December 

12/30/2022.  
When your wonderful thoughtful friends ask you "Let me know what I can do", what would you tell them? Especially if you are doing hard things. I was asked these offers from many friends after my husband's accident. Most of the time, I answered them "Tell me about your daily stories, your stories." Because they made me smile and gave me more energy all the time. It helped me a lot to motivate myself. I'm really grateful for having those friends. Even in these days, I love to hear friends' daily life stories. Since our son is in junior in college, I get curious more when I have a chance to chat with college graduates who are my friends' daughters/sons. I'm always too nosy, but I take it as an advantage of being a foreigner-learner.  
I had my coffee-chat time with two ladies today. Guess what? I shared "Lily of the Incas" with them. Of course, I kept some for myself at home. I was chuckling to myself during the prep. I think I'm doing a good job to "represent" Lily of the Incas. 

I got a handmade apron from one of them. (Yes, they were mother and daughter. I asked them many questions about their life.) You would love this apron because she made it from old dress shirts fabrics. Plus it's reversible!!! I love colors, designs and her ideas all. I was so excited about it, I even made my son curious about it as well. Isn't it lovely and very practical? Love it!

12/28/2022.  
Do you remember about two amazing ambitious UK cyclist/handcyclist who are doing "3000 miles Across the USA"??! Their names are Justin and Francis. It's now Day 46! (As of 12/28 YouTube update). Day 46!! 2 bikes 1 wheelchair! I attached one video "Day 43". You could see how handcycle works also how hard it is on dirt road. My husband and I have been watching thier epic journey every single day. And it's about to finish! It's gonna be a great grand finale in 2-3 days. Their action and spirit push us forward and upward indeed. I wished we could meet up with them. 

Entry#105. 12/27/2022.  
When my husband was in the hospital (post-Acute care inpatient service, after ICU), my son and I talked a lot about wheelchair life in our house, plus my husband’s research lab life. We agreed strongly about a “manual standing wheelchair” at that time for the research lab use, even though we had no idea about actual Spinal Cord Injury life at all.  We really wanted him to go back to his research place no matter when. We googled and searched YouTube a lot and found this video of the product “Manual standing wheelchair”.  In my mind: It might be helpful to reach out to upper shelves at his lab since the lab isn’t accessible structured. It might be useful to do experiments by himself at his lab. My mind was fulfilled with his research stuffs because I thought it was his priority to live on. I believed we really needed it. Yes, that was in August-September 2021.

There was not much detail information about it and I didn’t get actual facts of “pros and cons”. It was not that easy at all to decide to purchase this much expensive product. I had no idea about how to write for the grant as well. Insurance company wouldn’t pay for this kind of extra wheelchair. We had thought about it for a while till my husband came home from hospital. We made up our mind to buy it with donation money from many generous friends/people. We were so fortunate. I was so excited when it was delivered to our house. Tried to ride on it, three of us did it. It worked just like the video showed us. I was happy enough at that moment.  Then I realized several new facts that I even didn’t think about.

1: This wheelchair wasn’t made for “long distance wheeling”. We could change tires to heavy duty ones. But wheelchair itself is very heavy. We prefer not to use it to go to uptown or our neighborhood.

2: This wheelchair is hard to put into a car. Bigger than my husband’s daily wheelchair.

3: Once he is on standing position, chair cannot be movable. It cannot move in standing position. (I knew this fact from the video, though.)  I learned something recently. The electric wheelchair could have standing-setting and could move in standing position.

4: My husband injury level (T10) affects his core strength, he doesn’t have full core strength. He cannot lean forward easily. So he might not be able to touch an object on higher shelf in standing position. The video showed “how the person reach an object up high shelf at a grocery store”. It wouldn’t apply to my husband’s case with the same way.

After we learned these “cons”, we brought the manual standing wheelchair into my husband’s biology building. It stays there.  During the day in the semester, he used it for his standing-time as a part of his physical exercise/training. Having chunk of “standing-time” is so important and essential for my husband’s body now. I would say there are still huge “pros” of this manual standing wheelchair. 

