Swim Therapy

Swimming!  One of the things Mom used to love to do as a kid.  In preparation for today I have been asking her if she'd like to go swimming sometime and each time she seemed pretty interested.  So after we made plans I was confident that it would be a successful adventure.

David was kind enough to stay home from work today to help me out and I think he enjoyed the break too.  The weather was great at 10am, and the water was 80 degrees...if not warmer.  

As expected Mom mentioned being too cold when getting deeper and deeper in the water, but once she was all the way in she was fine.  I was expecting her to be nervous and just ask to get out of the water, but instead she did a lot of laughing and seemed to really enjoy herself.

Her walking was the same in the water...no improvement.  We tried to get her to float, or to kick her feet out behind herself, or try to "stand" "on her knees so that the water would come up over her shoulders so she wouldn't have to stand all the way up...she attempted each, but we didn't have much success.

All in all, it was pretty fun.  Mom enjoyed sitting outside the pool in the nice weather after we swam too.  We'll be doing this again!

Wii Therapy

There is all kinds of therapy you can do when you really think about it.  David thought of this one.

We played the Wii with Mom after her hip injury, but playing with a brain injury brings a whole new dynamic to the game.  We played Big Brain Academy which I really thought she wasn't ready for...BUT she did pretty well.  One of her best areas was math, and that was a big surprise from this art teacher.

From her point of view:

Another Year

58 years old!

One year and 6 days ago Mom had her traumatic-brain-injury-causing car accident.  Today we were glad to celebrate her birthday.  She was happy too, but mostly because she had a pretty delicious birthday cake sitting in front of her!

Mom was excited to get flowers from her good friend from Rochester, Josie!

Midnight Bliss Cake close-up!  YUM!

Bowling!

On Wednesday we were invited to go bowling with the Kings.  It was fun!  

We didn't know how difficult it might be because of Mom being in her wheelchair most of the time, but the King's are pros at finding ways to do things that most people would think impossible.  Below, Emily demonstrates how to use the ramp to bowl instead of having to throw the ball.

Then Mom tried it with David cheering her on!  She did very well and was able to play for half of the game before getting tired...

...and cold!  Even with all those blankets she was done for the day.  But that was ok because David and I got to finish bowling for everyone.

We had a good time and have already made plans to go back.  Grandma may even come next time!

Gift Therapy

Gift Therapy!  Bet you've never heard of this!  Well, that's because it's not actually real...

Mom got a gift in the mail today from her sisters-in-law.  The gift was from "The Nut House."   Now, we all know that this could imply different meanings, but after a moment of thinking it through we decided that their intentions were for her to have a delicious assortment of nuts and not imply that she's gone nuts!  ...although we thought the other option pretty funny.

The nuts came with packing peanuts too!  ...so clever.

Finally got it out of the box!

We decided to make Mom and honorary member of The Nut House.

They are delicious!  And really big!  I've never seen cashews as large as these.

Gift Therapy will continue this Thursday because it's Mom's birthday!

Everybody needs a friend.

Despite the look of disgust on the cat's face, I usually see these two this close together multiple times throughout the day.  The dog occasionally growls at the cat and the cat occasionally smacks the dog in the face, but these two secretly enjoy each other's company.

Spicy Chicken Goodness

We got to try the new Chickfila Spicy Chicken Sandwich one week early!  We made reservations online and showed up during our time slot.

Dad liked what was written on the sandwich bag.

The breading was the same as the normal chicken sandwich only a little darker because of the spice.  And, it came with a small bottle of water.

To me the taste was similar to the Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich.  I think this is the market they are trying to tap into.  Now all we need to do is a taste test!  It wasn't that spicy, just enough to give it some character.

David liked it.

This picture is for all the American's overseas.  Gotta love waffle fries!

So, the question remains... which sandwich is better?  The original or the spicy?  Well, the original is pretty good!  It will probably depend on your preference, but for me...I'd need to do a taste test so I could compare them at the same time.

