” which
I know includes mugs, posters, t-shirts etc though I wonder if they sell any Nora birthday
cards.
Before we sat down yesterday to watch YouTube videos, I told Serena about how you like to
build sculptures and make surprises for us while I’m doing stuff on the computer when you’re
here. I also showed her the one that my mom made for you. She then showed me what she could
build while we watched the videos and I’ll show you tomorrow what she built; she built a
Japanese crane (a bird) and a balloon both out of paper. She didn’t build anything out of
ping pong balls or cat
springs
, you said that
Izzy might get mad if we sneak more of her toys into the computer room. I wonder if I should
also take a picture of the stuff that Serena made, and once I finally download all those
pictures I took of sculptures that you built I could then upload them to my Flickr
account (once I create one that is). Instead of you creating a Flickr account, you already
have the Photobucket account and once I get around to creating my Flickr account we could then
compare the two services and see which one has more to offer. Now speaking about sculptures, I
discovered yesterday the ping pong ball on the dog which is still laying upside down on top of
the computer monitor. And again, I noticed that the dog was laying upside down few weeks
before you were last here on Monday but just kept forgetting to write about it.
For some reason, you thought that I’m dwelling on stuff that happened in the past every time
I show the excerpt where I talk about switching the two VCRs. Every time a new situation comes
when my mom doesn’t take me seriously, I show excerpts from the last few previous situations of
the same type as examples so that you’ll clue in on which type of situation I’m writing about.
Maybe I don’t need to include these particular excerpts anymore if you know by now which type of
situation I refer to when I say that my mom doesn’t take me seriously or when she lets me get
away with sending you the wrong information in my messages like about the Super Bowl, about the
last two pieces of Easter cake, or stuff about Sarah Daniels whether she’s mouthy on the air or
off the air. Even though I know that all of these situations have happened in the past, “how
else am I suppose to write to you about these and describe what happened” for Carol, Serena,
Raynor, etc to read. I don’t see why in particular you think I’m just dwelling on just the one
situation about switching the VCRs when that’s just an example of similar situations that
involve my mom letting me get away with sending you the wrong information in my E-mails.
You also thought that my parents would know exactly what to do if they wanted me to hit them,
well I think they are doing exactly those things just like you know about the fact that they
don’t take me seriously about a lot of things after I go over these things with them numerous
times and about how I told you two messages ago that I don't like it when my mom chit-chats with
me or makes these certain suggestions. Suggestions that she knew for a long time that I’ll
always say no to. I think that maybe my mom on purpose didn’t buy me enough sunscreen
last August so that an end to Carol’s and my relationship could be triggered, and I just can’t
forgive my mom for doing so. You said that the incident last August was also a thing of the
past, don’t you realize that this one thing though it happened in the past has a big
effect on Carol’s and my relationship and that effect is still present now. If Carol does
harbour ill thoughts about me after what happened, I’m sure that my parents are happy that they
got her to think like this. My dad convinced me at his hardest that
she was really scared after what happened that day and didn’t want to work with me anymore
because she was just too scared to. Once again, I had never wanted Carol to think of me the same
way that her older daughter, Krista, now thinks of the boy named
Tyson. You know that I didn’t want my relationship with Carol to end
the same way that my relationship with Maureen Linklater ended, when I refer to “my relationship
with Maureen” I mean when she stopped sending me E-mails. And obviously Maureen chose on her own
to end that relationship for whatever reason, but it wasn’t Carol who chose seven years later to
end the relationship between myself and her. My parents forced
it to end, and ever since they forced it my
mom sounds like she’s having fun knowing that she can get away with saying to me that Carol’s
not coming back and my dad sounds like he’s having fun knowing that he can get away with saying
that she’s gone. My dad didn’t even consider Carol a worker, the only two
people I had so far that he considers workers are Amir and you.
