October

10/31/2022.  
Happy Halloween! 

Entry#85. 10/30/2022.  
I’ve learned about paraplegic/quadriplegic since July 2021. It is really deep inside of Spinal cord injury. And I noticed the terms, “disability” “disabled” “accessibility” and “accessible”. I haven’t used them much before, that is true. Then I learned “disability” has many broad meanings. One of them is blind. Recently I had a chance to look up something about blind people. I wondered “how can blind people use YouTube or website?” Have you thought about it before? Also I didn’t think about “digital accessibility” before, not at all. Here is a very informative webpage. 
https://www.peatworks.org/futureofwork/a11y/
This page said;  
To understand what we mean by accessibility, it’s helpful to try experiencing inaccessibility for a moment. 
———- 
Turn off your computer monitor and start typing. Use your phone from under a table where you can’t see it. Unplug your mouse and try to navigate your company website. Unplug your speakers and watch a webinar without sound. 
————  
It was a great exercise to myself to understand what I’ve not known. It was.  
As my understanding, most of University websites have this digital accessibility. I’m learning something different and it’s really good to me.  
I attached a video. I found this video creator lady. She just spreads cheerful energy to the world. Have you seen “Image description” “Video description” on some social media sites? My eyes are wide open. Now I understand that those descriptions are really helpful for blind people, with “screen reader” system. 

10/29/2022.  
My sweet friend told me "You are allowed to be exhausted."  It made me smile. It lightened my heavy/tired mind. I'm eager to shout out "I am so lucky to have many great friends!" into this beautiful gorgeous sky. Did you scream in joy lately? 

Entry#84. 10/28/2022.  Random thoughts.  
The local high school principal once said “Communication is the key!” And I agree with that for any occasions. I would say “For making our life brighter, yes, communication is the key!”  When I was Middle/High school EA, I sent emails to students sending cheers, congratulations and compliments often, regardless of whether I get their responses or not. I prefer to use emails because it’d be less annoying to busy people than texting. I usually don’t expect responses from students because they are younger generation than me and I’m not their teacher at all. They can ignore it and they don’t need to reply it if they feel uncomfortable or they don’t like it. It was satisfying to me after I sent away emails, anyway.  
But I have interesting stats on receiving responses. I got responses from boys more than girls. Interesting, isn’t it? I’m grateful for their (both boys and girls) honest responses because they help me to understand better about their school events and their thoughts.
Once I became an outsider from School staffs, I’ve not gotten much sources. For example, High school Cross Country.  According to school safety rule, only senior students could receive emails from outside-accounts.  At least I checked online live timing results for each races. The season has come to the end almost, the regionals is tomorrow and the State championship is next Sat. I’m glad that I enjoyed again following their accomplishments with different ways than before. It may sound spooky and like “stalking”. However, it’s not so much fun to check ONLY online results for each competition races. I was able to go to watch 2 races in town. Standing on sideline and yelling at our team runners. I tried emails (to seniors) and snail mails (to underclassmen) to congratulate them. Asked them how they felt on the race and how they feel now. If I’m lucky enough to get their answers, I would know them better and more. I’d enjoy their XC season more. Yes, communication is the key. So I’d love to say thank you to runners for making me feel happier and joyful through their season.  I know it’s gonna be fading away, this kind of communication with this team, that’s natural. I’m happy that I did “witness” their great accomplishments and JOY in this year. To me, the best part of watching XC is knowing runners’ thoughts. Strong mind, joyful moments, struggles so on. Communication is the key, forever.  
Photo: one of the great old memories.

10/27/2022.  
I brought my favorite thing to my best mentor's house. It's Haskap jam!!! It was a wonderful visit. As usual, I talked too much. I shared the info about Haskap berry with her next day. Then she emailed me that she knew the wine called "Dammit Annie" already, which was actually made from Blackberry and Haskap!  It made me smile. Even she hasn't known about Haskap, she likes the wine. I'm so happy to introduce that jam to her. What a coincidence! 

10/25/2022.  
I'm now 49. It sounds surely "not young anymore", it does. But on your birthday, in the morning, when you picked up your husband's cappuccino from local wonderful coffee shop (yes, Kofenya), baristas greeted you saying "It's your birthday, isn't it? Happy birthday!!", your eyes were wide open and couldn't stop smiling saying "how did you know? Yes, yes, it's my birthday!"  It was that kind of beginning of my birthday. Even one of baristas wrote me a message on a bag.

