Hey blog world! My friends Evan and Jeff recently started a podcast! They call it “Splainin”. In this show, they each take turns explaining things that the other doesn’t understand. Today, the first episode dropped (you can check it out here). I thought it was absolutely fantastic!
First of all, love the theme song! It is really funky and a very catchy tune. I found myself dancing to it as I dried my dishes this morning.
Today’s topics were time zones and deja vu. I was amazed by how much I learned! My favorite part was when Jeff was talking about the brain and the functions of certain parts of it that have to do with deja vu. I found that so fascinating!
I laughed a lot too! Especially thinking about hippos taking online college courses! LOL! You’ll have to listen to the podcast to understand that. I wonder what they would study if they signed up for distance learning at CONA?! Thank goodness speech to text exists, poor shaggers with no opposable thumbs wouldn’t be able to submit any assignments without it!
Splainin’ gets a full 10/10 from me! It’s edutainment at its finest! I can’t wait to see what they will explain next! I love learning new things!
Here are a few other podcasts that I absolutely love!
A Hotdog Is A Sandwich: This podcast, hosted by Mythical chefs Josh and Nicole from “Good Mythical Morning”, dives into some of the biggest arguments in the world of food. Does pineapple belong on pizza? Are boneless wings really wings? Is cereal soup?! There are only three episodes out as of now, but I hope they make more! It was interesting hearing their take on all these debates and what side they are on and seeing if they share my opinion (for me personally, pineapple absolutely does not belong on pizza, boneless wings are just glorified chicken nuggets, and cereal is not soup. (not the way I eat it anyway, I can’t drink milk so I have mine dry.)) You can find the audio version on iTunes, and if you want to watch Josh and Nicole recording the podcast, click here to watch it on YouTube!
The Skit Guys Podcast: This is a podcast hosted by my favorite Christian comedy duo, Tommy Woodard and Eddie James, better known as The Skit Guys. These two use humor, impersonations and crazy characters (one of my favorites was Gungamore the Shingles Troll!) to deliver the good news of God’s word. I have been lucky enough to be featured on this podcast on several occasions… sort of! I am never heard on the podcast, but Tommy and Eddie have read my fan mail on air multiple times! I even had the honor of being impersonated by Tommy once! I died laughing! He sounded nothing like me, but that’s what made it so hilarious! ! If you want to check out that episode, click here! To listen to more episodes, you can find them on iTunes and Sound Cloud.
What are some of your favorite podcasts? Tell me in the comments!
Hey blog world. As I said in my last post, I’ve gotten used to my new quarantine routine, but there are still things that I really miss about life before Covid-19. We have had two days in a row now with no new cases, so I’m hoping the curve has finally flattened and that we can soon return to normal. Once that day finally comes, there are so many things I can’t wait to do again!
One of those things is seeing my furry buddy Frenchy again! I miss him so much! He is my best friend Peter’s dog. He is so sweet and super soft and cuddly. He is also the best student assistant ever! Peter is my voice/piano teacher and he has tutored me in various school subjects for numerous years as well. Frenchy often likes to lie on the couch next to me while Peter and I study together. Petting Frenchy was a great way to relieve my stress and anxiety that I’d have about assignments and tests.
I also can’t wait to have a lesson with Peter in person again! It will be fantastic to play an in tune piano again (mine is a whole tone out of tune! Yikes!) That being said, I also can’t wait to have my tuner come to the house again and get my piano back in tune!
Another thing I am looking forward to once this pandemic is over is getting back to my sports! I am especially excited for the Special Olympics rhythmic gymnastics provincial competition, whenever that will be. This year will be extra special for me because it will be my first time competing in level 2 (just to give some context, there are levels A, B,C,1,2 and 3 in Special Olympics rhythmic) and my first time competing with a clubs routine. I have been working hard all year learning how to use this new apparatus and can’t wait to show off my skills.
Also in the world of sports, I am very excited to get back on the bocce pitch and softball field as well! I can’t wait to see all my friends again and play sports I love! I look forward to another summer of training to play singles in the bocce provincials (and having a shot at qualifying for the 2022 Canada Games in Medicine Hat!!) and I’m hoping that this will be the year I finally learn how to properly hit the softball!! I miss the ball more times than I hit it and even when I hit it, it never goes very high or very far. I am very happy that I have an excellent team of coaches and I can’t wait to see them all again and hopefully with their help, get at least one home run this season!
