April's Real Blog

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Shannon tells me Gramps mite b-come special needs

Oh, so Shannon and I did talk this past Monday! We both 4got all abt it. Here's what happed.

I was @ my locker and Shannon came up 2 me, all "Hi, April ... Howya ... doin'?" I was lookin' @ a piece of paper when she asked me, and I sed, "I'm OK, Shannon." Shannon was, like, "I ... don't ... think ... so." Yeah, I was totally moping, I guess it was v. obvious. I told her, "My grandfather had a stroke." Shannon musta been worried that I'd assume she didn't know what that meant, just like my mom did 2 me last week. Cuz she was all, "I ... know ... what ... that ... is. I'm so ... sorry!" I sed, "He's alive, but they still can't tell us NEthing. He mite not B able 2 walk or talk or think clearly." Shannon did a "Hey!..." And just then, we were passing by the Learning Centre, where a bunch of special-needs kidz were hanging out by the door. The wall, all along the line where it meets the ceiling above that room has "yes we can! yes we can! yes we can!" Over and over. NEway, as we were passing that room, Shannon went, "...We've ... been there." "There" being can't walk or talk or think clearly." The SN kidz an' I waved @ each other as Shannon sed that. A kid on a wheelchair had a bag slung over the back of it, with "On a roll", which made me wonder if this kid's dentist mite B my dad, since this soundz so like my 'rents' kinda humour. NEway, this kid in the chair was all, "Shannon, that was really rude. We didn't have a stroke, and April's Gramps isn't special needs. U're insensitive." Shannon sed, "No, that's ... Eva. I'm ... uplifting." Then she kinda pushed me 2 hurry past the Learning Centre.

Well, it's Thursday. That meanz it's poss that after 2 more dayz of this topic, and sumthing totally unrel8ed on Sunday, I'll have new stuff 2 tell U abt on Monday. Wish me luck w/that, and of course lotsa good luck 4 Gramps, eh?

Apes

posted by April Patterson @ 6:54 AM  

20 Comments:

  • At 7:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April, I've been reading your blog for the past few months. Until recently, I spent a lot of time on a computer, and I had to keep myself occupied for 107 minutes at a time. I just want to remind you that whenever you see a wheelchair, there's a person in it. (Usually.) And they're not always cheerful all the time. Sometimes they get angry, especially when someone tells them they can't do something. And no offense, but they don't always want to hear about your problems, because they have enough of their own.

    Shannon, I was once like your classmate -- the one with the "On a Roll" bag. I forget how it happened; I *think* it was because I was underneath a deck when a very large guy walked out on it and it collapsed, but I'm not sure. I think I'll remember more later this year, or maybe next year. The point is, I stayed strong and never stopped working on my skills. So when I got to a place that gave me my legs back, I was ready. Sure, I might not even be alive right now; I have a feeling it'll be another week before I know, but I believe in you, and I know you can do anything you can put your mind to.
    DON'T LET ANYBODY TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN'T DO!

     

  • At 9:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I'm Steve Austin, astronaut. Once I was a man barely alive. But they rebuilt me. They have the technology. Thre is the capability to build the world's first bionic grandpa. Jim Richards will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.

     

  • At 10:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    John Locke,

    That is really good advice. Thank you for reminding me. I think about that every day. Don't let anybody tell me what I can't do! I know just what you mean. I am working for my Towards Independent Living Certification, so I can live by myself and take care of myself. And no matter what anyone says, I am going to get it. I’m glad you got your legs back and thank you for writing to me.

    Love,
    Shannon Lake

     

  • At 10:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April,

    I am so happy. We got to talk in person. I got to walk with you by my special needs friends and they saw me with you and you even waved to Dylan and Faith from our home ec class we took together 2 years ago. You were probably waving to Jack from our class too, but he is not as responsive as Dylan and Faith. Not only that but I spoke 3 words in a row without an ellipse. 4 words, if you don’t count that one of them was a contraction. I am getting a lot better at that. I hope you tell about the rest of our conversation in your Blog entry tomorrow. Remember, you are the nicest girl in Milborough and I would never be insensitive to you.