Harry Therapy

During Mom's visit this weekend we were trying to think of things we could do.

  

We asked Mom what kinds of things she liked to do now, instead of drawing (since she doesn't like the way she draws now).  She came up with a few ideas, one of them being reading.  Interesting... since she didn't like to read much before.  So we tried it!

David went to get a Harry Potter book and Mom started reading!

  

She needed a little help ever now and then with pronouncing words like "Dursley" and "Privet" but she did pretty well.  After reading the first page we stopped her and asked her some questions to see if she was remembering what she read.  I think reading will be a good thing for us to do, although Harry Potter might be too long of a story for her.  We need a good book of short stories, for adults.

I was also thinking of something like a needlepoint project...but it would have to be one with large holes and a big dull needle.  Anybody know about anything about something like that?

Allergies this year.

Every year I end up writing about allergies and how awful spring is for me because of pollen.  This year I decided to spare you my usual rant.  Instead I'll tell you what I'm FINALLY doing about this lovely time of year.

Allergy shots.  Immunotherapy.  I've gone to an allergist, been scratch tested, and learned what all my allergies are!

(This is the grid they drew on my back and then all the red spots are where they poked me with allergens and I reacted...not much white space!)

I'm allergic to cats, dogs, mold, weed pollen, grass pollen, and tree pollen (basically all pollen).  It seems like my tree pollen allergies are the worst because trees pollinate in the spring.  Grass is a summer pollen, and weeds are a fall pollen, but I don't usually have allergic reactions those times of year.  I guess it just doesn't compare to the spring.  I have noticed a reaction to cats too, but it still isn't as bad as trees.

So far, I go to the allergist two times each week, and the give me one shot in each arm (cats, dogs, and mold allergens in one, and all outdoor allergens in the other).  The arm that gets the outdoor allergens has reacted more than the other arm.  It looks and feels like I got bit by a mosquito, and sometimes I get a headache.  This will continue for a few months with occasional increases in the strength/purity of the allergen used.  Then I'll go once a week, then once ever other week, etc.  The goal is to make myself immune to all these things I'm allergic to.  Let's hope it works!

At An Angle

This past Sunday we went to visit Mom  at Restore.  We sat on the front porch for a while because the weather was beautiful.  I pulled out my camera and handed it to Mom just to see if she would want to use it.  She was excited to take pictures of David in his orange shirt.  But, she didn't make much of an effort to keep the camera straight.  Instead, almost every picture was at an angle.  At least she got all of him within the frame.

  

We'll have to work on photography when she comes home. Until then, we'll just have pictures at an angle.

Double Bypass

This past Wednesday our family went to a Dave Bromberg Concert.  But, before the show, we went to eat at the Vortex.  Known for their award winning burgers, David just could not decide which one he wanted.  So he told the waiter he wanted his recommendation.  The waiter asked him some general questions about his likes and dislikes and then asked him how he would want his burger cooked.  Without telling David what he would be eating, the waiter went away and turned in our order.

Before long our food arrived and David finally got to see what he ordered.

This, ladies and gentlemen is the Double Bypass Burger, and hopefully the only double bypass David will ever have (and now I'm not referring to burgers).  Here is the description of what he ate, directly from the menu:

DOUBLE BYPASS BURGER

Twice as big as the Coronary Bypass! Topped with

two fried eggs, six slices of American cheese, and

eight slices of bacon, all served between the two

grilled cheese sandwiches that we use in place of

the regular hamburger buns.

Yes, he did eat the whole thing, and no, there was no free t-shirt.  He also made a decent attempt at the tater tots that were his side item.

Congratulations David...let's not do that again.

Drunk? ...or texting?

Yesterday, on our way to visit my Mom at Restore, David and I had a very interesting experience.  

