Crunch time

So there are about three more weeks of school in the semester. This basically means that all the profs will be trying to get last minute lessons, hw, quizzes, or tests in before finals week. Here, finals week is the first week of May. My schedule is I have my biology lab final April 26, a week before all my other finals (which is actually really nice). My next final is my Primate Religions and the Human Consciousness (don't ask: it's an honors seminar class that I wanted to get out of the way.) Of course, this is at 8 am on Tuesday. My next final is my chemistry one. I have struggled all semester with this freaking class. I have not managed to score higher than a 50% on any of his tests. Nobody likes his teaching methods (or non-existent teaching methods). I just can't wait to be done with his class. This final is, of course, at 8 am on Thursday. Later on this awful Thursday, I have my biology for majors final at 7 freakin pm. I should do pretty good on this test, but I know I will be completely burned out at this point. Usually during finals week, I get so stressed out that I can hardly eat (and eating is one of my favorite things to do!) I also end up buying a bunch of mountain dew to allow me to stay awake and somewhat focused. As I previously wrote, I get very easily distracted when I'm supposed to be doing something productive pertaining to school. Finals week is just a major nightmare for college students. I thought it was rough goings in high school. I didn't even fully understand the meaning of "extremely stressed out" until I got to college! And to think it's only gonna get worse...hmm on that note, if anybody reads this (which I doubt that they have) and have an interesting finals week story to share, share away. Best of luck and peace out yo.

Ah, the memories

A lot of my friends that are still in high school and play wheelchair basketball just had the wonderful experience of nationals. This year, it was held in Denver, CO with juniors (varsity, jv, and prep), women's, DIII, and the championship league. Let's just say there were a ton of people there! It kind of made me sad because this tournament is the highlight of pretty much any basketball player here in the U.S. You play hard all year, get a bid to nationals, and you just play. Usually, this is one of the few times that you can see all of your friends from different teams all at one time. The wheelchair basketball community is relatively small and very spread out among all the states. Many memories, relationships, and points are made during this epic weekend. I remember the first nationals that I went to (which was quite some time ago lol). It was held in San Jose, CA and I turned 12 while I was there. It was actually very frightening because all the kids were wayyyy bigger than me and had known each other for a long time. One of the best memories was when we were all just hanging out in the hotel lobby when this single amputee came up to me and asked if he could pick me up. I said um no (stranger danger of course). Well, he picked me up anyway, and I suddenly got very tall. I remember he introduced himself as Brian, and then proceeded to put me back down on the ground. Fast forward to now. Brian Bell, the single amp that picked me up, is a U.S. Paralympian and has played for Lakeshore, the University of Illinois, and finally the U.S. How crazy is that?!?! I think it's pretty cool because he is a beast when it comes to basketball. Well anyways, my last nationals as a senior in high school didn't quite go as well as I had wanted it to. I went with both my juniors team and my women's team. With my juniors team, we won the first game fairly easily. My women's team did not do well at all. We ended up playing in the last place game (which is ok). I ended up scoring 14 points (a career high by the way.) I was pretty proud of myself because of the new career high in scoring and because I had ended my time with them on a good note. With the juniors, however, there is not a happy ending. We played Houston, and if we had won that game, we would play for 5th/6th place (which I would have been pretty happy about). When I got to the game (I had missed some of the warm up because I was with the women), I found out that one of our bigger, better players was going to be leaving at halftime to play with his men's team. Now, as a player who played for 2 teams, I can understand being torn about which team to play for. It is an unwritten rule that if it comes between playing juniors and adult, you play juniors because you only get a certain amount of years on that team. You can play with the adults until you drop dead. Well, he left and we couldn't scrape up the win. Let me tell you, I felt so abandoned by my teammate and I was extremely upset with him. Did our game not even matter to him? Why should I play my hardest if he isn't going to? What made it worse was my coach (who I have never really gotten along with) pulled me aside after the game to try and reason why he let my teammate play with his men's team. I maybe half-listened to this shenanigan filled discussion and left to go watch another game. Because we had lost, we ended up playing for 7th/8th. That game was probably the worst game I have ever played. I didn't even want to show up, but I did for my last game as a high schooler. In the beginning, I was furious with my teammate and showed it by slamming into a few of the opposing players (I managed to get 2 fouls within the first 5 mins. of the game). At that point, I only played half-heartedly. I just wanted it to end. As the last buzzer sounded, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. You might be thinking, Aw she was crying because it was her last game, and she was gonna miss her team. Wrong. I almost cried tears of joy because I was finally done with having to deal with all the drama and whatnot from the team. I had not been treated very well at all during the 2 years that I played, and I was dang happy to be rid of it all. The team had one last thing to do: silly string the seniors. I honestly have no idea where this tradition came from, but if you're a senior, you're totally screwed. The entire team is given silly string and they all basically ambush you right outside the gym. Me and my best best friend had smuggled some of the silly string cans from the stockpile (don't ever let the parent of one of the kids getting stringed buy the weaponry: we WILL steal it). As we approached the ambush, we uncapped our own weapons and pushed outside, catching everybody off guard (nobody knew that we were going to retaliate.) Even though we did pretty awful, I still felt accomplished (there's no other feeling than the feeling of complete power when holding a can of silly string). Again, no other feeling than spraying some people that were awful to you with some silly string. The moral of the story? Don't give crippled people silly string. Or any other weaponry. We WILL take over the world. Follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Peace out yo.

