So the holidays are often slow around my house because we have no family in this area. We started out the day with painting my nails ~red, white & blue~ of course. Then I had a really yummy patriotic breakfast of waffles with red, white and blue, strawberries, bananas and blueberries!

We decided at the last minute to take a ride on July 4th to the Jersey Shore. We left on Sunday in the early afternoon, and luckily there was no traffic. We found a casual little restaurant with a patio in Avalon, where we ate dinner. We had to go to one where they would allow doggies, because Montana came along for the ride. He loves to hangout with us. We have a travel bag that Brooke brought for him when he was baby pup.  He Loves It!  So we bring it on the road, and he’s comfy, cozy anywhere we go. 

After dinner, we drove to Stone Harbor and walked around a bit, ate ice cream, and bought some creamy chocolate heavenly fudge and enjoyed people watching.  Definite going back for more fudge! 

At About 8:45pm we walked over to a ramped pavillon on the beach. Some people stayed on the ramp and pavillon area, and others brought their chairs to sit in the sand.  The fireworks went off from a barge just off shore.  It was a very cool night with such a beautiful backdrop of the fireworks against the ocean. 

Because this was last minute, we forgot my 4th of July gear. I had light up glasses and red, white, & blue light up bracelets! Oh well! I’ll save them for next year! Hope everyone had a Happy 4th Of July! Happy Summer!

In the beginning of May, I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona for the first time. I went with my Mom & Dad.  My Dad was having a procedure to try to aleiviate his constant ear pain, caused by Shingles 4 years ago. My sister flew in from LA, since she was so close. My sister’s friend lives in Tucson, so she came up for couple of days with her service dog, Senora. It was fun to see her and meet “Nora” for the first time!

My Dad had 2 wires leads put into his head, which are stimulated by a small electrical device that sticks to his chest. They will be taken out after 60 days, and hopefully He won’t have anymore pain!

As a fun side trip on Tuesday, we drove up to the Grand Canyon! It was about a 4 hour drive, but worth every minuite! Grand Cayon! WoW! So So Gorgeous and Amazing veiws. I loved turning my phone off and soaking up the sun and just being in nature for a day. My sister wore a necklace to align her Chakras. Since Arizona is such spiritual place, we all took turns wearing it that day!

On the way home we took a route to go to Sedona for dinner.  It’s a very serene place with a cute town and lots of shops. (which were closing soon!), and unbelievable rock formations. My sister ran to a couple of shops and purchased some beautiful, spirtual stones. We had dinner at a restaurant and sat on their back patio. There was a maginifiernt view of the rock formations.

It was dark when we left. When we looked up to the sky, there were millions of stars covering the darkness. We just couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. It felt like a little bit of heaven. Brooke had an App that was showing us constellations. I have never seen that many stars! It was magical!

It was an amazing day and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to be there. Dad – sorry you needed a medical proceedure but everything worked out great! If you ever have the chance to go to the Grand Canyon…you must put it on your bucket list!

If you are interested in arts and crafts you might want to try painting tiles.  I did this in an art class on line recently, with one of my groups via zoom. They dropped off two 6″x 6″ tiles and some brushes and paint made specifically for the tiles, that can be put in a kiln.  That is an oven with very high temperatures to bake the paint on.  I’m sure that you could find the materials on line or at a craft store or one of those craft/ceramic paint shops.

One tile was for a personal design that I will keep. The second one is for a group project that will be put together for the Center. For my tile, I looked on the internet to find designs. When I found some that I liked I decsribed to my mom how I wanted it to look and she drew it on paper! 

This is the image I found on the internet

We scribbled pencil on the back of the paper. We taped that to the tile, pencil side down, and I traced the drawing. At that point I started painting. My mom helped with the very small areas.

The group decided that the group tile would be an affirmation design/message. I chose the word gratitude. By chance, I checked on the internet for symbols for gratitude. It surprised me that a spiral was the universal symbol for Gratitude. Again I showed my mom some pictures and talked about what I envisioned, and she drew it! The Center is keeping the group tile and will put everyone’s together for a art mural.

