Barre with Debi and Diane, editing photos and Open Door with Anita

November 22, 2023

Well, today I accidentally took my melatonin a little early, with my night meds at 7:09pm. So now I’m a touch tired, and still gotta write this. Well, this morning I edited some of Heidi’s photos a tiny bit and then went to my last Wednesday yoga class with Debi. When she asked for announcements at the end of class, I said that this was gonna be my last class with her. I also said that I’d miss having someone asking “does anyone have any announcements?” which she does every time. A few weeks ago I told her that it seemed like when she said that, she often just wanted to announce something herself. I’ll miss having Debi as a teacher, though I might see her still when she comes to Jordan’s Friday class sometimes. I don’t quite remember, but I think I might have given her a business card today too.

Ok let’s go back to the notes. I woke up at like 6:30 and did my morning meds at 7am with two eggs and a touch of cheese. I had the thought while doing my makeup today that before the TBI, I was ALREADY not staying on top of my life, partly bc of the cancer trauma. So I keep running into little things that are the “way I used to do them,” and they’re generally not good since I wasn’t really on top of my life after getting out of the hospital in 2021 and trying to “get back to normal life” by working about 90 hours a week at Fogo, Rotary and UMN. I’ve been convinced for years that normal = happy, when clearly it isn’t.

I feel like now I might actually have a deeper understanding of happiness. It’s funny that I always tried to be careful not to think that “being happy” just meant wandering around in joy all the time, but in a way I often feel that way BECAUSE of having gone through the worst things ever. Funny I also remember saying months ago at the Gibson that I might be happier after the TBI because I’ll know how bad it can get, and I totally forgot that thought for the entire past year. Anyways, I also asked Debi where she got her leggings from last week, and it was Sierra, which I knocked that question off my any.do. I also talked to a lady named Diane, who said I’d told her some stuff a few weeks ago, and Gina, short for Regina, who took my business card with Dr. Kaszuba's picture on it. Made me think I should get more of those, since they give me the chance to talk to people about my time at Mayo a bit.

The other cool thing that happened at the gym today was I went up to a desk and asked yet again if Will was here so I could ask about training. Through doing that, I actually met a new guy who said he was just hired at the JCC, and seems to be absorbing some of Will’s job. His name was Kevin, and I talked to him a lot about my schedule and possible days for training. Sounds like Kevin’s here on some days when Will isn’t. Another interaction with Kevin was that I had to ask his name again, and he said, “that’s understandable, it’s only the first day.” and I said something about it actually being every day since I’ve got a brain injury. And then, on my way out, I gave Hannah the receptionist a business card, which I wanna order more of now that I’m using them more. I also wanna change the writing on it to say: “photographer | translator.” I’ll try something like that with mom tomorrow.

Anyways, then I went back and stopped at home to drop stuff off and went to Papa’s for lunch. There, I talked to him about my schedule and came up with some specific dates to email Will, which look like specific times on Monday, Wednesday, and possibly Thursday. I also ate lunch and picked up a kitchen towel, three-color pens, and potential driving gloves that can touch screens, that turned out to be a touch big. I learned that when I drove to Open Door tonight.

At Open Door tonight, I learned that the word for Pear is “la pera,” and peppers is “los pimientos.” Both of those things were bonus items tonight. I also has a brilliant conversation with a client from Venezuela named Luis, and his friend John. Later tonight, I also finally gave Owen and Italia and Sean business cards. I remember that Owen told me I looked to be networking a bit again. Frankly, being able to give them out to people and tell them parts of my story is EXACTLY, why I’d like to order more of them pretty soon, which will also include several post-TBI pictures I’ve taken, like theater, some portraits and some Open Door stuff. // Meds at 7:09 tonight with two ice cream sandwiches for like 15g fat, from Sean at Open Door right when I was done.