Various Updates

[chelseajmunoz]

In the last blog entry that I'd written yesterday I forgot to mention that on my way to the apartment I'm currently staying at I received a phone call from an unknown number. Since I'd left the college at the time that I'd received said call I figured that someone from the college was calling me. So I answered the phone call and sure enough someone from the college was calling to ask whether I wanted to participate in some sort of welcome event at the college that's being held later this week. I told the lady who'd called me from the college that I wasn't interested in attending said event. That was the end of hers and my conversation with one another. That particular phone call was short and sweet for me but probably not-so-sweet in the eyes of the lady who'd called me from the college. LOL. Shortly after I'd written my last blog entry yesterday I received a couple emails from Uber. In one of the emails that Uber had sent me I was told that I'd receive a refund of the particular Uber trip I'd taken where I'd thought that the Uber driver had charged me entirely too much money for that particular trip. In the same email that someone from Uber had sent me though said person from Uber also told me that the fact that that same Uber driver had showed up at the wrong pick-up place was actually because my pick-up location hadn't been entered into the Uber app correctly. Still I'm glad that I'm going to receive a refund for that particular Uber ride. Shortly after I'd read the two emails that someone from Uber had sent me I received a text message from the local CVS Pharmacy that I'd recently changed to. In the text message that the local CVS Pharmacy had sent me I was informed that my medication was ready to be picked up. Shortly after I'd read that particular text message from CVS Pharmacy I logged into Bookshare's website using my MacBook Pro. Once I'd logged into Bookshare's website I reported that the book The Gift Of Fear had a lot of typos in said book as well as numerous sentences that were cut off throughout the entire book. Unfortunately since I'd already read The Gift Of Fear in its entirety I was unable to provide Bookshare with specific page numbers that I saw the errors on that I'd listed. So hopefully Bookshare will still be able to make corrections to the Gift Of Fear so said book will be in much higher quality sometime down the road. And also, hopefully if I ever read another book on Bookshare that has numerous typos as well as sentences that are cut off I'll remember to write down the specific page numbers that I see those sorts of things happen in. Shortly after I'd reported book issues to Bookshare about The Gift Of Fear I received an email from Bookshare confirming that said business had received my book error report. A little while after I'd received that particular email from Bookshare I received an email from someone at Bookshare. In the email that the person from Bookshare had sent me she informed me that said business would rescan that particular book into Bookshare's system and then fix the errors I'd mentioned to said business. In the same email the lady who'd responded to my Bookshare book error report had sent me she also told me that Bookshare would email me to let me know when the errors I'd reported to said business had been taken care of. A while after I'd reported the book errors to Bookshare that are in The Gift Of Fear I wrote an FB status update about the shitty Uber driver I'd last had that day. In the FB status update that I'd written I said "Dear Uber driver I just had, it is not, I repeat not, amazing that I moved by myself from one state to another state. It is what any human being would do when he/she wants to make a better life for his/herself. What is amazing though Uber driver, is the fact that I made an adult decision to get out of a traumatic environment that was not good for me in any way. This was not amazing because I'm blind but because it's hard for anyone to get out of an abusive situation...especially when you're told that your mother (the abuser) loves you. That, Uber driver, is amazing! Amazing that I'm unwilling to believe such bullshit, amazing because I have the freedom as an adult to make whatever decisions I want to make for my life, amazing because I only keep people in my life who grow me and love me as I am. So next time you think someone is amazing because they're blind and they shit, eat and sleep like you do...think again and keep your harmful opinions to yourself. Think again because one day, you could be disabled...and I guarantee you would not want to be treated as an other. You would want to be treated the way you were treated before you were disabled. And why? Because disabilities are things that we cannot control. They are part of us...and most human beings are doing the best with what we have. That is something to celebrate, not something to be pitied." After I'd written that heartfelt FB status update I scheduled an alarm using Alexa so that I could go pick up my medication from CVS Pharmacy before it was actually time for me to take said medication. However I ended up calling said CVS Pharmacy a little bit later to ask that particular business whether said business would transfer my entire profile to the CVS Pharmacy that's located across the street since that particular CVS Pharmacy is the one that has a drive-thru. Because drive-thrus are sooooooo much easier to get to as a blind person. Whereas the CVS Pharmacy that I'd