12/26/2022.  
Every time you go out to grocery stores or coffee shops, wonderful coincidence would await for you. That was today for me. I gave hugs to my wonderful “baker” friend and an awesome high school senior runner-boy at Kroger. Then my eyes were wide open with joy when I saw a very familiar face at Kofenya, she has a twin brother (and a younger brother), used to have a job in Korea(!), used to do Tai-Kwon-Do with my son a long ago. Many old great memories were flashed back to my mind. I was smiling all day long. I found that old photo. Hopefully I could catch up with her and her mother sometime soon. 

12/25/2022.  
It was a White Christmas here in Oxford. It was nice but that winter storm was bad especially with strong winds. Wind chill was negative 32F! Our boy-dog, Ranger (age 13, blind and deaf) couldn't stand on his paws on icy-snow grounds. His paws hurt very much. He had a rough hard time to poop, poor boy. Before this season, we didn't need to have his boots at all. We have 2 boots from a used-store, that's it. He wore 2 boots and 2 socks, that worked ok. (Whew)  Nothing better than sunshine on the Christmas Day. I was smiling all morning. Extra laughter in our house all day long. That was just wonderful. Merry Christmas!!

12/22/2022.  
As I wrote before, I usually keep some stems for myself when I share flowers with my friends. Every time I see them, I can think of those friends and my mind can fly back to the moment that I had experienced with them quickly easily. It makes me smile all the time. Right now, I have a combination of pink roses, pink-white alstroemeria and reddish pink alstroemeria. One memory from the musical show night. One from high school choir show. One from the local coffee shop. (Yes, I brought tiny bottle with flower plus a plate of “hi-chew” (!) into Kofenya just because it’s a holiday!)  Thinking of wonderful friends and baristas (and more).   
I need to confess. I love alstroemeria very much because these jewel-like beauties are prized for their long-lasting cut flowers that will look great in a vase for over two weeks. (I borrowed this sentence from an article.) Yes, it will look nice in a vase longer than others, it’s amazingly longer. So I love alstroemeria, however I didn’t know the name until now. (I looked it up because of my writing.) Then I found out that this flower has several names; alstroemeria, Peruvian Lily and Lily of the Inca. One of them caught my eyes quickly. “Lily of the Inca”!!! What a beautiful name it is. Love it. From now on, I can tell people about them, how awesome they are proudly introducing the name “Lily of the Inca”. Oh feels great. You might be laughing now. That’s good.   
https://www.gardenia.net/plant-variety/alstroemeria-peruvian-lily

I want to share another beauty here. I believe the world should know about her and her creations more and more, yes, the world should know. She is a great artist, a wonderful teacher, a fantastic baker, a fabulous mother of 2, a stylish wife of the great pastor in town so on. She gave me her handmade beautiful greeting cards, 12 different designs/drawings as a one set. My eyes were stuck on these beauties for long minutes. Look at the back side of a card. She picked the butterflies from “Ohio butterflies; endangered, threatened and species of concern 2022” to draw. That theme!!! Very important and thoughtful to our nature. I’d love to seek more about her projects and her thoughts in future. You are also interested in it now, aren’t you?  
Before the severe bad winter storm arrives here, my mind is fulfilled with warm friendships. Everyone, please be safe and stay warm. 

12/20/2022.  
I have my favorite things themed on Christmas. Do you?   
Movie: Miracle on 34th street (1994) I love 1994 version but I’d enjoy 1947 original version for sure. 
Music: That’s Christmas to me (Pentatonix) Evergreen (Pentatonix). I love Pentatonix.  
Book: The Mistletoe Promise, The Mistletoe Inn, and The Mistletoe secret (Richard Paul Evans). These are easy Christmas romance novels and I check out these from Lane public library every Christmas season. Funny part is these “my favorite things” are only mines and I don’t share them with my husband and son, in fact I cannot. Because it’s not their tastes at all. Probably I’d better put “their favorite things” lists on here. That might be fun.   
Picture book (Children’s): Toot & Puddle I’ll Be Home For Christmas (Holly Hobbie). This is such a treasure to myself forever. 

Speaking of “mistletoe”, when I moved into US from Japan in 2001, I had no idea about Mistletoe. Once I learned about it, I realized there were so many songs with lyrics including “mistletoe”, there are many movies with scenes of “under a mistletoe” (like Harry Potter). When I hear “mistletoe” in songs, it makes my heart “dance”, I like it very much even I am still a foreigner. 

