Lowbrow with mom and Kathy and Open Door picnic with Jason

September 17, 2023:

Alright, so today started off with me waking up a bit past 5am and hoping I could fall back asleep. I did, and I only woke up when my dad came to bring my my meds and yogurt at 8am. So I had my meds at 8:01am with two 6g fat yogurts, from different flavors. One was raspberry and the other was mango & cream. Then, mom took me over to have brunch with her mom’s club friend from years ago, Kathy. We went to a restaurant called The Lowbrow. There, I asked for the drink with the most caffeine, since I had a small headache and I thought it might be caffeine related. She suggested the cold brew, and it wad good. Tragically they didn’t give me cream for it, but I was able to borrow some from mom and Kathy. For food, I got the tofu tacos with extra salsa. I got it with the salad, which I didn’t love that much since it was really just plain lettuce with dressing, and I kind of wished I’d gotten hash browns.

I also talked to Kathy a bit, and she said that she met her wife, Martha, when she was 25. Today she was gonna do some yoga outside. I also remembered that she was the one of my mom’s friends who also had had a brain injury, and hers was more like a bunch of repeat concussions, so a lot less serious than mine. Then we walked together down Nicollet, where the restaurant was, and mom gave me her sunglasses because it seems like my headaches are more light sensitive than other things. After that brunch, we decided to pick up my my anti-depressant prescription at Walgreens, since my dose was recently increased. Then, we went home and I paid my credit card bill, and then mom and Papa and I played a few games of group solitaire.

After that, I did a Zoom call for people with chronic illnesses. It was a lot smaller than usual, and at the beginning there was just one other girl also named Anya, who was from Russia actually. Then, at the end, a different girl joined, who said she was late because she had been working at Marshalls. I asked, and she’s not on disability. Honestly, for half the meeting it was just me and the moderator, a woman named Kenna. We talked a fair amount about both of our issues. She also asked for advice about the game night Zoom calls, and I gave her some feedback on the last one.

Then, a few hours later, it was time for me to go to the Open Door volunteers picnic. What I did at the picnic was I sat at the same table as the woman Lourdes, who is the other main Spanish -speaking volunteer. I also asked about her last name, which didn’t seem Spanish. She said it came from her past husband, who was Irish and has since died. I also thanked Lourdes for taching me the word “bifurcación” in Spanish, which comes up in Google Maps navigation a lot. She told me that before I brought it up, she hadn’t heard it in years. At the picnic, there were a bunch of sandwiches from Piada, and I started with a steak and cheese one. After a bit, I also grabbed a bit of a Mediterranean one, which was good too.

After the food, a bunch of people gave speeches, including Veronica, Jason the CEO, Sean and Melissa, and I forget most of their official titles. I know Veronica is the volunteer coordinator though. Also there were Mikell, who was taking photos, and Owen, who’d been on vacation until recently. Then, we played some Open Door trivia, and I didn’t even come close to winning. I knew hardly any of the answers, though I did learn that Open Door has had 642 volunteers this year and can feed about 15k people. At the end, I also grabbed a picture with Jason, the CEO, and told him how much Open Door has been able to help me recover from the brain injury, with the Spanish-interpretation needs and everything.

Then, my mom picked me up and took me home. At home, I waited til it’d been two hours since I had a bite of food, which was also the time 12 hours after I took my morning meds, and I had them at 8:01pm with two cheese sticks and a little bit of French bread.

Grateful things: I actually forgot to this. I'm grateful for Jason, the Open Door CEO, who makes me feel appreciated. I'm also grateful for Caroline, who I'm having lunch with tomorrow.