Forgotten Mentions, An Interesting App And Other Things

[chelseajmunoz]

In the last blog entry that I'd written Wednesday I forgot to mention that the chicken that I'd helped a friend of mine marinate Monday evening did not come out the way said friend and I'd hoped it would. What I mean in saying that the chicken didn't come out the way my friend and I'd hoped it would is that when said friend and I'd eaten said chicken Tuesday evening the both of us thought its taste was horrible. In the last blog entry that I'd written Wednesday I also forgot to mention that Tuesday evening a friend of mine hooked up his keyboard in his apartment. He'd recently brought his keyboard from his mom's house to his apartment because I'd told him that part of me wants to start playing the piano again. When said friend and I'd had that particular conversation with one another though I told him that the biggest part of me doesn't want to play the piano ever again because of the stereotype that many sighted people have regarding the fact that all blind people are musically inclined. Like, because of the fact that the majority of people in the world think that all blind people are talented I don't want to be lumped into that particular category which is what I fear would happen if people knew that I'm considering playing the piano again. Because the truth is that I used to play piano from the time I was in elementary school until I graduated high school. The thing that it's important for people to know though is that the reason I even started playing the piano was because my mom's side of the family forced me to do so. In some ways though I enjoyed playing the piano. Like, whenever I'd have a piano recital and get to dress up in really pretty dresses, that aspect of things was a blast. And as I got older, I began to appreciate my piano playing at least a bit more than I'd enjoyed it as a young girl. Because as a young girl I seriously thought that my mom's side of the family having me play the piano was a punishment for the fact that I existed. I also used to sing from the time I was in elementary school throughout high school. I was even in a play when I was a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB). Because each year the LCB had its students perform in a play that was written by Jerry Whittle (who was LCB's Braille instructor when I was a student at LCB). After I'd finished acting in that particular play though I stopped singing because I just didn't enjoy singing anymore. And I still don't enjoy singing to this day. Wednesday evening the friend of mine who'd hooked up his keyboard at his apartment and I started creating a song with one another on his keyboard. What I mean in saying that that particular friend of mine and I started creating a song with one another on his keyboard is that my friend played his keyboard and I'd suggest things to him that I thought would sound good in the song. The process of making a song became very boring to me pretty quickly though. Like, I couldn't stand having to listen to the same damn thing over and over and over and over again. LOL. So a little while after my friend and I'd spent time creating a song together I re-downloaded an app onto my phone called Talkspace. I'd actually seen an advertisement on FB a day or so ago about that particular app then I downloaded it to my phone right then. However I didn't know anything about said app other than the fact that I'd seen an advertisement for said app on FB. But since I'm not usually the type of person to just jump into downloading apps onto my phone I removed Talkspace from my phone until I could find out whether said app worked with VO or not. So Wednesday evening when one of my friends who happens to be blind mentioned Talkspace to me I asked her how that particular app was for us screen reader people. Since I didn't hear from her right away though I went ahead and re-downloaded Talkspace onto my phone. That particular app seemed accessible from the start in that I was able to read the different therapist's names and their titles. Since I didn't know much about what the letters for those therapist's titles meant though I went ahead and double-tapped "sign up for an account." The actual process of signing up for an account was pretty shitty for a screen reader user in my opinion. Because I was unable to tell what I was supposed to put into each edit field...until I'd typed my first name. Then when I'd hit the "next" button VO spoke aloud to me that I hadn't entered in an email address which was what said app had wanted me to enter. So I hit the "back" button and entered in my email address like Talkspace wanted me to do. I then guessed what the next edit field would be and it turned out that I had to enter in a password. Then when I'd gotten to the next edit field I thought I'd have to reenter in the password that I'd put in the previous edit field. It turned out though that Talkspace wanted me to come up with a nickname for myself so I did. Then once I'd came up with a nickname for myself I was able to connect to someone to have a free consultation with a person. The lady I'd been connected with informed me that she was going to ask me a few questions about myself so that she'd be able to match me with a therapist that would meet my needs. The cool thing about Talkspace though is that people can respond to messages on his or her own time. There's also the ability for people to video chat, audio chat and of course just to send messages to the person he or she's talking with. Yesterday morning the friend who'd mentioned Talkspace to me the previous night said that Talkspace works well for her as a therapist. She also said though that she wasn't sure how said app would work for someone on the client side of Talkspace. So a little while after I'd read that particular text message from her I sent another message to the person I'm consulting with on Talkspace. In the message I'd sent the lady I asked her if when I'm paired up with a therapist, said therapist would be able to obtain my insurance information so that she or he could get paid for my therapy sessions with him or