Time Out for Some Humor

Thank you, Jean, for my smile today :)

Here's a prime example of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus offered by an English professor from the University of Colorado for an actual assignment.

The professor told his class one day, "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pairoff with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. The firstperson will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mail and anything youwish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students:

THE STORY:

(first paragraph by Rebecca)
At first Jennifer couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all cost, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocation, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph by Gary)
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Jennifer with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. 'A.S. Harris to Geostation17,' he said into his transgalactic communicator. 'Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far...' But before he could sign off a pluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through hisship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca) He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for physically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. 'CongressPasses Law Permanently Abolishing War & Space Travel', Jennifer read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful thinks around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

(Gary) Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anudrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aeros Peace Disarmament Treaty through the Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anudrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the>atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Jennifer.

(Rebecca) This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary) Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. 'Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of FUCKING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air-headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!!!'

(Rebecca) Asshole!

(Gary) Bitch!!

(Rebecca) SCREW YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!

(Gary) In your dreams, Ho. Go drink some tea.

(Teacher) A+ - I really liked this one.

What Not To Say

With only a few days left of summer vacation, I took the kids and Michael's friend to the movies this morning and lunch. At Subway I met the person who epitomises "What Not To Say".

I sat down at one table with Brady, feeding him yogurt, while Michael and his friend sat at the table next to me. One of the girls behind the counter had already commented how cute Brady was. She continued to stare at him wistfully.

"How old is he - 10 months?" she asked.

"He's two," I replied, although he's less than two months away from being three.

"Wow, he's small!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, well..." I said.

"So, you have three boys?" she continued.

"No, I am just borrowing one of them," I joked.

"Two boys? So are you going to have any more?" she asked.

"Umm.. I don't know," I answered.

"Do you want to have a girl?" she asked, as if two boys was the same as having 10 boys.

"Umm... I don't know," I answered again.

"So, are you done having kids?" she asked, since I am 73 years old.

"Umm... I don't know," I answered again.

"Wow, he's really small for two," she reiterated.

At first, I was a bit irritated with the line of questioning, then I thought about the young girl asking me questions - probably 19 years old, friendly, smiling. Did she have any ideas that she was being a tad bit inconsiderate, rude and invasive? Probably not. Was she trying to make me feel bad? Nah... but I pity the day someone not as laid back as me is on the other end of her questions. I was actually smiling to myself by the end, in amazement that this conversation was actually taking place.

Do you need a ride?

We picked up this little used V-Tech scooter and Brady loves it - although I believe he thinks he's in Australia. He gets on, puts his left hand on the steering wheel and turns it, and then takes his right arm and pumps it up and down on the side, like it's hanging out the window. Well, unless he is in England, he ain't hanging his RIGHT arm out the window... but his therapist noted that he does watch a lot of The Wiggles in their Big Red Car and in Australia they also drive on the right side of the road!

The Old Days

This past week I was able to hook up with an old junior high school friend of mine who now lives in Texas. She came up to visit family and we got together with the kids for a walk round her mother's neighborhood.

Michelle's boys, Brett (in the carriage) and Scott (with Michael) are pictures of their parents; Brett looks JUST like my friend and it is a bit eerie, to say the least. Having known Michelle since I was 12 (only two years older than Michael), seeing a little her running around now is quite strange.

It's also amazing how we fall right into the same conversations, as though time has stood still and we are the same people we were when we moved apart all those years ago.

Just yesterday...

As I gather together items for Michael's first day of middle school in two weeks, I am reminded of a boy at the end of the summer three years ago before he became a big brother. The short hair and not too much attitude are the only differences between that boy and the one today. He is still full of questions, ideas and fun. How fast time flies!

