As I’ve mentioned before, I have chronic tinnitus as a result of losing hearing. You can read about it here. For the most part, my tinnitus usually sounds like a mixture of soft ringing and birds chirping, which flares up once in a blue moon.
Well, I was telling Jeff over IM about an “oops” I just had that flared up my tinnitus for a bit.
Me: I stuck a Q-tip in my ear too far by accident. Now there’s a major, loud bird party going on in my ear.
Jeff: Check Twitter to see what your ear is saying.
Just because I haven’t posted about my running doesn’t mean I haven’t run! My toe is much better. It wasn’t ingrown at all, thank goodness. Just some irritation from not trimming my nails short enough, as if it’s not short enough already!
I felt like it was too much work to update my runs on my website. Instead, I joined dailymile, where users can post runs, bike rides, workouts, and so forth. It does all the tracking for me, tells me my mileage of the week, gives a chart, and so much more! My website cannot do that for my runs. Plus, there’s great motivation on dailymile!
I’ve installed a widget on the side of this website so at least there’s something about my runs on here. I may post an entry about certain runs here on my website, but not every single one.
There’s a half marathon in September on a beach down south that I’m thinking of doing. I don’t know if it’s enough time to train, though. I should just DO it. Train and see what happens. Set up a plan! The other option is to do a 12k (7.46 miles) race before I even try a half marathon. Hmm. We’ll see! First things first – getting into the groove of running longer and harder!
I need to eat more fruit. You see, junk food is my vice. Ice cream, Hershey bars and kisses, Skittles, M&M’s, and so on! Fruit was never really my thing. I remember one humid summer day at the annual carnival, my mom forced me to eat a grape. It was green! A grape! How dare she?! She literally stuffed it in my mouth and forced me to chew. Man, I was pissed! Cruelty! Did I like it? I don’t remember, but I do eat grapes today.
I usually incorporate grapes and bananas into my diet. I’ll buy grapes once in a while (thanks Mom!). I eat bananas often. Canned peaches once in a blue moon. Strawberries if it’s provided somewhere.
Now, however it is time to start getting a bit exotic here! I silently made a vow with myself to be open to trying more fruit when I tried a raspberry at my friend Beth and Adam’s house a few weeks ago. There’s a world of fruit out there! Mangos, raspberries, blueberries, papayas, oranges, passion fruit, honeydew, and so on. Buying fruit is the easy part, it’s the preparing part that is a pain in the butt. You buy a Hershey bar, and all you have to do is rip the paper open and chow down. With fruit, you have to eliminate bad ones, run them through water, dry a bit, then chow down. What a process, as if I have all the time in the world! As if!
Whenever I try fruit, I’ll post here about it, whether or not it’s thumbs up or down. I have a report for papayas, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries coming up in the very near future. If you have any suggestions, let me know. For now, I’m going to have a little bit of ice cream. Hey, I rode the bike for 14 miles today. I deserve it. Shh.
Grass weed gets such a bad rap, but dandelions are awesome. The coolest weed that screams spring! Right now they are littered all over the front yard, like a decoration. I remember making a wish and blowing the white fluffy ball off the stem every spring when I was a carefree child. Truth be told, I always thought the blowball and yellow dandelion were different types of weed. Imagine my surprise when I found out that they are both the exact same thing! The yellow part dries out and the parachute sphere forms. Each thread in the fluffy ball is actually a seed. Nifty, huh?
Some people think this type of weed is a nuisance in their yard, but really, dandelions offer so much. Did you know that dandelions have a significant amount of beta carotene as well as a crapload of vitamin C? It’s also a diuretic and a liver stimulant. Talk about weed being good for you! It’s also good for your yard, too. Dandelions attract ladybugs, which in turn would reduce aphids.
Go on, pull a dandelion, make a wish, and blow it into the wind.
I don’t play Mario Kart as much as I used to, but everytime I DO play, it’s always such a HOOT! This song is genius! Not that I would listen to it for pleasure, but the video itself and the lyrics – GENIUS.
For weeks now, every time someone asked me if I was going to go to any inauguration events, I laughed and retorted right back saying, “Are you nuts?! Hell no. There’s going to be a shitload of people!” I mean, come on. There are hotels booked all the way out to West Virginia. There are people renting out their places for a shitload of money! People traveling from thousand of miles just to be here. So of course I am going to stay right here on my ass at home and watch everything on TV. Basically, I was hell bent on staying away from all that inauguration mess. However, when the weekend actually arrived, I kept flip flopping: Should I go?! Should I stay home? Should I go? Yes I’ll go. No I won’t go. On Saturday, I stayed away from DC.
But…yesterday at noon, while sitting on my ass, I suddenly just stood up and announced, “I am SO taking my ass to DC now. What was I thinking staying home on my ass!? I am SO going to regret not going!” This was history and I live right next door to it all! This is OBAMA! This was CHANGE! This was HOPE! And, Dude and Dudettes, there was a free concert in DC with Beyonce, Shakira, Garth Brooks, Stevie Wonder, and so on!! This is exciting! What was I doing on my ass?! I started running around like a headless chicken getting ready to leave. I grabbed my scarf, gloves, hat, and whatnot, because baby, it’s cold out there.
Once I got to the metro, I saw three helicopters heading in the direction of DC. I can almost guarantee you that it was either Obama or Bush, because I’ve lived here long enough to know if its the Marine One or not. But then again, it could have been someone else important.
