Sight is a perception...

Ben Underwood

January 26, 1992 - January 19, 2009

I was amazed when I first saw the documentary about Ben on TV. Ben was the only person known in the world who used echolocation, (comparable to sonar, similar to what dolphins use to navigate in the ocean) to see. Now, I am saddened to learn that he has passed away as a result of the cancer that cost him his sight. I was just as profoundly affected by his mother Aquanetta, and the strength she possesses. As I watched his documentary again tonight, tears streamed down my face as I listed to her speak. After the surgery to remove his eyes,(and save his life), three-year-old Ben woke up from surgery crying, "Mommy, I can't see! I can't see Mommy!" Aquanetta looked at her baby boy and said, "Yes you can baby. You can see me with your hands. Do you feel my face? You can see me with your nose. Do you smell me? You can see me with your ears. Listen to my voice. You. Can. See."



I was deeply affected by this story, as I know countless people have been. You can see the documentary on YouTube at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLziFMF4DHA , or find more videos about him by typing his name, Ben Underwood, in the YouTube search box. You can see his website at http://www.benunderwood.com/ . May God bless this family.

Snow Day? Scratch that - ICE WEEK.

Poor, pitiful, me. What a hard week I've had! Yes, I realize that thousands of other fabulous humans were affected by the winter storms thankyouverymuch. But this is my world, and here, it's all about ME! ME! ME! My suggestion? Empathize, or click on over to a less selfish blog. :)

So our lovely little snow day turned into a "bet-you-didn't-think-it-could-get-this-bad winter smack down. Seriously. Being new at my job, and also being the typical overachiever, I decided that it was perfectly reasonable to try and drag myself into work yesterday. Read me: BIG. MISTAKE. I totally should have turned around when I saw that huge TREE across the interstate. Lucky for me, there was a gap just barely big enough to squeeze the truck through and I pressed on. Here's my daily review, in movie montage form:

The Day After Tomorrow

You remember - where the world freezes over? Just like in the movie, things started out pretty calmly. I congratulated myself on making it to the office over my morning cup of coffee - watching the softly falling snowflakes. CUT TO THE ANTARCTIC BLIZZARD. Please understand that I am not using these terms loosely. It really was that fast, and it really was that bad. This is when I had my official "Oh Crap" moment. Fat lot of good it did me. So, I started planning my escape route with my buddy in the next office over. Her husband drives a wrecker, and he was giving us the play-by-play on the phone as he was driving in to get her.

B: So how are you going home?

Me: The interstate.

B: They just closed it - tractor trailer jackknifed.

Me: Okay, well then the Old Rd.

B: Closed that one too.

Me: The Connector/Bypass?

B: Nope.

Me: Main street out to the other side of town?

B: Nada.

Me: Parkway?

B: Yeah, you're pretty funny...

Me: Oh. Crap.

B: Yup. I was thinking pretty much that same thing myself.

Home is Where the Heart Is

After realizing I was in deep stuff, (tee-hee, quite literally), I went to the safest place I knew. Wal-Mart. I perused the aisles, and completely convinced myself that I needed a new flat iron, another scarf, (can you really have too many?), and decided that I needed to learn how to knit. After spending more money than I should have, I got a box of goldfish and a soda, and sat down on the Pharmacy bench to read. (I almost had to pull a Natalie Portman/Novalee Nation, and write down my purchases IOU style - they lost power for about a half hour, but it finally came back on.)

Saving Private Ryan (or Megan)

So, remember in this movie how the heroes literally go through a war zone to find some silly little nitwit soldier and bring him home? I'm sure you know who the nitwit soldier was. And the man lucky enough to be my heroic savior? Daddy-in-law. After calling him in complete distress, he braved the elements to come find me and drag me back home. God love him, it took him half the day, but he made it, and he lead me home. (That's PoppaG up there by the way - isn't he too wonderful?)

