August 24, 2016

Hi you guys. I forgot to add a few descriptions to my state of being. Remember I was at a party cruising over to this woman in my wheelchair. I had a full on wedgie at the front, you know, revealing a package of nuts. Because of my frontal wedgie, my sweatpants were hiked up to my knees, revealing the whitest skin known to mankind. They should call me "The Human Guppy." Anyway, Mr. Guppy is slumped over to the left, drooling, laughing and mumbling. Would you run away? Or stay and have a chat? Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you. I forgot it last week.

The other thing I want to share with you is I asked my daughter what she wanted to be for Halloween. She said, "Oh, I want to be a princess." I said, "A princess? A princess is a woman who is demeaning, subservient, she gives off a feeling of being self-important." I said to my child, "No, you're not a princess, you're a goddess. You're strong, powerful, self entitled." She looked at me with a blank expression, and the conversation quickly turned to cat videos. Kids are always entertaining. The point is, you gotta have fun. Kids are fun. You gotta play, cause, being in this state, the way I am, you know, having a brain injury, is a real drag.

And kids are one way of lightening things up. The other fun thing was, I went to an arts and crafts fair where my friend here had a stall. It was pretty cool. Check out her website. fullcirclequilting.com. Get out there and do things.

One other thing I wanted to share with you was I met with my social worker and we figured out a way to get help by using my spend-down. A spend-down is when you have to pay money back to the state. It's a long story but a social worker will know about it. It's basically so you can get people who you want to work for you without going through an agency. If you go through an agency you have to take who they give you. Right now, I want to get someone who can help me with my photography and my health needs. Does any of this make sense to you? Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you. You're always learning stuff when you have a brain injury.

I'm gonna leave it at that for now. Check out the documentary I did. Share it with anyone you know.

This is B. Nice, signing off. Love, B. Nice

Here's the link to my blog where I talk about the past.

August 12, 2016

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the here and now. You know what it's like to be a traumatic brain injury survivor.

I'm gonna keep this short because it seems the heat and high humidity really affect me. It's hard for me to dictate to my friend here. Just another fun side effect of having a brain injury.

When you have a traumatic brain injury, you tend to forget things. For example, I forget I'm disabled. I'll explain what that means. I was at a party the other night and there was this cute girl there, so I decided to go over and have a chat with her (some habits never die). Anyway, imagine this. Imagine a man coming over to you in a wheelchair, his hair looks like it's been combed with a wagon wheel. He's wearing an eye patch, black one. He's wearing a shirt that's way too small for him. His belly is showing. It should have its own zip code. He's got red watercolor paint all over his right arm. It looks like he's been playing with a box of razor blades. His pants, his sweat pants, are way hiked up in his crotch, and it looks like he's got a giant wedgie. He's wearing a pair of Vans skateboard shoes that look like a fourteen year old would wear them. Then, on top of it all, he's drooling all over the place. Laughing, and mumbling. Quite the sight. And you wonder why she walked away. Anyway, my point is, no matter how silly you look, you can't isolate yourself and stay home. You've got to get out there and mingle, no matter how silly you feel. Silly, ha! I feel silly about eating in public. I have to be hand fed like a parrot. I guess one good thing is, I noticed people stare at me. I guess it's good I notice. I can see better. Every once in a while, to give people a show, I make a funny face. They look highly concerned, but hey, I'm having fun.

Talk to you next week. Love, B. Nice

P.S. Here's the link to my other blog where I talk about the past. And here's the link to my documentary I did with Team Hall. You might want to share with someone that's feeling down.

Love, B. Nice

August 3, 2016

Hi everybody. Sorry about the delay. I bought a 1981 convertible Ferrari, 12 cylinder. Did I mention it's canary yellow. I also met a girl named Angel. She's a "Broadway Dancer." I'm a little tired. Actually, I'm just kidding, but not about the tired part because my daughter was here for almost a month. I'm very tired. That's why I haven't blogged in a while. But everything is great. I had a lot of fun with my daughter. She's all grown up it seems. She's only 9 and a half, but she's super smart, fun, great to hang out with. I continue to do therapy. When you have a traumatic brain injury, you really have to be patient. Take everything in steps. I know I mentioned it before, but it's real important to be patient. Right now I just working on sitting up. It sounds simple, but, believe me, it's not easy. I continue to slowly get better. I mean, even my daughter notices the difference. She said, "Wait, Dad, your speech is getting better, and you move your hands more." Little things like that are big encouragement.

You know, doing everyday things are like therapy. I mean, the other week I went to my dad's art gallery opening. We all went to the city in one car. It was interesting. He was talking to ny friend here, saying how artists used to get together and show their work. It was a real simple gathering of young people. It wasn't about money and who you're selling to, etc. It was just about art, for art's sake. The opening my dad had was cool because there were a lot of young people there. Sure, they probably came for the alcohol, but it was cool to see them stand around and talk about the paintings. It was a great night. Tough for me to handle, but, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right?

I'm gonna go back to staring at a tree. Feel free to email me if you like. briannice@me.com. Or check out my website: www.briannice.com.

Have a great week. Love and miss you guys. Hey, here's my blog where I talk about the past.

June 1, 2016

Hi you guys. So I'm down, but I'm not out. Check out this link:

http://niceartllc.tumblr.com/

Love, B. Nice

Here's the link to my other blog.

May 24, 2016

Hi you guys. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the present.

Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year - I do therapy. I never stop. From sunrise to sunset. You see, when you have a traumatic brain injury, everything you do is an effort. And it's also one step, or in my case, one roll, to getting better. Just today I started up again with water therapy. Man, it wiped me out, but I'll tell you, it's great for you. I talked about it before, but it's amazing. It also doesn't hurt as bad when you fall over. Just get ready to be water boarded - ha ha ha. The other thing that Ive been doing a lot of is thinking about recipes with my health care assistant. I used to cook a lot. Now I do it with my health care assistant. It's great for the memory. I think about recipes and my health care assistant prepares it for me. It's great for the memory. Just don't hand me a knife.

So now I'm gonna do a shameless plug for a client I used to work for. I used to work for a company called Pendelton. They have great blankets and I used to collect them. Every day, my health care assistant makes up my bed and he puts on a new blanket. It's pretty cool because my world is really an arm length in front of me. I can only see about three feet in front of me. I can see other things further away from me, but they're not as sharp. The blankets are cool because I love the Native American prints the best. My friend here in front of me also makes great blankets and she gave me one. Pretty cool. Here's a link to Pendelton.

One other thing I like to mention is my local town just started work on their sidewalks. You see, there wasn't a broken curb before. It was difficult for me to use the sidewalks. They're fixing all that now. Pretty cool. I can now walk with my daughter down Main Street.

That's about it for now. You know, it's c owing up to 7 years since my injury. Mind you, it all started August 18th, 2009. It's been a long journey, and I'm a little tired of this. There have been some funny moments though. Anyway, keep your head up, and keep moving forward. Oh, check out my other blog where I talk about my sordid past. Love, B. Nice