Sunday 2 August 2020

Living with Disabilities: A Typical Day in My Life

Hey guys! How's everyone's weekend going? Mine's been pretty quiet. You know, the usual way things have been lately. It's raining like crazy today and I tried going out to sit on the front step twice this morning. Both times I was only outside for barely fifteen minutes before it began pouring outside. Now, normally I'd be fine since our front step is enclosed, but the direction the rain was coming down from was enough that I got a little wet sitting out there. So I came in. And then I decided to do this post. Actually, I've been thinking about doing this post for a couple of days, but finally got my butt in gear. I just wanted to talk about what a typical day is for me. Because I'm sure some of you are wondering how I manage to get blog posts out consistently. 

Depending on the time of year I usually wake up and get out of bed between 6:30 and 7am. Because it's been so hot and humid this summer I've started getting up at 6:30 so I can get outside that much earlier in the morning before it gets too hot for me to be out there. But ordinarily I get up at 7am. After showering and getting dressed I go down for breakfast and to turn on my laptop to check e-mails and Facebook messages/notifications as well as my blog. After a breakfast of some hot cereal (either oatmeal or cream of wheat), an egg, and either some fresh fruit or frozen fruit, I go outside to either sit in the backyard with a book and some music or on the front step to get some fresh air and a little bit of exercise by walking around the backyard or walking up and down the driveway a few times.

I try to be outside for at least two hours every day, but some mornings I only end up out there for an hour, depending on how hot it ends up being. When I come in I return to the basement and get on my laptop to start typing away at a blog post. For comic book reviews, particularly if I'm reviewing a collected edition (trade paperback or hardcover), I take the comic outside with me to read while I'm sitting out there. But if I'm writing a movie review or a book review, then I'll start typing away at it immediately since I will have finished the book the night before (most of the time) and I will have watched the movie the night before too. 

I also take breaks during the day too. If a friend messages me on Facebook or texts me, I'll take a break for a bit and have a chat with them. Since I've been in protective isolation due to COVID-19 this was my way of keeping in touch with the people that I love since I couldn't just have them over for dinner or go out with them. In recent weeks though, I've had people over for outdoor visits. Brad has Mondays off so he's dropped by sometime after lunch to hang out on my front step for a bit. Though the last time he did this, he showed up unannounced and unexpectedly, as he usually did before the pandemic hit. Katie's been by once as well. 

After a morning of enjoying the weather and starting on whatever blog post I'm working on that day, I'll break for lunch between noon and 1pm, depending on when I start to feel hungry. After lunch, which consists of a sandwich of some sort, yogurt, and some kind of vegetables, I'll get back to my computer and finish working on my blog post of the day. Once that's posted I spend the afternoon watching YouTube videos, reading, writing, or grabbing images for the next day's blog post if I'm doing a review. 

I live with my parents so I eat with them most nights. When I do eat with them, my mom makes dinner between 5 and 6pm. On the nights where I'm eating on my own, I'll start making my dinner closer to 5pm. Finally, after dinner several things end up happening, depending on the weather and what I feel like doing. Some nights I'll go sit on the front step for an hour or so if it's not super hot out after dinner. I'm usually back in the house by 8:30pm because by then it's getting dark enough that trying to read is pointless. After that I'm usually talking to friends on Facebook or watching more YouTube videos or watching a movie or a TV show episode. I try to be in bed by 11 at the latest, but on the nights where I'm talking to Aaron or Katie, I usually don't end up in bed until almost 1 in the morning. Especially if I haven't talked to them for a week. But most of the time 11pm is the latest I go to before I go up to get ready for bed. After all, I do have to get up either at 6:30 or 7am the next morning and do the whole routine over again.

Now, you might've noticed that I left out certain details, like the kinds of things I have to do to stay healthy, like taking medications, having snacks, going to the bathroom and all that fun stuff. Well, they are important, but I decided not to tackle them here so that I have material for my new blog series, which I decided to call Living with Disabilities. It's going to be a long series and it's something I've been wanting to do ever since I started my first blog over on Word Press back in 2015. 

I'm not changing the blog and the focus is still reviews that I'm doing. But I've been blogging for 5 years now and everyone is so busy talking about other social issues of the day that nobody is talking about how difficult the world is for people such as myself, who have physical disabilities as well as mental disabilities. There's still so much ignorance surrounding people with disabilities and I kind of want to help with that discussion because it does affect me and my way of life. So in between the reviews, I'll be posting about what my life is like as a person with disabilities. I'll be talking about how I've adapted to the way I have to live in order to stay healthy and out of danger, how I handle everyday things that other people don't have to worry about, my friends and my family, and how we've impacted each other's lives, as that is a two-way street in so many cases, and things of that nature. 

I'll be doing this through stories from my life and some of the funny stuff I've experienced with friends and family. Thing like that. Occasionally I'll also talk about what it was like being the only kid who used a wheelchair at most of the schools I went to as a kid, and some of the struggles I went through to get to where I am today. So I hope you'll join me on this journey. I'll be back on Tuesday with this week's comic book review, where I'll be reviewing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Volume 2. Bye guys.  

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