The Langoliers

So we had no power at our house, and since we are an all-electric family, it was about 10 degrees inside in only a few hours. Again, the in-laws came to our rescue, and we spent the night in a warm, cozy house. I went across town before bed to check on the house and pick up the dogs, and I swear, it was totally a scene out of a Steven King movie. It looked like I had stepped into an alternate dimension. The neighborhood was totally black. All the cars were covered with snow. Inside the house, the beam of my flashlight reflected back all our things, just as we had left them, (which translates into about 40 cans of play-doh on the floor, a half-folded laundry basket of clothes, and countless hotwheels, (one of which I tripped over and almost met my Maker because of.) When a creepy Sponge Bob balloon started floating out of the Muffin's room, I grabbed my stuff and was out of there...

At least I had an uneventful rest of the evening. I'm hoping it all melts soon. Or else, I might have to break into musical montages next.....

Snow Day! (And ice, and sleet, and crappy snow plows...)

Today was an official snow day. We were lucky to get about four inches of the stuff, along with also being unlucky enough to get a most unfortunate amount of ice, sleet, and freezing rain. Quite enough to make it really difficult to do anything - especially looking graceful while trying to get your mail. I'm so glad no one was around to see my figure skating debut, as it really was quite shameful. Of course, after making the final decision that there was absolutely NO way on God's white earth that I was even going to try to chip into my car, let alone drive it to work, we set about getting our breakfast so we could rush out and play in the snow. I've never seen Lil' C shovel his Fruit Loops so fast.

"Now Mommy?"

"Another bite please, buddy."

***Slurp, slurp, crunch, crunch, slurp.****

"Pway in snow NNOOOOW Mommy?"

"Two more bites babe."

***crunchCrunchSlurpmunchMunch***

"Now PLEASE Mommy??!!!"

So we pulled on our snow gear, (thanks for the splendid coveralls Nana!), and headed out to brave the elements, one very enthusiastic two-year-old, one smiling, camera toting MommyMeg, and one very draggy, "why-do-I-let-you-talk-me-into-this-sort-of-thing-I-should-know-better-now" BabyDaddy. The Muffin was ecstatic. "Mommy, Mommy, white E'RYWHERE!!" We ran, (and fell a lot in the process), we made snow castles, ate snow cream, and had to teach Lil' C the true meaning of yellow snow. "Wow, cool! Es pwetty Mommy - Es yewwow!" Not so much my dear. Of course BabyDaddy ran screaming across the yard, just in time to catch the Muffin before he was able to get within grabbing distance of the "pwetty yewwow snow". I just rolled my eyes to the heavens and reminded myself that we really do love our dogs...

The rest of the afternoon passed too quickly, as they usually do. Most of the more giggle-worthy moments were spent watching our neighbors, and the poor snow plow drivers. I watched as one gentleman across the street scraped, chipped, and chiseled at his car, before finally throwing his ice scraper on the ground in exasperation, and stomping angrily back into the house. (I haven't seen him try it again since.) One neighbor spent at least 20 minutes just trying to get up his driveway and into the garage. He put down rocks, then cardboard - and he must have backed up and started again at least two dozen times. I finally left the window, but upon a quick check, it appears he made it in after all. The snow plows came, but not until 3:30 mind you, and halfheartedly attempted to scrape away the thick layers of ice and slush, but even they were slipping and sliding. I don't think they ever really got much done at all. So, it was a perfectly splendid day, and now I am watching Lil' C do the 'bedtime bargain' with BabyDaddy. "Just ONE more Rock Band. Pweeeeaaaasssee?" Ames, I must tell you, that we have to play a game or two of RB the next time we're over - the Muffin now knows all the words to 'Livin' on a Prayer'. I knew you would be so proud. (He can also belt out a staggeringly accurate 'Eye of the Tiger'.)

The only way to end a cold, snowy day......

It's Me! I'm Here! New year, new job, new hobby, same ol' me....

So, you missed me yes? I finally got tired of all my friends burning up my hotmail, work mail, facebook wall, and decided to get back on the horse! I'm rounding up my first month at my new state (ooh-la-la) job, and now that I'm settling in, should be able to get back to my regularly scheduled programming. So here, ladies, and ladies, (and at least one gent that I know of -- Love ya weirdo!) are the highlights of the past few weeks.

