Saturday, June 27, 2009

Bands on the beach...

Last year I only made it to one of the concerts on the beach and I swore that this year I was going to go to all of them. I remember last year I went an hour early so that I would be sure to get a good seat. When I got there a lady in a scooter had placed eight magazines on the ground in two rows and said that I could not sit in any of the places that had a magazine, I was so frustrated and I couldn’t believe it. The first concert I went to, last Friday, I decided to go two hours early to be sure that I would get a good seat and sure enough guess who was there? She had a bunch of empty wheelchairs, a cooler and a couple of pairs of gloves laid out on the ground and although I was very angry there was a place for me to sit so I didn’t say anything. Tonight I had just had enough. This time I got there she had about 10 Ziploc bags with Rice in them and it took up more than half of the space available for disabled people. I started to drive over a couple of the bags and she said “I am saving these places for people who are in wheelchairs”... what did she think this thing was that was under my butt?? I told her that it really was not fair and that she couldn’t do that but she just totally turned her head and ignored me and started talking to her friend so I decided after the concert I was going to go talk to somebody in security and this is not going to happen again, I was afraid that if I left to go find somebody in security there would not be any places when I got back. One of the security guards walked through to usher out a gentleman who wandered into the area to take pictures and stepped on one of the bags of rice and almost twisted his ankle and then just stepped over it and walked away. I’m assuming that he really didn’t realize what was going on. After the concert I went into the security office and ran into a lady that I have talked to a couple times before. When I had Brodie I used to have to register her as a service animal before I can take her on the boardwalk. Luckily she remembered me and I told her the situation and she said that was not right and that they would make sure it didn’t happen in the future. That made me feel better. I felt bad for all of the people that were not in this ladies CLUB or what ever that were squeezed in at the very end, it was not very much room left at all. Luckily the concert was AWESOME and I got my turkey leg, garlic fries and Mike’s lemonade so I really did have a good time.

It looks like today is going to be a beautiful day and the morning glories on my fence are blooming. I’m going to go cruise around the wharf and then see what’s going on downtown.

I love going down to the wharf. There is a guy there that fishes primarily to feed the pelicans. They don’t seem to pay much attention to the other people fishing on the wharf so they must know him. As soon as he starts reeling in a fish they walk along the rail and jump on the ground next to him. The people around really get a kick out of it and they love to take pictures, they are very interesting creatures.

I didn’t realize until I got down to the boardwalk that there were three major things going on. Heather had told me that they had about 6000 people that she was cooking for at the Coconut Grove inside and out. They did hot dogs, veggie burgers and ribs. They also had a major volleyball tournament and they had Woodie on the Wharf. The first two are pretty self explanatory but the third one was a bunch of old cars that had paneling all over the outside, they were pretty cool. I wandered around for a while and then I found a couple of pictures that I wanted and of course I forgot to bring my wallet so I came home, got my wallet and went back to get the pictures. I think my favorite part when the boardwalk and the wharf are so crowded is watching the people, I could sit there and watch them for hours. My least favorite part is trying to get through the crowds in my chair.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Father's Day...

Father’s Day was really great, I was born on Father’s Day and I have always been really proud of that... of course because I was daddy’s little girl. My cousin Rich, his wife Vanessa and their for kids came over and brought me a picture of the new baby cupped in my cousin Rich’s hands, it was so adorable. My brother Stanley and his family also came down to celebrate Father’s Day. He left Robert, David and Corrine here for a couple of days while he and his wife celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. We went to Mobo’s for Japanese food, you can’t say sushi in front of the boys, then we went to go see the movie up, it was an awesome movie. We rented a couple of movies and just hung out.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

My birthday...

Thursday I had a really great birthday. I had an interview with a massage therapist who is used to massaging people in chairs and I’m really excited about that, she’s going to start next Thursday.

A bunch of us went to dinner at a restaurant down by the wharf that has a free dinner for everybody who’s birthday is that month on the last Thursday of the month, we had eight people and five of us has a birthday in June.

Last night started the free concerts on the boardwalk and I’m so excited, last year I only got to go to one and this year I’m going to everyone, the first concert this year is the Fixx. Last year when I went a lady surrounded herself by about eight magazines and told me that I couldn’t sit anywhere where there was a magazine because she was expecting friends, I thought that was really unfair. My uncle went down with me earlier with some blue tape to see if we can take off a place for me to sit and the security guard said that we could not do that because it was first-come got to sit there so I’m going to go down a couple of hours early and hope that I can get a place where we can see the band and not have to have anybody standing up in front of us.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Busy week...

I didn’t get to go to my nephews or my nieces graduation or graduation party, I wish they didn’t live so far away. It takes about three hours to get there and back and since the barbecue was about three hours long and started at 2 PM it would be impossible to get back here when my caregiver arrives at 5 PM. I really don’t like having to go to bed every night at 5 PM but I think at the time I didn’t think it would be fair to have the caregivers come in later because most of them have school in the morning. Luckily I’m getting to know them a lot better and they seem to be really good about coming in later on some evenings. I already decided that I’m not going to miss any more of the boardwalk free concert series and my Friday caregiver, Karen, said that she would not mind coming in later so I can go.

Janet and Corinne came down last Monday and just left a little while ago. On Tuesday the Girl Scouts had their last get-together at the Boardwalk so I went down to watch everybody have a really good time. On Tuesday Corinne and I met one of her friends at the Boardwalk and they played on all the rights while I cruised around. Yesterday we were supposed to go to the Monterey Bay aquarium but I was having a lot of pain in my neck and shoulders. I think I have a pinched nerve although I’m not a doctor but I look stuff up on the Internet. It certainly feels like something is being pinched behind my left shoulder, so bad sometimes that radiates down my arm and my hands go numb. A nice hot bath, a couple of muscle relaxers and a couple of days in bed and I’m hoping to be back on my chair.

Teresa met a massage therapist where she works and got her number, she has a friend who has experience massaging quadriplegics AND she will come to my house. I will meet her on Thursday and I’m so excited, I hope she can put me back to normal... whatever normal is for me.

I have a couple of days to myself before my mom and my aunt come back from their vacation on Sunday. I really do like having people around but I also like having time to myself and cruising around now that the weather is really nice.

Last Sunday Teresa and I met Heather and Linda at the Santa Cruz pride parade and the park afterwards. I was really glad I was there but I wasn’t feeling very well, my uncle and I have been eating really bad and I was paying for it on that day. We came back here and Heather barbecued, we dug out the barbecue and are going to be using it a lot. Heather loves to barbecue, I was so excited cheer about that. Heather and Linda came over on Monday and she barbecued a bunch of stuff... steak, blackened catfish, halibut, eggplant, zucchini, Portobello mushrooms, onions... it was awesome.

Next Sunday Teresa and I were invited to go to her boss/my doctor’s for a barbecue, I think I must have the coolest doctor in the world and she has a really great family and a crazy dog.