I’m really hoping that this pandemic ends by the time summer gets here, so that I can go camping with my family. My Uncle has a trailer in Green’s Harbor that he lets us borrow every year and the campsite its on is just beautiful! There’s a lake just a stones throw from our site that I can’t wait to float on in an inner tube, a massive grassy field just perfect for playing bocce and a walking trail nearby that leads to a little convenience store where we love to stop for ice cream.
I can’t wait to spend time with my friends in person again too! I can’t wait to play games with my friend Evan at Board Game Barista (formerly Mochanopoly), have lunch with Peter at our favorite restaurant, International Flavors (they have the best chicken curry in St. John’s! Check out my review of them here.) and finally teach him to finger knit a scarf, see my Best Buddies again and volunteer at the SPCA together like we had planned, hang out with my new friend Vanessa and knit hats and jam out to Alanis Morissette (one of our favorite singers!) and have my annual Teddy Bear Picnic in my backyard with my friends and their stuffed toys! I’m also really looking forward to returning to work at Spirit of Newfoundland and seeing all my friends there again!
Speaking of Spirit, I can’t wait to get back to seeing shows! All the Facebook live concerts I’ve seen have been fabulous, but I miss the real thing. I look so forward to going to the Trip Inn again to see my favorite local cover band, Cripple Creek and going to Spirit to see their new summer show and finally taking my friend Erin out for a girls night at Spirit to celebrate her Birthday (we have tried twice since her Birthday in February to go but both times the shows got cancelled.) There are also concerts that I have tickets for that I can’t wait for the reschedule dates, whenever those may be! One of them is my very first drag show, the Jazz East Queer Cabaret with Madame Daddy, Dr. Androbox and Keith Power! The other is James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt!
I also can’t wait to get back on stage myself! I really miss performing at the S.U.F Wednesday jam and the weekly Saturday night open mics around CBS. Those were the highlights of my week! Friendly people, yummy food and great music, what more can you ask for?!
Most of all, I can’t wait to see Poppy again. I’m a Poppy’s girl! He and I are very close. It’s been really hard not having him around anymore since this quarantine started. We talk on the phone every day and that’s lovely, but I miss seeing him in person. Once this ends, the first thing I want to do is either visit him or have him come up to the house and visit me. Have a hand of Queens and a cup of tea and maybe watch a few “Keeping Up Appearances” reruns (one of our favorite shows).
What are you most looking forward to doing once this quarantine ends?
Hey blog world! I hope you are all doing ok during this quarantine. I am doing pretty good, trying to stay positive and doing lots of things to keep me busy! I thought that today I would take you through a day in my quarantine life.
Each day starts with a dose of mythicality! I love to watch Rhett and Link each morning as I eat my breakfast. Though, there are some days that I regret that decision! LOL (they can often get gross)! Even though they can be gross and stupid sometimes (it honestly amazes me that these two are still alive, especially after they put raw meat in a coffee filter and drank it!) I find them very entertaining and funny! For those of you unfamiliar with them, Rhett and Link are YouTubers and have a daily show called “Good Mythical Morning”. They do taste tests, experiments and games. My favorite of their videos is their series called “The Shelf We Leave Things On”. It’s so fascinating to see what happens to the various things they leave in stuff for a month (as a few examples, they have left things in coke, a hot car and mouthwash).
After breakfast, I like to craft for a little while. I take time every day to do something creative, whether it be working on my Diamond Painting, coloring in one of my many adult coloring books or some other sort of creative thing. Today, I did something that made me feel like a kid again, I made a beaded bracelet! I made so many of those as a child. I had a bead kit of my own and I also would make them often at the summer camps that I went to. My sister brought her bead kit when she moved back in with us, so I thought why not try that today! I made a special bracelet for Autism Awareness Month. I used blue beads (our awareness color) and spelled the word Autism in the middle. It was not a very easy task and I got frustrated a few times (the cord kept fraying and on top of that, my fine motor skills are absolutely craptastic so threading the letter beads tiny holes through the cord was quite difficult!) but I kept at it and by the end I had a cool looking piece of jewelry that I can proudly say I made myself!
