Fallen Off the Face of the Earth

If you are one of the say, 10 people that read my blog you might be asking yourself the above statement about me. No dear readers, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, or another large round object. I’ve just been rapped up in other things that don’t necessarily require blogging. The number one big thing that I’ve been involved in is trying to have a baby.

This may sound simple enough, but alack readers it is not. We’ve been trying for around 8 months now and for a person who’s not very patient (that would be me) it’s reeking havoc on my emotions. Both hubby and I have gone trough testing of bodily fluids and such and we’ve both checked out “fine”. So, it’s just a matter of time before there’s a bun in the oven.

Who knew that getting pregnant required so much information that no one ever told you? Namely … ovulation. Yes the big ‘O’ – no dear readers not that kind of big ‘O’ – although I’ve heard that helps facilitate things. Anyway, ovulation … I’ve charted it though the use of my Basal Body temperature thermometer, I’ve felt for it in terms of abdomen cramps, and finally I’ve peed on sticks hoping that my fertility monitor will display that coveted “peak” symbol. If you’ve a few days off then it’s basically hopeless and this timing can drive a person insane!

Each month I’m hopeful we’ve timed everything correctly, and each month I’m let down. I’ve tried looking for support on the internet, but I just can’t stand those TTC (trying to conceive boards) filled with women in my same situation who jam pack their signature lines with glittery and blinking names (sometimes so distracting that a seizure might occur), fancy tickers and little quotes from the bible. Yes, I am not one of these women, although I can relate. I’ve actually found that I relate more to the lesbian TTC blogs because most of them are doing inseminations like we are (needless syringe, cup … etc.) or the way that hubby & I will have to do things in the future with IUI’s at the doctor. It’s actually quite funny.

So, that’s what has been happening with me. Each month is consumed with ovulation and thoughts that hopefully in the not too distant future … I’ll be knocked up.

A Piece of Fiction

I’ll admit it I like reading fiction. Basically, anything that’s a page turner. If it doesn’t grab my attention in the first few seconds I’m not reading it. The last book I read was ‘Middlesex‘ – I know, I know Oprah’s book club … how lame. But it was quite an enjoyable book. I mean who doesn’t like reading about an hermaphrodite growing up in Michigan in the 1970’s … sure we all do!

But now I’ll admit that my new “guilty fiction pleasure” is the ‘fiction’ section in the New Yorker magazine – and hubby & I have quite a lot of New Yorker magazines stacked up on our coffee table. I just started reading the ‘fiction’ section & it’s been fun weeding through the magazines to find good stories to read. If the story doesn’t draw me in with the first paragraph then into the recycling bin that magazine goes … I suppose this is how publishers do it when trying to weed through all the crap novels that get sent to them (well, at least the nice publishers that actually try to read the novels).

You might be wondering why all of a sudden I started reading the New Yorker rather than say … an actual book. The answer is a bit embarrassing. You see, I’m a nerd. I play The Sims 2 – my main enjoyment is building houses (I’m quite good at it, and have somewhat of a following on the sims website). Anyway, my game is chalked full of custom content (furniture items and objects that other sim nerds like me have made) and all this custom content makes my game load very very very s.l.o.w.l.y. Usually my game takes about 10 to 15 minutes to load. For me I can’t stand just sitting there … thus the New Yorker ‘fiction’ section to the rescue! I read while my game loads, between houses and saving times. I also read the New Yorker while things are buffering of the internet. This basically keeps my sanity in check and makes it so I don’t start screaming obscenities at my computer.

So, here I sit … New Yorker magazine folded to the ‘fiction’ section just waiting for something to load or buffer. How else would I get any reading done? Ah, to live in a computerized age. I think the juxtaposition is quite charming.

Everyone Loves A Garage Sale!

Ah … the garage sale. Let your mind conjure up an image of one. Wasn’t that nice? I have such fond memories of going to garage sales as a kid. To me I think of card tables filled with trinkets, worn clothing blowing in the breeze and finally the smell of cut grass. Also the excitement of finding a little nick-nack of value (or at least kookie enough to buy for 10 cents). Yes, the garage sale is a wondrous thing. A treasure might be lurking next to old VHS tapes and used socks, or it might not be – that’s the excitement of a garage sale, the complete unknown (also the fact that you get to see all the crap your neighbors have accumulated over the years).

