Updates And Reaching Out

[chelseajmunoz]

I've been forgetting to mention that for the last week or so I've been using a part of Facebook (FB) that I'd never used before. The particular FB feature I'm talking about is part of FB messenger. In FB messenger there are different options that people can choose from (such as whether he or she wants to send someone a voice message, video message, visual emojis or simply actual text). So the part oF FB messenger that I've gotten into lately is the voice message feature. I've been exchanging voice messages with a good friend of mine which has been fun. The way a person uses the voice feature of FB messenger is similar to how a person uses audio messages on his or her iPhone. But for those of you who are curious how to send voice messages through FB messenger here's what you do: when you're inside of a particular message on FB messenger you double-tap the "more options" button. Once you've double-tapped the "more options" button you double-tap the button that says "voice." Once you double-tap the "voice" button you press and hold the "record" button until you have finished talking. This process can actually be a bit hard to get used to if you don't use an iPhone at all or if you're like me and rarely use the audio message feature that's on your iPhone. LOL. In the last blog entry that I'd written Thursday I also forgot to mention the fact that the friend I'd gone to Starbucks and the sushi restaurant with and I'd ordered food from a place called Chinese Bistro the same Wednesday that I'd gone to the college I'm going to be attending. That was the second time that said friend and I'd been to that particular restaurant. Ironically the first time that he and I'd gone to that particular restaurant was when I'd gone to look at a lady's house as a possibility for me to rent a room in. He and I'd remembered that particular restaurant because said restaurant's food tasted delicious each time we'd ordered food from there!! Each time that we'd had food at said restaurant the two of us had leftovers from that particular place. In the last blog entry that I'd written Thursday I also forgot to mention that ever since I'd downloaded the latest iOS update onto my phone there hav been some basic things that my phone has been difficult about. One of the things that my phone has been difficult with since I'd installed the latest iOS update onto my phone, is that VO on my phone does not always alert me when I receive text messages from people. This particular thing can become problematic if someone texts me something important that I don't know about because my phone does not alert me of said text message even being there. Another thing relating to text messages that my phone has stopped doing regularly since I'd installed the latest iOS update is that VO doesn't always alert me that I have unread text messages. Because the thing is that VO on my phone is supposed to say aloud "you have three unread text messages" whenever I have three unread text messages. So since VO has only been saying the word "messages" when I double-tap the messages app on my iPhone, sometimes it takes me more time than usual to respond to messages I've received because my phone does not alert me that I have unread text messages in the first place...which means that I have to physically go into the messages app on my phone then read through the text messages that are in that particular app. So shortly after I'd written my last blog entry Thursday I created an FB status update to ask my FB friends if any of them has experienced the two problems that I'd discussed in that particular FB status update I'd created. Shortly after I'd created that particular FB status update I called T-Mobile. When T-Mobile's automated system gave me choices of how said automated system could help me I told T-Mobile's automated system that I wanted to change my T-Mobile account passcode. Fortunately T-Mobile's automated system allowed me to change my account passcode for that particular business. I didn't even need to talk to an actual person to make that particular change on my T-Mobile account which was great. Because sometimes I don't want to talk to people if the task I have to complete is simple enough for an automated system to take care of for me. Although shortly after I'd gotten off the phone with T-Mobile's automated system I called T-Mobile again. The second time I'd called T-Mobile though was because I wanted to verify with a T-Mobile representative that my recent change of address with that particular business had gone through successfully. The lady I spoke with at T-Mobile informed me that my physical address had successfully been changed. However the mailing address on my T-Mobile account was the same address as my physical address was. So I told the T-Mobile representative that I literally couldn't receive mail at my physical address. So supposedly she helped me get my addresses straightened out on my T-Mobile account. Before she and I'd gotten off the phone with one another though she told me that my address that I'd receive mail at would be my PO box. The address that 911 would come to if I called that particular business from home would be listed as my primary address. It's kind of confusing the way T-Mobile has their system use people's addresses though because a person can only have one address on his or her T-Mobile account at a time. However T-Mobile does have a section where a person can put a different address on file as the number that 911 would come to if he or she needed that particular business to do so...and a person's 911 address does not count as a second address even if said address technically is a person's second address. I've never heard of anything like the address sett up that T-Mobile has until I had this particular conversation with a T-Mobile representative. It's soooooooooo fucking weird!! A little while after I'd gotten off the phone with a T-Mobile representative I called a local DMV to see what DMV hours were in this particular state. It turned out that DMV hours in this state were a little bit weird, meaning that there's one day out of the work week that DMV hours are from 9:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the evening. The other four days of the work week DMV hours are from 8:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the evening. A little while after I'd found out the weekly hours of DMVs in this state I took a shower. However since it's summertime now I didn't use the same level of hot water that I used when I'd first moved to this particular state in the wintertime. Although I used warm water to a certain extent