After crafting, I do one of two things, one of them is puzzle time. I have a large collection of jigsaw puzzles (so large that I no longer have space in my designated puzzle cabinet in my room!) and have really been enjoying revisiting them. Puzzles are a lot of fun and a great workout for my brain. I also like that they have given me and mom some bonding time. She will sometimes join in as I work on a puzzle. Right now, I am working on a 1000 piece doughnut puzzle. My mouth was watering as I worked on the puzzle today, the doughnuts all looked so yummy!
The other thing I do is exercise! I recently got into a habit of exercising every day. I want to be a healthier person! My goal is to eventually be able to hike Signal Hill and walk up Cathedral Hill to get to work, both without getting the wind completely knocked out of me! For the past few weeks, I have been following my mom’s workout routine, a series of videos by fitness YouTuber Lucy Windham Read. It’s a mix of everything, some walking workouts, toning, different workouts that focus on different parts of the body. Today, I revisited an old friend. I used to love doing Richard Simmons videos. He is so energetic and fun! I did the third video in his Sweatin’ To The Oldies series today. I had such a great time dancing and singing along!
After my workout, I put some change in my special jar! Lucy said that a good idea for motivation is to put change in a jar every time you work out and eventually reward yourself with a special, healthy treat! For yesterday’s art project, I made my workout tip jar! I drew a picture of Tina Belcher in her pink leotard and leg and arm warmers from her “Buttloose” friend fiction and taped it to one of mom’s mason jars! The healthy treat that I am saving up for I have decided will be a softball glove! I play for the CBS Bright Stars softball team and love it. I can’t wait to get back on the field this summer if the virus is over by then. I haven’t got a glove of my own, I have always had to borrow one from coach Eric. It will be great to have a glove of my own so that I don’t always have to borrow one each practice and I can practice at home!
Next, to relax my muscles after my workout (and, let’s face it, smell better after having sweat for an hour!) I have a bath. While I’m in the tub, I like to read. With 5 people in the house, it’s hard to get some quiet time to enjoy a book. I live for that 20 minutes I can have some peaceful me time to relax and read, hearing nothing but the white noise of the fan. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day! Sometimes, I like to add an extra element of relaxation and throw some Epsom salts in the tub. I especially like to do this on days that my knee is flaring up (I dislocated it 10 years ago and it still acts up every now and then!) They work wonders to relieve the pain! And ,as a bonus they come in some really delightful scents!
In the afternoon, once I have my lunch, I will do whatever activity I didn’t do that morning (if I worked out and had a bath before lunch, I’ll do some puzzle and vice versa) and then I do my dishes. That is not a thing I look forward to, but I know it’s a necessary evil. I make it fun by putting on my favorite radio station, K-Rock.
I make time in the afternoon for some music making as well! I play my keyboard. Right now, I am working with my teacher on learning Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”. I must say, it’s coming along pretty well! There are still some areas I need to improve on, but day by day it’s sounding better!
Next comes my other favorite part of my day, when I get to spend time in the kitchen! I am in charge of making supper every night! I love cooking and baking! My favorite thing to bake is very tough to say. I love making fudge (I have the most incredible secret recipe that was given to me by a dear friend of mine and it is melt in your mouth deliciousness!), banana bread and gingersnaps. My favorite meal to cook is butter chicken served on basmati rice with naan bread and curried chickpeas. Tonight, I tried a new recipe, spaghetti with scallops, green onions, peas and mushrooms. As a sort of sauce for the pasta I used some reserved pasta water, chicken broth and butter and added some parsley, garlic and pepper. It tasted pretty good, but I used too much pasta water. That flavor really overpowered the chicken broth and spices. I’ll remember not to use as much next time I make this.
