays we just have a small, 4 foot fiber optic Christmas tree that we put in our family room. It's nice, but I definitely miss the old days when my family and I would spend the day after Thanksgiving cutting down a tree and decorating our house for Christmas.

Here are a few of my favorite Christmas gifts I received when I was a child:
-- A Bugs Bunny guitar that I got for Christmas when I was three years old. I was completely infatuated with guitars as a young child, so I was very excited to get my first guitar.
-- A Cabbage Patch Crimp and Curl Doll that I got when I was about eight years old. This doll had special hair with a wire in each strand. The doll came with a curling iron and a crimper and you could do different things to her hair and it would stay. The doll came with a birth certificate and her name was Frieda Tamra. I always thought it was such a weird name!
-- A porcelain doll that I got when I was about 10. I really wanted a porcelain doll and the one I got was so pretty. She had short brown hair and she was wearing a schoolgirl type outfit. I named her Susan.
-- 13 Dead End Drive. I wanted this game so badly when I was about 13 years old. It was a boardgame and it was similar to the game Mouse Trap in that you had to spend a lot of time setting the game up before you could actually play the game. I loved playing this game and I think it's still in my basement!
-- A 3-D puzzle that I got when I was around 13 as well. I've already written about my love of puzzles, so the thought of a 3-D puzzle was especially intriguing. These puzzles were very popular when they debuted in the 90's and so many kinds were available. My puzzle was a castle. It was pretty difficult and I don't think I would've been able to finish it without the help of my dad and my older sister Kristin. This might still be in my basement too, but I'm not sure. I wish I had a picture of my dad, Kristin and me with the finished puzzle.

I'm sure there are more presents that I really liked, but these are the ones that came to my mind. Even though I'm an adult and I physically can't play with toys anymore, I really love toys and I have a lot of fun picking out toys that I think my nieces and nephews will like.

Merry Christmas, Dad!

Filling in on the rest of my weekend...

On Saturday afternoon my friends Tammy and Justin came over for a visit. I went to high school with Tammy and Justin, and they are actually my only friends from high school that I am still friends with. We had a nice visit and it was fun to have them over and catch up with them.

On Saturday evening my friend Nate came over for dinner. After dinner he helped me on my computer for a little while because there were some things that I needed help with. After that, Nate, Chandra and I watched the second Night at the Museum movie. I fell asleep shortly after the movie began, which is kind of ironic because I fell asleep when I saw this movie in the theater, as well! I'm hoping to watch it again; maybe the third time will be the charm!

On Sunday morning my mom, Chandra and I stopped by the cemetery on the way to church. I wanted to take some new flowers to my dad. I've mentioned this before, but I love the cemetery where my dad is buried. It is so peaceful and not at all like a typical "graveyard." Here are some pictures that I had Chandra take of the front and back of my dad's head stone. I especially love the back of the head stone because a picture of the Salt Lake Temple were my parents were married is etched into the stone. It also says, "families are forever" above the temple. These words are especially touching to me because I know that my family is a forever family.
On Sunday evening the three of us went to an event at my church called Crèches and Carols. It's an annual event where hundreds of different crèches and nativities are displayed throughout the building. There is also a lot of music and different activities. It's a completely free event, and it's just fun to walk (or roll!) around and feel the Christmas spirit. After we looked at the different displays, we went into the chapel and watched a devotional that was broadcast over the satellite from Salt Lake City. The general leaders of my church shared some short Christmas messages, and there were also several musical numbers sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was a wonderful evening and helped to make me even more excited for Christmas.

Back in the day...

A few days ago I wrote about my sister Sharon and her visit from Mississippi. Here's a little history about the two of us. Sharon is six years older than I am, so she and I weren't super close growing up. Six years isn't a vast age difference, but it is quite a gap when you're young. She and I had a big sister/little sister relationship when we were young, but now that we are older six years doesn't seem like much of an age gap at all. Here are a few pictures of us from back in the day: (the first one is from July 2001, the second one is from December 2002 and the third one is from March 2005):

It's fun to be sisters and friends!

What an adventure!

In the summer of 2001 I went on an RV trip with my mom, my two younger sisters Laura and Chandra, my mom's friend Paul and my friend Cam. We went to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and we also went to Nags Head, North Carolina, where I got to see the ocean for the first (and only) time in my life.