As for sending Carol a letter, I was all for sending her one back at
Valentines Day if you remember. Just my mom didn’t sound too enthused about the
idea though I would love for you to meet Carol. If I send her a letter
and then we do meet up with her, I don’t want to just see her the once
and then her not see me again. In the message I sent you on Thursday
Mar.13,2008, I wrote about how my mom thinks that it’s now time for me to do a big goodbye for
Carol now that I got good people working with me, I don’t think my parents could accept from Day
One that Carol and me were building a relationship. And I said in the message I sent you last
Wednesday (the 2nd) that I don’t want Carol to just say to me “Oh, you’re doing much better
now, that’s good” and then be done with me. If I write a letter to Carol and then she sends me
the kind of response that you thought I could be worried about receiving from her, it will be
my parents’ mistake why she’ll send me such a
response.
You think that I might not stop “fantasizing” unless Carol explains to me why she thinks that
the idea about she and I living together might not work out, I told you many times
that she’s made it clear to me why she thinks that it’s not a good
idea and I think that she needs to be convinced
to rethink those thoughts. You thought that maybe a caretaker who was
also a nurse might be the right kind of person for me to live with because of the fact she’d
know more about what to do whenever my stomach is upset. Well, let me tell you that my parents
who I lived with and who looked after me for the last 25 years don’t know anything more than
what Carol would know about what to do when my stomach’s upset. You said that Carol might change
her mind somewhere down the road, and I hope she does so though I’m aware that the probability
for that to happen doesn’t seem likely. If Carol will put up with Pete, why can’t she take me.
Carol not taking me feels almost the same to me as my relatives saying “no” if I did want to
live with any of them. I had wanted to live with Carol for quite a long
time, even before the last altercation that took place a few days after last
Christmas. I’ll detail again what I refer to as the "Jenny and Judy
connection:"
Friday Feb.8,2008:
> ...I don’t think this connection between her and myself is any different than the connection
between my cousin,
> Jenny (the one who has FAS), and the lady she lives with named Judy. Jenny is the same
cousin who wanted
> me to do the slideshow for her BTW. Jenny and Judy have also known each other for quite a long
time, ever
> since Jenny was only a few years old. Judy use to do Jenny’s respite every weekend when Jenny
was growing
> up, now Jenny lives with her and she helps Judy look after the younger kids that Judy
currently fosters. Jenny
> even calls Judy “mom,” this is because Jenny never had a mom that she could go to.
I told my parents after you left on Monday about your idea of ordering more
sunscreen from the pharmacy and then having it delivered, my dad thought this type of service
might only be available to seniors who can’t get out and I wouldn’t be eligible. I remember at
one time when the vision teacher who did O&M (Orientation & Mobility) with
me back when I went to school said that the grocery stores will usually deliver to the visually
impaired people, so this includes all types of handicapped people and not just ones who
can’t get out. I’m handicapped and should be eligible, we could benefit from this if I could
live with Carol so that she wouldn’t have to put up with the stress of grocery shopping every
week. And this would be one less thing for her already stressful life. As for her and me going
out to buy more sunscreen...by the time we go out to the store to get it and then come back here
so I could put it on the rest of my body before we go out again, it would be too late in the
afternoon to go for our walk at Crescent Beach. And does it not shock you that “Carol was not
any support to me that day” after what I told you that she said here in the message that I sent
you on
Wednesday Feb.13,2008:
> -One evening last August two weeks before the altercation between Carol and me, I had got a
little upset
> about something and phoned Carol. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for two nights after this
little upset happening
> or if I wanted my parents to go away at all now, so I then asked Carol on the phone what she
thought and
> she said in a calm tone
of voice that she still wanted to come spend
those two nights with me...
