Weekend Synopsis: I May be Disabled but I'm Not Dead

For this post I thought I would share what it is I do on weekends.  Hey, I may be disabled, but I'm not dead. Not every weekend is filled with excitement.  I'm either working, cooking or exploring.

First, I just saw an edit cut of the Promotional Video for the 500 mile Bike ride and it is awesome!  It made me cry and I can't wait to launch the project with my friends.  It's going to be fun and I am glad that they get something out of it, too. Experience. Can't beat it.  I'm building a full on website and Steve is finishing up the final edits of the video. You'll read about Steve later.

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So, for this weekend I pretty much stayed in and I got the itch to give myself a cooking project. Something that I had not tried before - as if I needed to pile on more projects onto myself.  I can't help it. I get bored and have to give myself something challenging or new to do or I'll go insane.  Jason always rolls his eyes when I suddenly decide to cook something that is "unecessary" or "ambitious".  Mostly because he would be fine with Spaghetti-Os. This is my audience.  

I think he wonders why I put the trouble into things. Why not just make it easier on myself?  I'm sure it comes out of concern because he doesn't want me to overwhelm myself, but I always explain to him it's something I love to do and if you love something, you do it. It's not something I want to take for granted.  I want to enjoy it while I can.  It's my mental break away.  It's a mini project that I can start and complete within an hour....mmmm, ok, sometimes 3 hours....or 10...whose counting?  He doesn't seem to complain when chomping down on the finished product. :)

This weekend I made Mandu, a Korean Dumpling, from scratch for the first time.  It was fun.  A very good exercise for my weak fingers.  

Towards the end I was getting frustrated. Frustrated from being tired, but frustrated from not being able to lift the soy sauce bottle or shuffle 2 steps to the right.  But, I finished! It was a good cooking exercise.  I noticed with some Korean cooking, like Chapchae, and these little dumplings, that there are a lot of steps in seasoning. Every ingredient, like the meat mixture, then the chives, then the mushrooms/onions, and the tofu, you mix and season them seperately, then combine them in a bowl and mix once more. Seasoning!! Very important in all cooking. Create the balance.  Love and season every section so they all sing together.

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After I finished making the Mandu, I of course tried making Ddeok Mandu Guk.  It's a Korean soup and one of my personal favorites. It's kind of equivalent to Chicken Noodle soup, yet so much better. The key is all in the broth.  If your broth is not good, then you don't have a good soup.

This was from a couple weekends ago. One of those exploring weekends.  I went to the Best Coast concert at the St. Regency Center in downtown SF. I like their music. Check them out.

It was a fun experience, lots of sweaty people who don't see the girl sitting in a wheelchair.  It was so crowded and I was packed tight like a sardine among a bunch of raving sardines. I was right at the front and couldn't really see the concert. This girl that was next to me befriended me and started chatting it up.  She is a graphic designer for Modcloth.com.  She eventually asked me why I was in a chair.  I suspect everyone wants to ask this question, but they refrain out of fear of reaction.  I don't mind talking about it. I figure if I do that just means one more person who didn't know about this rare condition now does.  

So, she was surprised and said,

"Wow, you seem really cool. Must be hard for you to be out in this type of siutation (crowded concert where no one cares about you)."  

I said, "No, not really"

She seemed a little surprised and I could tell in her face she was thinking that one over for awhile.  Eventually she started tapping on the tall shoulders of all the people swarmed around me. She didn't think it was right that I couldn't see the concert even though I was nearly at the front of the mob. She started pushing people and telling them, "If we work together, we can do this".  

She was sweet and even got a few people to move.  Most of them were kids, too young to care or understand.  I was actually fine with sitting there and listening while not seeing the performers.  I try not to go out in the world expecting people to give me special treatment because of my disability.  I prefer to see people come to it on their own, like that girl at the concert. We took some time to get to know each other-she thought about it-and came to the conclusion of trying to help out the situation.  She did it and it wasn't me that forced myself onto others telling them they should treat me a certain way because I'm "disabled".  She was slightly successful in moving the crowd, but it was too loud for people to care. The musicians were ripping and everyone was in the moment.  She eventually disappeared and moments later I felt a tapping on my shoulder.  It was security. They pulled me to the side and told me to watch the concert from the side of the stage and told me if I ever come back to tell 'so&so' manager that I'm there and they would take care of me.  I saw the girl in the hat as security pulled me out of the crowd and she smiled at me. She didn't tell me she was the one who told security to help, but I think it was her.

Other things we did that weekend was stop by Oakland's huge elephant sale, Farmer's market and did some cooking.  It was good.

This particular weekend I had an itch to go explore downtown San Fran. Look at graffitti, some art, eat some food and then we hiked over to a Regional Park near us. It was great!  Ran into a few Banksy's and seen they had changed. Someone trespassed his 'No Trespassing' art.

I kind of like graffitti art for the very reason that it feels very temporary and vulnerable. Any one can paint over it at any time and weather ages it.  It's not art that is protected all wrapped up tight in museums.  

Some of the graffitti we saw was pretty amazing. The amount of time it takes to do a wall mural for something so temporary is interesting.  So, I admire the reason to do something more than the final product.  Like Goldworthy or Christo/Claude who create environment works of art that only last a short time. Though, as much as I love Christo the amount of money it costs to fund those projects is astounding. I sometimes feel the money could go to something more needed but I still like it.