Happy Halloween

 This marks the end of the 31 for 21 challenge.   You can use the  tag 31 for 21 2016  to see all the post from this month. I  hope you enjoy.  I will continue
to blog about Speechless on Thursdays.  So tune in.  I  dressed up as a minion this year.  ( picture coming soon.)

Sunday video

  I interviewed Sophia last  year. Click here to see the interview.

Saturday video

A Brave Heart

 Last night I got to meet an incredible person. Her name is  Lizzie  Velasquez, She was in town screening her documentary  A brave heart. You can watch the trailer below,

  Gatepath , a local nonprofit that  helps children and adults with developmental disabilities hosted the screening.  I am actually blogging about them. Here is my  first post. When I got there,  the director of communications invited me to meet her backstage. That was very cool.

 I highly recommend this documentary. Velasquez's courage and  determination is a lesson for everyone.  I know you will love the documentary as much as I do.  Once you are done watching it be sure to come back  and comment on this post about your favorite part. 

Why having a drunk teenager is a good thing. Speechless Episode five

  Image description JJ and Keneth at a house party.  There are lots of teenagers with red cups 

 On this episode of Speechless.  JJ and Keneth go to a high school house party where JJ gets drunk.  His parents seem mad at him , but in reality, they are happy for him.
  I am 25 years old   living with Cerebral Palsy and  I am on medication that makes it dangerous for me to drink .  I still live at home and  I think that if  I came home from a house party drunk. My parents would be very happy.
   Why might you ask?
  I am not saying that parents of disabled kids  are more prone to encourage their kids  to try drugs and alcohol. What I am saying is that often times  parents want their kids with disabilities  to  have a social life.
   When you have a disability, more often than not  life is lonely.   My high school career consisted  of  me going to one dance -- my Senior prom.  I was not guaranteed that I would go to that.  My mother insisted that I  only go if I were escorted  by a guy that didn't have a disability.  I  ended up going with someone  who graduated the year before and was a Freshman in college .  I did not have a group of close friends that  I hung out with in high school. I was different and even though I was fully included  for all academic subjects and graduated with my high school diploma,  high school friends were nonexistent.
  I am hoping that Speechless encourages able-bodied  high school students to include peers with disabilities in their  Halloween house parties.  

 

Recycle post. My grandfather passed away three years ago today

     This is a recycled post because  my grandfather passed away three years  ago today

 Today is a really  hard day for me to blog about.   For those  long time readers, you guys know that two  years ago  I lost my grandfather.   Here are a few things you should know about my  grandfather.

1  My grandfather loved old cars.  He kept an assortment of old cars. To this day  there are still  old cars   at my  grandparents home.  He loved to fix them up.  He gave my brother one of his cars  for his 16th  birthday.


2  My  grandfather loved  my  grandmother.    They were together for a long time,   The  raised  six  kids  together. They  may have gotten  in  fights but they always made up

3 My  grandfather  was an extremely hard  worker.   He  had to quit school to help his family when his father died  when he was a young boy.

4  My  grandfather  valued education.   Four out of his six kids  went to college.  One of my aunts   owned her own business.  My other aunt  works  for state farm,  My mother became the first   Black  vice chancellor  at UCSF. 

5  My grandfather  was in the Army  when it became integrated .  It  was a hard  time but he  had an excellent work ethic,

6  The day after my  Grandfather passed a peacock  came  to visit my grandparent's house.   Ever since  Peacocks have been very important to my  family.

7  I wish   he would have been here to watch me graduate college, move out and  have kids.

8  I wish I could be able to have my mom  talk to him  in heaven.

9  I  wish he could have been here to   hear about  my Princess  trip to Italy when she gets back  in December.

10   I  miss hearing his voice.


 Love you grandpa  

My first Summer Games

   So you guys know how I didn't post last  summer , so  I decided to post about  my first Summer Games.  My first games  were back in June.  I have been in Special Olympics for more than ten years and I have not had an opportunity to go to summer games until this year.  I actually got chosen for both swimming and track, but you can not do both so  I participated in my local track  delegation.  The games were held at UC Davis.    On Friday morning we took a bus to  UC Davis.  It left around noon.   There was a lot of traffic so we arrived in Davis around dinner time.  Once  we got off the bus, we were handed name badges and  wristbands. We dropped off our bags and went to dinner. The dining  hall food was amazing. There were so many good choices.  Below is a picture of my dinner  Friday night.

 After dinner, it was time for the Opening Ceremonies.  I got to hold the banner for my county.  Our coaches gave us matching  Blue shirts for the Opening Ceremonies. The opening ceremonies were lots of fun I just wished that they didn't use the word inspiring so much.

  Our dorm room was located on the top floor of the building.  There were two people in a room. My roommate was very clean, me  not so much.   I actually was kinda nervous  about sleeping because  this was the first time that I had slept away from home.   I thought I would melt down.   Turned out I was fine.  I just played iPad games and read the  book the  T and  D  gave me as my college graduation gift. I went to bed around one am which is my usual bedtime.


 My coached woke me up early on Saturday. I was very excited because  I had slept through the night without incident.   After getting ready and having breakfast  it was time to do  what I had come here for. I was going to run track.   My first race was the 100-meter dash. I  got bronze in that.  I did way better  in the shot putt.   I got gold  in that.

 Lunch was a bento box. The food  was really good.

 There was a dance  Saturday night. I  wore a dress and danced the night away.

 On Sunday. I threw  the turbo javelin for first place and had an  IRL  with    Beth, Patrick, and  Rene.  Later we had  the four by hundred relay. Our team got silver.

 Left  to right   Renee of Paraeducate,  Beth of National Catholic Board of Full Inclusion,  Patrick and  AZ 

I also got a temporary  tattoo.

 Me with my temporary Tatto a few days later. 

  I melded in all of my events.  Not bad for  my first Summer Games.