12/20/2022.  
When I see some adaptive sports' pictograms, they make me smile. I like an icon/pictogram of sit-ski below. 

12/19/2022.  
We took our son into a trail this time just because Sun was up and we all love trails so much, you know. 

#bonus note.  
Before "YouTuber" "TikTok" time, I put a video on YouTube in 2007, 15 years ago. Then I've forgotten about it for a long time. I didn't know the video has 412262 views (412k)!!? Just we laughed about it. Starring our son. Assisted by his grandpa.  
Not too bad for a YouTuber, isn't it? (No, we are not a YouTuber at all.)

12/18/2022.  
Our son has a unique personality, awesome juggling skill and other "circus" skills. (Juggling, stilts, unicycle, yo-yo, Chinese yo-yo, rubik's cube) It's quite an amazing sight when he shows it off to us. Then our son and my husband told me that there was a "combat juggling" as a sport. Did you know that?  
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_(juggling)

My husband suggested our son "You should find and recruit 4 more jugglers and just go for it at competition." It was a fun night. 

Entry#104. 12/17/2022.  
People sometimes ask me “Now, you have your own free time, don’t you? Good for you.” lately. That’s yes for some parts. I still feel “I’d rather stay home” when my husband is home, like evening-night time. That’s just my feeling. So “outing in the night” was my another goal since my husband’s accident. I made it(!) thanks to 2 wonderful friends.  
I know, if you ask my husband about my outing, he would answer “It was nothing. No problem at all.”
It was my ladies’ night for “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn the musical”. 35 min driving to the theater (my dear friend drove me there.) show starting time at 7:00 pm, it was the opening night. My excitement had started right after I purchased the tickets. (It had been several weeks.) It reached a peak of excitement when the show started. I had a mini flower bouquet in my hand (Yes, my ritual) for the young musical actress from our town. It was fantastic more than I expected. I loved “Louise” the most!  My number one favorite tune was “Blue skies”. I need to confess though. I do know “White Christmas” very much because it was played tons in Japan when I lived in there. However I didn’t know whose song it was. 

P.S. I gave pink roses to the wonderful musical singer after the show was over. On the next day, I delivered tiny vases with 2 pink roses each to my 2 sweet friends who experienced "Holiday Inn" together. It was the same color as the musical girl got. I wanted to share it with them because it reminds me of that wonderful night vividly. I hoped it does same to them. It made me so smile when I delivered it, you know. It sounds fun, doesn't it??

Entry#103.  12/16/2022.   
My husband has been seeking and searching information about “how to start sit-ski” since last winter. In fact, very luckily, he purchased one last February from the generous gentleman through online-marketplace. It was a bit far place to fetch it so we met up in the middle point. (Yes, he drove and brought it for us.) Plus we had a nice conversation about adaptive sports since he had experiences of working for disabled people. My husband was eager to try it, however there were some complications happened in his body system at that time last winter. We had to postpone it. Gave up the last ski season.  
First of all, I need to write “What is sit-ski?” “What is Mono-ski and Dual-ski, Bi-ski?”.  
I’ve never paid attention much to Paralympic Games. But they have Alpine Ski events and you can see Mono-ski there.   

Mono-Skiingwintergreenadaptivesports.org

It says; Individuals with double lower extremity amputations, spina bifida, or with a spinal cord injury are good candidates for the mono-ski. 
Also it says; A mono-skier should have good upper body strength, balance and some trunk mobility.  

We are not sure about “good trunk mobility” part because my husband doesn’t have whole core strength now. But he wants to try riding on it and give it a try on ski slopes to see how much he can handle that “skiing”. I just wish the Perfect North slopes had a BIG adaptive programs.  Seems they have programs.

Adaptive Programsperfectnorth.com

However my husband hasn’t received any responses yet from them after he reached out to them.  

In Columbus, there are BIG programs which we should try.  I can see that Canada, Colorado and Virginia have really great programs according to websites. I just wish we could “just go there and try”. He has now his own mono-ski, it’s not the very latest model at all, it’s not a professional device at all (like for Paralympians). But he can start it with the device, that matters.  