The evenings are reserved for, depending on the day, either a video call with friends or a family night. It honestly amazes me how my social calendar is still super jam packed even though I haven’t left the house in a month! Tuesday nights I have a voice/piano lesson via video call, Wednesday nights I have Bible study on Zoom, my rhythmic gymnastics team practices together via Zoom on Thursday nights. On nights I don’t have a meeting or a lesson scheduled, I like to either FaceTime with my friends and do something fun like a game night or a craft night or spend time with my family and play a game. Lately, we have been playing cards a lot. Bang, Pass The Ace and Queens are some of our favorite games.
And thus ends a normal day in these abnormal times. I look forward to being able to go out and see my friends again, but for now, I’m enjoying this new quarantine daily schedule.
Hey blog world! To all those who celebrate, happy Easter! It certainly is different this year with all the restrictions in place and not being able to go visit family, but we are making the best of this unfortunate situation. Despite not being able to see Poppy, I am having a really nice day so far!
I woke up early this morning (I am rarely ever an early bird, the only two days of the year that I am are Easter Sunday and Christmas morning!) and put on a fancy light blue blouse, frilly white skirt and my favorite part of my Easter ensemble, my Easter bonnet that I made myself! It’s a pink sunhat (that I bought while I was in Thailand) adorned with various odds and ends I picked up in the craft aisle of Dollarama! It’s really amazing what you can find there! My hat has little baby chicks on top, bunny ears,, a butterfly and fake red and white roses.
Then, my niece Samantha and I set off on our Easter egg hunt. That is my favorite part of the day. It’s fun to look for the eggs and other treats that the Easter bunny left and the best part, free chocolate! I was delighted to find a few Chips Ahoy eggs hidden around the house, those are one of my favorite Easter treats, I love the cookie dough in the middle! Yum!
I was also delighted to find a few surprises from my sister waiting for me on the couch. She gave me a bath bomb, a foot scrub and new slippers! When I saw those, I thought to myself “Spa night tonight! How fabulous!” She also gave me a bag of Elmers glow in the dark beads. That took me back to childhood! I haven’t made a beaded bracelet since I was in elementary school! I look forward to having a craft day with her someday this week and making jewelry.
After hunting for eggs, I sat down with Sam to watch an Easter movie. We watched VeggieTales “An Easter Carol”, their Easter spin on the classic Charles Dickens tale. Ebeneezer Nezzer, a rich pickle who inherited his grandma’s Easter egg factory thinks that chocolate and eggs and candy are what the holiday is all about. Wanting to keep his grandma’s memory alive, he decides to build a huge theme park, Easter Land, where it is Easter all year round. Where does he decide to build this park? Right where the local Church is standing because the pastor is “keeping the people from him”, they are worshipping in Church when they could be buying eggs. Ebeneezer believes the world would be better off if the Church didn’t exist. That night, he is visited by an angel named Hope who brings him to Easter past, present and future to teach him a lesson about what Easter really means and why it is so important to have the Church and hope in our lives. I loved the movie. It was so beautiful! It made my heart feel warm and happy inside.
Then, it was time for Easter dinner. Traditionally, turkey is what’s served and in our house that is no different. however, I do not like turkey, never have, never will! So, dad cooked a nice steak for me! It was delicious! As was the dressing that mom made!
After we ate, Sam and I received another special present each. Mom and dad gave us an Easter gift from them. I got a Big Turk (one of my favorite bars), some peeps, a chocolate bunny and my favorite candy that I was sincerely hoping for and was very happy to receive, Jelly Belly beans! I got a bag of Frozen theme beans and a cute little spring theme 10 flavor box. Can’t wait to indulge in those soon! As well, mom and dad gave me a bag of Epsom salts! I was very happy to see those! Just the other day I was saying to my sister that I had run out. As a person who has terrible flare ups in the knee (I dislocated it over 10 years ago and to this day it still gives me grief every now and then!) Epsom salts are a Godsend! They do a wonderful job of easing the pain!
This Easter was a special one for one of our family members. Winnie, our newly adopted cat who isn’t quite one year old yet celebrated her first Easter today! She didn’t get any treats from the Easter Bunny, but had fun playing with ours! I dropped one of my eggs on the floor in the living room and she had quite a time batting it around! She loves playing with any little things she can get her hands on! Here she is with her big brother, our five year old cat Ozzy!