Christmas -- Fabuloso! The Muffin was so psyched on Christmas morning. He kept asking, "Presents now Mommy? Now? NOW??!!!" Out of everything, the title of 'most favorite gift' was a close tie between the View Finder, and the Hulk gloves that scream and make smashing noises when you pummel things. (I had to explain that it wasn't nice to demonstrate on the dogs, although I do believe it mostly to be a healthy way of expressing exasperation, which the Muffin seems to be doing quite often these days.)

New Year -- Another evening splendidly spent with the S. family. My fave Lil' Diva played an enormously effective babysitter for Lil' C, while the grown ups played round after round of Pictionary Man. (The gals smashed the boys, in case you were wondering. Take THAT Daddy J!) No 'adult' drinks this year -- what with Ames still baking her bun and all, but hey -- only 3 more months to go! The kiddos stayed up (and mostly out of trouble) until the ball dropped, and then we shuttled ourselves home for the night. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite New Year's traditions.

Disney -- What can I say? Can Disney even be described? Amazing? Wonderful? Best time of my life? Close maybe. Let's just say we are already trying to decide when we can go back. I have never seen Lil' C so excited in my life. One of my thousand favorite memories is walking under the huge Disney sign, and the Muffin throwing his hands up and squealing,"We're here! We're here!" It truly is a magical place, both for the Muffin, and BabyDaddy and I. Daddy pulled out all the stops, and on top of the crazy fantastic-ness that was Disney, got us front and center seats to a sold-out show of the Blue Man Group. Honestly, that was probably Lil' C's favorite part of the vacation. He got some blue light-up drum sticks, and plays his little drums happily chanting, "I Bwue Man Gwooooop!"

Lil's C's 2nd Birthday -- It made me a bit teary I'll admit, but it was loads of fun for the Muffin. In fact, he practiced blowing out his candles for weeks. I will have to say that the Children's Museum was a lovely place to have his party. All the kiddos, and the adults I might add, had a great time. A HUGE kudos to Miss Jeannie, who created the masterpiece that was his birthday cake -- we'll never forget it!

New Job -- I'm getting there. The first week was complete and utter chaos, as most "first" days and weeks at new jobs go. I literally came home every day thinking my head was going to pop off. Don't laugh, but I think one of the worst parts was that my office wasn't pretty. No kidding. It had been a man's office before, and was just plain institutional looking. But don't you worry about me my pretties -- I spiced that sucker up. I had to do it a little at a time, because I noticed that people were looking at me funny when I brought in my Rubbermaid Tote of goodies. So, I snuck it in a little at a time in a ridiculously huge hobo bag. :) Now I have my ficus, my pictures, my coffee maker, air infuser, photo calendars, and coat hanger. All set! Did I mention that I have a snazzy little badge that I have to swipe in order to get into the building? And the neighborhood library (yes, I was there my first day on the job) does biometric fingerprint scanning instead of using a library card? I feel like I've died and gone to a James Bond movie!

New Hobby -- Letterboxing. Heard of it? Nope? You will, my friends, you will. My new favorite coworker casually mentioned this activity during a conversation about our mutual Disney experiences. It's like a treasure/scavenger hunt. The quick and the short of it is this: There are 'letterboxes' hidden all around the U.S. The boxes include a stamp, (usually hand-carved), and a logbook. There are clues posted on the Internet to the whereabouts of these boxes. You search for them, make an impression of their stamp in your family log book, and then stamp the log in the letterbox with your family stamp. (I purchased our family stamp at Michael's. We are three monkeys. Don't you find it quite appropriate?) Anyway, I spent this past weekend with my lovely mother, who is and always will be a child-at-heart like myself. We spent the entire weekend - along with Grampa J, and the Muffin in tow - looking for these boxes, and I dare say it was the most fun I've had in oh, let's say forever. YOU. MUST. LETTERBOX. The clues led us to such neat places! More info at: http://www.atlasquest.com/ , and http://www.letterbox.org/ . On Atlasquest, if you choose the link at the top marked 'letterboxes', and then choose 'simple search', you can type in your city, and see letterboxes in the area!

All right dearies -- we are at T-ten minutes and counting until Grey's Anatomy, and you DO know how I am about Grey's yes? M-kay then, signing off!