May 26, 2011 – OT at RIO – 3rd Hospital

The leaves are starting to fall and almost everyone is back in school. Wow – where did the summer go?! I am so thankful I grew up in a place where education was an assumption. Many children in our world don’t have that. But I did. Thank you, MCPS!! And Thank You to all the teachers who oversaw my education, and those who look out for the children in my life. I have several friends who are teachers, and as we grow in our friendships I secretly take mental notes saying things to myself like, THAT is the kind of person I’d want teaching my kid (if I had one).

 My middle school gym teacher was a former NBA player. He was SUCH a nice guy. I hated PE, but I liked having him as my teacher. And what he taught me stuck. I cannot throw a ball now without pretending to make a basket. Look at the picture above. I’m thinking, You make the “L” with your arm…..

What I’m saying is that teachers have more influence than you think. As school is getting underway, let’s pray for a great year for our kids, and the men and women in charge of their classrooms.

…

In other news, I’m still working on sorting some stuff out in RecoveryLand. It’s going well, but I just need more time to attend to the Work of Recovery. I love writing, but I’m in need of more time to work on sleeping, eating, and breathing.

Not kidding. I have received specific instruction regarding these three things recently. Hilariously, I recruited Trainer D to come with me to a new Physical Therapy appointment (they had a different perspective on things I was interested in learning about), and we learned a lot about breathing techniques. This is right up his alley. He’s been all up in my grill about my breathing forever. And after the appointment he marched out to the waiting room where he gleefully informed Mommy that I need to be practicing my breathing. A lot. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.

Everyone else is also in fine form. Smurfette says I shouldn’t try to see her professionally until I make friends with food again. Gen fixed my hip on Tuesday – It’s misaligned, she observed as I walked in. I had 3 months of low or no pain, for which I am EXTREMELY grateful. But it got triggered by travel and is back with a vengeance. CMD is making sure I’m supplied with herbs, and today Coach R made me march and jump around after I laughed for a while and tried to convince him to let me wear a gait belt. Answer: No. He claims his towing device is the “athletic version of a gait belt.”

Mm hmm… A likely story, Coach R.

I really do love writing, though, and I’m working on two new books: Volumes 2 and 3 of the Learning How…series. They are going to be primarily about Trainer D and Coach R, with cameo appearances by your other favorite Team Tanimal members. I finished Coach R’s already, and he’s reviewing it. I had to warn him, Do not be distressed by the frequent use of the phrase, “Bahahahaha!!!” – I mean it in the nicest way possible.

Now I’m working on Trainer D’s, but I got stuck trying to write his bio. I only got as far as, Trainer D is far too Latin for his own good. And I figured, that’s probably not quite the thing. Sigh. Back to the drawing board.

Side note: I apologize to Latinos and everywhere. It really is true, though. If you ask him, he will make no attempt to deny it.

So, anyway, this is going to be a short blog year. It’s been kinda rough, and I’m not thrilled at pulling the plug like this, but that’s the point of how I set up my “online presence” and my writing – I can shut it down when I need to. And right now it’s clear that I need to prioritize some other things right now. So I’m going bye bye!!

Xoxo ann/ning.