We were driving down Highway 212 behind a car that was barely going the speed limit.  After a short while of following them I noticed that they were driving back and forth within the lane a lot more than usual.  I called David's attention to it and then the swerving got worse. The driver was crossing the lines and once came very close to running off the right side of the road.  They would quickly re-correct and straighten-out but it didn't last long!  While increasing our distance we tried to figure out what the deal was.  The conclusion we came to, other than the fact it was around 11am on a Sunday morning, was that this had to be a drunk driver.  I've never seen a drunk driver before, but I've also never seen anyone driving this poorly before so it had to be a drunk driver!

We got to a point where the driver was going to make a right turn and we'd be able to pass them.  As we passed we looked into their window.  We saw a young girl holding a cell phone, texting. 

I was amazed.  I don't text often in general, but after saying to myself multiple times while following her "They're going to kill themselves" I know that I never will text and drive.  Take some time a search the internet for "texting while driving" and see the images you come up with.   

Unfortunately I know all too well some of the consequences of getting into a car accident.  Although my Mom wasn't texting I guarantee that you don't want to end up dealing with all she's going through because of a car accident.  I can also guarantee that you don't want to have to take care of anyone else you know that has done that to themselves, so share with your friends about how stupid the idea of texting while driving is!

It may have made a funny comic, but it's really not funny.

Finding the artist within.

While cleaning out a room in my parent's house recently I found a bunch of blank canvases that my Mom had.  On one of them was a taped picture of this:

artist: Ron Burns

The picture had been painted for a Humane Society advertisement but the bright colors and cute face caught my eye.

I had recently gone to a place called Sips n Strokes with some friends and was completely inspired to recreate the experience at home after finding this picture.  After a few months of busy schedules I finally gathered some friends and we attempted to paint our animal friends.

I found a cat for Matthew and Jennifer and I attempted the dog.  We started with the backgrounds, had a break for dinner and went back to work on the rest.

We used techniques that we learned at our past visit to Sips n Strokes.

And before long we had some pretty neat looking paintings.

While the original was really cute, I couldn't help but add some of my own "Duncan details" to my painting.

And I we pleased to see my work appreciated.

It was fun!  We want to do it again!

Home Visit April 27th

Mom has started a weekly home visit schedule with the people taking care of her at Restore.  They want her to start getting used to doing activities at home with me so that when she comes back home she won't refuse to do things like she did before.  Hopefully this plan will work nicely so her transition home doesn't cost her any progress time.

This week she used her brand new shower for the first time, had lunch, planted some flowers, and then we looked at some picture albums.  Here is a picture of the flowers she helped with:

It was too cold outside to do this activity outside, but maybe next week she can at least go outside and water them.  

When we looked at the picture albums we went through a lot of old pictures.  She remembered A LOT of the people in the pictures, and thanks to Grandma Gert we cold confirm that she was remembering correctly.  It was neat.  She also remembered that Dad told her he was having the house painted (from the Sunday before - 3 days!) but couldn't remember that she took a shower in her new shower about an hour before.  Strange how she remembers some things easier than others.

Jamaica - Day 9 - Montego Bay

Another morning for a breakfast at Burger King before checking out of our hotel.  The customers at the Burger King were particularly interesting this morning, some tourists, some natives.  There was a little boy with his mom who was wearing sunglasses and making beats on the table.  Then, when he would get up to walk around he had  a swagger to his step.  There was actually an older man that walked by him who imitated him...I think to point out how silly he looked...but the kid didn't get the picture and went back to what he was doing.

Then there was a pretty large family, both in number and in size, that were complaining about the heat. Mostly the kids...they were such whiners:  "It's too hot outside!"  "I don't want to do (this or that)!"  ...except for one.  He was sitting there quietly, listening to the rest of them complain with a look on his face that said "Well this isn't any fun."  At that point their Dad pointed him out to everybody and said something about how he wasn't a complainer and was really proud of him.  It brought a little smile to his face and mine that he was recognized.  