I'd love to cherish my time with my husband, son and our boy-dog, Ranger as much as I could. 

10/22/2022.  
My son left a message on the phone saying "I put something for you on the dining table."  I found them when I was home. His handmade bowls, he did throw bowls at Miami University studio. (He takes/took ceramic classes) Tiny tiny happiness that he made me smile, huge huge smile. He also donated several bowls this time to the BIG community event "Oxford Empty Bowls"(yes!! finally!).  
https://www.oxfordemptybowls.org/  
You might find his bowl there, that'd be something. (It's  one of my very favorite events in this town. Unfortunately I cannot make it this year since I will be out of town with my husband.) Let me know if you find his creations. 

10/21/2022.  
My name is always tricky to pronounce to people in US. In Japanese, with Japanese writing system, with Japanese alphabet, my name has two letters, ちえ. Basically, there are two sounds, ち and え. It is that simple, I thought so. Because ち has only one sound and え has only one sound. Everyone in Japan pronounce it with exactly same sounds. However my name’s spelling CHIE makes people confused.  
It looks like CHIEFS as “Kansas City Chiefs”. Most of people call me “chee” (like a cheese).  
Sometimes I’m called as Chai (Latte). Sounds so cute, doesn’t it?   
I guess you’ve heard “Chia pet” before, and now “Chia seeds” are getting popular for making healthy smoothies.  I think “CHIA” is easy to pronounce to everyone.   
There is another interesting fact. When I say my name to people, they see my lips, like reading lips (lipreading). I think my movement of the lips, especially for the sound of え (e), is not good enough to “show and tell”. I guess it always looks short-a-sound. It is I made people confused. Interesting?   
I was fond of being called “Chai” (like Chai latte) very much when my son was a little boy. “Kye and Chai” are rhyming perfectly. Funny. 

Entry#83. 10/19/2022.  
During your life, you don’t need to “scold” others, there are not much occasion to. Especially when you were a foreigner who moved into US. However once you became a parent, things were a bit different. You have playdates with friends’ children, you babysit for them, you take care of them occasionally and so on. Parenting is, of course, up to each parents, so much different ways, different philosophies. But, you know, sometimes you need to scold children if it’s needed and if it looks dangerous or risky.
Then I faced the fact. I cannot scold children properly, efficiently and effectively (or reasonably). I would say “No. Don't do that. It’s not good. It’s dangerous.” That’s it. How terrible it sounds as a parent. Children are smart, sneaky, tricky and clever-liars. They demand explanations when I say “no”.  Then here I am who don’t say much words with big voices. Guess what people said about me?  “You are always nice and kind.” “Have you ever been mad at others?” “You never be angry.”
That’s all wrong, see? I was frustrated with myself not being able to scold children in English. Funny? Maybe. Days just passed.
When I got a lunch/recess monitor position at elementary school, it got serious though. I had to be a “mean” recess lady. It was a great lesson for myself. I always felt like “It has to be nothing. It’s no problem at all if I’m in Japan, using Japanese to discipline students.”  
After all, this might be my disability. But I did stick with EA jobs at the local middle school and high school, at the school library, just because I wanted to be helpful and useful to both students snd teachers “somehow”. I loved my job there.
But there is another point of view. I should find a job without any discipline tasks, that’d work all better for everything. I can tell this though, I always try to do “my best”, be honest and respect people. Because that’s all what I get.  Let’s see what I’m going to do in future from now on, with my “ability”.

Entry#82.  10/18/2022.  
I moved in US with my husband in 2001. I was able to only “read and write” in English, I had a hard time to “listen and actual talk” = I had a tough time to communicate vocally. It sounds funny, I guess. People were kind and generous, they tried to understand me. I made a simple single sentence in my head and sounded it out. People talked to me cheerfully and friendly. However I couldn’t catch what they said. See? I sound so “hopeless and strange”.  If they wrote it down and showed it to me at that time in 2001, things might have been easier. In reality, I spoke in Japanese at home all the time. I was totally ok to do grocery and shopping without fluent English. In fact I’ve never gotten fluent English skills even now after living in US for 21 years. (Ouch)  On the other hand, I’m comfortable with people with my “foreign accent” and limited vocabulary here in my town. I’m thankful for people around me, that’s true. I’ve never done “public speech” in English, that’s true, too. However I keep telling my son “You need to practice public speech.” “You gotta do public speech whenever it comes.”  What an awful mother I am, I force him what I’ve never done. Even so, I do hope my son could get several chances to make a speech in public in future somehow. Just like his father. Just like a “Ted talk”. 

