Day 35 Update

New Swag

My orthopedic surgeon just got back from his Italy/France trip and I paid the office a visit to get a prescription/note for a disabled parking placard.  I should have gotten this a LONG time ago!!

Tina drove me to the tax office and there was a long line.  I decided to ask the teller next to me after waiting in line for awhile and was told I could just go to the handicapped line (there was no line).  When she saw me, she said that if someone saw me with crutches waiting in line she would have gotten in trouble so thank goodness I got out of line and found her.  What a sweet lady.

The placard cost $5 and with the prescription from the doctor I didn't need to get the form notarized.  She told me that these parking placards are hot commodities ("high theft items"), so I should hide it when I get valet parking or go to a car wash, etc.  Sheesh.


Doin' Work

I'm so relieved that I finally got both my Parker College and University of Western States applications sent out.  The UWS one took literally 4 hours for me to do in one sitting because of all the essays!  I'm really anal when it comes to application essays, so I proofread it and revised it multiple times.  I'm just glad that's over with.  I also got my letters of recommendations in order, so now it's time to play the waiting game.

Now I need to seriously hunker down and study like mad for the comprehensive ACS Organic Chemistry Final! I'm pretty confident on Orgo I material; it's the Orgo II material that scares me.  I also need to review O Chem I stuff.  I think if I can at least get all the O Chem I stuff right, I'll be OK.  The professor says people usually fail the ACS final SO BAD that it's necessary for him to curve it (and he never curves tests).  Great...
Frankly, I'm pretty overwhelmed by the amount of information we have covered and now will be tested on.  I guess like everything, ya just gotta take a deep breath and start somewhere.  Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.  Just start tackling it one topic at a time.  I think as long as I can differentiate between which reagents oxidize and which reduce, then I should be aite.

Oh and I thought I was done with Guitar I after that concert, but no, we have a final exam as well.  And it's going to cover all 6 strings, chromatic notes (sight reading and playing), chords, arpeggios, and a song we just learned called "Mountain Men;" it has a lot of chromatic notes on the 6th & 5th strings.  It's a good song for the final because it involves all the strings actually (1 - 6).

We just learned how to do bar chords and the chords that use that, like d minor 7 and F major, along with all the others, will be tested too.  Memorization is something I've always had trouble with.  =/

How's Da Foot?

Still in a cast...which is getting mighty grimy at this point.  It's been more than a month since I've washed this leg at all.  It's getting really itchy under the cast, especially with the weather getting really hot and muggy.  I've been lazy and been putting the cast on the ground now and then too, so it's also getting dirty.  At least it'll be coming off in 2 weeks.

In the meantime, here are some photos of this cast that's been written on by Weston (precocious 4 year old, Tina's son), Tina aka T-nasty, Samantha (nurse), and Sheila (receptionist).

"L Foot First," "Get well soon!"

I'll let you take a wild guess at who wrote that giant scribble.  It made my mom laugh, a lot.  It's supposed to be "WESTON," I think?  

The real funny thing is in the image below though...

So this precocious 4 year old started drawing a circle with his silver Sharpie at first and his mum, Tina, said oh he's drawing a smiley face! Then he started fiercely mashing the Sharpie down the center bisecting the circle and I said, "Oh my....that ain't no smiley face!"

It's hard to see in the low light and with the silver Sharpie but let's just say that kids grow up fast these days!!  LOL.

I'm not flexible enough to take a photo of Tina's signature on my heel (and I think there are enough photos of my ugly cast already) but it states, "T-nasty was here!" It's all smudged and dirty looking now anyways.


Keep the Faith

Screw what the doctors, the experts, and all those fancy specialistis with appellations and suffixes to their names tell you.  They make a living out of making you feel small.  Have faith in yourself and your body's ability to heal itself.  Watch this man's remarkable transformation from obese paraplegic to conditioned athlete.

Arthur Boorman was a disabled Gulf War veteran, who injured his knees and back from paratrooping and thought his life as he knew it was over.  Then he took his life into his own hands and starting being proactive.  He started doing yoga even though he had to wear knee braces and was falling over while doing it.

My mind tells me to give up, but my heart won't let me.

-Lao Zi

In 10 months, he lost 140 lbs.  

Thanks to Serdar for posting this on Facebook.  When I watched this last night there was only around 4,000 views.  This morning, I saw the video shared on FB by a few of my FB buddies and the count was up to 200,000.  Now it's 409,000!  It's spreading like wildfire.

(It's always nice when something uplifting and inspiring like this becomes viral rather than a video of some douchebag getting kicked in the nuts... It'll probably be put on Reddit soon, if it's not there already.)

I don't have "Shazam" because I don't have a smart phone.  Can someone tell me who sings this moving version of "Fix You" by Coldplay?


Butt Stop

Oh yeah and I guess I might as well put up my ugly mug up now.  This was taken by T-nasty outside of the tax office right after I got my disabled parking placard.  I love funny signs, and Tina has a smartphone so BAM!  Kodak moment.

It was my first time using Instagram (changing a filter on a photo is the most photo-editing I've ever done in my life):

Wear it like Armor

So recently my mom's taken a liking to calling me "cripple" or "gimp," roughly translated.  ("Bai ka" in Taiwanese; there's no characters for it because the dialect has no written script, only a spoken language.)

Well as Tyrion Lannister says in Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin:

Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.

I'm going to wear my "gimp" label like a badge of honor!


.... or as Jay-Z would say, "If ya feelin' like a pimp, nigga, go and brush ya shoulders off."