Past Week and a Half
written August 17, 2009
This past week has been filled with several ups and downs. When I left Sadie home by herself, I cried. I miss her so much.
After we got here and Mike and Ken has unloaded, Mom and I worked on unpacking the place. I hummed all day long. I was so excited to have a place of my own. The only drawback was that the trains ran all day and all night. It was like the never-ending train, or so it seemed. Thankfully, that was the worst day. The amount of trains which have come by since then has been much fewer. But that first night consisted of very little sleep. I have since resorted to using ear plugs which help a great deal. If I can just keep them in my ears all night, I would be good, but they tend to fall out. Ha. I also run a humidifier which dulls the train noises and has helped my allergies as well.
The first day, besides unpacking, Mom and I went grocery shopping. We went to Sams for a few things I needed in bulk and then to Wal-Mart. We spent forever in that store! By the time we got back to the car, I was ready to take a shower and go to bed. Of course, I needed food first. Haha.
The next day, I stayed home because of allergies which had turned into an infection. Mom had to go pick up some more stuff for me which we had forgotten the night before. Charter came that night to hook up my cable and internet. They had trouble getting the internet hooked up, so I finally told the guy I would figure it out so he could leave. It took me about an hour to get things straightened out between connections, setting up the router, and then redoing it because the wireless wouldn't configure correctly. I finally got it fixed and checked the tons of e-mail I had gotten in the preceding two days. Wow! Was that ever a lot to read! What was funny was that Mom decided to sleep on the couch that night and doesn't remember what happened while I was checking my mail. As I was typing a reply to something, she said, "uh uh, uh uh. Do you have to do that? How much longer are you going to be? Can you do it tomorrow? It will give you something to do." So then I tried to type more quietly, and that seemed to do the trick.
On Tuesday, we went to eat at Longhorn's and did a little more shopping. We had to take a microwave and bag of rotten potatoes back to the store. We ended up encountering one of the transit buses I will be using this semester and spoke to the driver to find out how many others there were. There are nine which is actually more than I thought there would be.
On Wednesday, Sissy came down. Yay Sissy! She brought me a new antibiotic which had been prescribed for this stubborn infection. We went to eat lunch and... What did we do after that? Shop some more! I had to find some shorts, a little tray to stand up beside my couch (I'm too short for the bar stools), among other things. That night, I made some chicken soup, and then Sissy and I played Uno while Mom went to bed sick. Sissy, I am convinced, made up some rules of her own, but she says they are real. So that means I have to find the real ones to see if she was serious.
The next day was the one I had not really wanted to come. Everyone would leave, and I would be here by myself. I was more nervous about the bus system here and the route into the building than I have been this entire time. I have second-guessed my decision to come here. The first day was okay though I was a little sad, but the next, it really hit me that I was here, and I really lost it when I read something Mom sent me.
Oh yeah, while all of this was going on, I got a new icemaker. Mine was not turning off, and it was overflowing and making weird noises. I didn't expect to get it so quickly, but thankfully Brandy found one in the office that would work.
Wow, this is getting long, and I'm only halfway done. I think this is the best part though, or at least the most amusing.
Sunday afternoon, after Mom and Ken had left (they came to take me to a church here and then out to eat), I was sitting in the living room when I heard a gurgling, choking noise. I stopped what I was doing to figure out what in the world it was. And it was my toilet. It was throwing up without even being stopped up! I went in there to find my cover and seat wet with bubbly water. It then didn't flush, so I had to call about it. When Brandy got there, it worked, though she did ask about the mysterious bubbles. My cleaning stuff does not bubble like this, so I knew it was nothing on my end. My dad said that it sounds like a washing machine backed up the lines and made it spit up. Seriously, it sounded like it was sick with a hangover! Haha.
And now... Today. The day of reckoning.
Heather and Daddy came down to keep me company, and Heather wanted to play the Mama bear. She wanted to follow the bus to the college to make sure they let me off in a place I am familiar with. Sounded good to me. I mean, I was so nervous. My stomach was in knots, and whenever I tried to do something, my hands shook like crazy. The bus showed up here a little before I was supposed to leave, so I ran out without my rain jacket when we had a flash flood warning here. I got to school and went in without a problem. I was thirty minutes early, which is how I like things, so when I went to the classroom, I was all by myself. Eventually, everyone started coming in. When the professor showed up, he was surprised that we were all there on time. When he finally got everything situated, we went around introducing ourselves. There is another visually impaired student in the class, and the professor is a quadriplegic. I did not realize this at first and am glad I didn't put my foot in my mouth. Silly blindness can get you in trouble. When he finally started talking about his life, I was in awe. He told us about some events after the accident, and they truly amazed me. Having one leg out of commission for a period of time was bad enough that I now realize I don't need to take walking for granted at all. It would be so scary to lose the use of all four at once.
