Job Interviews and Audiobooks

(Full disclosure: I have joined the Amazon Associate's Program, but I promise to only link to books I have read, and have enjoyed, when I would have already posted about them. If anyone has a problem with that, drop me a line at ashley writer at gmail dot com, and I'll be happy to no longer participate. You all come first!)

So I'm still waiting on surgery.... Which led to the rash decision to tempt fate and apply for a 6 month internship with The Learning Disabilities Association of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I'm not intending to *not* have surgery, I'll push it to January if I get the job, if not I'll keep on waiting, waiting waiting.

I have experience in all the areas listed in the job ad, but I felt like I was rambly in the interview. One of the criteria is that you had to be a person with a disability to recieve the grant funding, and while I do, I do not have a learning disability, so if someone else with the same credentials, or who maybe wasn't so rambly who also has a learning disability should be hired instead of me.

I'm hoping.

Am also having a hard time reading these days- the clingfilm burn out seems to have put over my mind is still there. But I'm digging Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government--A Memoir, so much that it has me giggling out loud, and also listening to Angela's Ashes: A Memoir, and after that, I have Tis Unabridged: A Memoir, ready to go.

That's about all I have here at Chez Rolladyke.

Until next time!

Love

Me

Not the 100th post, and not 100 things.

So I was hoping that my 100th post would be my surgery date, because I'm a little bit nerdy like that, but I'm still waiting and my blogging fingers are itchy. Also, I didn't realise that Blogger counts "drafts" among your number of posts, so after some cleaning up, this is actually post 84.

Either way, I got the idea to do a 100 Things post...

So, without further ado, for my I thought it wa my 100th post, 100 things about me that you may or may not know already.

1. I was raised by my bioMom, but she did have an offer from one of her older brothers to take me and raise me as his own child. I would have been raised in a 2 parent household as a devout Roman Catholic. I sometimes wonder what that would have been like.

2. I did go to a Catholic school from grades K-7 because all schools in Newfoundland were denominational until 1999. I don't necessarily think this would have been a bad trend to continue.

3. I was always told about my disablity in age-appropriate language from the time I was 2. I think this has had a huge impact on me.

4. I believe in God, and energy, and reciprocity, and light, and love, and things unseen. I don't know what that makes me.

5. I have seen demons.

6. I love to sing, but I don't think I'm any good.

7. I love to write fiction, but I don't think I'm any good at that either.

8. I may not be able to finish university, now or ever.

9. I'm starting to think that's okay. Not necessarily desirable, but not world ending either.

10. I met the love of my life in a comic book shop

11. I drink tea. Good tea.

12. The person who was most surprised that I was a lesbian was probably me.

13. After 13 years, I still think the surgical scars from my most complex operation are really ugly

14 I don't like the colour purple. Never did.

15. I tend to catch on to trends late, and stop liking things like TV shows if they become too popular.

16. I had a lot of pets when I was little, but my bio father always gave them away.

17. It pleases me to no small end that Mackers is *my* cat and that no one will be giving him away.

18. The pet thing is only one of the many reasons I am still violently angry at my bio dad.

19. I completely switched sides in the recent divorce when I found out more information. It makes me feel like a turncoat, deep down.

20. My sister is my full biological sibling, but we don't get along.

21. I'm really excited to see who she'll become when she stops trying to fit into a mold.

22. My best friend (aside from the incredible Lady) lives in GA. And always has. I met her online.

23. My grandmother helps me pay bills.

24. I *hate* being on government funding

25 I don't know what to be when I grow up

26. I think this is because I missed out on a lot of kid experiences

27. I really really want to be able to buy toys for younger kids, and play with them myself.

28. It irks me that if one of you posted this about your radlings I'd tell you to go ahead and buy the toys!

29. I do not have any problem going to Build a Bear, however

30. I am entirely too pleased to have inherited the family Wii. My "share" of the divorce, I guess.

31. I'm saving change in an empty two litre Coke bottle

32. I'm actually trying to cut down on my Coke consumption

33. Some weeks it works, some weeks it doesn't. I try not to let it make me crazy.

34. I'm having more trouble coming up with things than I thought I would.

...So I'm going to toss this open for comments, questions, and rotten fruit. What else do inquiring minds want to know?

Surgical Holding Pattern

Waiting. Im not very good at it, but it's what I've been doing since my last post.