had my medications at was inside an actual Target Store. Fortunately when I'd asked the lady at the CVS Pharmacy with a drive-thru how long it would take for her to transfer my entire profile to the CVS Pharmacy across the street she said it would only take a few minutes. So I then called the CVS Pharmacy that's located across the street to ask that particular store how long it woulD take for that particular store to fill my medication. The lady I spoke with at that particular store told me that it would take at least an hour for that particular store to fill the medication I needed. So I waited until I'd received a text message from that particular CVS Pharmacy before I took an Uber to that particular store's drive-thru to pick up my medication. That particular Uber driver that I'd had was weird (a religious kind of weird). What I mean in saying that that particular Uber driver I'd had was weird in a religious sense is that while we waited for my medication to be given to me by CVS Pharmacy the Uber driver I'd had told me a story about how he was devoutly religious because he'd had leukemia and been healed from said leukemia by numerous preachers who'd come into the hospital he was at and spoke in tongues and other stuff that I think is crazy ridiculous. That particular Uber driver and I then talked a little bit about what the two of us were going to school for. I told him that I'd hopefully be starting college in the summer and that my end goal was that I wanted to be a therapist who specializes in helping people move through trauma. Once I'd said that, he made a comment like "Well you know that if you become a therapist, people won't listen to you." Yeah dude, I know that...and I don't want to do this kind of work because I want to control people. I want to do this kind of work because I wholeheartedly believe that people have the power within theirselves to change their lives for the better. I believe wholeheartedly that people don't need God to get them through the trials that life throws their way. I didn't say any of those things to the Uber driver I'd had because I just don't care what anyone thinks about why I'm getting into the particular field that I want to get into. Throughout the day I read the book Rising Strong. It's another book by Brene Brown but in this particular book the author shares a lot of her personal stories with her readers. That being said though she does also talk a lot about the importance of people growing from the things that he or she experiences in his or her life. That particular book is an enjoyable read so far. This morning I read a comment that a devout Christian had posted on the angry FB status update that I'd written the previous day. In the comment the devoutly religious Christian posted on said FB status update she said "Don't think less of us sighted people because we inadequately express our administration for the courageous lives you who have the limitation of no sight live. We struggle because we cannot truly understand what it would be like. We are trying to love and express our respect for the strength we see in you." I replied to said comment saying "No sighted person will ever understand what it is like to be blind and struggle with things on a daily basis. There are definitely better ways than sighted people could express themselves though than what I've talked about in this FB post. It is very easy for people to tell us not to think less of them when things of this nature happen to us all the time. Unless people are in our shoes though those people don't have a right to tell us not to be angry." Shortly after I'd posted that particular comment on said FB status update I posted another comment. The second comment I'd written on said FB status update said "Also, our lives are not courageous because we are blind, just as sighted people's lives are not courageous because those people are sighted. People are courageous because they stand up for things that they believe in. People are courageous because they develop a thick skin and are unapologetically afraid to be who they are in a world who hates them for being attracted to the same sex or for expressing themselves in a way that is firm and confident. People are courageous for expressing opinions that are unpopular and even unwelcome by the majority of society. People are courageous because they don't back down from their values or from things they are passionate about just because there are others in the world that are uncomfortable with how someone expresses themselves. Those are courageous things. Having no eyesight is a fact of life for some of us, not something that is courageous." In case my blog readers can't tell I'm really passionate about expressing myself when people like this devout Christian lady have a harmful way of seeing those of us who are disabled. Because people who have harmful opinions like this devout Christian lady has, make me angry!! I used to not show my anger about anything but now that I'm out of what was a traumatic environment for me 24/7 I don't give a fuck who doesn't like the fact that I express my anger or that I talk about LGBT issues because I'm in the LGBT family. People don't have to like the things that I say on my FB page. There's nothing that's telling people that he or she has to read everything I post on FB, even the things that he or she doesn't like. So I don't know why people like this devout Christian lady are so goddamn sensitive about things that he/she doesn't like to hear about.