I had to get some paperwork filled out, and ended up talking to another student who is the professor's assistant for the semester. She also lives in Atlanta and told me that if I ever needed a ride home, she could take me. She knows right where I live and actually drives back and forth between Alabama and Georgia three times a week.
After class was when things got really interesting. I went to the student union because I had an hour to spare while waiting for the bus. While there, it started pouring! Where's my raincoat? At home! So I waited for it to let up some, and while I did, I started talking to another student who came in to wait it out. I couldn't believe I did that considering how shy I am, but I had to start somewhere. I finally got up the nerve to leave and headed back across and through the other building. When I got near the place where I am supposed to catch the bus, I ended up veering and almost walked out into a parking lot. I caught that, but since the bus was not there, I wasn't sure what to do. I must have looked really lost because a student came up and asked me if I needed help with something. This girl was so sweet. She took me around to look for the bus, but of course it wasn't anywhere. So we went under a shelter, and while I told her she did not have to wait with me, she said that it was fine and that she didn't mind. She even offered to take me home in her car. I called Disability Services to on the bus and was told that either they got the wrong time or that that they just didn't wait. I got out there a little after 3:50, so technically it should have still been there. Hopefully it will be straightened out tomorrow. If I learned one thing, I learned to mention to the drive when I'll be outside. Hopefully I won't do the veering thing tomorrow as well, so of course I'll be nervous then as well. When the bus finally got there, Ellie took me to it which I found very nice.
I have to say that this is the nicest place I've been to. Everyone is friendly. People hold doors open for each other, and you almost feel like you can talk to anyone.
I still have not gotten my one class changed, but maybe I can do that tomorrow when I see my advisor.
********
Written August 18, 2009
Today has started out kind of roughly. I woke up feeling kind of sick, but I got ready anyway. The bus showed up fifteen minutes early, so I think that was probably the problem yesterday. If they show up early and then wait ten minutes before leaving, it explains why they were not out there. I will call if this continues. We shall see. In the meantime, I think I will give the company a call to see what can be done to fix this so that it does not occur again.
When I got to the Haley Center, the bus parked in a different place than yesterday,/ but the driver was helpful enough to show me where I needed to go. Inside, I waited in the hall for around thirty minutes before my class started. The door was locked, so all of us were relegated to staying outside the class. It was very boring once it started. The professor teaching it is the same one who I had the appointment with a few weeks ago. She did not show up then, and she has failed to return my phone calls of e-mails, though she did admit receiving them. Apparently, nothing can be done. I'm stuck with my crazy schedule with the one class I do not need. Unless people drop the ethics class that happens early in the morning, God willing, I'll be stuck with this schedule until further notice. This one class I will be taking can count as an elective, and it may be that I have to take several I do not need or have a schedule I do not care for with the rehab program limiting cases each semester due to few professors being present.
Now, I am waiting on a bench in the Haley Center because I have over an hour's break before my next class. I should eat, but I am so tired that I just want to go take a nap.
***
Class 2: The professor seems nice. And it looks like I'll be stuck in it for now.
***
Class 3: That is where I am at now. We haven't started yet.
Okay, so this guy is very cool. He's also extremely tall, so you have both ends of the spectrum in this class: me at 4'10 and the professor, who is 6'7. He was extremely nice and even offered to help me, had I needed it, at the end of class. Thankfully, I knew where I needed to go. I think that class will be very fun and interesting since he said that debates will be involved concerning abortion. Of course, those debates could become heated if there are others who feel strongly about it as I do. We shall see.
Since class ended early, I had to wait about an hour for the bus to come. I chose to go outside because I was sick of sitting down. But then, when I realized I wasn't going to perch on the brick wall cuz I'm too short to hop on up, I went back to find a bench. I stopped another student because I wasn't sure where I needed to go, and he showed me where one is. Now I know, and I know how I can get to it easily, so that's cool. It's kind of funny. I'm not typically a person who likes exploring, but today I did a little of my own during my break. Had I gotten lost, there were plenty of people around I could have asked, but funny enough, I tend to focus more n where I am going and what I need to do to get back to where I was when I am alone. I did end up traveling around the square of the building's atrium when I could have just crossed over where I came from and been at the same place. At least I know for the future. Anyway, back to this afternoon.