because I didn't want the shower water to be freezing cold either. Because my body has to have a happy medium when it comes to the temperature of the water that I take a shower in. Because if the shower water is too hot then my body's default will be to completely avoid that particular water temperature. And if the shower water is too cold my body will freeze up and make it damn near impossible for me to complete the tasks of washing my hair and washing my body. So neither extreme temperature of shower water is a pleasant experience for me. I sometimes wish that I didn't have any issues with water temperatures when I shower because that would make my life soooooooooo much easier in some ways. Yet the reality I deal with on a regular basis is that I have to have my shower water at just the right temperature to allow my body to stay in a position that's fit for me to wash my body as well as to wash my hair. So for those of you who can take showers in any temperature of water I hope you enjoy that ability to the fullest. I'm being honest when I say that I hope people enjoy being able to shower in any temperature of water. Because now that that luxury has been taken away from me I miss said luxury terribly. An hour or so after I'd taken a shower a friend of mine made coffee for himself. Given that he and I usually drink coffee with one another, said friend asked me if I wanted coffee. I responded with "Yes I want coffee. However I don't want you to put coffee in a cup for me now because then I won't be able to get up early tomorrow morning." My friend then asked me again if I wanted coffee and I gave him a similar response. I said "Yes I want coffee...but it's too late at night to drink it. Because if I drink coffee now there's no way I'll be able to get up early tomorrow. So I'm making a smart decision rather than a decision based on instant gratification." Interestingly that particular exchange I'd had with a friend of mine brings up something that's a common experience for us human beings: whether we do things based off of instant gratification or whether we do things because we really want to go to a particular concert, see a particular movie or anything else that one can think of. For example I've wanted to go see Ed Sheeran in concert ever since I'd heard that he'd be coming to this particular state a few months ago. And even though I didn't have the money to get concert tickets at that time I remained hopeful that I'd be able to go to said concert when the time came...and I'm still hopeful that I'll have the money to go to the Ed Sheeran concert when the time comes. So because I really want something (in this case, the Ed Sheeran concert) I'll most likely find a way to make that happen for myself. In the case of whether to have coffee late at night: I chose not to have coffee tonight because I knew that I'd be awake all night if I drank coffee. I still wanted to drink coffee though. I simply decided to make a different choice because I had plans to go somewhere early the next morning. As usually happens when I have something to do the next day though I couldn't get to sleep as early as I would've liked to. That particular thing always seems to happen without fail. Like, even if I lay down at what I'd consider to be a reasonable time for myself I still can't get off to sleep because my mind constantly wanders. It's frustrating as fuck because usually when that happens it's hard for me to get up the next day. Even so though I made good use of my time by bullshitting on FB. During my bullshitting FB session I discovered that Janelle Mone (a female singer whose voice I love) recently told Rolling Stone Magazine that she's in the LGBT family. Reading that news made my heart soar because it's empowering when a celebrity whose music I love uses his or her platform to tell people that they are not alone in such a powerful way. Because let's face it: for a person to be bold enough to admit that he or she is not straight is a courageous thing. The fact that Janelle Mone wanted to share her truth with the world will help encourage people like myself to live that same truth of being in the LGBT family...and to not accept anyone telling us LGBT people that we are somehow defective and immoral human beings. Anyway when I finally felt like going to sleep I did so fairly easily the second time around. And fortunately it wasn't hard for me to get up this time. I made sure to call Uber before the DMV was scheduled to open so that I'd arrive at that particular place right when that particular business opened. The Uber driver who'd taken me to the DMV yesterday was friendly. She spent the entire ride telling my friend who'd gone with me and I about the fact that she'd be going on vacation soon. When said Uber driver had dropped my friend and I off at our destination she gave us perfect directions to go directly to the DMV building. And fortunately it did me good to arrive at the DMV early because there weren't many people at that particular business at the time said business had opened. Once a lady at the DMV called my friend and I up to the counter she was at I told her that I'd wanted to get a state ID. I then told her that I thought I'd come prepared with everything that a DMV employee would need to process my ID card application. So the lady at the DMV looked at everything that I'd come with and then told me that she needed to see proof of my residency in this state in order to process my ID card application. I then asked the lady if that particular document would be all that I needed to have in order for me to get a state ID...and she told me that would be it. She then told me that she'd leave an appointment opened for me throughout today so that I could get what she'd asked for then go back to the DMV. So after she'd given me that particular information my friend and I went to a printer shop that was near the DMV. When my friend and I'd arrived at the printer shop I stayed in the Uber vehicle while my friend ran into the printer shop to print my rental agreement. Fortunately the printer shop employees didn't charge him anything to print the one page that he'd needed to print. Once he'd taken care of that particular thing he and I went back to the DMV. We went straight to the front of the line where the lady was that we'd talked to earlier in the day. We got lucky though because since my friend and I are both blind neither of us knew exactly where to go. Once I'd showed that particular lady at the DMV that I'd brought the document she'd requested she found another DMV employee to help me fill out an ID card application. Because even though I'd already filled out an ID card