changing frames of reference

1.

When I first moved here—I think I've blogged about before but—when I first moved here from the fashion capital of the universe, I was horrified to think, "Oh my god, in a couple years I'm going to get fat and start wearing tennis shoes all the time! I'll probably even use drugstore shampoo! And worst of all—I won't care!!!"

Needless to say, all those things happened...and indeed, not only do I not care, but I'm horrified at the shallow and silly creature I was back then. Hee hee.

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2.

In February of 2001, the first birthday I spent in the Midwest, I wrote in an email, "We're going to Milwaukee for my birthday and I'm so excited!!!" After some reflection, I added, "Well now, that is definitely a sentence I never thought I'd utter in my entire life." Milwaukee continues to seem like a fun and happening place (great Mexican food for one thing!), and New York is sort of receding into the mists of myth and legend....

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3.

"Oh, wow, this is SO COOL!!!!!!!" Loopy announced a few minutes ago.

"What?"

"The drink holder on my walker also snaps onto my wheelchair!"

"Wow! That is cool! Yay!"

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In other words, we've adapted... it mostly seems normal, the walker, the wheelchair, etc. Loopy sleeping all the time seems temporary; the other stuff, who knows. It's all good.

Another change: Loopy was interested to see how people would treat her out in the world in her wheelchair, with her walker, etc.

When she was 100 pounds heavier, people looked past her or through her, as though embarrassed for her, unwilling to see her or acknowledge her existence. But in recent months, that had started to change. But, she had just started to get used to being visible when she became disabled. She was wondering how that would affect things.

My observation is that people are incredibly, incredibly nice. It's really quite amazing. It's sort of like the opposite of being invisible. Maybe I'll get tired of it after a while but so far, it's remarkably pleasant... like we've somehow shifted to an alternate universe of sweetness and light, where people say "excuse me" if they pass within four feet of you, and if you say, "oh, sorry," they say, "oh no no no, you're fine, you're fine!" And everyone gives you sweet, sweet smiles.

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Tonight we are taking a break from the hard work of being a sick person and a caregiver, respectively, and watching an old favorite movie of ours, High Fidelity. We tried to make popcorn but we set the microwave on fire. Oh well.