I finally went to find the bus, but since construction was going on, I was hesitant to move very far. Thankfully, the driver honked the horn, and I figured it was for me, so I went. The bad part was that she parked in a different place. They are supposed to, from my understanding, park a t the crosswalk, but she parked in the parking lot which confused me. I ended up hitting my head lightly on a sign I didn't see as I passed by it, and I then had to go over one of those things that cars stop at to get to the bus. I wanted to go past it, but she was telling me to go over it, which was not cool.
I was very frustrated at this point, and when I got home, I called the company. The man who answered the phone is really too old to be working, I think, because it's very difficult to get information across to him. There was another woman there who I could hear clearly in the background, but though I asked to talk to her, he would not let me and instead kept trying to relay information back and forth. She was angry by the tone of her voice and kept going on about how they always stopped in the same place, but obviously the drivers are not aware that they are supposed to since this is the second day in a row that this has happened. My first driver knew exactly where I wanted to get off and said that is where he always lets people off. I wish I had him every day, but so far, I've had someone different each time.
Since I did not get a helpful response out of the company, I called PSD because they schedule these rides. After the issue yesterday with them leaving me and now with them pulling into different areas around the area where I need to be, they agreed with me that this was an issue which needs to be resolved. I think the problem lies in the fact that they, meaning the transportation company, do not know how to deal with a totally blind student. They have dealt with visually impaired students before, but those students can see more than I can. The reason I think this is the issue is because it was brought to my attention today that "the other girl has some vision." Well... I'm not the other girl, and I don't. Hunting buses is not my strongpoint, and I don't feel like it's a good thing to wander through parking lots looking for one either because of my veering issue. So hopefully this will be resolved on Thursday. Otherwise, I may just start using Tiger Transit. At least they have designated stops, and I can count on them to be there. It would mean a little more walking for me, but truth be told, I wouldn't mind that. after sitting all day
This past week has been filled with several ups and downs. When I left Sadie home by herself, I cried. I miss her so much.
After we got here and Mike and Ken has unloaded, Mom and I worked on unpacking the place. I hummed all day long. I was so excited to have a place of my own. The only drawback was that the trains ran all day and all night. It was like the never-ending train, or so it seemed. Thankfully, that was the worst day. The amount of trains which have come by since then has been much fewer. But that first night consisted of very little sleep. I have since resorted to using ear plugs which help a great deal. If I can just keep them in my ears all night, I would be good, but they tend to fall out. Ha. I also run a humidifier which dulls the train noises and has helped my allergies as well.
The first day, besides unpacking, Mom and I went grocery shopping. We went to Sams for a few things I needed in bulk and then to Wal-Mart. We spent forever in that store! By the time we got back to the car, I was ready to take a shower and go to bed. Of course, I needed food first. Haha.
The next day, I stayed home because of allergies which had turned into an infection. Mom had to go pick up some more stuff for me which we had forgotten the night before. Charter came that night to hook up my cable and internet. They had trouble getting the internet hooked up, so I finally told the guy I would figure it out so he could leave. It took me about an hour to get things straightened out between connections, setting up the router, and then redoing it because the wireless wouldn't configure correctly. I finally got it fixed and checked the tons of e-mail I had gotten in the preceding two days. Wow! Was that ever a lot to read! What was funny was that Mom decided to sleep on the couch that night and doesn't remember what happened while I was checking my mail. As I was typing a reply to something, she said, "uh uh, uh uh. Do you have to do that? How much longer are you going to be? Can you do it tomorrow? It will give you something to do." So then I tried to type more quietly, and that seemed to do the trick.
On Tuesday, we went to eat at Longhorn's and did a little more shopping. We had to take a microwave and bag of rotten potatoes back to the store. We ended up encountering one of the transit buses I will be using this semester and spoke to the driver to find out how many others there were. There are nine which is actually more than I thought there would be.