Well, our neighbors are going to be rummaging through our crap next weekend. These last few days have been a mad house; cleaning out our packed garage and all of our boxes we never unpacked from our move – that happened a year ago! It was fun discovering all our old stuff. I especially enjoyed going through all my old high school memorabilia, and coming across lots of pictures of me and my friends – christ why did I ever do bangs! I also got all misty looking at the valentines stuff hubby has given me – needless to say those things did not get little price stickers on them.

This garage sale is going to be a pretty nice one. We have a good assortment of low end trinkets and higher end furniture and appliances (think kitchen table and a blender). So far, I’ve gotten pretty adept at pricing things with little white stickers. And who knew that .5 does not mean 5 cents, rather .05 does? Hmmm.

Anyway, this garage sale is going to kick ass! And if you’re in Los Osos next weekend why not come by and get yourself some genuine Ferguson trinkets! You’ll be glad you did.

There’s A lot of Hotels in Monterey …

And we ended up staying in practically all of them. Apparently last week was Spring Break. Hubby & I were not aware of this well known fact, so we were a bit surprised at how crowded Monterey was. Oh well, we still had a blast and we have 4 different hotel pens to show for it. Confused? Let me explain.

Last Thursday hubby & I traveled to Monterey, Ca. Hubby had never been and I knew that he’d love the Monterey Bay Aquarium & Fisherman’s Warf. I have been to Monterey many times growing up and was so happy to show hubby all the quaint spots (think Carmel) and wonderful beaches Monterey has to offer (not to mention to oh-so-adorable Sea Otters). So, we got busy calling around looking for a hotel and we were surprised that most hotels were booked up or didn’t have accessible rooms for all the nights we were staying (see first paragrah). So, we finally found a hotel by the name of The Hotel Pacific.

This is were it all starts. I might have to draw you a diagram later. Anyway, The Hotel Pacific looked all Spanish-y and quaint, a rustic quality if you will (at least the online pictures looked this way). When we got there, it was basically a fancy motel with Spanish tile adorning surfaces and hand carved furniture pieces about. What the hell were we thinking! This hand carved quaintness was basically embodied in the bed. The bed in our room was about 3 and a half feet off the floor with hand hewed planks making up it’s structure. We were baffled and a bit pissed. I even had trouble transferring into it – me! The room itself was odd with a pony wall and built in desk sectioning off the bed from the suite area, and a weird patio that was claustrophobic. Needless to say we immediately got out of there and went to the lobby. We informed the somewhat dim hotel check-in guy that we needed the box spring taking off our bed so the bed would be lowered and hubby could transfer easily. He didn’t seem too phased by our question (perhaps this is a common occurrence?) and immediately got the engineers of the hotel on the phone. At that point, hubby & I sighed with relief. They said it would be taken care of when we came back from dinner. Off we went to Fisherman’s Wharf for some good fish dinners, hoping we wouldn’t need a crane of some sort to get into bed when we returned.

When we got back, this is what we saw. Thebare box springs were left on the bed and the mattress had been put into the floor of the suite part of the room. My first reaction was of course anger, but the mattress was made up so nicely I just felt kind of bad for the whole situation. Hubby had to call the lobby to say this was just not going to work. They claimed the box springs couldn’t be removed from the frame (I picked one up at a corner, so that’s a bunch of bull … but anyway). They basically understood the room wouldn’t work for us, and called around to find another hotel for us (mind you, this is Spring Break). Ug. We waited and waited and finally (it’s now close to 9:00pm) they called and said they found a hotel for us. We hauled our stuff to the car and went to the lobby where they printed out directions and apologized more – thanks … but dude … seriously … what’s with the beds?! They told us they had found a hotel with the name Sea View Inn (or something similar) in Seaside (think a dirty version of Monterey) and they had it reserved for us. Off we went with our google map directions … Sea View didn’t sound that bad … it’s on the beach after all.

We finally found the hotel … The Best Western Sea View Inn – I don’t know if they intentionally left that part out? Whatever. We were tired and I wanted to take a shower. With our weary faces we greeted the nice girl at the front desk. “Hi, were the Fergusons! The Hotel Pacific called and reserved a room for us tonight.” (Oh yeah, they could only get a room for ONE night). The girl looked perplexed. She hadn’t gotten a call from The Hotel Pacific. Wah!? We checked the address with our little rumpled google map directions, yep this was the right hotel … but no reservation had been made! WTF?! They were all booked up (of course they were), so we had our perplexed check-in girl call around to other hotels, and by other hotels she called other Best Western hotels – or more specifically Best Western motels. Huzzah! She found one! A Best Western in Marina (think a crappier version of Seaside – kind of like Fresno with a beach), it was going to be $89.00 a night (oh, and only for ONE night as well – our Hotel Pacific was in the 200 dollar range and the three star range too … hmmm). What the hell, … I’ve stayed at many a Motel 6 in my day … bring it on … I can handle it.