Until what happened last August, I had
been looking forward to spending two or three days
per week with her after she does retire from her school job instead of just spending every
Sunday with her. I’m disappointed that Carol wasn’t around for my 25th birthday last
October (Oct 2007) and that she wasn’t around at all to support me before I went back in
December (Dec 2007) to have the dentist rebuild some of my teeth and after I had first
found out a few months before that he wanted to rebuild those. I’m also not happy that Carol
couldn’t stay with me when my grandparents (my dad’s parents) had their 60th anniversary
around the beginning of November last year (Nov 2007) or when my cousin Paul, and his
wife, Agnes, had the family gathering a few weeks before the 60th anniversary and a few months
after Paul and Agnes got married in Hawaii. My mom therefore couldn’t go to either of the events
and had to stay with me, Carol and I made plans to have dinner the day of the 60th wedding
anniversary until what happened last August. Also before what happened in August, I knew that my
25th birthday was coming up and had been making plans to have a little party with just six of
us; me, my parents, Mac, Kris, and Carol. I had planned to have my Safeway Chinese food and get
pizza for everybody else, but I didn’t want to go on with doing so just with five of us after
Carol’s visits having ended so abruptly. I still ended up having that dinner a few months later
when you got together with me and my two friends a week before Christmas which was a windy day
and I remember there not being any bad weather on my birthday weekend. My birthday weekend
would’ve been the better weekend to have had that dinner, you remember I kept worrying about the
power going out the day we did have the dinner. And of course I say that it
was my parents’ mistake why I didn’t want to
have the dinner on a not-so-stormy day. I also remember my mom complain that she was the only
girl there out of us six.
As for shower mat alternatives, I suggested to my mom that maybe my bathroom at the next
place where I live could have a shower stall just like what’s currently in my parents’ master
bathroom instead of a tub. It’s been a long time since the last time I took a bath, I haven’t
took one for many years. She then told me about how the floor in her shower stall is more
smooth right now because the floors in those things wear down over long periods of time, now I
don’t know if whether or not this idea about having a shower stall would be any safer than
having a bath mat in a tub.
You thought that it was my dentist’s wife, Dr. Huang, who I discussed with about moving out
when I was in having my checkup:
> ...It was my dentist’s wife, Dr. Huang, who worked on me today, she hadn’t talked to me or
worked on me
> since I was only a few years old. Her husband, Dr. Lee, came in and saw me at the end of my
checkup. When
> he saw me at the end, he asked me if he got this right that “I now live on my own...
You asked me if I had ever wore a bite guard before, my dentist made one for me back in 2002
which I did wear a few times but haven’t wore for a long time. I previously told you that I
can’t see myself wearing a bite guard the way I have trouble sleeping some nights.
Logan next door started up his car just after 7:30 yesterday morning and then I heard it
sitting there running for the next 15 minutes until I actually fell asleep before he drove off
in it. I heard it start up again not long after 7:30 this morning and this time I heard him
leave ten minutes later after it had been running for ten minutes and before I went back to
sleep.
I counted all of the Billy Joel videos we watched two days ago, we watched eleven in total
and you can see my counting at the bottom of this message. Are there any Elton John songs that
you like in particular and that you think maybe you and I could look up tomorrow other than
maybe “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road?” I myself own quite a few of Elton John’s CDs. One thing that
you and I both have in common is that even though we like both of these artists, both of us
prefer Billy Joel. I remember just before my parents came home two days ago, you said that you
think Billy Joel’s got a better sounding voice. I liked Billy Joel longer than the amount of
time I liked Elton John, I didn’t start listening to Elton John until after I’d been listening
to Billy Joel for a while. And remember I told you a few times previously that my mom watches
"Dancing With the Stars," when that was on two nights ago (on Monday evening) they played
Billy Joel’s “She's Always a Woman” during one of the dances though it was sung by somebody else
and not by Billy Joel on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Don’t take this as offensive, but you sounded lousy at one of the Billy Joel songs that you
sang out loud two days ago (I forget which one) though you did sound good when you sang
Zanzibar. I also remember that same day you sang a few Billy Joel songs with my name “Neil” in
them, “We Didn't Start The Fire” and one other one. I think that you do a good Ernie accent when
you’re not listening to him and again I think that you do Bert’s laugh pretty good while not
listening to him though you might not be able to do Bert’s accent just talking without
hearing him at the same time. I wonder who Serena’s favorite muppet is from the “Sesame Street”
cast, or I wonder if she likes any of the other singers that I like other than Billy Joel or
Elton John, or if she doesn’t like any muppets or any of the same singers who I like she said
that I could show her some more cat videos next time she comes.
I guess now I know that highlighting the text in bold red where I talk about what I want to
do during our next visit helps you remember my agendas. Before we look at Elton John videos
tomorrow, maybe I could show you all the videos that I saw yesterday with Serena. And for next
time you and I are scanning, my mom’s gardening magazine came in the mail last Monday after you
left and there’s a picture of a dog on the front of it. We still haven’t yet scanned my mom’s
birthday card, the cat one that I gave her
for her birthday.
My mom thought that maybe we could do 11AM to 4PM tomorrow, that’s a five hour visit. And if
we leave at a quarter after 11 to pick up our Chinese food, we should be back at my place in
time for the Noon News at 12. Again, you know that you'll be giving them our order because you
know how busy that Chinese area gets and you also know large rice and “chow mein” for myself.
And then after we order our Chinese food and they give it to us, this will be the first time we
get one of the big Safeway Smartie cookies when you’re with me. I remember we got a donut for my
dessert the very first time when you and I got Safeway Chinese. And
again, I miss having my Safeway Chinese suppers with Carol and I also
miss going out to White Spot with her for fish and chips.Anyway, my
dad phoned my grandma (his mom) last night. She said that they can meet my parents at the
Cascades casino in Langley at 1PM tomorrow even though my parents will leave here at 11AM. And
if my parents have time after my grandparents leave the casino and before it’s time to go home,
my mom said that they can pick up my dad’s Subaru if it’s ready. My dad told me he can’t take
Friday off and have a four day weekend, I guess they’re busy at where he works plus it’ll be
better for him to work Friday if he wants to take off at least the afternoon half of next
Wednesday to come to our meeting with the FVMH. I remember you thought that we’d be out of that
meeting a bit too early to go out for supper that day, so my mom thought that maybe all four of
us could go together in one vehicle (her Honda) and then either once we get back to my
place my parents could go for a short walk on the beach while you and I have our visit or if
you’d rather leave as soon as we get back to my place you could then come back at 1PM the
next day (on Thursday) and we’d still have our regular visit from 1 to 4:30PM. The
appointment on Wednesday is at 2PM which is usually my snack time, either way my mom thought
that we could pick up a milkshake after the meeting for me to have on the ride home. There’s
either that Dairy Queen I told you about where we stopped at one time many years ago to pick up
a dessert on our way to my aunt and uncle’s place or there’s the A&W at Shaughnessy and Wilson.
It’s not too often I get a milkshake from A&W though you know that the DQ ones are my preference, I have a week to think about it. Or if anyone else wants to have something, we could all sit in the Dairy Queen before going back unless my dad wants to get back across the bridge before rush hour starts knowing him. If you want to sit upfront with my dad, I’d sit behind you and you know that my mom’s a lot shorter than me so she’d obviously be better behind my dad who’s a big guy. I hope that Dr. McKibbin’s not gunna want to increase my medication once again this time, and hopefully we’ll get a morning appointment next time. You remember he said last time that the only morning appointments he has available most days are at 9AM which sounds a little too early for me, I prefer my morning appointments when I’m able to get in at either 10 or 11. Serena said that she thought that it’s a good idea that you and I go out for lunch or a snack after our meetings with FVMH depending what time of day the meetings are, she thinks that I deserve a treat after having to sit through those meetings. Speaking about whom,
Serena didn’t know whether or not she’d be at our meeting on the 16th (next Wednesday)
but whether she is or not she did book another visit at my place for Wednesday the 30th of this
month again from 2:30 to 3:30PM. She said that she might call us before next Wednesday to
let us know whether or not she’d be at our meeting that day. She said that she wasn’t there last
time because she had what she calls quote “an engagement that could not be changed” which I
assume means that she had an emergency.
A couple news stories that I know about:
• Did you hear about the Newton mom who was cut with a machete during a home invasion last
week? She was sleeping on her couch with her nine-year-old daughter in their basement suite when
the attacker crept in through a window that she left open for her cat. She said that he hit her
three times and then he tied up both she and her daughter with a spool of wire. He made off with
$15 cash and a bank card. And the Newton mom in this story works as a waitress in White Rock
BTW.
• And there’s the story that you discussed with my mom two days ago while you were waiting
for me to come downstairs about the fugitive who killed his three kids. The kids lived with
their mom in Merrit, and they lived in a trailer. The dad was staying there for the last few
days before he killed his kids, I think he was staying with them while he was looking for work
or something. The mom left for a few minutes one evening and the dad killed the kids while she
was gone. The dad was gone when the mom returned a few minutes later to discover the dead bodies
in the trailer.>/p>
And I’ll update you on the cat stories:
• After you left two days ago on Monday, Chloe went outside when my mom opened our deck door
for her and of course Izzy follows her. A while later, both cats came back in at the same
time.
• Yesterday before Serena came to visit, I asked my mom if Serena saw either of our cats the
last time she was here and my mom said that she couldn’t remember. Serena reminded us later when
she was here that she hadn’t seen Chloe yet (and she still didn’t get to see Chloe
yesterday) though Izzy was in the family room with she and my parents while you and I went out
to Dairy Queen. My mom’s watch kept reflecting light off the walls and the ceiling, Izzy kept
chasing the light so my mom took her watch off and then once she did so Izzy was then interested
in my mom’s ring that she was wearing.
• And one evening last week when my dad was sitting in his chair in the family room doing one
of his Scratch-and-win tickets, his scratch was reflecting light off the walls and Izzy was
chasing that light. Speaking about scratches BTW, I told you in the last message I sent you that
I had two scratches to do last Sunday evening; a CAPTAIN CASH and a “Lucky 7s.” I won $2 on the
“Lucky 7s” though my dad didn’t remember to cash it yesterday, I hope he cashed it today.
• Yesterday evening, Izzy was walking around our family room carrying the little LED light in
her mouth that I told you my dad brought home. You should also remember me showing you this
light BTW.
My mom went to clean the big couch in our living room this morning where I’ve been having my
meals and using our little DustBuster hand-held vacuum cleaner which wouldn’t work very good.
She then cleaned the filter and then she said it worked a bit better. Maybe it’s time for
it to be replaced, now I got one idea for something that my dad and I could buy her for Mother's
Day coming up next month.
My dad sent me another funny E-mail today this one titled “"FW: HIGHWAY in Bolivia." My dad
sent me the same message last year in a Microsoft PowerPoint Slide Show, maybe he didn’t
remember that he already sent that one to me. I could forward you the one he sent me today
though we learned from our past experience that for some reason you can’t receive forwarded
messages from me. I hope I don’t have to take time rewriting the whole message into an HTML
document again.
See you tomorrow at 11AM.
-Neil
P.S. I count the Billy Joel videos we saw on YouTube two days ago followed after all of the
cat and dog videos we saw on that same day:
• vERY fUNNY cATS 11
• The two talking cats
Video Response #1: Here's a nice translation
Video Response #2: Cats Yelling At Each Other
• CATS VS DOGS
• FUNNY DOGS 6
• Funny Dog that sneezes when told to
• Ralph the Wonder Dog [Some guy made this video to test the quality of the
video from his Canon S3 still camera.]
• Mojo's bag of tricks
• My dog gets me a tissue when I sneeze
• #1 - Billy Joel: The River Of Dreams
• #2 - Billy Joel: My Life
• #3 - Billy Joel: You May Be Right
• #4 - Billy Joel: It's Still Rock And Roll To Me<br>
• #5 - Billy Joel: Big Shot
• #6 - Billy Joel: Allentown
• #7 - Billy Joel: We Didn't Start The Fire
• #8 - Billy Joel: Uptown Girl
• #9 - Billy Joel: Piano Man
• #10 - Billy Joel and Elton John: Piano Man [Tokyo dome, Japan 1998]
• #11 - Billy Joel and Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road [Elton John featuring Billy Joel - Madison Square Garden, NY, October 2000]
YouTube videos that I saw with Serena:
• Nora, The Piano-Playing Cat
• Nora: The Sequel
• THE ORIGINAL Hamster piano and pop corn
• Eric the cat plays piano
• Cat Playing the Piano (a real musician) [Sugar the Pianist Cat]
• CATS VS DOGS*
• FUNNY DOGS 6*
* denotes a video that you and I already watched
together.