    Love,
    Shannon Lake

     

  • At 10:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April,

    I was a tennis pro, who was almost killed in a skydiving accident, but I was saved by the U.S. Government, which used bionic parts to save me. They replaced both legs, one arm, and one ear; which not only were artificial, but gave me a number of super powers. I worked as agent for the Office of Scientific Investigations and I got to battle spies, fembots, mad scientists and aliens. From what I understand about your grandfather, he would probably love to battle fembots. I can ask Oscar Goldman if your grandfather would qualify for the program, but I expect he would have to change his citizenship to the States.

    Jamie Sommers

     

  • At 10:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April,

    Steve Austin and Jaimie Sommers make me sick. I was San Francisco’s chief-of-detectives until I was confined to a wheelchair by a sniper's bullet. But with the help of Sgt. Ed Brown and officer Eve Whitfield, I was still able to function in normal society and track down the man who shot me. Your grandfather will be able to do that to, without the help of any fancy “bionics” and maybe he will get to meet Tiny Tim, like I did.

    Robert Ironside

     

  • At 10:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April,

    Little sis. It exasperates me when you don’t keep up. What it is with this, “He’s alive, but they still can’t tell us anything. He might not be able to walk or talk or think clearly.” business? I already know Grandpa Jim has lost movement on one side of his body, and he can’t talk or think correctly, but Iris can usually interpret what he means. You should read the monthly letters to find out what is going on. That’s how I find out things in our family.

    Love,
    Michael Patterson

     

  • At 11:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Jamie, oh Jamie. How I've missed you. Once, you were just my tennis instructor girlfriend. Then you had that terrible skydiving accident. I wish I could have prevented it. I ordered Oscar Goldman and the OSI to give you bionics so you could survive. I thought we would get married and make bionic babies. But no. When you woke up, you had amnesia. You didn't remember our love. Since that day, I've been on the waiting list for a bionic heart. Mine was crushed.

    Remember that time we almost got back together? It was when my son had that accident. Remember how I fought to get him bionic implants? Remember how you helped me train him to use them properly?

    We could be that good again. All we need is another nearly dead person to bond over. We could go out and almost kill another of my long-lost sons or another of your house pets. But why bother when there is already someone in need? Help me build the world's first Bionic Grandpa. I bet it helps you remember what we once meant to each other.

    Love, Steve

     

  • At 11:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April,

    Mike is right, read the monthly letters, that's how I keep up on how Grandpa is doing, I'm just too busy to go to the hospital right now, I'm just so busy and besides we're not really close, bummer for you that you spent time with him, now you have to care that he's probably going to die or be a vegetable.

    Liz

     

  • At 3:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Steve,

    You goof. I regained my memory and we got married in November, 1994. Remember saying, “Bionic Ever After” to me? Don’t you remember how a computer virus corrumpted my bionics a few days before our wedding, and you had to go defeat a terrorist who took control of the American Embassy in the Bahamas? Then in order to cure my condition. Dr. Wells, gave me a bionic upgrade which gave me night vision. And then we got married. I’ll have Dr. Wells check you over to see if you are suffering some other computer virus. I knew we shouldn’t have allowed Microsoft to do your last upgrade.

    Love,
    Jamie

     

  • At 3:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    april, thass how ur convo w/shannon wuz? she’z usually a lot betta than that w/convos 2 help peeps feel bettah, but i guess this xxplainz y she haz been talkin’ ‘bout nothin’ but how she made u feel bettah wen eva failed, 4 the last couple of dayz. lissen, u were there 4 me, wen i wuz n hospital, so i wanna do the same 4u. aftah skool, if u want, i will treat u @horny tims & u can say wutevah u wanna say w/o ne1 talkin’ ‘bout band practice or worst case sitches w/ur grandpa’z recovery or comparin’ ur grandpa 2 special needz kidz. i am not gonna say 1 word ‘bout myself, unless it’s a good story i know ‘bout ur grandpa u haven’t heard b4. lemme know if ur innerested.

     

  • At 3:43 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Jamie,

    The last thing I remember is being in some kind of race with a bionic girl who looked like a young Sandra Bullock. Was she a fembot? Maybe fembots erased my memories of our love.

    Maybe Oscar can figure it out.

    Love (I think), Steve

    P.S.--Did we ever have any bionic babies?

    P.P.S.--Maybe making this girl's grandfather bionic will help us rekindle our passion for each other. Fembots be damned!