The lovely Marina Best Western was a step up from a Motel 6 – that step being it had Spanish tile in the “lobby”. Our room was fine, right next to the stairs and it had all the basics: a bed, a TV, a desk and the soothing sounds of four lanes of traffic rushing by on highway 1. Oh well, at least hubby could transfer into bed. Finally we had a place to sleep – for ONE night. Before we went to bed, however, hubby called around to see if we could get a room at the hotel where we originally wanted to stay – The Plaza Hotel – right in the heart of Cannery Row. Yes! A room was available – but not an accessible one – we took our chances and booked it.

The next morning, after sleeping quite soundly in our scruffy Best Western room, we departed Marnia for the picturesque Cannery Row of Monterey. The Plaza Hotel was lovely (except for all the construction going on, the make shift lobby entrance & the fact that valet parking was totally messed up – yes lovely). We checked in and were surprised to find out that an accessible room was available, but it wasn’t ready. We couldn’t get into see it until later. What we didn’t know that “later”, really meant like 5 hours later. Meh, it was okay we wanted to get some lunch and had the Aquarium to see – that would take some time. As we were winding down our Aquarium visit (hubby was quite impressed and didn’t expect it to be so “polished” & Disneyland like), The Plaza Hotel called and said our room was ready! Weee!

We entered our lovely room on the fourth floor to see a beautiful ocean view, the waves crashing happily as if to say “look at the freakin’ bed!” Damn it! The bed was really high (not has high as The Hotel Pacific “Mount Everest” of a bed) but still high. We called the lobby and gave them the same spiel about the box spring. They said “not a problem”. Again we went out to dinner and when we came back the bed was pretty much perfect – even a bit too low (thank goodness we brought the sliding board, which I would run to get the next morning and be confronted with a valet parking situation … whatever I won’t get into it, this post is already long enough). The room was lovely and the view was gorgeous. Too bad we only had it for one night, we wanted to stay one more day & see Carmel so hubby got to calling again. We had noticed that the Portola Hotel (formally the Double Tree) was in a perfect location right by Fisherman’s Wharf – we would take our chances tomorrow and see if a room was available.

In we walked to the Portola Hotel, highly doubting that a room would be available. We were wrong, a room was available & luckily it was an accessible room. We booked it, but it wouldn’t be ready for a bit … right right … we know the drill, just call me in 5 hours. When we finally got into our room, the beds were at a perfect height but the view was horrible. We basically had a view onto a gravel balcony blocked by the atrium windows from the lobby. I got all misty thinking of the Plaza with our ocean view … then I remembered the sounds of a four lane highway and the Maria Best Western … a smile crept across my face.

We had a great time in Monterey (all things considered) & I have the hotel (& motel) pens to prove it.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

As the title implies, today is hubby’s birthday. The big 32. Not quite as big as 35 or even four oh, but still a day to celebrate. The weather was quite nice today, and we went into San Luis for some “fast food sushi”, a trip to the used book store and a frozen yogurt by the creek. A lovely day. This evening we went out for a nice dinner at Windows on the Water – an upscale restaurant in Morro Bay. The food was good. Let me emphasize the word good here. Not great, good. And for $49.00 for an entree you expect great – possibly even an “orgasmic” level of food consumption. With every bite a party in your mouth, so to speak. You see, just yesterday (yesterday!) they changed the menu and got a new chef. What the heck? We’ve eaten at Windows on the Water many times before and had our meals planned out as we were driving there … “I’ll have the seared Ahi with jasmine rice …” you get the idea. Instead, none of those dishes were on the new and “improved” menu. Gah! I ended up getting seared albacore – a sad replacement for the seared Ahi and hubby got the abalone – which was breaded. No where on the menu did the abalone say breaded. Double gah!  The fish itself was nicely done. Anyway, the wine was good (as if I can tell a good wine for another – hey, it was easy to drink) and the desert was nice. Can’t beat the ambiance, either.

All and all, a great birthday for the hubby.

People Are Stupid

The world is made up of all kinds of people, why is it that most of the stupid ones get caught on tape doing terrible things.