On Wednesday, Sissy came down. Yay Sissy! She brought me a new antibiotic which had been prescribed for this stubborn infection. We went to eat lunch and... What did we do after that? Shop some more! I had to find some shorts, a little tray to stand up beside my couch (I'm too short for the bar stools), among other things. That night, I made some chicken soup, and then Sissy and I played Uno while Mom went to bed sick. Sissy, I am convinced, made up some rules of her own, but she says they are real. So that means I have to find the real ones to see if she was serious.
The next day was the one I had not really wanted to come. Everyone would leave, and I would be here by myself. I was more nervous about the bus system here and the route into the building than I have been this entire time. I have second-guessed my decision to come here. The first day was okay though I was a little sad, but the next, it really hit me that I was here, and I really lost it when I read something Mom sent me.
Oh yeah, while all of this was going on, I got a new icemaker. Mine was not turning off, and it was overflowing and making weird noises. I didn't expect to get it so quickly, but thankfully Brandy found one in the office that would work.
Wow, this is getting long, and I'm only halfway done. I think this is the best part though, or at least the most amusing.
Sunday afternoon, after Mom and Ken had left (they came to take me to a church here and then out to eat), I was sitting in the living room when I heard a gurgling, choking noise. I stopped what I was doing to figure out what in the world it was. And it was my toilet. It was throwing up without even being stopped up! I went in there to find my cover and seat wet with bubbly water. It then didn't flush, so I had to call about it. When Brandy got there, it worked, though she did ask about the mysterious bubbles. My cleaning stuff does not bubble like this, so I knew it was nothing on my end. My dad said that it sounds like a washing machine backed up the lines and made it spit up. Seriously, it sounded like it was sick with a hangover! Haha.
And now... Today. The day of reckoning.
Heather and Daddy came down to keep me company, and Heather wanted to play the Mama bear. She wanted to follow the bus to the college to make sure they let me off in a place I am familiar with. Sounded good to me. I mean, I was so nervous. My stomach was in knots, and whenever I tried to do something, my hands shook like crazy. The bus showed up here a little before I was supposed to leave, so I ran out without my rain jacket when we had a flash flood warning here. I got to school and went in without a problem. I was thirty minutes early, which is how I like things, so when I went to the classroom, I was all by myself. Eventually, everyone started coming in. When the professor showed up, he was surprised that we were all there on time. When he finally got everything situated, we went around introducing ourselves. There is another visually impaired student in the class, and the professor is a quadriplegic. I did not realize this at first and am glad I didn't put my foot in my mouth. Silly blindness can get you in trouble. When he finally started talking about his life, I was in awe. He told us about some events after the accident, and they truly amazed me. Having one leg out of commission for a period of time was bad enough that I now realize I don't need to take walking for granted at all. It would be so scary to lose the use of all four at once.
I had to get some paperwork filled out, and ended up talking to another student who is the professor's assistant for the semester. She also lives in Atlanta and told me that if I ever needed a ride home, she could take me. She knows right where I live and actually drives back and forth between Alabama and Georgia three times a week.
After class was when things got really interesting. I went to the student union because I had an hour to spare while waiting for the bus. While there, it started pouring! Where's my raincoat? At home! So I waited for it to let up some, and while I did, I started talking to another student who came in to wait it out. I couldn't believe I did that considering how shy I am, but I had to start somewhere. I finally got up the nerve to leave and headed back across and through the other building. When I got near the place where I am supposed to catch the bus, I ended up veering and almost walked out into a parking lot. I caught that, but since the bus was not there, I wasn't sure what to do. I must have looked really lost because a student came up and asked me if I needed help with something. This girl was so sweet. She took me around to look for the bus, but of course it wasn't anywhere. So we went under a shelter, and while I told her she did not have to wait with me, she said that it was fine and that she didn't mind. She even offered to take me home in her car. I called Disability Services to on the bus and was told that either they got the wrong time or that that they just didn't wait. I got out there a little after 3:50, so technically it should have still been there. Hopefully it will be straightened out tomorrow. If I learned one thing, I learned to mention to the drive when I'll be outside. Hopefully I won't do the veering thing tomorrow as well, so of course I'll be nervous then as well. When the bus finally got there, Ellie took me to it which I found very nice.
I have to say that this is the nicest place I've been to. Everyone is friendly. People hold doors open for each other, and you almost feel like you can talk to anyone.
I still have not gotten my one class changed, but maybe I can do that tomorrow when I see my advisor.