     

  • At 3:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    hmm, i think i m gonna use "fembots" as my theme 4 my next tour. all my backup dancers/singers will b dressed in shiny silver outfits.

    hey apes, mayb going 2 the hospital an' playing music will help ur gramps, it mite help keep him frum going in2 the lite, if u know what i mean, if he knows u r still out there wanting 2 jam w/ him.

    becks

     

  • At 4:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April,

    Boozhoo (Hello).

    I read your writings about the visit with your friend Shannon and the special needs children. Your special needs friends seem to be debinaak (careless) with your feelings. Special needs children are like that. I can tell you when they get older; they are still debinaak (careless), but not as much.

    For example, my friend Susan Dokis (whom I call Chipper) has to deal with special needs children every day. You may not know this but, 30-40% of school-age Ojibway children have hearing impairment resulting from ear disease in Ontario and 33% of school-age Ojibway children have one or more learning disabilities. Almost 1/3 of her class in Mtigwaki (Land of Trees) would be considered special needs in your school. When Chipper started work and realized the situation, she had to make adjustments to her teaching so the children would learn. They were not used to it, and the children said some things to Chipper which were pretty debinaak (careless). But Chipper has said, after awhile, the children are used to learning things, and they are not as debinaak (careless) as they were.

    April, do not worry. Your school special needs friends will get older and most of them will be a lot less debinaak (careless) with your feelings, just the way Chipper’s kids are with her.

    Gi'-ga-wa-ba-min' na-gutch! (See you later!)
    Constable Paul Wright

     

  • At 5:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Paul,

    I don't think that's right, maybe in some other Native towns those statistics are true but in Mtigwaki there is hardly any kind of social problem whether it's drinking or crime or teenage pregnancy or deafness or special needsiness of the children, it just doesn't happen, I think Susan has been listening to a few of those not-so-nice stories about Natives and has been "bamboozled" as my Dad would say.

    I never noticed even one special needs or deaf kid in my class, so if they're there now, Susan must be causing it.

    Liz

    P.S.--This story about Steve and Jamie is maybe the most romantic one I ever heard, it's way better than Mike's draft of The Policeman and the Pilot and even better than Haystacks of Lust by Lubrella Kuntz!

     

  • At 5:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Steve,

    We did not have bionic babies. I was 45 and you were 55 when we finally got married in 1994. Besides, your son Michael from your first wife was made bionic; Kate Mason, our bionic assistant, who helped us when we thwarted the terrorist attack by the bionic spy against that athletic showdown event in Canada; and there was that boy, “The Bionic Boy” Andy Sheffield, too. I think that is quite enough bionic people, without us making more as babies. Oscar doesn’t think April’s grandfather, is going to be the best choice for bionics. Something about him being too Canadian for OSI work.

    Love,
    Jamie

     

  • At 6:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April,

    If they offer to make your Grandpa bionic, be sure to get Linux and not Windows. That was the mistake Deanna made with her first robo-Wife model, but Marcus and I are putting Linux on this version - oops, I've already said too much. Never mind, just say no to Microsoft Gramps (tm)!

    Jason

     

  • At 6:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    April,

    Bionics is just a crutch. True power comes from the power of the mind. If your grandfather is actually a mutant, I can take him to my school and train him to use his mind, even if his body is not longer properly functioning. I have been very successful with my students in the past, and what few of them that have died are usually resurrected in a year or two. Let me know if your grandfather is interested in the Xavier Academy in Westchester.

    Professor Charles Xavier

     

  • At 7:10 PM, Blogger April Patterson said…

    i thot becks's idea abt playin' guitar 4 gramps was gd, so i did, i hung by his bedside @ the hospital and played sum of his fave songz. i think he kinda smiled. w/half of his mouth.

    after that, i went 2 horny t's and jeremy bought me a dbl dbl and listened 2 me talk abt my gramps an' stuff. thanx, jeremy!

    i'm back @ home now. mom made sum gross casserole. luckily i brought takeout fr. ht's.

    apes

     

  • At 10:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Jamie,

    Let me see if I have this straight. First, you refuse to have bionic babies with me, even though they have the technology to make a 57 year old woman pregnant. Second, Oscar refuses to help this innocent old man who needs us, just because he isn't the right race. Third, you leave your bionic dog Max off the list, which probably means you're telling me our dog is dead.

    My life is a lie. I'd try to kill myself, but I don't know if it's possible to kill a bionic man.

    Love, Steve

     

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