I am so looking forward to capping off my Easter with a spa night! It has been ages since I last had one! I’m going to use my bath bomb and after that, enjoy a glass of white wine, put on a cucumber face mask and some of my foot scrub and watch “Jesus Christ Superstar”.
I hope you all are having a lovely Easter despite the circumstances!
Hey blog world! Yesterday, my mom decided to de-clutter her room.. In doing that, she found a huge box of random things. She called me into her room and said “There’s some stuff in here I think you might want to keep. Have a look through and take out what you want.”
I took the box into the living room, sat down and began going through its contents. The first thing I pulled out brought back a flood of memories. It was my autographed program from Spirit of Newfoundland’s 2007 production of “Viva Lost Elvis”, the very first Spirit of NL show that I ever saw. I sat there in awe just looking at it and remembering that magical night.
I remembered being 10 years old and having gone to the Busker Festival that day and having a face painter put music notes on my cheek to wear to the show that night. I remembered how captivated and enthralled I was by the colorful lights, the entertaining characters (whom I thought were real people, not actors!) and the spectacular singing, dancing and music. It was one of the best nights of my life! I fell in love with Spirit of Newfoundland that evening and haven’t looked back since. 13 years later, I am now working with the company (this summer will mark my 8th year of employment with them!) and have been to well over 50 of their shows!
Also in the box were ticket stubs from various concerts and musicals that I had gone to. One of them was Hillary Duff at Mile 1. That was an incredible night as well! I had front row center seats and got to shake her hand while she was on stage singing! I also found my ticket from Peter MacDonald Productions’ “Annie”, which was one of my favorite shows that I had been to. I remember how excited I was that I was going to see a live performance of the musical my favorite movie ever was based on! It was amazing to see Annie’s story coming to life right in front of me!
Digging deeper in the box, I found many old certificates that I had received over the years! There were many certificates I won in Elementary school for being a respectful, kind, caring person, many of which had pictures of me taped to them. It was nice to look back on myself as a youngster, I was cute! Heck, I still am! I also found a bunch of participation certificates from Easter camp at Bulldog Interactive Fitness for Youth. Those really took me back. Bulldog was open in St. John’s from 2008-2010. They had Wii systems, Dance Dance Revolution, exercise bikes that were hooked up to racing video games, a treadwall (a rock climbing wall that worked like a treadmill, it would move down as you moved up), even a smoothie bar. I spent so much time there during their three years of operation at their Easter and summer programming. I remembered playing Twister almost every day with my friends Laura and Emma, the time I fell off the treadwall and landed in a very attractive male staff member’s arms, and the countless time I spent trying to beat “Video Killed The Radio Star” on easy mode on Dance Dance Revolution (it was the hardest song of the lot!)
Another certificate I found inside the box was one of the awards that I won at Lavrock camp years ago. Lavrock was one of my favorite overnight camps growing up. My favorite part was always the last night of camp when we’d have a talent show and an award ceremony. The very first summer that I attended camp, I won the “Next Broadway Star” award! I was amazed to find that certificate in mom’s box. It’s funny, all those years ago I so wanted to be a Broadway star, now that dream has slightly changed. I now want to someday be in a local production of a show! I look up to and idolize so many of the spectacular performers that we have here on the rock and it would be a dream come true to someday share the stage with Peter Halley, Erin Winsor, John Williams, Kara Noftall, any of my local theatre friends.
Later in the day, I saw a bag full of cards on the table that mom said she was going to get rid of. I like to hold on to all the greeting cards I get, so I asked to have a look through the bag and see if there were any in there that belonged to me. I couldn’t believe some of the things I pulled out of the bag! There were get well cards from my time in the hospital (which you can read about here), cards congratulating me on getting confirmed, even birthday cards from friends whom I haven’t seen in decades. It was nice to see their names again and remember the fun times we had together back in the day. Many of these cards were hand made, which I loved! Hand made cards are my favorite, when someone takes the time to draw pictures and write their own sentiments in a card that makes it so much more meaningful! Two of the cards I pulled out of the bag made me tear up a little.One of them was a Birthday card signed by my old friend Alyssa. Alyssa passed away 5 years ago at the age of 17 in a car crash. The other, a Birthday card from my cousin Kim whom I was very close to. She passed away two months ago after battling cancer. I look forward to adding all these cards to my special scrapbook.