10/18/2022.  
In these 2-3 days, I'm feeling so thankful for "my leaf blower". 

10/16/2022.  
My husband got a chance to meet the members of Miami University SDS (Student Disability Services). Luckily I was able to join. I didn't know about this department before. Now I know. The more I know, the more I get curious and understand. I could learn more from them from now on. 

10/14/2022.  #2. 
My husband found this movie and I really loved it. I cried. I cried with cheerful joyful feeling. If you have time about 1 hour, I highly recommend it. You will discover something new about "how you live", maybe. 

10/14/2022.  
I'd love to watch this event with my husband someday in future. I've been curious about it since our town's artists (I know some of them) attend to this big parade (they did before). I'm not sure how it would go with my husband's wheelchair "wheeling" but I'd love to try to visit someday with him. 
https://www.blinkcincinnati.com/

10/12/2022.  
My husband is surrounded by many great researcher-colleagues near and far. I think I'd better learn more about them, I should. Today was a good "Webinar" day to me. It's all about microbes in Antarctica. See? Sounds so interesting? Plus 24-hour daylight in summer (which means 24-hours night in winter) sounds interesting more. I'd definitely love to chat with her sometime soon. 
https://miamioh.edu/news/top-stories/2020/01/rachael-morgan-kiss-20th-year-antarctic-research.html

Her 2022 expedition will happen in 2 weeks, I believe. I'll send a tiny cheer to her and her team from here. Wow, what an exciting expedition!

10/12/2022.  
It’s always fun and cheerful when you get to see other cyclists/runners on the roads during your biking. I loved that when I used to jog in the town as well, before I switched to biking from jogging. Well, I had my own mission Monday afternoon. I knew that High school Cross Country team had a practice and Mondays were always “long run” day. I wanted to watch them running since they will have big conference race, SWOC this Saturday. I biked up and guessed the time and place to meet them “coincidentally”. Funny?  It worked. Then I followed them by bicycle. I was careful enough not too annoying. But it was fun to watch how fast they run, how much they enjoy their run and how much they are excited about upcoming big race. I hoped they enjoyed a bit having a strange company behind them.  I guess I’m officially called a “stalker”, for sure. Still sending a tiny cheer for them. “Best of luck!”

10/11/2022.  
My husband's office, Biology department building must be a great condition for Christmas cactus. It's already blooming in his office. It made me so smile. It's "October cactus!!"

10/10/2022.  
Delivering flowers makes me so cheerful and happy all the time. XC SWOC championship will happen this Sat. All Coaches should be recognized as well, that's my theory. Sending a tiny cheer to THS/TMS runners and coaches. 

Entry#81. 10/09/2022.  
When my husband makes a plan for handcycling at a bike trail outside of our town, my brain starts working for all the preparation. Here is my routine.

Pump air all tires.

Put my husband’s handcycle into a van. Make sure a top of an orange flag is removed. 

Put my bicycle into a van. 

Need to bring:

2 wood boards to secure handcycle when he gets on. 

2 homemade parallettes bars (he needs to use them to shift his body on the seat)

2 helmets 

2 sets of gloves 

Water bottles, backpack, repair sets. 

Then my husband gets into a driver’s seat. 

Disassemble Wheelchair and put them into a van at the very backside of the space. 

And finally we can start driving. 

Ok, now, you can guess what I do at a parking lot of a bike trail?? 

Reassemble Wheelchair first. 

Take my bicycle out from a van.

Take handcycle out from a van. 

Set up handcycle for my husband to get on. Make sure to put up an orange flag on handcycle.

He gets on Wheelchair from a driver’s seat. 

He gets on handcycle from Wheelchair.

Shift his body to correct position using parallettes bars. 

Then I put Wheelchair into a van. 

Put rest of all stuffs into a van. 

Then we are off to a fun biking on a trail. 

After long fun biking, can you guess? Yes, I do all the first part of my routine again (except for pumping part) so that we can drive home. And yes! At our home driveway, I do most of the second part of my routine again (but he doesn't ride on handcycle this time) then we can enter our house shouting “we are home! Wooo hooo that was a nice biking today!”  Maybe your eyes are wide open now?  