Then my brain has to start processing for these stuffs. How to transfer it from wheelchair.   
How to ride on the lift.  
How to recover from the fall/crash on the snow ground. (This is the toughest one, I think I need to help out for him to get up to the right position.)   
If we could go to the place with actual mono-ski program with special instructors, I wouldn’t be not so nervous. But if not, I should prepare beforehand, shouldn’t I?   
I do ski. I love skiing. But I don’t think I can “videotape” during I ski on the slopes. I’d love to document my husband’s mono-skiing though. We will see. I attached some videos so that you can see and imagine “how it looks like on the slopes”. 
photo:  from last February. Our son tried on the mono-ski in the living room.

12/15/2022.  
One more day before the winter break for TSD, all teaches, staffs, students and coaches! You all can do it. Wooo hoooo. 

12/13/2022.  
I’m not a real singer, musical instrument player nor dancer. But my mind is always fulfilled with musical spirit because I simply love it.  I used to attend local high school concerts to watch, I always carried flower to get into the concert hall, waiting for players/singers to come out at the end, giving them flowers. It was like my ritual. But you know? Sometimes I looked oddly strange, looked awkward/weird very much because I was only one who brought a bouquet for a school concert. You can imagine that. (Oh I’ve seen several at the end of school year concerts, though.) I was able to catch up and slid myself into the high school concert hall last night, it was choir concert "Cold Nights, Bright Lights!" Do you think I had a flower on my hands? That’s YES!  It was for a pianist this time, an accompanist. I’ve not gotten any details for this show, so there were several “surprises” in it. Made me whisper “WOOOOW” during the show. I felt so grateful that I still could connect with this event through the great Choral director and the fantastic accompanist. There was a bonus story about it. During the huge applause from the audience at the very end, I was in rush to the back room to catch the accompanist/pianist who is my (kind of) neighbor. She already left (!) there, leaving me with bouquet. You are chuckling now, aren’t you?  So I drove to her house(!), surprised her, gave it to her and hugged her tightly. Cheers to the fabulous pianist, I always think “an accompanist is also the key to success for choir singers”, she deserves flowers for her tons of work for the show. It was wonderful night indeed, I got more hugs from other music teachers and soloist, more than I expected. 

P.S. photos: these roses have another story. I'll write more later. 

P.S.  This was my Christmas 2022. This is us!

Entry#102. 12/11/2022.   
Sometimes my friends tell me “I have two Christmases, my side of family and my husband’s side”. Sometimes I’m asked “Do you have your Christmas?” In Japan, we have a Christmas celebration, but it’s totally different than US. I found one article here. 
https://www.jrailpass.com/blog/christmas-in-japan

I always chuckle when I read these kind of “Japan facts”. It says;  
One fun fact about the holiday season in Japan is that Christmas Eve (december 24) is the most romantic day of the year. It’s the Japanese version of Valentine’s Day. As a matter of fact, if you don’t have a date on Christmas Eve, you won’t want to be seen alone in public. Japanese couples, especially the youngest, book dinners at romantic restaurants, the stores sell romantic Christmas gifts, and the streets are decorated to perfection to embody this most romantic day.  
------   
See? You might chuckle.   
Since we moved in US, we usually do a tiny celebration at home, just three of us. After my husband got his own lab, the end of semester party has started as our tradition (in December and May). So now I can tell this “I have my Christmas, it’s a lab gathering party.” 

Entry#101. 12/10/2022.  
As you know, my husband went back to teach this fall semester. It’s a molecular biology class for upperclassmen (including grad students). It looked all worked out pretty well for him, but you know, with some tough hard challenging adjustments included. Additional thinking processes about how to manage his body systems during the day at his biology building and etc. But I can tell he got more confidence about his daily life. I’m happy for him and proud of him very much.  He will teach a lab class for the next semester in spring 2023, with hands-on activities. There would be more prep times with his assistant. I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes.  
Oh, I really want to add this here. Seems his teaching work made a big impact for a student in his class this semester (he got a meaningful thank-you-card). That made me happier and prouder indeed. Wow, he is doing great things for young college students and his knowledge and experience have a lot of influence and importance over students. Of course, he has been doing that for a long time before the accident as well.  I just haven’t been around his work places this much before. All things around us now remind me “how his professor life is made”. It’s good to me. I want to tell him “keep being YOU no matter what.” 