After breakfast we went back to the hotel, made sure that we had everything packed, and got our game plan ready to go...our game plan for the taxi driver that is.  Since we knew we were going to be over charged we worked out how we were going to pay the guy so that we wouldn't get ripped off.  Well, we gave him 300 Jamaican dollars as we walked up to the taxi and told him we needed to go to the airport.  As he walked around to the driver seat he counted the money and then go into the car and told us that his boss would fire him if he drove us for only 300.  He went on and on about how it's at least 1500 Jamaican dollars (5-7 minutes down the road!) and his boss would be so mad. So then David decided that he would give him another 100 in hopes that it would make him happy.  Well, as David pulled the money out of his wallet he didn't look at it so well.  Instead of handing him the 100, he gave him a 1000!  The driver jumped at the opportunity to take the money.  I hit David in the arm but he still didn't realize what had happened.  I thought that he was intentionally giving the guy the 1000 dollar bill.  Turns out David didn't realize what he had given the guy and was mad at me for not pointing it out to him.  It made for a very unpleasant first few minutes in the airport, but a very happy taxi driver.  ARGH!  They win again!

After we checked in we waited in a really long security checkpoint/passport control line.  While in the line we talked with two ladies who were headed home as well.  One of them was an aerobics instructor for resorts and she brought her friend with her.  We told them about why we were there too and enjoyed our conversation with them until it was our turn to talk to passport control.  I was nervous at this point too because David wasn't convinced that they were going to let me bring the conch shell out of the country.   I had it in my purse and wasn't planning on saying anything about it unless someone asked.  Well, the  passport person had absolutely no personality, I don't think she even looked at our faces, so she didn't ask any question and told us we could go through.  Then we had to take off our shoes and x-ray our bags and the rest is history!

Back to reality, oh wait, one more picture...

James & Gabrielle

March 26, 2010

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Jamaica - Day 8 - Montego Bay

We had Burger King for breakfast again this morning and afterwards decided to give ourselves a tour of downtown Montego Bay.  We also wanted to check out an old fort area where they currently have markets that was on the way.

As we walked out of the tourist area we noticed that there were no longer “street patrol” people around whenever you wanted to cross the street.  On the “hip strip” they were all over ready to stop traffic for you, but here it was just normal streets.  As we got closer to the market area we noticed ladies standing on both corners of the street.  Before we could even pass the one on our side of the street she came right up to us to start a conversation.  It went a little like this, all while we are still walking:

Lady:  “Hello there!  Are you looking to do some shopping today ma’am?”

Susan:  “No thank you, we’re just walking around.”

Lady:  “Oh ok, well maybe on your way back you’d like to stop by our market (pointing across the street up the hill) to buy some souvenirs.  What’s your name?”

Susan: “Susan.”

Lady:  “Susan! Oh that’s a Jamaican name you know.”

Susan:  “Oh is it…”

Lady:  “Yes! You have such beautiful hair, maybe you’d like to have some braids?  We could braid it for you.”

Susan:  “No thanks…(as she begins to get the point that we want to keep walking)…bye.”

Susan, a Jamaican name…you learn something new everyday! :o)  We kept walking and we then approached, from behind, by a guy.  At this point David is walking slightly in front of me, and the guy walks slightly in front of David.  He begins a conversation with David, also while we continue walking and he never looks at us in the face…the entire time he is walking slightly ahead of us, talking to us, but never looking at us:

Guy:  “Hey man, what’s up?” (holds out his fist to “bump knuckles” with David)

David:  “Not much, just walking around.”

Guy:  “What’s ya name man?”

David:  “David, and you?”

Guy:  “I’m (I don’t remember…) and the lady there?”

David: “That’s my wife Susan.”

Guy: “Nice to meet you man.  So, where ya from David and Susan?”

David: “The United States.  Georgia.”

Guy: “Georgia, yeah, yeah, nice place.  So, you are going to see a little of the city huh?”

David: “Yep.”

Guy:  “Ya know, there is no racism in Jamaica.”

David: “Really?  That’s good.”

