I E.S.P. subbed today and yesterday. I also worked at Target last night, and am going again tonight (covering for a friend, I need money!). Today there was a boy leaving a class I was entering with two prosthetic legs. I didn't get to talk to him at all, but it was cool to see. It's terrible when a young person has to deal with loss of limb (who knows though, it might have bene congenital), but I think the more exposure kids have to people with disabilities the more sensitive they'll be as adults.

 I went to a prosthetic evaluation clinic on Monday. All I really got out of it was that I don't really need to use my cane anymore. Which is half-true. Most of the time I don't even use it, but if I'm on my feet, moving around for a while, and I don't use it I feel like death. Last night at work I left it in the fitting room while I moved around the store. By the end of the night my back hurt and I felt like I could barely move. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or what.

I don't really have much else to share right now. I want to go to grad school in the neat future, so I need to get writing samples together and start looking into schools, but I've been working a lot lately.

So I haven't posted here in over a month. Oops. It's not like I've been doing anything cool. I started working at Target at the end of July. This is my second time there, and I'm not too thrilled. At least it's easy work. It does get kind of hard to be one my feet all day, eight hour shifts hurt. I'm still looking for a better job, since I can't really live on minimum wage and I'd like my own health insurance.

I also subsituted at the middle school as an ESP (education support person), which was fun. Hopefully I get called more for that.

So yeah, I'm not up to much right now.

I finally got my bike back from the shop and got around to getting some velcro to keep my right foot on the pedal. I also purchased a pair of cheap shoes at Michaels to avoid ruining any of my good shoes. Unfortunately the sizes of the shoes were ridiculous. I tried on a size 6 and it was really tight, so I got a 7 figuring it would fit but when I tried it on after I got home it was huge. Oh well. I stuffed a little sock in the toe to make it fit better.

The next day (because by the time we got back from Michaels it was dark) by boyfriend and I went out to the back parking lot, he rode his cool new bike down the bike path and I was totally jealous of his ability to just hop on and take a ride. When he got back he faithfully held the back of my bike as I tried to ride it. I got scared and frustrated at my leg when the foot turned in a little blocking the pedal from moving. I fell off once, somehow I got into a weird turn and was leaning too far to the right and my prosthesis wasn't about to stop me from falling. I need to make sure I fall to the left next time. I did it by myself for a little while, which felt great. However, I realized I need a smaller bike. The one I have cost me a total of $40, including repairs, and it's adorable and fun but heavy and the brakes aren't great. So now I plan to fix it up a little more and sell it to buy a newer, lighter bike. But it's progress.

In other news, I still haven't found a job. A month of unemployment. I keep getting passed over for people who are more experienced. How am I supposed ti gain experience if no one will give me a job? It's getting to the point where I'm seriously considering going back to Target, which I hated. But I really need money, and I won't feel bad quitting as soon as I find another job. The MTEL (Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure) is tomorrow. I better pass, so I can get a teaching job in the fall. Wish me luck!

This past weekend I was at my friend's house. They have a Nintendo Wii, which we usually end up playing when we're over there. The only game I'm any good at is bowling, which is funny because I'm terrible at real bowling. She had borrowed the Wii Fit from her mom, and I was watching some of my other friends try it out. I noticed that balance was a big part of it, and that game picked up subtle leg movements. I realized this put me at a significant disadvantage, but I wanted to try it anyway. Not to my surprise, I wasn't very good. The first thing it does is take down your BMI, and find your center of balance. It uses this info to determine your "wii fit age" which apparenly isn't very accurate on the first try. I'm 22, but according to the wii fit I'm physically 39. This is because my center of balance is "way to the left" most likely due to the fact that I'm missing most of my right leg. On the left side any pressure put on the pad you stand on has to be transfered from the bottom of my residual limb and through my prosthesis, which will never be the same as the pressure from a real leg making real contact.

I'm not really that determined to play this game, but I feel like if there was an option for people with "limb difficiencies" to maybe select their "good side" and the game could give adjust itself based on that info it would be a more enjoyable experience. I'm thinking about writing a letter to suggest something to make the game more accessible. I really like the idea of it, and was disappointed to find out I can't really use it because of my left-leaning. 

Has anyone else had the opportunity to try the Wii Fit? Maybe with better results?

I've scheduled an interview as a youth counselor working with at-risk youth in a nearby city. Everything about the job is within my scope of abilities except one thing she mentioned- driving the van to pick up kids. I failed to mention that this is something I can't really do because of my leg. Should I have mentioned it? Is it okay to just bring up at the interview. Will my inability to drive a van ruin my chances at getting this job? Am I protected in  anyway because of my "disability"?

I have two concerns about driving a van, the first being that I am a RAK amputee so my personal car is equipped with a left-foot accelerator. I have driven regular cars without any adaptive equipment in the past, I don't like to because I'm so used to having the gas on the left, but I can. My second concern is just the fact that a van is much bigger than my Chevy Cavalier and I'm not a big fan of driving in the first place, especially in a city setting.

I like working with kids, and I feel like it would be cool to work with at-risk youth and help them develop life skills and have fun this summer (I'd be a recreational and vocational counselor), but I don't want to drive a van! This job also pays better than any of the other prospects I have for this summer.