Me? Going Back to School?

 I have been keeping busy with all kinds of different activities but my main focus has been to gradually progress toward getting back to work. 

I was accepted into a re-employment program a year and a half ago and we have been trying to find out what would be a good job for me now. I did aptitude testing, I took a computer course through them and I have gone with my job coach to interview a variety of people about what their jobs are really like. 

The re-employment program is currently trying to find somewhere for me to volunteer in order to get some real life experience and investigate what might be a good field for me. They want me to volunteer or job shadow for about 12 to 15 hours a week for a minimum of a month in order to prove that I could eventually work part-time. It is possible that if I meet these requirements I might qualify for some government education subsidies.

Last October my case manager and I met with a Disability Counselor at our local community college. We talked about the option of my entering a program at the college and we had a good discussion about what kind of supports I could expect from the college. I also told her the program that was most interesting to me is a certificate program called Recreational Facilitator for Older Adults and we discussed how employable I might be after completing the program.

They have made recent changes and that Rec Facilitator program is no longer being offered on a part time basis so the only way I can get the certificate will be by going to college full time for 9 months starting next September.  It turned out that a couple of the classes I would need to take were offered in other part time programs and the counselor suggested that I take one course and see how it goes. If I do go on next year it would be transferred over and it would make next year a little bit lighter. Everything looks very promising, but I must admit that the thought of being a full time student is very daunting to me.

I am currently taking a course called Interpersonal Communication. The class is from 6:00 to 10:00  one evening a week for 10 weeks. I have made it through 6 evenings, one mid term exam and two assignments.

I am not sure where this will lead, but so far, so good!

New Year's Resolutions?

It is New Year's Eve and, according to the assortment of blogs that I follow, bloggers reflect on the joys and sorrows of the past year, or make resolutions for the upcoming year that will improve their future lives.

I actually have switched my thinking since I got sick. Sure I still have my big and little goals set up but I have a different sense of what is realistic now. I still want to lose weight and get my finances in order but I see it with a sense of moderation.  I used to be the kind of teenager who decided to learn a piano piece and worked very hard for several days and decided it was not perfect so what is the point in continuing working so hard. I would give up. I tended to not hand in homework because I wasn't finished but the truth is there would always be more to fix and I didn't grasp the concept of good enough. I think my new big life lesson is that where I am is great and doing "better" is wonderful. Who cares if it is perfect? What I do care about now is that I keep on moving, learning, and trying new things.

I embrace the concept of a "bucket list" but my list continually evolves with time, and I do not really expect to do everything that I might write on my list.

 In the first months post brain injury, while I was mainly restricted to lying in my bed, my daughter bought a movie to watch on my new laptop computer. The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman is the story of two men with very different life experiences who meet in a shared hospital room and wind up creating a shared list of things to do before they die. They proceed to carry out items from the list together. Their list included great activities like skydiving, great travels like going to the Taj Mahal, and great ambitions like "help a complete stranger for a common good".

My resolutions for 2013 - 

Be kind, find joy and be open to new adventures.

The trailer for the movie "The Bucket List".






Here is a really intereting "TED talk"  on the topic.

Puppy!

The most exciting thing happening around here is that my daughter got a puppy.

This puppy is an adorable ball of energy and my own little tripping hazard. We had two dogs when the kids were little but my two younger daughters, who are still living at home, came after the puppies so they did not know what life with puppies is like.

Emily has been wanting a dog for a long time, but with my heath issues the idea of a new pet went right out the window.  Last year we got a new higher fence around our backyard so that meant one of my requirements of puppy ownership was met. I really thought that my old wood floors should be redone and sealed against puppy accidents but that never happened.

Emily has been researching dogs to find the right one for our family.

• I have allergies to the oil on dogs coats so I need to have a dog that is more the fluffy type.
• we needed a dog that will be good with the grand-kids who are over frequently.
• we needed a dog that will keep Emily company on long walks and fun activities.
• we need a dog to be a family pet and not just a one person dog.
• Emily thinks she wants to show the dog and perhaps take part in things like agility trials.

She found a breeder nearby who had pure-bred Samoyed puppies from champion stock parents.
We visited the breeders at their home a couple of times and were thrilled with the mommy dog and her adorable 5 little balls of fluff.

Two weeks ago the breeder delivered an eight week old little boy puppy to our house.  Life changed instantly! He is very smart and cute and he has won our hearts.

Emily named the dog Jasper and she is working on teaching him the basics like sit and to go outside to pee. He needs a LOT of walking as he is really high energy.

I complained to my girl friend that I can't manage to take a turn walking him because the sidewalks are slippery and the dog pulls on his leash, tugs, bounds and runs under legs. My family is working on getting him to walk nice on a leash but it is going to take a while before he will be safe for me to walk with.  My sweet friend reassured me that I am getting plenty of exercise with puppy by rushing to get him out the door to prevent "accidents" and that sure it the truth. I need to get working on my old physiotherapy exercises and work on my stamina again ... so that I can try to keep up with Jasper.