Friday, April 11, 2008

What Day is it Anyway?

Hi All!

What day is it anyway? Anyone know the date? Since I stopped working I tend to get a bit "out of touch" with things like calendars. When I first realized that I was losing touch with the great order of the days, I panicked! I was losing my intelligence and the confusion over which day it was had to be the first sign that my brain was now turning into mush! Not only was this distressing to me but, after flaking out and forgetting three hair appointments in a row, it was distressing to my hair dresser!

Being a person who fixes problems, I immediately went into problem solving mode. I went to the computer and printed out calendars for the next four months (without dates on them which did pose a bit of a problem for a few minutes until I found the real dates on a different calendar online!) and installed it in a prominent place in the kitchen that I couldn't miss. On these calendars I wrote everything I had coming up - especially hair appointments. Everyday I dutifully mark off each day that has passed so that I am "current."

That sounds like a great solution, right? Well - yes and no! I now remember appointments - mostly due to the fact that my husband looks at my calendar and reminds me - and I am good on the days of the week but, I just can't get a handle on the date! I am even taking that Sign Language class on Tuesdays and Thursdays and date my notes each class. If you could see those notes you will see the date crossed out, corrected, and often crossed out and corrected again! What is going on? I am half tempted to take a math class at the community college to see if I have lost all numerical abilities or just the ability to remember the date!

Of course I still do understand money and time so all numerical sense must not have fled my underworked brain! Interesting. I wonder if a scientist somewhere is researching why people forget the date. Maybe there is some federal funding . . .

Okay, I am getting a bit "far out" right now! Back to Earth!

I am making daily recordings of myself reading "the rainbow passage" which, for those of you not familiar with it, is a pretty standard passage used by speech therapists to assess voice. Here is the text of the "rainbow passage."

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into may beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above and its two ends apparently beyond thehorizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.


I am hoping that these recordings will help me figure out patterns to my voice's variations. Or at least they will help me remember how my voice was on any given day - sort of an auditory journal of progress. Also, doing these recordings keeps me cognizant of the fact that I DO have ABSD - no matter how good my voice is. That keeps me working on my exercises and my podcast!

Well - my husband took today off and is puttering around the house - wait, I hear the lawn mower out front! What a good guy! However, I suppose that means I should go out at trim shrubs. Yuck!

Have a fabulous day!
Trisha

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Calendar? You keep a calendar? I just keep track of the days by scratching them off one by one on my wall, like a prisoner of war.

I kid. I have kids. I have to keep up with the calendar for them. I have noticed that during breaks that I get confused as to what day it is during the week and what the date is. It's all that fun! So, you must be having fun!