Those times when...oh shiny!

Anybody have those times when you should really be focusing on something school-related but you just can't? Yea at this very second, I am indeed procrastinating on studying for a biology test because I'm unable to completely focus on chromosomes and whatnot. In fact, I'm getting distracted from writing this blog! Those days where you know you have to get something important done, but other things keep running through your mind, or interesting people keep walking past, or your favorite song just came on (for like the 3rd time?) Yea, story of my life at this moment. That's one reason why I can't study outside or in the library. Anytime someone walks past or turns a piece of paper in a book, I have to look up. Anybody else have this problem? Anybody else know how to solve this problem? Because right now I'm having some major issues. Ok, it's time to go be ADD about something else. Short, sweet, and to the point I suppose. Peace out yo.

It's about that time of year

So I went outside today, and it's almost 90 freakin degrees which is pretty warm considering it's only April. I'm used to it staying cold until about May, so this is weird. Anyways, so everyone is outside, trying to get their tan on, and most of the girls are wearing very small swimsuits and stuff like that. These are the girls who are probably in sororities but don't live in Tut, or they are girls who want to be in sororities, but got weeded out. It's kinda funny how self-conscious us girls can get around one another. Especially us disabled girls. We are all aware that because of our disabilities, we will never look "normal." It's just a fact of life. Then it made me realize how obsessed we all are about how we look. Not to completely throw my sister under the bus, but she is always complaining about how she needs to work out more because she is "getting a little big." I'm like dear, sweet sister of mine, you look fine just the way you are! But no, instead she insists on getting ridiculous workouts, like Insanity, with her motivation being "swimsuit season" chanted over and over as she can barely catch her breath and sweat pours down her face. Is it really worth it what we do to our bodies to make them more appealing to other people? Personally, I say no. I work out to be at the top athletic shape I can be and so I don't gain the freshmen 10 (seriously, these dining halls will get ya!) I don't do it to look better for other people, instead I do it for myself. I can understand if you are working out in order to lose weight because your weight is causing you to have health problems, but I feel like any other time people work out just to make themselves seem better to look at or more attractive (which is quite annoying I must say.) Why can't people just be happy about the way they look? However, I will admit that I too had a time in my life where I wanted to look better. I was 15 and I was shopping for my first Homecoming dress. Well, my disability includes having my spine kind of stick out a little around where it stops (I call it my bump lol). I had to find a dress that was big enough to fit my bump into. Let me tell you, this was no easy task. We spent at least 2 hrs trying to find one that I liked, but also fit into. I finally found one, but it was probably a little too small (my mom ended up zipping my bump into the dress a little the night of the dance. Can we say worst few hours of my life??) A few weeks later, I went in for my normal check-up and brought up the issue about my back. I wanted to know if there was any way they could make it smaller and less noticeable. They said yes there was a way, but this would include a surgery where I would have to lay on my stomach for a long period of time, and there was the chance that during this surgery I could be paralyzed. My early teenage self then had an epiphany. Was it really worth it to get this surgery just for cosmetic reasons? Am I willing to sacrifice what little feeling I do have in my lower half just to fit into a smaller dress? In the end, I decided that no that surgery would be ridiculous to have, and I'm just fine the way I am. God made me this way for a purpose. Why shouldn't I be happy with it? Ok there's the end of my rant. Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/mouseinhouse05 or find me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/wizards04. Peace out and tell someone you know that they look really good today: just the way they are.

