It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Fun*Run Time

It's ALREADY that time of year again: The ADAPT Fun*Run for Disability Rights is April 22nd 2012. Maryland's fundraising goal is $8,000 this year. Yes, that's right, $8,000

Donate $1! Donate $10! Donate $100! Donate $1,000! JUST DONATE so we can FREE OUR PEOPLE! http://adaptfunrun.org/runner.php?id=7 I thank you very much for your support!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Rolling to Work--You Can't Beat it!

I sort of stopped working when school started (oops). After I somewhat recovered from the initial 3 weeks of extreme stress and anxiety, I decided I better get back to it. I'm not sure I've blogged about work before. In June I officially became one of the Maryland Disability Law Center's Sunshine Folk. Just so my supervisor doesn't have a cow, I don't work for MDLC, I work with MDLC. Some sort of very important legal distinction. They don't pay much, but I don't work much (and I'd still do it for free). It's a very part-time very flexible job. I'm working nursing home outreach. This month I did all sorts of very important work related things (meetings, venturing to the ADAPT action for a few hrs, a picnic run by the local CIL) but I hadn't been into any nursing homes. I have a "prisoner" I'm working to get out of a nursing home about 1.5mi from me who I hadn't checked in on. So after a meeting Tues I rolled over to her. I'm also supposed to be going to 2 new nursing homes a month. I went to the Medicare Compare site earlier in the month and found another nursing home 1mi from me in the other direction. But I never went there. So Friday right after class I rolled to the library to check my email and then I rolled over there. I need a good looking Sept report.

I know I've blogged about this before, but being able to roll to work gives me such a sense of freedom. I've often griped about how my lack of ability to drive a car limits where I can work and where I can live so much more then someone who can drive. A professor of mine lives up in PA and commutes an hr each way. I gripe that while I would never choose to do that, I still would like to have the option to, and I don't. I need to stop griping. This may just be the shock of the century, but I'm growing kind of fond of rolling. I may change my mind when the weather changes and I'm rolling 1.5mi up the street to my prisoner in 40 degrees, but I really like the way the wind blows through my hair as I travel at about 6mph. I also like the lack of advance planning that being able to roll to work gives me too. Friday I decided to roll over to that nursing home 15mins before I did. I didn't have to make sure I had enough $ for round trip cab fare or check and double check the bus schedule. I just went. And then rolled back here and went to dinner. I mean, I do have to make sure the chair has enough juice, but it'd been plugged in for 2.5hrs in the hallway outside of class. I'm not sure the thrill of spontaneity is ever going to get old, whether it's being able to roll 1mi to work when I'm at school or being able to walk 3 blocks to the grocery store when I'm at home.

What don't I like about being able to roll to work? The fact that I can roll to work. The fact that there are 4-6 nursing homes within a reasonable rolling distance of me. Why? Why do we have to warehouse so many people? Why don't people understand that it is more cost effective to serve people in their own homes? Why don't people know that the state has money to pay for home services, if accessed in the right way? Why are all of these people imprisoned when they don't have to be? I'll never understand.

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