Español con Rick y Christie, cheesecake party

[just posting exactly what I wrote yesterdfay with minimal edits, to be #authentic, Not sure why I didn't finish posting this one even though I had it "done."]

December 15, 2023

OK I’m DEFINITELY skipping to the really good part of the day immediately. Tonight I went to a cheesecake party in my dad’s neighborhood in the house of a family that I used to play lawn games with as a child. The parents work at Minnehaha Academy, I think. Walking in to the event, the NUMBER ONE thing I was thinking was that I just hoped there would just be someone there who I could speak Spanish with a bit. When I went in, I said hi to the mom and then sat down on a couch. I talked to the guy next to me a bit, and when he was telling me some story, he mentioned something about being in Honduras. So I asked, “hablas español?” expecting the answer would be no. It was not!!! It turned out that both he and his wife speak a decent amount of Spanish. So then, I told the two of them pretty much everything in Spanish. They said that they had gone on some trip to Honduras with the teacher who lives in the house, Nancy. I’m not quite sure what it was for, but they did say that she goes there pretty regularly. I didn’t quite get an answer to how they learned Spanish, but I KNOW they got a ton better in Honduras.

I told them that I’d never been to Honduras, just Perú y Ecuador. I also was basically able to explain the significance of Spanish to me using the brain injury, which is a FANTASTIC way to bring up the brain injury for the first time. My story is generally that I had an interesting way of learning Spanish, never having taken a class and then working at Valleyfair when I was 16- 18 con ecuatorianos, and terminé con novio ecuatoriano. I KNOW I said that "I loved it before, but after 'mi daño cerebral' I loved it WAY MORE since usually they cause memory loss and I didn’t lose it."

Just talking about that makes me remember that once or twice when I’ve been explaining my story in Spanish to a new person, I don’t even say that I received a “brain injury,” just that I received a “really serious injury that normally causes memory loss,” but I still emembered my Spanish. Tbh I also just love being able to express myself in Spanish.

Honestly, because of talking to Christina and Rick, it occurred to me that I should really ask that one teacher, Nancy, when she’s gonna take me to Honduras now. I’d be sooo interested in going. Anyways, getting back to Christina and Rick, I told them a TON about working at Valleyfair with people from different countries, and I know I even commented that I’m kinda surprised I didn’t also come out of it also speaking Bulgarian and Turkish.

I also told the guy, Rick, that when I first had asked him “hablas español?” I didn’t expect him to say yes. But they said that they’ve basically gone to Honduras multiple times now. It made me VERY interested in asking about potentially going with the group they were part of some time. I kinda wish I got some contact info for them tbh, though I DID give them both two of my business cards. I played the “choose your favorite photo” game yet again, and if I remember ocrrectly Christina picked the ONE old photo I printed, which is of Dr. Kazsuba, aka “my ex-neurosurgeon.That’s the reason that that one picture was the only “old” photo I included in this set, because it lets me talk about my cancer and medical history a lot. 

So anyways, tonight I went to the cheesecake party at the Cripes’ house, and what I did well for that was I took my meds atound 4pm so I’d be able to eat other food by 6pm when the party started. It worked since I’d taken the morning ones as soon as I woke up too, at like 7:45am. That’s kind of a great example of me making my stupid medication requirements work alright for me. 

ANYWAYS, after the extensive talk with that couple, I ended up in a few other good conversations as well. The most relevant one is probaby a conversation with a girl who was a babysitter for Talia and I when we were almost two young to remember her. Her name was Margaret, and I vagueley remembered her, even hough she told me that Talia hadn’t when she met her recnently. I a.lso told her a lot of my really cool coping strategies for my memory loss, and think I even showed her the album on my photne titled “NO PERDER” or “don’t lose” of things that I think I might lose someday, so I’ll have a photo of the items to show to poeple to help me locate them. 

The other random thing with Margaret is when she learned which high school I went to, she asked me if I knew my 7th grade math teacher, who she is appaently kind of friends with. I was able to show her his Facebook, since she thought he didn't have a wife, kid or a Facebook, and I was able to show her a pictrue that demonsrated all three. 

Margaret also told me that she thinks I’d have a lot to say to her sister Rosie, who apparently also has a TBI and possibly a tumor. I admit that i told Margaret, “I wish mine was jsut a tumor” when she said that, tbh. I also told her that I was one of 2,000 people in the world with my cancer, and on a rare drug even among the 2000 people. I also showed her my scar, aka the line of staples in my back.

And near the end, we all ended up talking to a couple with the names Barbara and Amy as well. I also gave out business cards to EVERYONE, including the first couple I spoke Spanish to, Margaret, and Barbara and Amy too. I’m glad that I printed a bunch of the ones that have “my ex-neurosurgeon” on them, since I think Babara chose one of those so I could explain it to her. 

I love the way I can redefine myself handing out businss cards, in a way. THAT also is the reason I don't see myself EVER getting rid of my cards with my photography on the back. And maybe next time I print, I should throw in a few more 2017 photos, since now I just have that one of Dr. Kazsuba and it's very popular.