Showing posts with label LiveWorkPlay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LiveWorkPlay. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

RAW , or Adventures in E-Mail Land


I love my husband. He keeps me sane. I know that on a raw day I just have to email him with some blathering chronicle of the day thus far and this storytelling, or act of confession if you will, is an absolution of sorts that sends me back on my way. The fact that he commiserates just strengthens me to be more calm, more patient, more kind.

Last week, Tuesday to be exact, I wrote a prophetic email that is an apt description of why I have a hard time envisioning working from anywhere except home. Except in my fantasies. Note [square brackets] are my clarifications.

Tues. Mar 12, 2013 at 11:49 am
Nancy
To: Dan
Oh man . . . I came home. [Dan and I sometimes start the day by going up the street to have a coffee together at our local coffee shop. I find it helps me be more productive and is a good way to mark the beginning of my workday. We find it also makes us feel like grown-ups.] Jess and I agreed that I would meditate while she had a shower and then got to work on her blog and email.

Then, in the middle of meditation she calls from above. She is feeling faint [Jessie has these random fainting spells. Not often, but, well, that’s another blog.] Also, she has not actually had her shower, but has been shaking her shaker. [Okay, that just sounds weird, but it’s what we think is a sensory integration issue and she shakes this thing that is like a large tassle for a curtain. Again, guess I should blog about that.] I walk her through what to do when she feels faint and get her to lie down with her feet up for half an hour or so. She is still pale, but better. She goes in the shower and her phone rings. Then a text. It’s Caitlin [Caitlin is Jessie’s community connector from LiveWorkPlay, the organization that supports Jessie through these transition years]. Waiting for her at Tim Hortons, but now on her way back to the office because she has waited 20 minutes. It was hard not to get angry at that! [Note, Jessie is responsible for her own appointments, as much as possible. She uses Google calendar which is synced to her iPhone. Also note, 4 missed meetings and she could be dropped from the program.] Then Jessie decides that she needs to go to the bank on the way to rehearsal because she wants to take money out because she wants to eat out before rehearsal. I am not even going to try to reason, it is her decision. BUT this, of course, need trumps any trying to finish her work or problem solve what just happened with Caitlin. She does call Caitlin and says she is really really really sorry. But she is so intent on getting out of the house in time to eat before rehearsal that she will not sit down and problem solve or finish what she is supposed to do.

I did tell her that because we were not willing for her totally jeopardize her LWP support, she needed to make a list of what she had to accomplish (including problem solving) before going to the DSA meeting [our local Down Syndrome Association where she is co-chair]. So I did force her to do that. So that was my morning. How was yours?
p.s. I am writing this to you because it may be Thursday’s blog, but by Thursday much more will happened and I will forget this stream of blurred existence. [That was the prophetic part.]
n {{hugs}}

Tues, Mar 12, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Dan
To: Nan
Hugs [what he calls me]
AAAAARRGGHH!!!!! I’m going to STRANGLE that kid (if you don’t do it first)! . . .  The only silver lining in all of this is that it keeps supplying you with raw material for your blog!
Dan

Tues, Mar 12, 2013 at 2:10
Nan
To: Dan
RAW is right!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Thankful Tuesday: Energy Abounds

This is Tuesday, so I am joining in the Thankful Tuesday party over at Micha Boyett’s blog, Mama: Monk (if its not thankful over there, rest assured, Micha will share something with you that will make you feel thankful for going there!).



This week I am thankful for all the energy that abounds in the people that Jessie surrounds herself with:

Natalie, who took the dance support specialist course (a unique program developed by Propeller Dance to train dancers to support/accompany people with a range of abilities in Propeller community classes) with Jessie and has joined the children's class where Jessie is a teaching assistant. Natalie also knows about Hannukah, so she put together a one-pager for Jessie on some basic words, practices, and, of course, food! Now Jessie wants me to find a dreidle! All, of course, in preparation for the upcoming Hannukah meal in Montreal this Saturday with DB's paternal grandparents. While Natalie has many other wondeful and endearing qualities, I am truly thankful for the effort she put into creating this one-page Hannukah guide for Jessie.

Caitlin and all the other staff, connectors, volunteers, organizers, and family members belonging to LiveWorkPlay who are there as role models and friends and people who listen to and honour Jessie's dreams and goals. And who are also there to help create a supportive resource and celebratory community that knows how to laugh and party.

Janet and Josh, sitting at our table at our first ever LiveWorkPlay family feast, who know a lot about living on their own and finding work and dating and were glad to share their excitment and knowledge with Jessie and DB.

Ximena, Liz, Moni, Robert, Bella, Phil, Shara, Renata, Jason, the incomparable Amelia, and a host of other dancers, mentors, and musicians with whom Jessie dances and teaches, and without whom Jessie would lead a very staid, routine, and boring life filled with chores and mom-defined goals, which might include cleaning her room. But, thanks to these wonderful, energetic, creative, and eclectic people, Jessie lives an unpredictable and always exciting, if often challenging (in the good/growth way) life filled with music and movement and joy and what the buddhists might call "right" action, speech, livelihood, and other bits of the eighth-fold (as I understand it, which isn't saying much!) path. 

