Mini adventures

One more full week until school starts! Both Maggie and I are ready for that because we both need the structure that the school year brings. To be honest, I need it more than Maggie does. I have had a very difficult time getting anything accomplished in the past month because I don't have my required stretches of uninterrupted time.

I spend a lot more time caring for and entertaining Maggie, both of which can be quite exhausting. To make matters worse, I get a lot less sleep. I can never sneak off to bed early because there is no nurse here in the evening. They come in the morning on the days I work and in the early afternoon on the days I don't. That leaves anywhere from 3 to 6 hours in the evening for me and Maggie to further bond.  I have deal with Maggie's needs, suctioning, feeding etc until the night nurse arrives. Maggie absolutely refuses to stay in her bed even with me in the room if Dad is in the front room.(or visa versa) Often all three of us Maggie, Steve and I, are sound asleep in various chairs in the front room when the night nurse gets there. By the time I give her report and get upstairs into bed I am wide awake from the interruption. Oh well, 10 more days. We can make it.

We are trying to continue our adventures though they are limited to a few days a week now. It's just too much to try to do more than that. Two days a week is plenty for her and more than plenty for me. We are limited to short jaunts because of Maggie's constant needs but we do live in a tourist mecca, so there is no shortage of things to do.

This week we went right into the belly of the beast and headed for Union Square to go shopping. We didn't buy anything - we almost ever do - but it is fun for Maggie to be part of the action. We went through several floors of Macys and other stores and then went over to watch the cable cars go by. Maggie thought those were hilarious.

 Thursday our friend Anne Marie was visiting (of the prom dress fame!) We headed to the Asian Art museum in Civic Center. I searched for an accessible parking spot for a while, but finally gave up and went underground to the Civic Center Garage. We went down two levels to find parking, unloaded Maggie, attached her pole and her dynavox and hooked up the switches. We put her shoes back on (she kicks them off constantly) and made out way to the elevator. There for the first tie we saw the sign that read "Elevators Closed. Please use stairs. Sorry for the inconvenience."

It took a minute to compute even though an overly helpful man was offering to help with the stairs. (absolutely impossible to carry Maggie and her wheelchair full of equipment up two flights of stairs. It's well over 200 lbs) I declined his kind offer and his request/demand for $5. We drove up one  level to ask for instructions on what to do.

I told the guy at the kiosk that I had a wheelchair and he said gruffly, well there's plenty of handicapped parking. Right, say I, but how do I get her out of the lot with the elevators out of order. "Take the stairs like everyone else." Really? again, we have a wheelchair. Why don't we just walk up the car ramp "No ma'am pedestrians are not allowed on the ramp." well dude, it's either the elevator or the ramp so you are just going to have to let us. (note this whole thing took at least 20 minutes for which I had to PAY) He relented.



I pushed her up the hill to the street level, but of course there was no cut out for the wheelchair and getting her onto the very high curb wasn't going to happen. We had to walk in traffic behind a line of parked cars to reach the corner where we could get back on the sidewalk.  I was exhausted by the time we reached the museum, which is visible behind us in the picture above.

 The girls enjoyed themselves and the museum was lovely and soothing and almost made it all worthwhile.

Almost.

Throughout the visit I was worrying about getting her back DOWN the hill. Up is not nearly as bad as down. Down is scary.  We made it without incident, though.

It really is too bad we only get to do these things twice a week.