Guy: “Ya man, ya man, you don’t have to worry about none of that here. No racism at all.”

David: “Hadn’t even though about it actually.”

Guy: “Well, if you head that way (pointing) you’ll go downtown, and if you walk over there you can go to the farmer’s market…”

 (After realizing what was going on and what was going to be expected of us, I chimed in) Susan: “Are you expecting us to pay you for giving us a tour? …because we aren’t going to.”

(He begins heading away from us and across the street mumbling under his breath)

Guy: “mumbles…racists…mumbles”

Well, that was interesting.  David was glad that I caught on to his intentions, and I was kind of surprised how bold I was.  In the end I’m glad that we were up front with him, because I wouldn’t have wanted him to continue “showing us around” and then gotten mad when we didn’t give him anything for it.  So we got called racist instead. 

I’m sorry, but after walking around Montego Bay and getting asked by every taxi driver that we walked by if we want a ride (to go 5 minutes down the same street), or asked by the ladies who work in the shops if we are doing any shopping and want to check out their store, I decided to be as direct with them as they were being with us.  I was beginning to feel like just because we were visiting their country they assumed that we had a ton of money to just throw away on any and everything.  Maybe a lot of visitors they see do, but we sure don’t.  So if they were going to assume I’m made of money, I was going to assume that they were just trying to hassle me for it.  And in this case I was right…and it had nothing to do with race!  When are people going to realize this?

When we walked into the downtown area we felt a little like we were back in Kingston, because we stood out so much.  There were a couple guys who said hi to us, and welcomed us to Jamaica.  But no one else stuck around to give us a tour.  Then, when we walked through a central area of downtown, we walked by a mother and her two kids.  We smiled at them as we walked by and then heard the mother say in a normal voice: “Look, white people!”  So we turned around to look at them, and waved…because they were already waving at us!  It was hilarious.  I would never have expected that to happen.  I think this is a sign that more people need to go visit Jamaica.  More people from ALL over the world.  And go explore more than just tourist areas…it’s more fun!

On our way back to our hotel, and lunch at Chilito’s again (we love it!) we saw the lady that spoke to me across the street.  We were wearing our sunglasses, and had no intention of going shopping, so decided not to acknowledge her unless we absolutely had to, since she was so far away.  We heard her calling to us:  “Yoo hoo!  Hello!  Yooooo hooooo!”  I guess she couldn’t remember my common Jamaican name. :o)

We also stopped by Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, just to check it out as a possibility for dinner.  It looked fun.  David especially liked to idea of a water slide. We also asked if they could make us milkshakes (since we were craving them after last night’s dinner).  We were assured that our dining experience would be fabulous.

After eating at Chilito’s for lunch we spent some time talking with the girls that were working there, and their manager.  They were all about our age and very nice.  They asked what had brought us to Jamaica, so we told them about the translation project.  They were really interested to hear about it.  So, while David kept talking with them, I went to get our last book mark from the hotel room.  We gave it to them and they had fun trying to read it.  The two girls who worked behind the counter were really excited about it, but the manager was a little hesitant.  She was more educated than them and even told us that her parents spoke to her in English at home, so she considered English a native language just like Patois.  But she did speak Patois with all her friends.  She was very open minded about the whole idea in the end though.

Then we went to the beach again.  We did some more snorkeling and David found a whole conch shell!  “Way cool!” as my mom used said.  

Then we laid in the sun a little more and I noticed a bunch of scruffy looking people hanging out along the back of the beach.  They were selling marijuana!  Not just selling it either, smoking it too.  It stunk pretty bad.  I also saw a group of American guys, who came off a cruise ship, go and buy some from them.  Shame. 

Our plan at this point was to head to Margaritaville in time to see the sunset while we ate dinner.  So we got ready and headed that way.  When we got there the place was almost completely empty.  One other couple was there eating.  We walked over to the water slide and noticed it was CLOSED!  

