Friday Thoughts!

I just wanted to say hello! It's been quite a while since I posted regularly on my blog and I miss it and all of you Bloggers. I was hoping to get back here about 2 weeks ago and start posting again but the day after I posted my review of "Orange is the New Black" I woke up sick and ended up with Bronchitis, a fever etc. When you have asthma and pulmonary hypertension, bronchitis really knocks you down! Fortunately I slept a lot because daytime TV isn't what it used to be at the time of Happy Days! LOL! TV wasn't so good then either! But finally, here I am, Take 2!! lol

I'm still trying to get some consistent work by which to pay the bills and such. It's not so easy, especially when it's been 9 years since I worked. There are many organizations and online websites that purport to assist disabled people in looking for work or in finding an actual job but they don't seem to really do much. I have learned, for the most part, that disabled people are given little help with finding jobs and housing, or paying for housing, bills and even food. And if you get help from one place, department, organization, government branch, no matter how little the help is, forget getting help from any where else, unless you can pay it all back in a year! But I'm still looking! Fingers crossed!!

It's a bit of an eye-opener for me, this disability-related stuff. I suppose that sounds a little ridiculous since I have been disabled since birth. But I was raised to believe and behave as if I was an able-bodied person not disabled. I was encouraged to push myself to do whatever was necessary to get ahead or to compete beside and sometimes with other able-bodied kids. I was taught to never expect society to conform to or accommodate me. I did whatever I had to do to fit in with society and accommodate myself to society. There's advantages and disadvantages to this approach just as there is to growing-up as a disabled person who needs society to accommodate them and needs to be cared for.

Being used to behaving or acting as if I wasn't really disabled in any significant way made things more difficult when I had no choice but to face and acknowledge that I am disabled. When I was a child in elementary school, my mother's encouragement and support made it easy for me to act like an able-bodied individual and push myself to do whatever I had to do to keep up with the other kids - if there was a big flight of stairs I would climb it some way, some how, even if it meant sliding up the stairs on my butt! lol As I got older and more independent it's more difficult to accommodate myself to society, particularly as my disability has worsened and my health problems accumulated.. When I first moved into NYC in my early 20s, it really hit me that I was disabled. NYC and the surrounding boroughs are not built to accommodate the disabled, it's an older city with many stoops and steps, no curb cuts on some sidewalks, small aisles in the stores. It's difficult for a physically disabled person to get around easily. I know there are disabled people who need accommodations at work, and to go out in society and function as a member of the community. Many disabled people need to be accommodated. That's something I would like to help with. I have to figure out how to get involved and advocate for disabled people and humanize them. If anyone has any ideas about this, please drop me a line, all are welcome! Alright, enough with this tangent...! I meant only to say hello! lol

I want to get involved in the blogging community again, at least several days a week if not every day. I'm very sad I missed BEA and BBC especially living practically next store to it! I have been enjoying bloggers posts about the fun they had in NY This community has been wonderfully supportive even though I have only been a member for less than a year. I've really missed posting and blogging, and I apologize to any bloggers who commented on my posts and reviews and I didn't reply. I don't want that to become a habit. I love getting comments from bloggers and leaving comments on bloggers posts. I know I missed everyone who responded to my review of "Orange is the New Black" by Piper Kellerman as I was hit with bronchitis that night. I want to acknowledge those bloggers and thank JoAnn from Lakeside Musing, Avisannschild from she reads and reads, Jen from Devourer of Books, Kathleen from Boarding in My Forties, Elisa from Pesky Cat Designs, Clarity from Clarity in Wonderland, Molly and Andy from The Bumbles Blog, Kathy from Bermudaonion's Weblog, Lisa from Lit and Life , Jenner from Find Your Next Book Here and Julie P. from Booking Mama and always Kathy from Purple Flowers and Esme from Chocolates and Croissants who I can always count on! These are wonderful bloggers with great blogs. If you don't know them yet, be sure to visit them!

Enjoy Your Weekend!