funny times, teaching times, sad times

05/08/2012

It’s been a while, how have you been?

I went to the Red Sox game on May 2nd with my cousin Heidi and her friends Jen and Milan. I’m friends with Milan and have a little crush on her but don’t know Jen well. I have been to a few games with her over the years but never had a conversation with her.

So we went to this bar-restaurant in Boston across from Fenway Park called “game on” Their slogan is "eat, drink, score" We got there about 5, before the crowd started showing up. We took our time eating because it was a crappy day out and it was better to wait in a warm restaurant than in a cold stadium. .
Now, I am sitting here at a table with 3 40 year old woman who are all teachers or teacher’s aides. I felt like I was at a high school lunch table. Most of the conversation was about who’s friend is screwing around with this or that married guy and who is screwing with someone’s x. A lot of did you hear… and slut and whore was thrown around on more than a few times.

So after we are done with dinner Heidi says “do you need to use the bathroom?” I said no. Heidi said “well, you can try” umm ok. So Heidi is like he can go in the women’s room. It’s not a big deal. Mean while, Milan walks into the men’s room, to get the layout for me so she can direct me … I guess. She said something that made us laugh in the hall. So Heidi brings me into the bathroom saying very loudly “He can’t see. He’s blind, he really is blind!”

So after I try…but don’t do anything (tmi? Lol) I walk out of the stall and Heidi hands me off to Milan to wash my hands. So I have the cane tucked in my armpit so I can wash my hands and Milan says “Jonathan, your stick is between my legs” … I hear Heidi behind us say "Jonathan, why is your stick between Milan's legs?" I just smerk. So now I’m walking out of the bathroom with Milan and I said “I got my big stick” and Milan goes “JONATHAN! DID YOU JUST SAY YOU HAVE A BIG DICK!” I am cracking up laughing when I try to say “stick, I said stick not dick” “oh, I thought you said you have a big dick.” Heidi walks out “Jonathan, no one wants to hear about your big dick.” I said stick!.

The game was ok, we lost, it was mid-40’s and in the grand stands. I was ok but all the girls were wining.


On April 27th, I had been asked if I would talk to some second graders about blindness as part of this program called “D A S H” (disability awareness starts here) So I figured I would show off my computer, and I brought my talking clock and my Braille label maker.

So my friend Jody, she is the program coordinator, and I walked into the school, she introduced me to a few other members who run the program and checked us in at the front desk. We sat as she was talking to some people and she said that we are going to be in the caf. A moment of panic swept through me, as I picture myself standing at a podium in front of 100 kids… well, it was only 88 kids and I got to sit down at a table with the kids sitting on the floor in a semi circle in front of me but I had thought I would be in a classroom with 15 to 20 kids, not 88!

I was wearing my replica Red Sox jersey. They asked me to, I swear! Last year they had an older blind guy and he wore a suit. The kids were intimidated.

So one of the people from the program welcomed the children and introduced me. … oh, I was hooked up to a wireless mic… ug. Lol.

I introduced myself to the kids and told them about myself and my blindness. I gave a demonstration with my computer. Prior to the kids coming in, I had opened a ms word doc and wrote “hi my name is Jonathan, how are you” so I had my computer read that and I was chuckling inside because the children all responded to my computer by saying “good” And then…

I took questions from the children.
I realized pretty quickly that children of today are smarter than when we were kids.

However, the questions they asked were like… how do you tell money. Where do you live. Do you live with anyone. How do you cook. How do you know if someone is standing in front of you. How do you drive. How do you get to work. What college did you go to. What do you do for a job. How do you type. Have you ever been bullied as a kid. When you were a kid, how did you play with the others. How do you play videogames. How do you watch tv. How do you pick out your clothes. (I was warned that someone may ask this one…) how do you take a shower. (Jody told me after that a teacher who I knew from my town, told one of the kids to ask this q again) what do you do for a job.

I explained the first time that I help adults who have problems. They talk to me and we try to solve the problem together. So when I was asked the question again I smiled and said “well, I am a mental health counselor.” And I just basically reworded what I said the first time.

Jody had told the teacher after she saw that she whispered the q into the kids ear, saying that he is a mental counselor who works with people who have schizophrenia and bipolar and who can be homicidal and suicidal… she had figured I work with blind people. She was hoping I would talk more about that. Was she shocked lol.

So that was fun and nice. I had wrote to the principal, thanking her for having me and hoping that if they continue the program next year, that I will be invited back. She wrote me back with a nice response.


On a rainy day last week, my mom had found a bunch of pictures from over the years… like a few hundred of them. She had gone through them all and put them in shoe boxes for each of us. She had found one picture of my best friend John, his sister Lisa (TX Lisa) and myself from when John graduated hs 12 years ago. She also was telling me about some other pictures like ones with the love of my life Lisa and I. This topic of looking at pictures makes me sad… really sad.

I know that it brings back memories and happy thoughts, and reminds the brain of what people look like at different ages. This mother’s day, my mom is going to hand out the boxes and we are (in her words) “going to go through them and laugh and reminisce over good times”

I am going to hear a lot of “hey remember this?” “oh she’s so beautiful” “that’s so funny” “who is this?” … and I wont have a clue what or who they are talking about.

And more so, I will have a lot of negative feelings inside while trying to laugh and smile along but I don’t know. I wish I could see the pictures instead of this black screen in my mind. As I wrote in one of my poems “pictures fade in my book of memories”