"No money...just please, pray for me"

Jodie's birthday is coming up soon.  Yes, she will once again be the "older woman."

Her list of birthday wants is short.  One is this side bag for her power chair - one of the velcro straps tore off the bag and needed to be sewn back on.  It had been sitting on the dresser for a long time.  Jodie wanted to take it to a seamstress shop she knew about in downtown Gresham.

I decided to take it down to the shop and see what they could do.

I parked the bus around the corner, took out my walker and walked a couple blocks to the shop.  With our bus, I prefer to park further away and have more room to pull out than to park in a closer but tighter spot.

I was winded by the time I got to the shop.  The door was propped open.  An older lady was leaving as I walked in.  The seamstress had me sit down and she asked me what I needed.

I pulled out the side bag and showed her where the strap was coming off the bag.  I explained that I could leave the bag and pick it up another day...that it was not a rush job.

The seamstress said she had black thread in here sewing machine and that it would not take long for her to fix it.  Sure enough, she took it back behind the partial wall and had it all sewn up in very quick time.

She came back out with the bag and tried to put it on my walker.  I said  "No," and I took that bag.  Me being winded, with my cerebral palsy, and she had an accents - it  made communication tricky.

I offered to pay her.  I really wanted to pay her, because even though it did not take her long, I realize shops like hers are struggling.

She told me, "No money...just please, pray for me."

Her request did not seem flippant to me.  I sensed there was a real need to pray for.

As I walked back to our bus, I felt determined to keep that seamstress in my prayers.

I know that blessings will come to her.

My greatest discomfort - total brain freeze

No, it's not the back or neck pain that I occasionally feel that causes my greatest discomfort.

Yesterday I drove down to Salem, walked into an unfamiliar office, walked up to the front desk and said, "Hi, I'm here for and interview."

The guy at the front desk handed me a sheet with the interview questions on it.

The first question is the shortest, but I am stymied by it. I skip it an go to the other questions.  I figure out answers to them.  I go back to the first question and I still cannot think of a good answer.

My greatest discomfort - total brain freeze.  Writing and editing words is a gift I have; thinking quick and finding the right words to say is not.

The supervisor came and got me.  She led me to the star chamber.  Four other people we waiting for me. The supervisor said that I could read the questions myself or have them read to me.  I asked to have them read to me; gives me more time to think.

The questions are read and I start to talk.   Words are coming from my mouth, but I cannot tell if the questions are being answered.  I  don't know if the train is on the track or off the track.

"Why am I so darn spacey?"  I wonder.  Is it my cerebral palsy?  Is it my type B personality?  Is it just my overall spaciness?  I don't know.

The supervisor walks me out.  She is chatting with me and made me feel comfortable.

I get back to my van.  I start beating myself up for being so darn spacey.  Why do I do this to myself?  Before I deliver the fatal blow to my ego, another thought pops into my brain - whether or not I get the position, they saw the real me.

And that, my friend, is a good interview.

To fail or to succeed...

I worry to much...ask anyone who knows me.

I love quotes.  Among my favorite:

Thomas Edison: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Helen Keller: "“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

Oh, and Uncle Ed (I need to paraphrase this one): "You set your eyes on a goal. You end up somewhere else. One day you realize that where you have ended up isn't that bad after all."

All this I share as I give birth to a new website.

My idea is that everyone has a story to tell, and a blog is a great place to tell it.  WordPress is a wonderful blogging and website cms (content management system).  I have found a great local company to host my websites.  The owner, Scott Hendison, use to coach my son's baseball team several years ago.  If I get into technical trouble, I know who I am working with...I am not on my own to flounder.

With givemeastory.com, I am offering people a chance to blog without committing to their own blog.  I think it would be neat to see a totally eclectic blog...different authors, different ideas.

I also want to offer to set up and host WordPress blogs or websites for people.  As an extra service, I want to offer up my writing and editing skills to help people write and/or edit their own blogs.  I am thinking there are people who want to have a quality web presence, but who need help to make it a reality.

Will I succeed or will I fail?

Wrong question, Uncle Ed would say.  I will end up somewhere, and it won't be that bad of place.