Upon arriving to DC, I could already see road blocks by cops and military. The buildings were plastered with welcome signs for Obama, our 44th President. It was so surreal. I’m sure Obama is flattered with all these welcome signs and support. The concert was at the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall, but by the time I got there, swarms of people were walking to the Monument instead. I asked people what’s up!? Why is everyone walking in the opposite direction!? Turned out that the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool were all blocked off, too crowded and that people were forced to go to the Monument area where there were screens scattered with a live feed of the concert. There was no way to get to my friend over in the Lincoln Memorial area. Worse, the AT&T network crashed! I couldn’t use my phone at all! Doesn’t that say a lot about how crowded it was?
I couldn’t see ANYTHING! All the areas with screens were already super crowded, and I couldn’t even read the captions. I could hear what was going on at the Memorial, just couldn’t see the captions. I dragged Jeff into all kinds of directions just to be able to see! Finally, I just gave up. Stood in the same spot. Ten minutes later, I was ready to go home. I was satsified just being there, but on the same token, also sad I couldn’t see anything! I figured it would suffice to see the concert on TV on HBO. There were firemen on top of their fire truck taking pictures for people just because people couldn’t see anything! One fireman stopped and said, “Hang on! Let me take my own picture with my own camera! One moment!” Ha!
So, I proceeded to walk back to the metro, but Jeff noticed another screen. We walked towards it, and saw that there was room for us to just sit at the front. We had to kind of pull our heads back to be able to look up. AT LAST! I was one happy camper! The speakers were incredibly loud and with awesome quality. The captions were clear enough! The experience was just so surreal. Every time Obama came on the screen, everyone cheered so loud. When Garth Brooks was playing, everyone followed his lead and put their hands up in the air whenever he sang “Shout!” People were clapping their hands. I was thinking to myself that this totally beats watching it at home on HBO!
Let me tell you this, though. I have never seen so many porta potties in my life! Everywhere I turned, there were porta potties lined up that seemed to go on for miles. They came in handy because I had to use a porta potty twice! I know this porta potty thing won’t end up as a feature in history books (or will it?), but for me, I am never going to forget this part!
What’s amazing is that no one was rude. People were civil! Many of you have heard me say how rude people can be here, pushing and everything without even saying excuse me, and whatnot. But at this concert, everyone was just incredibly nice. They even let me through the crowds even though I stepped on some shoes. Everyone must have been just so excited and filled with hope, change, and a new presidency. On a second thought, maybe these people weren’t from DC! Hah! I’m sure many were, though.
Here’s a slideshow. To see the titles/description, just hover over the slideshow and click “Inauguration Concert Set.”
I’m incredibly glad I hauled my ass to DC to witness a part of this history in the making, and to support the person I voted for.
(The concert is running on HBO continuously if you want to see the whole thing!)
My brain earlier today: “I wonder how many minutes in life I waste just because I am deaf.”
This new, random thought caught me off guard. Could it be possible that all this time, my life has been inefficient and a waste of valuable minutes because of my deafness? All my life, I have had the same thoughts that come and go, like these:
I could be making dinner faster if I could just use my ears to hear what is being said while I cook.
I could be writing notes in class efficiently rather than staring at an interpreter because I’m afraid I’ll miss something that will be on a test.
I could be reading a good book instead of looking up lyrics and trying to hear/learn how the lyrics go in a song I fall in love with.
I could be learning so much more at work if I could overhear discussions about projects and so on.
I could be finishing my work faster at the computer if I could talk to my co-workers across the room rather than having to walk over and lipread.
I could lay in the complete darkness enjoying intimate conversations rather than having to turn on some kind of low light.
I could be more in tune with current events if I could hear the radio or overhear people talking on the train.
I could laugh along with everyone at work, if I could just hear what they are laughing about.
I could have my hamburger ready if I could just pop out the cell phone and call the burger joint ahead of time.
I could watch all the videos on the internet with 100% understanding if I could hear because they don’t have freaking captions.
I could go on and on, but you get the drift.
But now, 29 years later, I have this BRAND NEW thought about minutes being wasted as a deaf person. People talk about how much time we waste sleeping away our life, how much time we waste on a computer, and such.
I started to calculate the minutes. About 5 minutes per dinner, 365 days a year, times how many years I’ve started cooking. About 2 hours a day at work, times 260 days a year (excluding weekends). About 2 minutes per text or email message rather than using the phone, times holy shit, forget it. This math will never be accurate!
After doing silly calculations, my brain thought, “But you have the magic of even having a mode of communication! If it wasn’t for sign language, cued speech, or ability to write/read/lipread. you wouldn’t have communication at all!” Then, “Saz, you’re not at your accounting job at the moment! What are you calculating for?” So true, my mushy brain. So true. Sure I lose many minutes or take longer to do stuff, but things could be worse. Much worse.
So, how many minutes do I waste in my lifetime being deaf? None. Having the ability to communicate at all is a blessing. And, I’m lucky to even be able to talk and hear pretty good to the point where some people forget or don’t believe that I’m deaf. Being ALIVE is even a bigger blessing.
As I’ve said many times, Wii is cool and all. Lots of fun playing with other people, and it’s great technology. But, like hello Nintendo, you need a crash course on style.
I have no way of changing my outfit on Tetris Party. Yes, this is my Mii. My hair, my eyes, all symbolizes me, but the outfit? This brings back horrendous memories of when my mother made me wear a black and white polka dot dress with a big neon pink bow at the neck. just like this Wii outfit’s bow. I’ll probably have nightmares tonight.
Now there’s a major, loud bird party going on in my ear.
My 