My friend CG,and her daughter {RG} and her friends, who always include Jessie and can never ever think of a reason for her not to participate in whatever adventure they have up their sleeves. CG in particular, for her energy in what I can only call extreme cooking, a sport that she has invented to fully welcome every single one of her children (yes, all two) and their friends (all ga-zillion) who make that house their home. Jessie, of course, would eat Just About Anything, so CG's running usually has to do with some mess that Jessie has concocted, in (and sometime outside, like the time she threw her knapsack into the canal and CG had to go get a fishing rod to rescue it) that house.

I am thankful for all these people and their infinite energy. 
   








Monday, December 10, 2012

This Weekend's Lovely Madness, in pictures

The season had begun . . . first with a computer crash, then deadlines, then a celebratory weekend rushing from one event to another and all I can say is that it was fun! While I am up still working, Jessie crashed a while ago after a weekend that started with her first community feast with the LiveWorkPlay community on Friday . . .  where she brought DB and ran into many friends and aquaintances:

. . .  to a full day with Propeller Dance at their community day featuring performances by all the community groups, the children's classes, the new youth class, and a preview of the new work (in progress) that the performing group is working on. Propeller is an amazing organization, and community day fills performers and audience alike with joy and delight ... I hope my photos capture even a small part of that:











. . .  to an evening writing songs with Lyrics Lady:

. . . to a Sunday afternoon singing at a L'Arche community event to an evening potluck followed by the annual RG {Grays} carolling extravaganza, to raise money, I believe this time for Dominican projects in Kigali :


potluck, rule of one applied! CG host rushing in background!


RG leading practice.



Benedeta's first carolling experience!
to, finally, sleep. More words tomorrow.
But also know, the Rule of One was used successfully, mostly, all weekend! Hooray!

Friday, November 30, 2012

Jessie Flips About: Caitlin My Connector


Hey fellow bloggers, I’m so exited to update all of you on the meeting that Caitlin (my “connector” from LiveWorkPlay) and I had at Bridgehead coffee shop after I had my dance rehearsal in Hintonburg last Tuesday.

Caitlin, Jessie's connector, from LiveWorkPlay & Jessie
Caitlin and I discussed and talked about what my goals were for the next year. I told her that I was thinking of moving out in the middle or the end of next year. I had also told her that another goal of mine was to find a paid part-time job. I’m really happy and thrilled that my life is getting started because I want to live more independently. And I want to live with friends in a supported living setting where people would come in once a month and help us with budgeting, cooking, grocery shopping and the basics of independent living skills. Caitlin and I talked about that for a long time and it was really fun.  

Thursday, October 25, 2012

LWP Is PDG


Today was our appointment with Allison from LiveWorkPlay. This is Jessie’s Takeover (I wrote “take on it” but she changed it, fittingly, to “takeover.”)

Today at 1:00 in the afternoon, I had a meeting with Live Work Play’s Allison Moores. Allison talked a little bit about what LiveWorkPlay is and then we moved on and talked about my goals and dreams for my life now and for my future. My main goal and dream that we had talked about was moving out into a supported living setting where I would live with my friends.  And through that she had told my mom and I about how Live Work Play would help me and my family to help carry out the supports to help me achieve that goal. It was really fun and I really loved it. I’m finally really excited about what’s happening.

So. We get to move forward with a bit more support. A chance for me to back off and for a mentor/advisor/person to step in and work a couple of hours a week with Jessie, setting goals based on her dreams and helping her find the supports and strategies to be able to move forward. That means its someone else who gets to help her delve into the world of making choices, setting goals, and following through. That’s a big sigh of relief (for me) and a huge vibrating grin (for Jessie).

Relief for me, because I feel like a load is being shared, and while Jessie has a good rich and active life right now, there are areas that need to be explored further (education, career, a home) and I’m just not the right person to direct and drive it.

A huge vibrating grin for Jessie, because she gets to share her vision with someone who won’t roll their eyes when she sets her long-term living goals as moving to California with her boyfriend so he can pursue his wrestling star dream and she her acting dream. Someone, she likes to say, who is her personal assistant. Well, we’ll see how that works.

But, we have all agreed that the goal will be moving out (target=before she’s 25) and that the focus will be on all those things that will help her achieve that goal (anything from organizational skills and meeting and talking with people who have moved out and are living with friends or on their own, to researching areas in the city to live and budgeting).

We will meet again next week and Allison will bring Lisa, the person who will be supporting Jessie. In the meantime, we fill out forms, brainstorm more ideas and questions, and step back for a moment to breath and give thanks.

So. LWP (LiveWorkPlay) is PDG (prettydamnedgood). It is a work in progress, but with LWP I’m feeling a bit more hopeful about the progress!