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200 days ago
If there is one thing I have never, ever taken for granted in all of my nearly thirty years, I'd have to say it is the random good fortune of having been born male. I could easily give you a laundry list of reasons why I'm so thankful for my Y-chromosome -- $50 bras, $100 haircuts, all that time spent putting makeup on in the morning -- but all of those pale in comparison to my #1 reason, which I was reminded of in dramatic fashion not too long ago. It was a late night seven weeks ago, and I was sitting in a small room adjacent to the birthing suite at the home of the local midwife while my sister was preparing to give birth to yet another baby girl, Aubri Jean. For reasons I'll never quite understand, she had decided to go with "natural" childbirth this time around, a term which quickly started to feel like the ultimate oxymoron as the night wore on. Because, I tell you what, there was nothing remotely natural about the noises emanating from the other side of the thin ...
288 days ago
Hey, I've said before that I'm not above it. I have spent the last couple days (without sleep) trying to find the right words to commemorate today. I never would have thought they would show up secondhand in an e-mail my mom sent out to friends and loved ones this evening. Enjoy... Hi There, I wanted to take some time to thank each of you for all you have done these last 5 years. (Hard to believe!) Whether in person or from afar you have helped all of us go through this journey a little easier. We have come a long way since that day, we all remember where we were when we heard the news. We have learned so much and Kenny is doing well - considering all that he has been through. We continue to hope for progress in spinal cord research and hope that someday it will help him in some way. Today I find my emotions a little less in check, I remember the physcial guy he was, so proud of the guy he is - I will be conscious more today of those "things he misses most". ...
305 days ago
I've been trying hard to wrap my head around what happened this past week, so please excuse my upcoming long-windedness. George Carlin once said that, "inside every cynical person is a disappointed idealist." Well, after spending the near entirety of my adult life in The Bush Era, governed by the politics of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, it should come as no surprise that I have viewed government, and our system as a whole, with a cynical pair of LASIK-corrected eyes. But after witnessing what went down in our nation's capital on Tuesday, it's hard not to be slightly buzzed on a cocktail of pride and optimism over what took place. This election was a statement. It was the long-overdue acknowledgment, and rejection, of the hypocrisy in our actions not matching up to the rhetoric this country was founded on (hmm... maybe now the words declared by our forefathers that "all men are created equal" can actually become the Mad Lib they are supposed to be, only this ...
587 days ago
I don't know how long I've been trying to put together my thoughts regarding the upcoming presidential election, but each time I've tried has just left me all fired up with nothing to show for it. Nearing my breaking point, I remembered a technique that got me through many an English class back in the day: steal someone else's work. Just kidding, Mom. Maybe. So when I came across an entry on Jason Mraz 's blog not too long ago that not only echoed my thoughts, but delivered them far more poignantly than I figured I'd ever get to, I decided I was going to post a quick blog with a link to it and a little "Hey, check this out" and be done with it. ( side note: the guy puts out bitchin' tunes AND writes exceptionally? I think I hate him. Okay probably not... but maybe ) But then last weekend I started reading a book called America: Our Next Chapter by Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel and, I have to say, it really struck a chord. On page 18, I stumbled upon this ...
654 days ago
Ohhhhhhyeeeeaaaahhh ... it was ME that disappeared, huh? Well, I suppose I'm a smidge overdue in the update department, so here goes... Yes, I am in fact still alive. Still paraly... wait, quick check -- yup, still paralyzed. I've been staying pretty healthy, thanks for all the e-mails. Those main questions having been answered naturally beg the question: how's the book coming along? Well, I'm only a few chapters short of my masterpiece... say 30 or so. Well, I'm about three quarters of the way toward starting it. Translation? You betcha -- it's still in my head, but trust me it sounds AWESOME in there. It's been a rough year in the literary department. Come to think of it, the year has been a bit of a roller coaster as a whole. For some reason, lap number four of this crazy journey called paralysis started off as one of the most difficult for me thus far. Maybe part of it was turning 27; the same age my parents were when they had me. You see, ...
