Mercedes at Asa’s and Paul and Sylvia at Open Door

May 18, 2023: Starting this first freaking thing. I just sent all my photos from the last two weeks to Whitney. I also first woke up at 4 something and messaged Sam right away, then I took my meds at 5:09 with four pieces of cheese for 11g fat. Honestly I should talk about the conversation I had with Sam too. I actually also finally told him that I had a website, talking about my photography website, and I sent it to him. I also told him he should look at the Recovery story and the Peru story called Child of Two Nations. So Sam had worked all night, so he’s tired and going to sleep now. I told him that he can check out the website more, and he has some “light reading.” Then at the very end after he went to sleep I think, I also sent him a link to a news article about me that was published when I was first hit by the car. I also told Sam that I worked a ton before the accident, even including Valleyfair where I learned Spanish and was a catering supervisor. I also listed to him the three jobs that I had before the accident, and said how much I was earning at UMN. I said I’d have made a lot in 2021 if not for the car running me over. He did comment on looking at the recovery story, so he’s seen that one a bit at least. Oh and I also told him that in high school I was the yearbook editor, and my best friend asked me if I’d like to design a new yearbook for my life now, so I told him I’m designing one now for the first year after the accident. I said it’s not done yet but I’m working on it still. Oh and I also randomly mentioned that now since I’m on disability I get my really good payment as long as I don’t earn $1350 a month, now I’m looking for a part time job where I can make new friends and still get disability. Oh also late last night I payed my credit card bill and sent a photo of how much it was to Papa. He said that going so high was fine. Oh and what I also did today is a had a session with Whitney, where we didn’t get through every Florida photo, but I tried to choose some good ones, and told her to read them later too. We also decided that we should schedule a session just for looking at my yearbook, which I already showed Dr. Bergquist the other day. Oh and the other really cool thing that happened today was I had my interview for the Love Your Brain retreat coming up in October in Colorado, and it went really well and I was admitted into the program. Turns out I’ll actually start there on the anniversary of my crash. Oh and then I also met with Dr. Rohe on Zoom as well. He told me to look up translator in the occupational outlook handbook. I’m not sure where that is, and Papa says maybe online. I also told him about hoping for a job at Seward, and I showed him the google doc that Jessica had me make. He told me then that he feels like Jessica is the “smartest therapist in the world.” We agreed that maybe we should meet again in about two months, or right after the cottage, and hopefully I’ll have some developments for job things by then. Oh and I also showed him my whole yearbook, and he loved it. I just flicked through all the pages from parts 1 and 2 while I was sharing my screen. Ok, now I’m gonna work on photo of the day and yearbook stuff til I go to Open Door tonight at 4:15pm. I’ll also take my meds before I go. I had my meds at 3:30pm with some lamb vindaloo with a piece or two removed because the whole package was 16g fat. Also started a new cranberry juice bottle to take to Open Door. Then I drove to Open Door, and again Google didn’t reroute me around the construction right, so I had to drive through some “construction” on Lone Oak Road. I got there a little after 6pm, and went in and weirdly there were hardly any volunteers today. It was actually a fairly busy night, and I was the only pantry assistant. So I was the only one walking clients into the food room and explaining how it worked. That’s my favorite position, and I’ve told some of the people that work there. There was also brand new woman on one of the computers, so we had a kinda rough time getting everything working. The other woman on the computers was Sylvia, who knows a ton and was training Anita, the new woman. I asked Sylvia to take a photo and she said she’d only do it if the checkout-guy volunteer Paul joined too. Then that actually led to me talking to Paul a lot and telling him about the TBI and the reason for the project. So that was pretty much the end of the night, though I should also add that I did an absolute ton of translating and even registered some new people for the company all in Spanish. Then on the way home I actually found a Spanish podcast about TBI. I learned from the podcast that in Spanish they actually do say “daño cerebral” for brain injury. Which is funny as hell because my teacher told me to say “contusión cerebral.” But when I was taking a walk to listen to some more of the podcast, I googled podcasts on the thing she thought I should say and there was nothing, whereas there were a bunch for daño cerebral. Oh the other cool thing that happened during that walk was I walked by the Minnehaha Methodist Church food shelf, and I saw a sign for a Saturday morning food giveaway. Then when I was walking back at the end there was actually a woman walking out who worked there, and I told her I was open to volunteering. I only told her my first name, so I’m not sure if she’ll be able to email me, but I kind of hope she will. Based on their sign, it’s from 7:30-10am, so I’ll just plan on that. God I also feel like there's a bunch of little stuff I forgot from today, but it's alright I don't think it was anything insane.