10/08/2022.  
When your sweet friend (she and I share the same birthday) brought you fall-color flowers, you would dress up and do self-photo-shoot in your backyard. Oh, I don't have a tripod for iPhone, but I do have a music stand which works pretty well for "selfies", did you know that? 

10/07/2022.  
I talked with my mother on the phone. Actually it's been a while to hear her voice since we usually text. It was a much-needed chat tonight, so it was wonderful. 50th anniversary gift for my parents from us (finally) arrived at their house! See? Now we have the same monarch butterflies twinkling.

10/06/2022.  
Something about myself part 2.  
I was in a choir at elementary school. I played a flute in Middle school band. I was in a high school choir. I did contemporary dance during elementary ages. After all, I joined in two dance-show trips overseas; Australia and Russia!! However, there is a bit sad part. I totally forgot how to play a flute, so sad. I like singing, but technically I cannot sing in English, maybe funny. 
One time in Japan, when I was a sales rep at medicine company, I had a chance to join a dance group. There is a big dance festival in my hometown in Sapporo, Japan in June. It’s called “Yosakoi Soran Matsuri”.  I danced one time. I loved it. 

https://www.ana-cooljapan.com/sp/matsuri/trip/17/

The interesting part is “this dance festival” has been spreading all over the world. You can find many videos in YouTube, several students formed a group, practiced dance and performed, in Europe, US, Asia and more.  
It was such a surprise/coincidence that I found Yosakoi dance club in KSU (Kansas State University) when we lived in Manhattan, KS. As you guessed, I did shoot an email asking “May I join?” and yes, I did. I don’t have any photos/videos of me dancing, unfortunately.  But I can attach a video here (I just searched and found it on YouTube.)   I danced this tune/dance called “Yocchore”. Exactly the same movement and music. I still do remember it now. 

10/05/2022.  
Something about myself this time.
After we moved in U.S. in 2001, it’s fortunate that I made many friends and I know now “American culture and lifestyle” through my friends as well.  It’s fascinating all the time when I find out “what my friends did at high school/college”. School systems are quite different, US vs Japan. That’s why I was impressed more. One of them was a color guard (using a flag pole). One of them played softball at college! Many of them were in marching bands and competed. Some competed cheerleading competitions. Their stories make me curious and wonder. If there are “you can try to do it” events, I’d love to join. Yes, that’s me. One time, I discovered that Miami University had Taiko group. Yes, Taiko!! I did shoot an email asking “May I join? I’m not a MU student at all.” I was in. I was just lucky. I had no idea how to drum. But it was so great experience to try to be a drummer and performer. It’s not that easy to master a new instrument. But I was thankful and grateful that they let me be part of the group. 

10/03/2022.  
This Christmas cactus has already some "red jewels" in my husband's office. And I found very beautiful praying mantis on a garage entrance. Made me so happy and gave me energy. 

Entry#80.  10/02/2022.  
It's our anniversary today. #23! I don't think we celebrated last year. I was feeling "we cannot do it this time" again with some complications of my husband's leg. But, but, we did it! We celebrated our 23rd with smile, laughter and great coffee + scrumptious meals. I cannot ask for anything more. Our son was a good sport with many my "requests". We can do it many more years, yes, we can. I had to attach our wedding photo in Japan. This one is with my father/mother/younger-brother. Honoring my parents' big 50th anniversary, I wanted to share. We ALL were young, of course. 

P.S.  It was SO windy but great view + sunshine didn't disappoint us at all. I was simply happy.

Entry#79.  10/01/2022.  
I repeat remembering and rethinking about our friends (and friends’ friends) at that time we needed help right after my husband’s accident. I always feel “I’m going to do something in return for those people.” Someday somehow. Then I reflected how we did and how we are doing repeatedly. Here is a photo of “me and my husband”. This is the one and only that we were captured together in a picture before he came home from a hospital. (Drake/Encompass) (Sep 10. 2021)  We were so “innocent” with full of motivation and eagerness, see? that smile? Then as you know, we learned and realized tough reality. 

And this photo is the day he came home (Sep 12. 2021) I’m grateful he is alive and he is with us really deeply. I’d love to say “thank you” to everyone again and again, for the rest of my life.