The Colts Kid Is Back

If you read this blog occasionally, you already know Kalisha is a huge fan of the Indianapolis Colts football team. She has shirts, pants, gloves, hats, Christmas stockings, jewelry, hair accessories, winter coat, shoes, windbreaker, scarf...you get the idea.
Some time this fall, she became enthralled with Hello Kitty and everything that entails. I posted a picture of her Christmas list with 2 pages of Hello Kitty things she wanted. She has been carrying her HK wallet inside her HK purse and wearing the HK hairbands.
A few weeks ago, I noticed some Colts gear was being used again. Last weekend, when the Colts played the Broncos, she was definitely all dressed in Colts clothes.
Today, before we left for a doctor appointment, she was switching everything from her HK wallet and purse to her Colts wallet and purse. I teased her about putting the "cat" in the closet and getting the "horse" back out.
"Oh yeah," she said. "It's time to be a Colts fan again. We play the Patriots on Sunday." (As if I didn't know that)
I took these pictures of her outer layer of clothes and then the next layer of clothes. That's as many layers as we are going.

It makes me laugh because somehow, if she supports her team with every piece of Colts gear she has, it will encourage them to play better, I guess.
She changed her FB profile picture and cover photo also. She is drinking out of a Colts cup.
She is ready...I hear the Kitty crying in the closet, but for right now, it's COLTS all the way. I love seeing her this excited and if you think she doesn't know the players, their numbers, positions, the plays and how it is scored; think again. She definitely does.

Now if she could just count change...oh well.

There, But for the Grace of God......

We have probably all uttered that phrase at some time in our lives; "There, but for the grace of God, go I." We say it when we see something happening to someone we know or identify with. And, we usually say it with a note of thankfulness in our voices.

Occasionally, other people's circumstances can serve as a much-needed wake-up call to us. If it doesn't change our actions, it will at least, change our thinking as we ponder what happened to someone else.

Kalisha has a friend, Laura, (not her real name). Laura is several years older than Kalisha and has some disabilities, also. They aren't the same as Kalisha's but in many ways, these two young women are similar. Laura lives with her mother, as Kalisha and I live together.

Laura's mother and I are considerably different in age and in abilities; nonetheless, we both function as a family unit with our daughters. Laura's mother rarely left home and had very little input into the running of the household. (Okay, we know we are worlds apart there, right?)

Laura is as crazy about country music artists and concerts as Kalisha is about the Indianapolis Colts, games and players. She had a huge collection of memorabilia from those concerts.

 

I could tell you some hilarious stories about some of their adventures, but that isn't what this post is about.

 

 

Several weeks ago, Laura's mom had a seizure and fell while home alone. She was in the hospital for weeks and ultimately, moved to a nursing home. She is not coming home.

 

Laura has struggled with decisions and what to do about a lot of things. She has no relatives near, but is getting some advice from a cousin in a southern state. She can't stay in the house, so she has applied for an apartment and will be moving there in a few months. She had 2 dogs, but had to find a home for one of them because she could have only one at the apartment.

 

She decided to sell everything at the house; appliances, furniture and a basement full of decorations. The house will be sold also. She needed to become her mother's POA, which is not a particularly prudent thing, since Laura probably needs a POA herself.

 

Yesterday, she gave Kalisha all (and I do mean, ALL) of her country music memorabilia and treasures. Kalisha and I sorted it and advised her to keep some of those things, for memories. Nope. She doesn't want it.

 

Laura will be fine. She and her mother should have (in my humble opinion) moved to an apartment a long time ago. The thing that has bothered me the most about the whole scenario is this: this could be me and Kalisha in the future. What will she do when I am suddenly not available for advice or company? The one huge difference is Kalisha has 4 siblings to advise her and help her make the best decisions. Yikes...one of those will be : "Okay, what home do we put Mom in?"

 

I'm laughing, but not really. This has brought me face to face with wondering if I have prepared Kalisha for being alone? Will she know what to do with our belongings? Will she be able to sort and pitch? If you are my friend on FB, you know I have been 'uncluttering' for over a year. This is precisely why.

 

None of us can predict the future and I trust the Lord with our lives, now and in the future, but seeing it first hand, does make you have some sobering thoughts.

I Have No Friends...

Kalisha has had a couple of amazing weeks. She has been up and down, all over the place. She wrote a post on FB that was long enough for an epistle. She was so depressed that she had no friends and no one wanted to be her friend because she was a 'special needs' person, etc. etc. She did a really good job of writing and had many, many, many comments from people who do like her and are her friends.

This was all precipitated by her not hearing from a certain person that she desperately wanted to be her friend (see the previous post). She posted after I went to bed, so I didn't see it until the next day. Let me tell you, it's always exciting when someone calls me in the morning and says, "Wow, that was a great post Kalisha put on FB." It's kind of scary, actually!

Well, her lamenting was for nothing because the person she wanted to call, did call, and asked to take her to Applebee's for lunch. She also promised Kalisha a surprise for last Saturday. Kalisha was so excited and nervous. The surprise was a mani-pedi. She had never had a pedicure before and came home with lovely fingernails and toenails...painted blue and white, of course.

So she went from the 'pits' to the clouds. Another friend stopped by just to visit for a while, and she had a phone call from a friend she had not seen for a long time (and none of these friends had read her post on FB!)

Isn't it amazing how God knows what we need?

Last Sunday we went to the Fort. She asked pertinent questions of the presenters and we had a great time. We watched the Colts game and then the Broncos. We just have to watch Peyton, y'know!

On Tuesday, I took her to see the new Citilink bus station. It didn't open until today, but she was so excited, so I took her picture.

However, when I asked her to participate in a cooking program at Bethesda Communities, a class that she has been talking about, she returned to her funk. She said she couldn't go for 4 hours on a Friday. That is her day to sleep in and she can't possibly get up and go somewhere by 9:30 in the morning. She has also resisted going to a meeting once a month for young people with Asperger's Syndrome.

She likes to complain about no friends, being bored, nothing new to do, blah, blah, blah. But it's easier to complain than to do something about it. (In that aspect, she is quite normal, isn't she? We would all, at times, rather complain than do something about it.)

Well, today was the day! The bus terminal was open for business. She was so excited, she could hardly stand it. She left home at 11 a.m. and returned at 5:30 p.m. She told me she used the new restroom, she read the 'arrival-departure' board, and she rode many of the routes so she would know where those buses parked, etc. She texted me in the middle of her day and said, "I am having so much fun."

Hmm...maybe if we could have meetings, classes, and appointments on the bus, then she would go without complaint ;o)