Exhibit A:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23142859#23142859

If you’re too busy to click the link above, here’s basically what happened.  A man named Brian Sterner who is a quadriplegic, was arrested on a traffic violation.  A deputy at the Hillsborough Co. Sheriff’s Office in Florida didn’t believe Sterner was a quadriplegic. She walked behind him, and proceeded to dump Sterner to the floor.  Sterner thinks he broke a couple of ribs.

This was all caught on tape, and Sterner is going after everyone involved – kaching for Sterner.

Can you believe this happened?  But as my title of this post states – people are stupid.  And if there’s a video recorder running somewhere, you can bet some stupid person is being caught on it doing something … stupid.

Tandem Wheelchair?

Christ. People. So, I’m with my husband at Trader Joe’s today. We are pushing along the relatively tiny frozen food isle (me behind him, both of us gazing down at frozen green beans) when a clerk climbs down off her ladder and leans in to tell us something. Okay … here it comes some lame ass comment, and surprise she didn’t let me down. She says: “I saw you both over there and it looked like you had a tandem wheelchair!” My eye rolling begins. She goes on to add, “What a great idea!”. More eye rolling on my part and a little sad nod. Hubby lets out a tiny sigh and a sad laugh as we try to get back to shopping. Now, if you can believe it this is not the first time I’ve heard such a lame comment. The “tandem wheelchair” line has been uttered before. Wrap your heads around that for a moment.

Anyway, being the stereotypical “bitter disabled person” I get really pissed. I say to hubby “What the hell!? Can’t we just go grocery shopping!” I say this low enough not to make a scene, but loud enough for Trader Joe clerk to here us, and I hope she did. Then I start to feel really self conscious and really disabled. I just don’t get people sometimes.

To top off my Trader Joe’s shopping experience, the checker made the comment that I was buying a lot of snack products. And frankly, I was. The Super Bowl is this weekend and we are going to have company. So I bought a lot of chips, beer and microwavable yummies. I guess she disapproved of the lack of vegetables and “proper” meals. I shot back with it’s Super Bowl weekend! And she nodded. Not a nod of recognition, but a nod of ‘Yes, but you still should have a bag of carrots somewhere!’ Then she makes sure I can see the ATM card swiping thing, by saying “Are you sure you can read that?” Jesus! I had already swiped my card and she was printing out the receipt. Yeah, I think I can read the ATM card thing. Ahh!

So, I leave Trader Joe’s with lots of black bean & cheese Taquitos and the feeling of being really really disabled.

Give Us A Table & No One Gets Sued!

We live in a litigious society. If something bugs us, we sue them or at least write an indigent letter or even email. This is known all-too-well within the disabled community. We’ve all heard of some guy suing some business because the mirror in the bathroom was too high and winding up with lots ‘o money in the bank. Is this fair? I’m all for ADA codes, but sometimes things can go a bit too far. Just read this article.

Tonight hubby & I ate dinner at The Galley restaurant in downtown Morro Bay. Delicious sea food, great view of the bay and we both got the five star treatment. Why such nice service? It’s not because we’re big tippers. It’s because we’re in wheelchairs. To them, they see lawyers and money being flung about. You see, The Galley has been in the process of remodeling for years now ever since Jarek Molski (a man who is in a wheelchair from a motorcycle accident in 1988) decided to sue them over some such nonsense related to accessibility (think paper towel dispensers too high). Hubby (while in college) had dinned at The Galley on numerous occasions prior to the remodeling with out making a federal case. Now, to understand the restaurant scene in Morro Bay you must know that most of the buildings are old, creaky and built sometime in the 1960’s. They are mostly fish joints that somehow turned into fancy restaurants. You don’t expect these places to be exactly up to code, but Molski apparently did and got busy suing. Some restaurants closed and some just paid out money to quite the situation. The Galley however, got busy rebuilding.

All this suing has made many restaurants uneasy when they see hubby and I push in. It’s the subtle way the waiter or manager will come and check on our table every 10 minutes. We’ll arrive at a restaurant at six and expect to wait 15 minutes for a table, but instead they’ll whisk off that ‘reserved’ sign and set us at the table with the great view. I feel bad for the other couple that called hours earlier and requested that table. Sorry, but wheelchair trumps reservation. Does this make me happy? Perhaps for a moment (I feel like a celebrity!) but really, it makes me mad.