Counting My Blessings

I have only two blessings this week I would like to comment on. The first one is obviously Brady's cath and its great result. I need not explain to the people reading this blog what a relief it was. For those who tune in here and there, please let me explain the roller coaster feelings I had this week: bringing Brady into the hospital to have a procedure that determined if he was having heart surgery next week (as was the plan) is no walk in the park. Both his hands are full of bruises, from bloodwork in one and the IV in the other; both groin areas are deep purple and black from bruising, so large they aren't completely covered by his diaper. Now that I know he is okay til next year, I have given myself permission to be in awe of what he has gone through. What a trooper! :)

My second blessing is regarding a comment from Joanne in my blog entry of Saturday, August 16, Numbers (below). She is mother to a grown son, Scott, who is mentally challenged and grandmother to a child, Sawyer, with WS. Her comment was very touching and heartfelt, and I appreciate her life lessons learned and shared. I was very moved to read the following, especially:

It still tears at my heart to hear unkind comments about [Scott] or feel he is being left out of many of life's opportunities. I have cried many a tear over my husband's loss of the chance of being a little league dad or to have a fishing partner. However, it is (was) my sadness. Not Scott's. He is happy in his life - and if given the opportunity, he is willing to share his smiles and enthusiasm with all who open their worlds to him.

Most of all, just know that all of these changes will bother YOU much more than they will Brady. He will instinctively be drawn to those who accept and love him for being Brady --- and there will be many who will want him in their lives.

Thank you, Joanne, for your words. I am blessed to have you in my world! :)

I love this picture of Michael and Brady - it is a typical brother picture. "Leave me alone and give me my blanket!" is what I picture Brady saying right here :)

Numbers

Here is Brady with cousin Cooper and Grandma, while Cooper tells him the ways of the world.

Although Michael was an only child for so long, he never lacked for company. Besides his most fun parents LOL, a girl his same age lived next door, our friends had kids the same age when we visited, another close friend was an only child so he was with him a lot; plus as he got older three boys moved in across the street and now Michael rides his bike around the neighborhood where three more friends live. His cousin Adam, my brother-in-law's son, is only a year older than Michael and they grew up together. He sleeps over constantly and we have taken him on vacation with us. Tom and I were working on creating that bigger family, but in the meantime, Michael had many "siblings".

I have friends who also have kids around Brady's age also, but it's much different this go-around. When they were babies all was the same for our playdates. But as the kids got older and Brady stayed the same, it changed. Brady didn't enter that toddler stage when they did; he wasn't trying to waddle around and climb and play. My friends wanted to go to play areas and parks to have the kids play. Obviously, Brady did not partake in any of that activity. Knowing my friends, they didn't care and would ask me along, but it was hard sometimes to watch their child run around and play while my child, a year older sat in his carriage and watched. Not that he cared - Brady was always interested to watch but not fussy.

Over time, there were new babies born, and Brady fit in with them easily. He was one of the guys again! In fact, he was a little more advanced. What a different world! (Side note: I often joked that when people at the store asked me how old he was, I was going to star saying a year or more younger than he was so instead of them remarking how little he was they would say how advanced he was! LOL)

Well, those kids are growing up too, now. They started taking steps, eating real "people" food and playing with toys. But this time, so is Brady. I know that they will probably move through this stage more quickly than he will, but it is nice to see him play with kids his developmental "age". Even the WS kids we know in his age bracket are ahead of Brady. It seems that every year we'll need to make friends with kids who are one-year-old.

Speaking of his developmental age, Brady had his six month assessment yesterday. Yes, I know he was in recovery still. His therapists came over and more or less filled it out for him, knowing how he does anyway. Brady increased in all areas, but mostly in gross motor, which is what I figured. He scores at 12 months in that bracket. As soon as he is standing he will score a bit higher. His other areas scored around that same number.

It wasn't too surprising where he landed, but I also see his determination as he attempts to walk by himself, his frustration when he can't communicate something, his interest in his face when he spots a toy he likes. I feel like we are on the cusp as he tries to move ahead. Before, none of this really interested him, or it appeared that way. He is responding to facial cues more, attempting to smile in my face. Something all the other WS kids have been doing, but not Brady.

I'm glad Brady has the friends he does - the two-year-olds who push him to do more, and the one-year-olds he can play with. I refuse to be sad my entire life watching Brady not be able to do things, so instead I make sure I know of ways he will succeed.