********
Written August 18, 2009
Today has started out kind of roughly. I woke up feeling kind of sick, but I got ready anyway. The bus showed up fifteen minutes early, so I think that was probably the problem yesterday. If they show up early and then wait ten minutes before leaving, it explains why they were not out there. I will call if this continues. We shall see. In the meantime, I think I will give the company a call to see what can be done to fix this so that it does not occur again.
When I got to the Haley Center, the bus parked in a different place than yesterday,/ but the driver was helpful enough to show me where I needed to go. Inside, I waited in the hall for around thirty minutes before my class started. The door was locked, so all of us were relegated to staying outside the class. It was very boring once it started. The professor teaching it is the same one who I had the appointment with a few weeks ago. She did not show up then, and she has failed to return my phone calls of e-mails, though she did admit receiving them. Apparently, nothing can be done. I'm stuck with my crazy schedule with the one class I do not need. Unless people drop the ethics class that happens early in the morning, God willing, I'll be stuck with this schedule until further notice. This one class I will be taking can count as an elective, and it may be that I have to take several I do not need or have a schedule I do not care for with the rehab program limiting cases each semester due to few professors being present.
Now, I am waiting on a bench in the Haley Center because I have over an hour's break before my next class. I should eat, but I am so tired that I just want to go take a nap.
***
Class 2: The professor seems nice. And it looks like I'll be stuck in it for now.
***
Class 3: That is where I am at now. We haven't started yet.
Okay, so this guy is very cool. He's also extremely tall, so you have both ends of the spectrum in this class: me at 4'10 and the professor, who is 6'7. He was extremely nice and even offered to help me, had I needed it, at the end of class. Thankfully, I knew where I needed to go. I think that class will be very fun and interesting since he said that debates will be involved concerning abortion. Of course, those debates could become heated if there are others who feel strongly about it as I do. We shall see.
Since class ended early, I had to wait about an hour for the bus to come. I chose to go outside because I was sick of sitting down. But then, when I realized I wasn't going to perch on the brick wall cuz I'm too short to hop on up, I went back to find a bench. I stopped another student because I wasn't sure where I needed to go, and he showed me where one is. Now I know, and I know how I can get to it easily, so that's cool. It's kind of funny. I'm not typically a person who likes exploring, but today I did a little of my own during my break. Had I gotten lost, there were plenty of people around I could have asked, but funny enough, I tend to focus more n where I am going and what I need to do to get back to where I was when I am alone. I did end up traveling around the square of the building's atrium when I could have just crossed over where I came from and been at the same place. At least I know for the future. Anyway, back to this afternoon.
I finally went to find the bus, but since construction was going on, I was hesitant to move very far. Thankfully, the driver honked the horn, and I figured it was for me, so I went. The bad part was that she parked in a different place. They are supposed to, from my understanding, park a t the crosswalk, but she parked in the parking lot which confused me. I ended up hitting my head lightly on a sign I didn't see as I passed by it, and I then had to go over one of those things that cars stop at to get to the bus. I wanted to go past it, but she was telling me to go over it, which was not cool.
I was very frustrated at this point, and when I got home, I called the company. The man who answered the phone is really too old to be working, I think, because it's very difficult to get information across to him. There was another woman there who I could hear clearly in the background, but though I asked to talk to her, he would not let me and instead kept trying to relay information back and forth. She was angry by the tone of her voice and kept going on about how they always stopped in the same place, but obviously the drivers are not aware that they are supposed to since this is the second day in a row that this has happened. My first driver knew exactly where I wanted to get off and said that is where he always lets people off. I wish I had him every day, but so far, I've had someone different each time.
Since I did not get a helpful response out of the company, I called PSD because they schedule these rides. After the issue yesterday with them leaving me and now with them pulling into different areas around the area where I need to be, they agreed with me that this was an issue which needs to be resolved. I think the problem lies in the fact that they, meaning the transportation company, do not know how to deal with a totally blind student. They have dealt with visually impaired students before, but those students can see more than I can. The reason I think this is the issue is because it was brought to my attention today that "the other girl has some vision." Well... I'm not the other girl, and I don't. Hunting buses is not my strongpoint, and I don't feel like it's a good thing to wander through parking lots looking for one either because of my veering issue. So hopefully this will be resolved on Thursday. Otherwise, I may just start using Tiger Transit. At least they have designated stops, and I can count on them to be there. It would mean a little more walking for me, but truth be told, I wouldn't mind that. after sitting all day