The Center picked up tiles to bring them to a ceramic shop, where it will be baked in the kiln. The paint hardens and becomes brighter and glazed. I may frame mine or use it for a hot plate. It was cool learning about how designs are hand painted on tiles. They can also be given as gifts. It was fun.  If it sounds interesting, you may to try it!  Someone dropped off my personal tile. I was happy to get it back, but really disappointed because the art teacher made black outlined markings on it. She had mentioned to the class that if anyone wanted her to do that, to send a note with the tiles. I didn’t send a note or ask her to do that, but she marked them up anyway.  It look away from the pastel look that I was going for. 

The American Disabilities Act (ADA) recently celebrated their 30th Anniversary.  One of the social groups I belong to held a zoom event with some of the people associated with the movement.  The guest speakers at the event were Judith Heuman, James Le Brecht, and Nicole Newnhan.  Judith and James attended Camp Jened, which was a summer camp in the Catskills, started in 1951 for teens with physical disabilities.   In the 60’s and 70’s Camp Jened was influenced by the hippie culture.  It was unstructured and the campers felt empowerment, and that it was like a utopia. Through their discussions at this camp, many of the campers and counselors went on to become disability rights activist and advocates who were responsible for the passage of the ADA.

Judith was one of the strongest activist and civil rights advocate for the disabled. Even as a young student, she and her mother fought for her right to attend public school. After years of home instruction, she won the right to atttend.  After graduating College, she sued the Board of Education for her right to teach in a public school and was victorious. She went on to lead the ADA movement. She is known internationally.

James works as a sound designer for theatre and film and has won awards for his work, including, “Crip Camp”. He wanted to make a documentary to share his experiences of what the camp meant to him and his fellow campers. It explains the impact this group of campers had on rights for the disabled. At 15 years old, James shot a lot of footage of the campers. His orginal footage from the 70’s was used in the movie. Co-director, Nicole Newnhan, agreed to do it with him. It not only shows the time spent at camp, but how the campers stayed in touch for many years later, and went on to protest and fight for disability rights. When trying to come up with a title for the documentary, they decided to go with Crip Camp to make a bold statement. (Slang for Cripples)

They wanted people to realize that the disabled community is just like any other, and reprogram how non-disabled people think about those with disabilities. It is an amazing, interesting and informative documentary for all to watch.  My parents and I watched it together and learned so much, and were so impressed by what the “Jenedians” accomplished for disability rights.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet, it is a must see! (on Netflix) You can also find lots of information on “Camp “Jened” and the campers on the internet. Truly Inspiring!

I’m sure everyone reading this is just a little crazy by now because of Covid19. I do think it was important to stay home and close up places for a little bit, but I’m ready to get back to a new normal. I’ve been here with my Mom, Dad, and doggie, Montana. It’s a good thing that we all like each other and get along! (most of the time!) What has been cool is the new style of meeting with family, friends, colleges, co-workers, and the new way to have programing. Yes it’s Zoom.  Whoever heard of it before February of this year! Now it’s on everyones tech devices. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of several groups so I’m on about 14 Zoom calls each week. One of my favorites is with JFCS ~ Jewish Family and Children’s Services. All denominations are welcome. We have 2 calls a day. We do Art, Mediation, Yoga, Creative Writing, Sing Alongs, Cooking, just to name  some of the activities. Two of my favorites are Around The World and Trivia.  One of the facilitators contacts his friends who live in other parts of the world. We meet on Zoom and they give us clues to help us guess where they are and then give us chance to ask questions about their town/country. ~ Including how they are affected and handing Covid19. It’s so amazing and interesting.  It reminds me of the old game Carmen Sandiego, but with real people! 

Other Zoom calls are with my acting group for rehearsals, my trainer for exercising, a self defense class for the disabled and a couple with my cognitive therapist.  I love keeping busy, so I am so grateful for these new cyber programs. Although I will be excited when we can get back out into the community, I do hope that some of this programing continues! Hope everyone has everything they need, are being kind to each other, keeping busy and staying well and having a little fun!