One of the things we did while in the Smoky Mountains was white-water rafting on the Ocoee River. White-water rafting sound exciting, but it definitely wasn't something I was looking forward to. I didn't know how to swim and the thought of rafting down rapids terrified me, especially when I learned that you don't sit in the raft, you sit on the sides of the raft! I cried and I didn't want to do it because I was so scared, but my family and friends talked me into it. I'm definitely glad that I did agree to do it because it was an amazing experience. If I hadn't agreed to do it I definitely would have regretted my decision since I will never be able to do it again. Here's a picture of my white-water rafting adventure:

(I'm glad I have this picture as proof of my bravery!)

I have to admit that I'm really proud of myself for doing this even though I felt terrified since I didn't know how to swim. I actually always wished I could swim, but I was too scared to learn! My mom took my two younger sisters to a local pool to have swimming lessons in the summer of 1999. I was 15, but I didn't want to take beginner swimming lessons with little kids. As it turned out, my two younger sisters were the only two people taking swimming lessons at that time, but I still wouldn't agree to the lessons because I was really scared of deep water. Looking back I wish I would've learned to swim, although it really doesn't matter now since I can't/couldn't swim even if I wanted or knew how to.

Bus!

When I was a little girl I had a huge fascination with school buses. I'm not sure how the fascination started, but any time I saw a school bus, I would excitedly exclaim, "Bus!” My dad went on lots of business trips when I was young, so that meant that my mom would have to drop him off at the airport. His flights were always very early in the morning, so I would have to go along for the ride since I wasn't in school yet. I loved the drive home because there would be so many buses out on their morning routes, and I had fun counting all of the buses that I saw. I even had a Fisher Price toy bus that came apart and turned into a classroom.

My nephew Kimball visited this past week, and he also loves buses. When the buses would come through my neighborhood every morning and afternoon, Kimball would run to the window and yell, "scoo bus!” It was very cute! He also enjoyed playing with my toy bus, although, some of the pieces have gotten lost over the years. I guess school buses are one of those things that kids love to love!

Remembering September 11

Since this is the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I thought I would write about my memories of that day.

It was about nine o'clock, and I was in my second period class, Spanish IV. I was taking a test when another teacher came into the classroom and told my teacher that there had been some sort of terrorist attack on the East Coast. All of the details were sketchy at this point, but as the day unfolded, more and more details began circulating around the school. I volunteered in the counselor's office for my fourth period class and I remember watching the media coverage on the TV. It was startling to actually see the destruction and to witness the devastation and hysteria of the people. I remember my English teacher, Mr. Brown, telling my class that the attack that had occurred that morning would rival the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. That put things into a bit of a perspective, and that was a sobering realization.

I had to work at the movie theater that evening, and I was surprised that there were actually people coming to the movies! However, we did have a record-setting low attendance at my movie theater. (I think only 29 people attended our theater that day.)

It's really hard to believe that it's been eight years already! It's surreal to see the Twin Towers when I watch movies or TV shows that have been filmed before 2001. For me, there's no way that you can see the New York skyline pre-2001 without vividly remembering that day.

My dear friend Lacee

This past weekend my friend Lacee came over so that I could help her with a school project. She's getting her Master's Degree in nursing education, and she wanted to interview my mom and me about our experiences since my car accident. (Her project is about a family dealing with illness/affliction.) We talked for about an hour, and that concluded the first part of the interview. I'm going to her class sometime in the next few weeks for the second part of the interview and the third and final part of the interview will follow that. Lacee is such a good friend to me, so I'm glad that I could help her with her project.

Lacee and I met in December 2000 when she started working at the same movie theater that I worked at. We were pretty much just co-workers at first, but over the next couple of years we grew closer and became friends. Our friendship grew when started the same nursing program in August 2003. After my car accident, Lacee's friendship remained constant which meant a lot to me since my life had changed so drastically. Anyway, I just wanted to brag about my awesome friend Lacee!

(This is a picture of Lacee and me working at the movie theater sometime in 2001 or 2002.)

My first day of kindergarten

It's back-to-school time again and I've been hearing a lot about parents sending their kids off to kindergarten. I remember my first day of kindergarten pretty well. The school I went to had half day kindergarten, and I was in the afternoon class. It was a hot, humid day, and my bus was over an hour late.

Above is a picture of me on my first day of kindergarten. My sister Chandra always laughs when she sees this picture. I've asked her why, and she just says that I look funny. Below is my kindergarten picture.