Let me introduce myself

So I realized after the last blog that if you somehow randomly came across this blog, you would know absolutely nothing about me (which might be a good thing if you're a creeper). I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you are indeed not a creeper. Well, you know my name, which is a start. I'm 18 years old, and I'm currently attending the University of Alabama. I didn't even realize that Forrest Gump went to this school, which makes it just a little bit cooler. In all seriousness, I'm studying biology here in the pre-veterinary program. It's pretty awesome if I do say so myself. I also play on the wheelchair basketball team. As you just read that, you're probably like AHH crippled person! but it's ok because I get that all the time. I am a double above the knee amputee with an awesome birth defect called Caudal Regression Syndrome aka sacral agenesis. It basically means that my spine quit forming around T12. If you know anyone with spina bifida, it's kinda the same thing, but cooler because mine is more rare. Anyways, so I have this short little torso, but these ridiculously long arms. I have a wing span of about 5'11" which is pretty sweet. One of my goals is to one day go to the Paralympics. No, wheelchair peeps do not participate in the Special Olympics (don't ever ask a wheelchair athlete if they are going to the Special Olympics because it's slightly offensive). Basketball is basically my life, whether I'm playing it, or I'm watching it. Anybody hear of the most awesome NBA team aka the Chicago Bulls? Yea, I'm a HUGE fan, like when they are playing you will know because you can hear me yell at the T.V. if they are totally sucking it up or miss a pass or whatever. I love it. Another thing I love is ninjas. I'm a total fan. When I grow up if this whole vet thing doesn't work out, I want to be a ninja. Is that weird? Perhaps, but I really don't care lol. Another important thing you should probably know is that I'm also a huge fan of Jesus. That guy is pretty amazing. As I said yesterday, Unashamed is a youth group here in Tuscaloosa that just absolutely loves Jesus. You might be asking yourself, well, she has a disability, so shouldn't she be angry with God or something? My answer is most certainly not. I'm not going to lie to you and say that I love being in a wheelchair all the time because frankly, it isn't that great, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. The fact is that God made me this way for a purpose, whether it be to be an inspiration for someone (as much as I don't like being called that), or to spread the word about God. A lot of disabled people that I know are angry and bitter about their situation, especially if they know what it's like to walk and such. In this life, you don't have time to be angry with God, because He has some sort of epic plan for you. Not to totally be a Debbie Downer, but I would love to go to Heaven when I die, instead of a horrible, awful place called Hell. If there is something to take away from reading this, it's to be grateful for what you have at the moment because life can change in a split second and to get to know God because He's pretty awesome, I mean He's God lol. Well, I suppose that is quite a bit of information, but be sure to comment, Facebook me http://www.facebook.com/#!/wizards4 or follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/mouseinhouse05. Peace out yo.

My first blog peeps

Yo this is Mouse. If you are reading this and have never met me, you are probably like, Who is this and why does she continuously call herself mouse? Well, that is a nickname (obviously) because I am a rather small-ish person. Makes sense, right? I suppose, but it is rather strange to hear someone yelling Mouse as I'm pushing to class, or have someone who normally calls me Mouse call me by my real name. I know I'm slightly rambling, but this struck me as Blake (who always calls me Mouse) introduced me as Elissa and I was a little shocked and probably fulfilled some stereotypes about crippled people because I kinda gave him a strange look and almost forgot to shake the person I was meeting's hand. Anyways, enough about that. Went to Unashamed tonight and it was really awesome (as usual I mean duh it's freakin Unashamed!) It's funny because it seems like the speakers always know what's going on in my life because they always teach about something that is happening in my life or something that I'm currently struggling with. If you have never been, you definitely need to change that! Well, it is rather late, but I decided to create this bout of epicness out of sheer insomnia. I know it really isn't that late, but as someone who likes to be asleep by 10 at the latest (because of stupid o'clock: explanation at a later time), this is really late for me lol. I think I am now done with my ramblings and such, so peace out yo. Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/mouseinhouse05 or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/wizards4 but no promises on responding on Facebook because I decided to give it up for lent (which definitely made me realize my true addiction to social networks!) Ok bye this time for reals.