application for the DMV awhile back, that particular ID card application had been filled out with a different address on it. Fortunately a DMV employee filled out a brand-new ID card application for me and once I'd filled out a brand-new ID card application I went to another person. This particular person was supposed to process my ID card application and collect the fee for my actual ID card. However this particular person ended up telling me that the DMV would need to see signatures on my rental agreement from my landlord as well as a signature on my rental agreement from me. I then asked that person if that would be everything that said DMV would need because I'd already been to the same DMV several times. The guy assured me that once there were signatures on my rental agreement from my landlord and I, said DMV would be able to process my ID card application. While I was at the DMV I received a phone call from the college I'm going to be attending. I didn't answer the call though because I was busy with the task at hand. So once I'd gotten all of the information from the guy at the DMV I asked him if he'd put me down for an appointment this coming week. Fortunately he was able to put me down for an appointment this coming Tuesday morning right when the DMV opens. Once my friend and I'd left the DMV the two of us went back to his apartment to hang out with one another. Once we'd arrived at his apartment I checked my email. It turned out that I'd received an email from someone at TSBVI from TSBVI's records department. In the email that the man in TSBVI's records department had sent me he asked me to give him some more information so that he could process my request for my high school transcripts. The weird thing was though that when I'd initially sent the records request email to staff members at TSBVI I'd included all of the information I'd been asked for. Yet there was one piece of information that this guy from TSBVI's records department was missing...and he still wanted me to type up everything again. So I typed up everything again as he'd requested of me, just because I know that it makes things easier for a person when said person has things in order. Once I'd sent that particular email to the guy at TSBVI's records department I texted my landlord to explain the DMV situation to him and ask him if he and I could meet at Starbucks sometime this weekend. Shortly after I'd sent that text message to my landlord I listened to the voicemail that the college I'm going to be attending had left me. In the message the person from the college had left me, the lady said that she was from the financial aid department and was returning my call. So I called the college right after I'd listened to the lady's voicemail but unfortunately I had to leave another voicemail message with the financial aid department. Fortunately though a few minutes later the lady from the college's financial aid department called me again. That time I was able to answer the lady's call. During hers and my conversation with one another I told her that I'd filled out paperwork that the financial aid office at the college had wanted me to fill out. Yet I wanted to make sure that said paperwork had gotten to financial aid because someone had stuck said paperwork in the financial aid department's drop box for me. I then gave the lady my name and she said that the financial aid department had indeed gotten my paperwork. The lady from the college's financial aid department then told me that it would take two to three weeks for said department at the college to process all of my paperwork. Once said department has processed all of my paperwork two to three weeks from now I should know what the college I'm going to be attending is going to award me for financial aid and what grant the college may give me. So initially I'm going to have to pay a small fee when I register for classes which is kind of frustrating. Even so though I think things will work out in the end because I'm not employed right now which will show the financial aid employees at the college I'm going to be attending that I definitely need that particular department to pay for my school. Shortly after I'd gotten that particular information from the lady at the college's financial aid department I set a reminder on my phone to remind me three weeks from today that I should check what my financial aid status is. Shortly after I'd set a reminder for that particular thing I sent Ticket Master a DM on Twitter. In the DM that I'd sent Ticket Master I asked that particular company if said company has any updates for me regarding me being able to purchase Ed Sheeran tickets. A few minutes later Ticket Master replied to my DM saying that said company has no updates for me regarding me being able to purchase said tickets. The friend of mine who wants to attend the Ed Sheeran concert with me suggested that I tweet Ed Sheeran himself and tell him what my situation is. So even though I thought it would be silly to tweet Ed Sheeran himself I took my friend up on his suggestion. The tweet that I sent to Ed Sheeran reads "Ed Sheeran I'm totally blind and trying to go to your concert on 08/18/18. Ticket Master's website is hard to use as a blind person. I've contacted Ticket Master but haven't heard anything back from them. I would hate to miss your concert as I'm a huge fan who believes in your talent." Shortly after I'd written that particular tweet to Ed Sheeran I sent Ticket Master another DM. In that particular DM that I'd sent Ticket Master I said "Well Ed Sheeran tickets are selling quickly so I'm concerned that I may miss out on this opportunity...and I do not want that to happen...all because I'm blind and your website and app are inaccessible to me." A little while after I'd sent that particular DM to Ticket Master I received a text message from my landlord. In the text that my landlord had sent me he told me that he'd text or email me a copy of a signed rental agreement. I replied saying that if he'd email said rental agreement to me, that would be great. A while after I'd sent that text to my landlord I searched for the CEO of AIRA on FB. Fortunately I found him...and I added him to FB as well as FB messenger. I then sent him a message on FB messenger telling him about myself and that I'd love an opportunity to try out using AIRA. In the same FB message I'd sent him I also told him that I'm in the process of having a website made for myself and that I'd love to possibly interview him for my public blog if he'd be interested in doing that. I'm not sure if anything will come of me reaching out to him but I'm glad I took that first step nonetheless.