With a little help from my friends...

"Old friends are the best friends." Although since my friends and I are all turning 40 this year I may have to revise that. Instead of "old" I will say "friends I have known since our SCS days". That sounds better, just longer.

This past weekend I went to a bridal shower for Stacy, one of my "friends I have known since our SCS days". Also in attendance at this event were two other "old" friends, just deal with it we are old, Cathie and Tara. It was at this absolutely beautiful historic home on St. Charles Ave. As I walked down the sidewalk and got closer to the gate and peered inside, I felt this overwhelming moment of my biggest fear.......................

STEPS!!!

It doesn't matter if there are 5 or 50 they have gotten REALLY hard for me to navigate. Notice I did not say impossible. I was raised to be a strong independent woman. I'm not sure at what point exactly my strength and independence jumped ship. I'll have to look into that.

Cue 2 really corny songs now, "With a Little Help from My Friends" & "Lean on Me" because that is exactly what happened next. Well actually first I had to go around to the side entrance because there were less steps there. I had to take like 2 rest breaks to get to the side entrance but I made it. There were only 3 steps now. Piece of cake. No problem.

No problem with the help of not 1, not 2 but 3, yes 3 of my friends to get me up. Tara was 1 of the friends I was leaning on which in hindsight is funny because she is so skinny I could snap her like a twig. Cathie had a slightly easier job. She was the leg lifter. I would tell her each time I was ready for her to put my foot up on the next step.

Talk about your team effort.

Amen for these 2 girls I have known for what seems like eternity. The ones I had sleepovers with, went on summer trips with, and most important of all, laughed at myself with.

"A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked."

I'm glad that they don't mind the hard job it is to be friends with me now. It means more to me than you will ever truly know.

DISCLAIMER: There are many, many others that take time to spend time with me and my PIA self. My other half, my sis and numerous other friends and relatives. Thank you as well for lending me a helping hand or foot or leg or whatever body part of mine isn't on board at that moment.

This just happened to be the most recent event of my friends giving their "poor old disabled" friend some assistance.

And to further embarrass these 2 I'm making my first attempt to add pictures. Hello, I'm in the pictures too, you are not alone.

MS destroys connections

"Multiple sclerosis destroys connections. It disconnects the mind from the body and people from each other. Defy this disease with the very thing it seeks to destroy: connections,"

This is a quote from the Nat'l MS Society webpage for MS Awareness Week which is this whole week.

I kept reading it over and over yesterday and finally thought, "This is just too depressing".

I kept thinking about it. MS has destroyed some connections between my brain and my eyes. They communicate a little. Sometimes. When the mood strikes them. Not a great connection between my brain and the right side of my body. Especially my right leg. Damn thing just up and went on strike one day.

One of the worst social connections MS cut from my life was work. I know you think that you would never miss work. Trust me you would. "Don't know what you got till it's gone." It's the connection that you have with people at work. It helps you feel like you have a purpose or in some small way are making a difference. Numerous people's identity is linked to their jobs. If you ask them what they do they say they are a teacher or a nurse or whatever job title they possess.

I got nothing.

No response.

I miss the connection I had with my co-workers. I would follow their marriages, children's births, birthday, etc. I now hardly have any daily connection with anyone. My husband and my cat are many days the only ones I talk to.

Yes, I talk to my cat. Don't call the men with the straight jacket yet. He doesn't talk back.

People sometimes love to rag on Facebook but it is one of the only ways I still feel connected to the outside world. I love keeping up with my grammar school and high school friends. I love keeping up with family and people who live out of town, like my 2 nieces. Facebook keeps these connections alive for me.

Hmm, connections. I hadn't really thought about all the types that I have in life. I hadn't really thought about how much MS affects them.

Food for thought.

Did you know I used to ....???

I love to play this "game" with my 8 year old goddaughter I'll call Princess. It always amazes me that kid's seem to think that you had absolutely no life until they came into existence.

Don't they realize if their parents weren't here before them that they would have no existence? Never mind, she is not old enough for that conversation.

I especially love to make this statement to Princess, "You know, way back in the last century, when Nanny was in school". Fill in school with a wide variety of words that apply to things I did in the last century. There were lots of them. 28 years of things to be exact. I graduated high school, college, got married, moved to another state, etc, etc.

Princess goes to a gift & talented school. Apparently her talent is musical theater. For any other 2oth century peeps out there it is what we called chorus. I love that she is so into this because I was too. I sang in grammar school, high school and even a couple of years in college.

Princess recently had to sing two songs for a group of judges at school. I had also done this but not until I was in high school. She performed these songs as solos.

When she originally told me she was performing 2 solos, I was amazed. I told her that I would have never done that at her age. Heck, I don't know if I would do it now.

Wait, never mind, I KNOW, I wouldn't do it now.

It wasn't for lack of encouragement that I never performed a solo, I was always too afraid. I don't know if Princess knows the meaning of the word fear. She wants to know how much longer she has to wait to try out for American Idol.

After her performance, she called to tell me she had gotten "superior" ratings on both songs. That is the highest rating you can get. I told her how proud of her I was.

I suddenly remembered that I too had gotten superior ratings for group performances I had done. We got a certificate and a medal. I now had to go to my "box of crap from the last century" to find it. I hoped the medal actually said "superior" on it. I couldn't remember.

Low and behold, I found the medal. It did say "superior". It looks like a military medal. It hangs from a small piece of red ribbon. I actually had more than one.

The next time I saw Princess I gave her the medal. She actually immediately wanted to put it on. I was happy she was that happy about it. You never know how these 21st century kids are going to react to things. She was then walking around, with the medal pinned to her chest, showing it to all my other half's family. She almost looked like a little Khadaffi.

The other half's grandmother was amazed that I gave the medal to Princess. She said, "You were a superior singer too?". I told her yes I was. Then she questioned whether or not I wanted to let Princess "keep" the medal. Again yes. I told her that I had others at home. I also thought that after 23 or 24 years, which is when I got the medal, it was time to pass it on.

So did you know I used to be a superior singer?

You know way back in the last century?

I think Princess deserves an extra medal for bravery. Something I certainly didn't have.

I'm so proud of her.