Quotes from PT: You Know You're a Life Long ADAPTer When...

Haven't had one of these in a LONG time!

So I started PT, a recommendation I got through 2 ADAPTers, so I like to wear my more interesting shirts to keep her more entertained. Like my "shiny things distract me" shirt, where a pair of hand cuffs are portrayed as bling. That's one of my 3 favs.

Recently I wore another one of my favs, it has our logo really big, and then below it it has a quote:

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail... but a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, DAMN... THAT WAS FUN!

It got a chuckle. A bit into my time another PT looks at me and says he's trying to read my shirt. I smooth it out so he can. Then he says, "I would ask if you've ever been bailed out of jail, but I think I'll leave that alone." To which I respond without missing a beat, "You're not allowed to bail out. It's against the rules. You have to wait."

A while later my PT is trying to get some measurements of my ROM and in order to do that on one side she has to climb up on the big mat/table I'm on, between me and an older gentleman. She looks at him and says, "Don't worry, I won't bite, if you behave." The man jokingly goes "If I behave... those are the key words. Has [his PT] been telling you stories about me?"

To which I look at all 3 of them and say, "That's no fun. Who wants to behave? Behaving is boring. My favorite shirt (the 3rd of the 3) says 'well behaved women rarely make history'"

Things Only an ADAPTer Would Say: Back In Time Post #2

I found this post saved as a draft from way back in 2009. I don't know why I never published it, so I'll publish it today because I just don't have the umph to post something new.

On June 26th, 2009 I went up to my friends' apt to make the 2hr conference call to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the federal Department of Health & Human Services in Chicago. My friends have a landline with free long distance and I have a cell on a family plan, which at that time didn't have many minutes on it. A few days before my friends had been cleaning and uncovered a box full of toys that had been left out for me to play with. Things like buttons, brightly colored vests to be worn when you are rolling in the street, bumper stickers, and 7 sets of handcuffs were in there. Man had they been holding out on me. I've been wanting a disabled and proud bumper sticker (right) to put on my chair for ages and there they had several hiding out in their closet. I put that on my chair right away [it fell off rather quickly], but when I left I forgot my handcuffs. I wanted to hang them on my bedroom door for decoration.

The next day I went up to their apartment for dinner and a movie. I walked into my apartment afterwords, went straight into the kitchen to get something to drink to take my prozac with (glad I'm off that), sat down at the table and went "Oh man! I forgot my handcuffs again!"

My roomate just looked at me. "If you took that out of context..." Then I went "She had this box of toys that she left for me to go through [oops... how does that sound?] and there were several pairs of handcuffs in there."

The story only gets better. The next day I went up there after an advocacy group (CDRC) meeting to get my handcuffs and chill. I had taken the left over pizza from the meeting, so when I left I took my pizza box & my handcuffs (still in the package) onto the elevator that somebody was already on. She looked at me. "Pizza and handcuffs... must have been some party."

"It's a long story I said."

These handcuffs have useless keys because they have a super safety. The package says they are for use by ages 8+. Any one else find it disturbing that 8 year olds are being encouraged to play with handcuffs? Even if they are playing cops and robbers... ADAPT babies are another story :)

THERE'S JUST 1 WEEK UNTIL ADAPT INVADES DC!

I wrote this post months ago... don't know why I never posted it. Here's an ADAPTism for ya from way back in the summer:

My friend came to eat dinner and chill not long after I had come back from AYS. He was asking me about Chicago. "Did you get any action?"

"Yeah," I replied. Of course, I thought. That was the whole point of me being there in the first place.

Then I realized he meant the other kind of action. No, no I didn't. That was not why I was there.

I would be forever grateful if you donated to ADAPT.

You Know You're a Life Long ADAPTer When...

In your WRAP you're supposed to have a page where you write down what you're like when you're doing GREAT and another where you write down what you're like when you feel like crap. This way when I just feel ok I can go look at 'crappy Cheryl' (not official WRAP terminology) list and go, "WOW! I'm actually doing way better then I thought I was!" On the other side, when I do feel like crap I can go look at 'wonderful Cheryl' list and go "Cheryl you idiot! That is so much cooler then this. Dude, get off the couch..." (I don't really talk like that in real life... I'm going with humor...)

"So what are you like when you are well?" The facilitator asks the group 2 weeks ago

"This is going to sound odd, but the intent behind it makes sense. I'm a pain in the ass!"

I can't figure out how else to FREE OUR PEOPLE without being a pain in the ass, and let me tell you, I do an awful job of it when I'm depressed.

There's still time to DONATE! DO IT! NOW!

Only an ADAPTer...

I hope this person doesn't mind I'm posting their facebook status, but I'm leaving it anonymous so...

So-&-so is pondering the properties of tomatoes.
response 1: love tomatoes!
response 2: ok... (that was me)
response 3: They're a fruit and they have lycopene.
response 4: And when they get overripe, you can throw them at ableists. ;-P

I Was on the Radio Thursday Morning (things that only happen to ADAPTers)

I was up kind of earlyish for me and was actually able to catch part of the local radio morning show while I was contemplating getting out of bed or not. They were doing this thing they call "audio twitter" that apparently they've done before. Except they should have called it "audio facebook" because what they really wanted you to do was call up in a status update format. Something interesting. No "Cheryl has a headache." Why would I call? But then spur of the moment I sprang into action picking up my cell that was next to my bed. They're in my contacts even though I've maybe called them twice in the last 3 years.

"I have a status update. 'Cheryl got caught rolling home in the pouring rain last night.'" OMG it was a tourential downpour Wednesday night, with lightning so close. At one point it got hard to tell the sidewalk from the street, the water was so high. It was really scary. I was so wet and so spazed when I got home I couldn't walk. My legs were shaking and my purse was soaked through as well.

"Rolling?" said the female DJ quizically

"Wheelchair," I replied. The whole conversation with the 3 DJs about how it's an electric chair and it could have shorted, as well as how spotty the storm was, how it really depended on your location, all got on the air.

Then one of the DJs added in this story about how his father used to get mugged all the time walking home from this bar late at night and then discovered if he dropped to the ground and started rolling around the muggers would leave him alone. WTF? What does that have to do with anything?

What's the story? Well I had gone to my second On Our Own meeting completely ignoring the fact that it might rain and intending to take the bus home. There is a bus stop right there, the bus is free for me, and I have an aging chair. Where I was is somewhere between 2-2.5miles from where I live. I'd like to save my battery.

Well I got out of the meeting to find that it was drizleing, and knowing it was going to get worse. F---! The bus doesn't come for another half hr. It's a nicely covered bus stop except it's completely inaccessible-- up a curb with no cut anywhere on that side of the street (of course they're on the other side of the street where there is no cover). After wasting 5min sitting there I realized I could wait a half hr for the bus to come by (or more if it's running late) uncovered and then roll home 2 blocks from my stop or I could gun it and roll the 45mins home hopeing to beat the worst of it. I'd be just as wet either way.

Needless to say I called and scheduled paratransit to pick me up from there Friday evening and they were surprisingly right on time. The building could be hard to find. I got home probably 40mins sooner then if I'd waited for the bus. That's worth the $1.85. I also went online and filled out a complaint form with the MTA. I'm going to be going there 2X a week. Although I have other transportation options available to me, it'd be nice to be able to have the option of taking the bus w/o having to worry about inclemient weather.