I had such a wonderful day yesterday resurrecting these and many more old memories. It’s truly amazing what you’ll find when you declutter your space.
Hey blog world! Happy April! This month is very special for me because April is Autism Awareness Month and April 2nd is the official Autism Awareness Day! On Tuesday I celebrated by wearing blue and doing a live Facebook story time where I read one of my favorite books about Autism, “We’re Amazing 1,2,3”. Click here to check that out.
Today, I thoguht I’d keep the Autism Awareness Month celebrations going by sharing some facts about Autism here!
What exactly causes Autism? First of all, let’s start with what doesn’t. There are many absolutely ridiculous things people believe are the cause of Autism, click here for an entire list! One of the most WTF things that someone has said will cause Autism (spoiler alert… it won’t!) is wearing jeans! Rajith Kumar, a professor in India actually has said that women who wear jeans will give birth to Autistic children! Seriously, how did he come up with that outlandish theory! Clearly, he doesn’t listen to Neil Diamond.
If you pardon me, I’d like to say we’ll do ok forever in blue jeans
Neil Diamond
Autistic children are born, not made! There is nothing you can eat, wear or do that will cause your child to have an Autism diagnosis. Also, while we’re on this topic, just gonna throw this out there and say it super loud for the people in the back, VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM!!!! There is no known cause for Autism, but it is generally accepted that it is caused by abnormalities in the brain structure or function.
A fact that I find really interesting is that there are more boys with Autism than there are girls. Every 1 in 64 boys are diagnosed compared to every 1 in 189 girls. I think it’s pretty cool that I’m part of a rare group. Why there are more boys than girls diagnosed is a mystery, even Autism professionals can’t figure out why! They do have a few theories though, one of them is that Autism has a genetic component that is more likely to affect the male brain. I wonder if that really is it or if there’s some other reason?
Many people think that Autistic people are all the same. That’s not true. I like to say that Autistic people are like snowflakes, no two are completely alike! If you’ve met one person with Autism, you’ve met one person with Autism. Many people with Autism can communicate verbally, but 40% of people on the spectrum are non-verbal and use other means of communication whether it be sign language or an assistive communication app on an iPad. Some people with Autism, like myself, are hypersensitive to noise. This means that I have ears that as I like to say boast the same technology as Spinal Tap’s amps. They are turned up to 11! Thus, loud noises frighten me. Other people on the spectrum might be hypersensitive to another sense like touch for example, meaning that they hate to wear certain textures of clothing because they are too scratchy or uncomfortable. There are even some people on the spectrum who are hyposensitive and seek out sensory stimuli. A person who is hyposensitive to taste might mouth or chew on anything they can get their hands on.
One thing that’s a common thread among all Autistic people is special interests. A special interest is a subject, thing or person that an Autistic person is obsessed with, so much so that we collect things based around that interest, spend hours engaging in that interest and learn everything that we can about it! My friend Kathleen is an exotic animal encyclopedia! It’s amazing how much she knows about where they come from, what they eat, their habitats, etc. My special interests are musical theater and Spirit of Newfoundland! I can tell you the cast of any Spirit of Newfoundland show (original run and revival), the history of the Masonic Temple (Spirit’s current building), which musicals were written by which composer, I can recite many shows off by heart (“Rent” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” are a few examples) and I have a very impressive collection of DVD’s, cast albums, tickets and playbills!
If a child is diagnosed with Autism, they may also be diagnosed with one or more other medical conditions. Conditions that are co-morbid with ASD include, among many others, sleeping disorders, asthma and in my case, anxiety. Speaking of co-morbid conditions, something I learned today researching facts about Autism, is that apparently up to a third of people with Autism also develop seizure disorders. The rate of epilepsy in those with Autism is 10 times higher than the neurotypical (“normal”) population!
I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about Autism! Share this with a friend, I would love for the whole world to become more Autism aware! Happy Autism Awareness month to everyone out there on the spectrum!
Aspie Diaries 