A few years ago I was trying to get an internship at a design firm. I went to an interview at a kitchen and bath place. They loved my work and all my designs & I was at the top of my class (dean’s medalist nominee … etc.) any firm would be lucky to have me. However, a week later I found out from a teacher they were not going to hire me. Instead, they were hiring three of my classmates to do the job I wanted. I was pissed! Their reason? They were afraid I’d sue them because their bathrooms were not up to code. I was stunned. Could they do that? At the time I was a stupid student just trying to get my degree and be done with college, I didn’t want the hassle of getting into something and having it blow up in my face. For the rest of my senior year I struggled to find an internship. I blame this struggle on not only the crappy selection of design firms in the Central Valley but also because of people like Jarek Molski and our litigious society.

So, do we sue when we find an infraction of the ADA code? Or do we let it slide. Why have an American’s With Disabilities Act when businesses will not even comply with it? Frankly, I’m the kind of person to let it slide. If a business will not make a few accommodations to allow me access they don’t need my money. Sure, I’ll complain to the manager and suggest something be changed – but at what price do we pay (or have the business pay) for such violations.

Disneyland – for Adults?

This weekend I was able to go to Disneyland with my cousin Johnny, hubby and my mom. The big kid in me was really excited. I think anyone from my generation would be excited, and this was proven by the fact that most of the people at the park were probably in the late 20’s and early 30’s. While waiting to get on Uncle Toad’s Wild Ride (in Fantasy Land, no less) I was passed by 6 cars all filled with adults. Now, I have to admit, most adults in my age group had toddlers with them – we all know who’s going on most of the rides, so why not leave the kid at home with the grandparents and really enjoy yourself. Space Mountain with a 2 year old? I don’t think so. I suppose it’s just an excuse to go to Disneyland and not look a bit out of place. Frankly, I didn’t care I looked out of place. Also, Disneyland has always been super enjoyable because being in a wheelchair I’m able to skip the long lines and go straight on. It’s fun to pass all they people waiting – screw you suckers! This is my one “disabled perk” (after the parking) and I’ll be damned if I don’t deserve it! The only ride that didn’t allow me to do this line skipping was the Matterhorn, and I was pretty pissed. But I eventually went on it; getting in line right after the big parade was over so the line was relatively short.

So, I went on all my favorite rides – Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, the Jungle Cruise, & the “new” ride Indiana Jones. I also went on all the little “kiddie” rides at Fantasy Land. Unfortunately I sat through It’s A Small World (they still had it with a Christmas theme and I thought my head would explode). I was sad that the Haunted Mansion was closed, however, what made up for this sadness was having an excellent meal at the Blue Bayou Restaurant next to Pirates of the Caribbean. Speaking of Pirates of the Caribbean, I realize that the Johnny Depp movie was a big deal, but must they muck up the ride by placing an auto-matronic Johnny Depp everywhere? The great folks at Disneyland also added a hologram of that mean pirate with the tentacles – just lame. Anyway, the restaurant was excellent and the only down side was that they didn’t serve any alcoholic drinks. I suppose Disneyland isn’t like Vegas, however, wouldn’t that be great! People carrying around big Mickey Mouse shaped drink containers. I suppose they don’t want people getting drunk and then getting on a ride. I could just see a drunk person trying to get out of one of the boats on It’s a Small World and smashing a little auto-matronic foreign land child. I’d actually pay money to see that.

The one part that annoyed about my Disneyland experience was the abuse of the “rent-a-wheelchair”. Families would plunk grandma in a rented wheelchair and use her as an excuse to skip the lines. Very frustrating. Also irretating, was the abuse of the motorized scooter by just lazy people. These lazy (and usually overweight) people would be in front of me at the “wheelchair waiting area”, and then not go on the ride, while their big family of chubby and loud kids would run and jump on. Geez people. I only saw two other people who were actually in “real wheelchairs”.

Aside from that annoyance, the park was great. I felt bad that hubby couldn’t transfer onto any of the rides, but I think he still had fun people watching and eating they great food. Ah well, I had a blast. So, if you’re an adult go to Disneyland; I promise you’ll have fun. But, I must warn you … Michael Jackson’s ‘Captain Eo’ isn’t playing anymore. Such a shame.

Human Tetris, Anyone?

Writers strike be damned, I’ve got YouTube. I just have to say, people are crazy – but in a good way, especially the Japanese. Here’s two clips of “Human Tetris.” This first clip is basically the classic Nintendo game with people. The next, one is something you’ll just have to watch and experience. Trust me, you’ll be laughing …

Human Tetris:

Japanese Human Tetris: