The Mondays!

Mondays are usually days I look forward to, as my schedule is often tight.  Pretty much only happens on Mondays, at least consistently.  My day starts at 9:15.  I see a professional voice coach, for help with clarity and volumes.  He's been in the business of traing singers, vocalists, and thespians the majority of his career.  Forme, speaking clearly doesn't come cheap, but I've been from speech therapist to speech therapist, over the last 5 years, and had reached a point where I was willing to look outside of the healthcare system.  My previous home care provider, Kathy, mentioned this guy in reference to her daughter, but wondered aloud, if I could benefit from working with him.  Growing up, I couldn't sing on key, to save my life.  I was immediately labeled tone deaf, and never thought twice, about it.  Turns out, I'm not tone deaf, more tone retarded.  I was never taught to listen to the pitch, and equalize my own voice to that tone, so I basically just sang out whatever, however it struck me.  Trust me, that approach isn't easy on the ears.  Therefore, the only time I sang was alone, in my car.  I will always miss the ability to drive, but even more so, I miss jamming out, to whatever I wanted, with no complaints.

Back to my story, with the Voice Coach, Bill Reed.  He doesn't have the medical background, SLPs do, but that may have been part of my previous difficulty.  Medically, my voice is healthy.  But my brain is not.  The brain powers everything, and it had lost the knowledge of how to move my lips and toungue to be clearly understood.  I made progress with my therapists, but nothing like what I've heard in the last year.  I still have a long way to go, but at least my basic toolbox, is better equipped.  The session usually begins with an informal conversation, where he asesses my ability to speak clearly, and then it launches into tonge twisters, and the auditory mechanics of forming different sounds.  I've gotten to place where I understand how to form the sounds well, and do so repeatedly, but when I'm speaking to someone, thinking about the conversation, and the fact that I need to get my toungue to the roof of my mouth, to form the S sound I need, and remebering to breathe while speaking, and pause appropriately, it gets to be a mess sometimes.  But, that is why I have to work on it.  Immediately after, I had a PT appointment downtown.  Marc, the live in aid who helps me get everywhere I go, which is a lot of random places, dropped me off, there.  If I don't clearly give a time, I need to leave by, I can be there for 3 hours.  I'm not sitting around, any of that time, either.  I often start off doing everything I can, indendently.  I need assistance setting some things up, but usually, I'm amazed by how smoothly things proceed.  Ray, the PT I work will often jump between multiple clients, at the same time.  In the beginning I did need someone to be around me, at all times, because I couldn't rely on my physical abilities, period.  Now, I need supervision, and assistance, getting myself through random obstacle courses.  Between the way I move, and the boxy things, I need to maneuver through, sometimes I feel like a character on Mario Bros, because I move so slowly, and I'm stepping onto platforms, and it's very boxy, like graphics in the 80's.  Chances are, you will not understand my comparisons, though that's just what I think of, when I'm nervously edging my way  on this rectangular platform, and cannot will my feet to safely move along it.  It might as well be a tight rope, somedays.

After, I competed all the exercises, I wanted to get on the anti gravity treadmill, and get my blood moving.  It didn't go well, and I gave up, at 2.5 miles.  Not my best workout, but, it all helps.

Leaving On Track, I managed to talk Marc (live in aid) into taking me to Burton, to replace one of my favorite hats. I had it around Thanksgiving, but I hadn't seen it since, so I wanted to try to replace it.  Major bummer,they no longer carry that hat.  So I got a different one, to have a winter hat, since I've lost all my favorite hats, I've had forever, in the past few months.  So bizarre, I'm normally on top of my game, with holding onto my favorite gear, I double check my pockets, and designated places for my stuff, but I've totally fallen off the wagon, recently.  Earrings, hats, slippers, all this extra gear is making me crazy.

After that, we headed back, I ate my lunch/dinner, of salmon rolls, and yummy banana cookies, my dear friend gave me the recipe for.  When I made them, I couldn't find the recipe, so I just tried to pretend I have a good memory.  Low, and behold, they had come out well.

At 6:30, a friend picked me up, to go to Monday night Kirtan.  Kirtan is basically yogic chanting.  The songs are in Sanskrit, but mainly contain the names of ancient divinities.  Like I said before singing is not a skill set imposes, but an old college friend introduced me to the group, and I was able to find kindly folks, willing to help me come along.  At first, I looked at as an opportunity to stretch, and exercise my vocal cords excercise my voice.  Over the past couple years, I've met so many, incredible people.  All approach life with a majorly plositive mindset, are open minded.  Sometimes there are disagreements, that seem oddly petty, for such aw ell rounded group, but, overall, it brings me joy to take part in this activity.  Monday night Kirtan is where I like to be, Monday evenings.  Tonight there much more discussion, and explanation, than usual, though it's always welcome knowledge.