her. Shortly after I'd sent that particular message to the therapist who's doing my consultation on Talkspace I texted my friend who'd told me about Talkspace to ask her the same question. After I'd sent that particular text message to her I unsubscribed from receiving emails from Roomster (an app that i'd downloaded onto my phone when I was looking for a place to rent). I then completely deleted my Roomster account. That way I wouldn't have to deal with that particular business anymore in any way. A little while later I logged onto FB and saw a message from FB that said something like "If there are certain apps that you don't want to have access to your FB account anymore then go into your settings and remove those apps from your FB account." So that's just what I did: I went into settings and removed Roomster and Airbnb from my FB account. Although I forgot to mention a while back that I'd removed the Airbnb app from my phone. After I'd taken care of removing the apps from my FB page that I didn't want to have access to my account I received an email from the academic counselor at the college I'm going to be attending. In the email that she'd sent me she informed me that she'd scheduled for me to have an appointment with her on May 2nd at 4:15 in the evening so that the two of us could discuss what all of my options are of the universities I could choose to attend after I've completed community college. So after I'd seen that particular email from her I replied to said email to let her know that that particular appointment date worked fine for me. I then added said appointment date to my iPhone's calendar so that I wouldn't forget about the upcoming meeting I'd scheduled with her. A little while after I'd put the meeting with the academic counselor at the college on my calendar for next month I received a message from the therapist I'd been consulting with on Talkspace. In the message she'd sent me she told me that Talkspace does not actually bill people's insurance companies when people use that particular app or service. So I then sent her a message back letting her know that insurance would be the only way that I could pay for said service or app. She and I exchanged a few more messages with one another on Talkspace and I ended up saying "I'm a college student who's on a fixed income. So I won't be able to afford any of the plans that are offered for people who use Talkspace. Thank you for your time." A little while after I'd sent that particular message to the therapist I'd been consulting with on Talkspace I sent a text to my friend who'd recently told me about Talkspace. In the text I'd sent my friend I told her that Talkspace doesn't actually bill people's insurance companies for payment. Shortly after I'd sent her that particular text message she replied to said text message saying that that was ridiculous. I replied to her text message saying that I completely agreed with her that it was ridiculous that Talkspace does not actually bill people's insurance companies for payment. A few minutes later I then posted an FB status update to make people aware of that fact about Talkspace just in case there may be people on my FB friends list who'd consider using said app/service but are unsure of how said app/service gets paid by people. Because for me, learning that particular bit of information sucked because I really want to get back into going to therapy on a regular basis. Because to be honest even though I write a lot and writing things down on a regular basis helps in terms of me being able to dump things out I still miss being able to talk to a person who's trained to listen to people and help people through the things that he or she's struggling with at a given time. A little while after I'd written that particular FB status update a couple of my FB friends commented on that particular FB status update. One of those FB friends said something like "I don't think that Talkspace's rates are high the way you think they are." So given that I knew that this particular person liked to insert herself into things that she knew nothing about I opened up Talkspace and reread the rates that I was given by the therapist who'd been doing my consultation. I then replied to this person's FB comment on said FB status update that I'd created. In my reply to this person's comment I said something like "Talkspace's rates are as follows: the first price is $196 a month. The second price is $236 a month and the last price is $314 a month. So yes Talkspace's rates are outrageous!" I then texted my friend who'd told me about Talkspace to give her the same information. She agreed with me that Talkspace's rates are ridiculous, especially when a person's insurance company isn't helping him or her pay a thing for said service or app. This morning I woke up at 8:00 because I'd wanted to go to a place to have my certified legal name change document printed. I was then going to go to a local DMV with everything that I needed to get a state ID for the state that I now live in. However I didn't want to spend extra money that I don't need to spend to get something printed when I can have someone print said document for me for free. So I'm going to wait until I can have someone print said document for me because said document is only a page long. Once that particular document has been printed and in my hands then I'm going to go to a local DMV to get my state ID. A little while after I'd gotten up this morning I logged onto my college's website with my login information so that I could verify when priority registration was going to be. It turned out that priority registration was going to be on the first of next month which was great to know because since I'm disabled I can participate in priority registration. The only thing is that before the first of next month I'll need to talk to someone at the college about how I can ensure that my financial aid pays for the first class that I'm going to take this upcoming semester. Because I have no earthly idea what the process is to make that happen. But I need to know how that's going to work because I can't afford to pay for classes myself.