12/09/2022.  part2. 
I also have "manual Standing wheelchair" (not electric one) on my list for "my writing". Lots of interesting things to know. I might make you curious a little bit, don't I?  I put a photo here, I'm on it to write about it later. 

12/09/2022.  
All final exams are done today. Graduation ceremony happened this afternoon, so I heard. This town will be a little bit quiet during the break. Being ready for Christmas. I want to write about my husband's handcycles, now he has two kinds. You might wonder what's the difference between. I will try to write about it later. Here are some photos of them. Our son bravely tried to ride on the road with my husband. It was a little funny tryout-run, you need to guess why. 

12/06/2022.  part2. 
My husband's students are coming here tomorrow! It's our tradition, the end of semester Lab party in December. You can guess how much my mind has been joyful dancing in these days for the prep. I love this process so much, not sure if my husband and our son do feel the same. 

12/06/2022.  
I missed the event "Oxford empty bowls 2022" in November. Seems it was a huge success again even it was a very snowy day. It made me happy. I will attend next year for sure, I will.  
I wrote about our son's enthusiasm about pottery before. Since it's the end of semester, he brought his creations at Ceramic class into our house. Here, I really want to share the view. I LOVE them all. I'm all smiling thanks to our son's creativity.  (See? It a bit looks like the Empty bowls table. Oh, and I wonder if anyone got our son's bowls??) 

12/05/2022.  
Good luck to Miami students (and professors) on the Final exams. 

12/04/2022.  
I used to work at the Lane public library. I met fabulous librarians/staffs at that time and we became close friends since. We did musical lady night with dinner. We did summer movie night. We did eat&chat by the fire. This time, we celebrated for one of us. She will start her baking/cooking business in her brand new renovated gorgeous kitchen! I made it to be there. They check on me always, listen to me patiently and give me hugs tightly. I listen to their stories, too. At the end, we all laugh hard, always. Hurray for the girls’ power! Laughter is the best. What a way to start off the December!

12/03/2022.  
Hello! December.  I love the atmosphere of holiday seasons very much. In November, I loved the idea of “I’m thankful for……”. November always reminds me of importance of gratitude and caring to people around me, near and far. December always spreads festive spirit and makes me think of family. Wonderful time of the year, indeed.  In Japan, there is a tradition of greeting cards, it’s called Nengajo 年賀状 (ねんがじょう). It’s not for Christmas, it is a new year’s greeting. They are always postcards. Interesting, isn’t it? Since I’ve lived in US for a long time, some Japanese postal systems are kind of “incredible” “wow”. Some Japanese traditions are maybe a bit strange(?). (I do sound so weird/oddball as a Japanese, I know.) 

People in Japan make greeting cards ahead of the time and they send them to post office starting on 12/15 (through end of December). New year’s cards have to be delivered on 1/1 through 1/3, that’s Japanese people’s idea. So Post offices will hold on enormous amount of greeting cards from 12/15 to 12/31, sorting them out. Yes, hold it till the new year has come! Then ta-da!! post office delivery workers are on a great mission on 1/1 to 1/3. It will be all delivered on these 3 days. Amazing, isn’t it?  

When I read some articles about Japanese greeting cards, it said “ If you receive a nengajo from someone who you didn’t send one to, it is considered bad manners not to reply. You should send them a card before Jan. 7, the nengajocut off date.”

Yes, I do remember that tradition (that’s “Japan”!!) but now I feel like “Wow, that’s a bit too much. We have to send a reply-card, we must, do we?”  I do sound like “an odd Japanese lady”. 

Well, I used to write about 150 greeting cards when I was in high school, I was proud of myself about that amounts. Funny. I think my parents still write many cards. Here I am in Oxford, OH, I don’t do much Christmas cards. I’ve sent Christmas greeting cards to my all relatives in Japan. It’s a mixed-up traditions but I’ve done that. It’s always about 15 cards. I skipped last year. (You can guess why, maybe). Then I’m back to routine this holiday season. (Wooo hoooo). Feels like I’m in good holiday spirits.