Although the fabulous Dr Rock put me on the "kind of urgent" list for the fixing of the ankle which now has decided to go even *more* sideways, it hasn't yet come to pass, which means I can not search for a summer job, or even buy shoes.

How am I passing the time? Plastic canvas crafts, playing with the fantastic Mr. Mackers, blog reading...

Keep hanging in there, folks, you're fabulous.

XOXO

Ashley

Blogging about Blogging

First of all- I'm creeping up there on 100 posts! I'll have to think about something fun to do for post 100. (This is post 98)

Second of all, I set some gears in motion yesterday for surgery on my foot, mentioned here, here, here, and here in chronological order. Looks like it will be soon, but not a lot has panned out on the job front right now, and my surgeon is great, so I have to believe that this is the right time.

*Given* that surgery will be soon (this is my 7th or 8th, so there's not so much a fear of the unknown as the fear of the "Oh, not this again...") and given that my last serious surgery was in 2000 (last surgery of any sort was in 2006) I have a tool at my disposal this time that I didn't before: Blogging!!

Is anyone interested in me blogging through this? Is anyone *opposed* to me blogging through this? No gory pictures, I promise. In fact, no pictures at all of me in hospital, I don't want them, and neither do you.

I never intended to become a "medblogger" per se, but writing is amazing therapy... It's not worth losing my readers, though!

On Children's Programming

Disclaimer: I am not a Mom. Unless we count Mackers.

But honestly, the downturn in children's TV since *I* was small kind of freaks me out. When I was a kid, you could pretty well turn on Family Channel with no worries about what you might see. You might see

Katie and Orbie

Maya the Bee

or Madeline, or an assortment of classic Disney.

On Friday nights there was the incredible lineup of TGIF, which when I was a kid, consisted of Boy Meets World, Family Matters, Full House, Step By Step, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

I remember these shows tackling some tough issues: Fitting in, dating, step-families, even child abuse and eating disorders (Thanks, Full House!)

I do not remember any of these characters saying *anything* of the likes of the snarky, irritable, constantly hormonal "tweens" such as Hannah Bratana (I think Corey used that term first?) or Zach and Cody or the blended famly on Life With Derek....

I couldn't sleep last night, so Lady and I were flicking through channels. Family's broadcast day currently opens with my classic favourite, Katie and Orbie. Before it, there was one of the "tween" shows listed above. As we listened to the dialogue, I turned to Lady and said,

"This is why all the kids sound like this!!"

Now, I know that's not the *only* reason, but it made me think.

Amazing, Amazing, Amazing OT Visit!!

I have the best OT in the entire world. Personable, Irish, incredibly sensible.

I'm getting a bath lift on trial, so I can actually *soak in the bathtub* again, people... This may be slightly more exciting than Tiruba Tuba's towel bar...! Maybe!

I'm getting the kind of walker I had as a little kid, seen here. (Yeah, clunky, but the most stable thing I ever walked in, and I'm going to start walking for *me* again, just like my friend Corey!)

And, new chair, because whoever measured and fit my first one was clearly asleep at the wheel, and walking is going to become my thing I do for me- It's not practical for me to walk everywhere.

But aside from all the snazzy stuff that will be coming in to my home, and probaly even more important... I felt listened to and appreciated and supported. That's what all of us want from our special needs professionals!

Random Funnies

So I'm feeling much better after that second ER run, currently relaxing in front of the TV with Mackers and America's Funniest Home Videos, which got me thinking about kid logic, and some of the funny things little folks do. I did my own share of funny things, but there's one incident in particular that I can recall with absolute clarity. I even remember the "kid logic" behind this one, and I thought I would blog it for posterity.

I was perhaps seven, and had a porcelain tea set. My Mom was away from home this particular evening so I was in the care of a babysitter. The babysitter was unfamiliar, so I was content to stay in my room with my tea set and books and my dolls.

I called out to the babysitter to ask if I could have some water for my pretend tea, and was told no, water would make a mess because I could spill it. This made sense to Little Me. Water, after all, was wet, so I looked around my room for an alternative.

Suddenly, I had it. Baby Powder! It was sitting right on top of my dresser, I could pour it, and it wasn't wet!

Turns out, it *was* still messy... Luckily, Mom was too busy laughing to be upset, when she did come home.

No deep thoughts today, folks.


Keep hanging in there

Ashley