David’s evening was ruined.  He wore his flowery bathing suit for nothing, oh well.  Then when we ordered, we were sure to order our milkshakes…and they told us they didn’t have milkshakes!  Someone lied to us pretty bad.  But, our waiter said he thought he could whip something up for us.  They turned out to be delicious and he only charged us for one.

We were able to see as much of the sunset as possible from Montego Bay.  I guess going to Negril really is the thing to do to see the sunset in Jamaica.  We’ll have to do that on our next trip :o)

We did get to see the cruise ship leaving the bay, and a police boat that was speeding around.  We also saw a night snorkeler.  I’m sure it would be a lot of fun to do something like that, as long as the police boat doesn’t get too close to you.  Seriously, he could have died.

After an extremely filling burger dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed.  Our last night in Jamaica.

Jamaica - Day 7 - Montego Bay

David is cured!  We woke up early and went for a walk along the “hip strip” where our hotel was located.  Most of the little shops weren’t even open yet, but that was ok because our goal was for breakfast at Burger King.  Apparently, McDonlad’s didn’t try to claim Jamaica because Burger Kings were all we saw on the island.  I hadn’t been to a Burger King in a long time, but their breakfast menu, although limited, was just what we were looking for.  We ordered to go and decided to keep walking, this time hoping to find a store that sold waterproof sun block.  When we first arrived in Kingston we bought the only sun block they had at the grocery store and I didn’t realize that it wasn’t waterproof – that’s not going to work for a redhead on the beach!

We walked the span of the hip strip and finally found the sun block we wanted to buy.  It was priced at $15 and David casually said “that’s ridiculous” and the guy sold it to us for $10.  We also say the Bobsled Café.  Just in case you ever need to watch Cool Runnings while you’re in Jamaica, the Bobsled Café plays it on a loop for all of its customers. Then we grabbed our bathing suits and headed to the beach. 

There isn’t as much beach space (sandy shores) as most people who have ever been to Florida would expect from the beaches in Jamaica.  Plus, you have to pay to go to them.  We were staying at Doctor’s Cave Beach Hotel, so we thought we would get to go to the beach for free, but apparently they are two separate entities.  So we went to Doctor’s Cave beach anyway – the nicest beach in Montego Bay – and really enjoyed it.

It was a really nice beach too.  The sand was really clean and the water was beautiful.

We spent a good amount of time snorkeling, just enough time, in fact, to allow my sun block to slowly fade away in the water.  Anyway, the snorkeling was a lot better than I was expecting.  There were a bunch of reefy areas that had a bunch of fish!  We saw all kinds of different colored and shaped fish, as well as some rays (don’t know what kind), and little crabs, and coral, conch shells that were moving and the paths they left behind, a huge school of little tiny fish, and a fish that was very defensive of its home!  It tried to bite my mask.  Seriously, it swam right up to my face as if to say “Hey!  This is my home big thing with legs that is trying to swim!  Go away!”  I’ll admit, I backed away from him!  Too bad I didn’t have an underwater camera.

After snorkeling we sat in the sun reading until we got too hot that we couldn’t stand it anymore.  Then we had to get in the water again.  I realized how red I was getting so once we got out of the water again I moved my towel under a tree and sat there instead.  

Then we got hungry for lunch and went to the Chilito’s again so David could try it.  After lunch we decided to spend some time out of the sun.  Then we went back to the beach and walked down one pier that had some crabs walking around on it.  Apparently crabs aren’t really held back by gravity because they walked underneath the pier, upside down because they were afraid of us. 

Our intention was to stay at the beach until sunset, but it was cloudy and we wouldn’t have been able to see it anyway.  Instead, we went to dinner.  We went to a place recommended to us by Charlie called The Pelican.  It was good, we had Conch Soup (similar to clam chowder), Sweet & Sour Chicken (David), and Steamed Fish (Susan) that I was hoping would be as good as Lloyd’s from the other day, but it wasn’t. :o(  We also had a milkshake! Yum.