Last week I helped my mom prepare a quick dinner. We started with a package of soup ingredients that we purchased at Wegmans. It was “South Of The Border Tortilla Soup Mix,” made By Frontier Soups. The instructions say to use chicken broth and add some salsa and chicken. We added some other ingredients to make it a bit more hardy, like extra frozen corn, cut green beans, and a can of black beans. The photo has white beans, which we have used previously but decided on the black beans for that night.  

You just bring the broth to a boil and add the dry ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes. We added the extra ingredients towards the end. Earlier we made Trader Joes cornbread and added mixed berries.  If you like you can also crumble tortilla chips on top. It was fast and filling and really tasty!

Last year, I posted about my California trip and going to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Maria’s Italian Kitchen. In June 2019 I received sad news that “Maria” was in a car accident that ended her life. We are friends with her daughter Maddy who is the owner and operator of the many award winning Maria’s Restaurants, as well as her two new restaurants, Holy Cow.   Her Mom, Maria moved from Hoboken, NJ, to California when Maddy was young. She was a very smart woman with a great vision and lived her life loving food, family and friends and cooking for everyone. She opened a small Italian Market and Take-Out. Maddy worked there with her family, and after college opened her first full service restaurant.  Maria’s recipes are still used and that’s why the food is so good and the restaurants are so successful.

I met Maria when I was very young, but don’t remember her.  Maddy said she had a great personality and sense of humor and that she loved people and they loved her. She was still cooking for family, friends and neighbors everyday right up until her passing. I am glad she followed her passion to open the first Maria’s because it is truly one of the best Italian Restaurants in Los Angeles.  I love eating there and seeing photos on of Maria, Maddy and her family decorating the walls! Her name and recipes will always be there for everyone to enjoy.  All locations are accessible and there is an accessibility tool on their website. If you are ever in LA you should definitely stop in for a great Italian meal!

As you may know, I’ve had Cerebral Palsy (CP) since birth. I was born three months early at 1lb. 14oz. and had a brain hemorrhage. It has put limits on my physical abilities. The spasticity in my muscles caused my bones and muscles to turn and pull in different ways.  I’ve had many surgeries and years of physical therapy to correct some of this. My Mom researched and found an amazingly, talented, and gifted doctor, Dr. James Gage at Gillette Childrens Specialty Hospital in Minneapolis. He performed my many surgeries there over the course of about ten plus years. Each one helped my gait (pattern of walking) tremendously . 

For one part the gait study you have equipment on your back, wires hooked up and a mask over your face and must walk for six minutes without stoping, while it records your breathing and energy output. For the second part little reflective balls are placed on   major joints, like hips, knees, toes, and elbow, etc. While walking up and down in the lab, a camera relates all of your movements to a computer.  The end result is a stick figure walking on the computer mimicking your gait. and a report creates many grafts on your muscles and bones. The information collected gives the doctor better knowledge on what needs to be corrected. A fun fact is that this method was used to create characters in the Pixar movies.  Real humans would be prepped and then go though all the movements of the animated figures, and then the characters were created around the the stick figures. Dr. Gage developed this technology and opened up the first Automated Motion Analysis Lab in Connecticut and a second at Gillette.

I had eighteen procedures with my first surgery and it lasted nine hours with two doctors! The was a lot of pain involved, but worth it. Recovery was usually about 5-6 months.   Gillette is a very special place. Despite my surgeries and pain I always enjoyed my stays. They are very organized and a model for other hospitals. The staff was always friendly, knowledgable, and helpful . I especially loved Dr. Gage’s nurse Patrick. He was the best. He used to talk to me with a Donald Duck voice. He was extremely bright and friendly and knew how to make you feel at home. My stays were usually about a week at a time. They had an activity room and scheduled fun events for patients. They also brought pets to visit.

Dr Gage is now retired from medical practice but continues to work on research.  After each surgeries he gave my mom his personal phone number and even called us at home. He always made me feel very special like I was one of his favorite patients. He is a great doctor! I am very grateful to Dr. Gage. It is because of him that I am able to use my walker and get around as well as I do!  Thank You Dr. Gage!