Motel Life and Food

I can’t believe how many days went by and I didn’t get my post out there for you to read! There is just so much to do and life seems to pass me by like a car on a speed race! Anyway, here I am again and continue with the story.
After a week or so, it was time to move on to some more affordable place so on a week night, after we finished packing at 2 o’clock in the morning, we moved out of the apartment-hotel. Vic had to make 2 trips in the rain just to be able to carry the luggage, the benches, and on the second trip me and the wheelchair. The next day, he had to go to work…

You must be wondering what “benches” I am talking about; well there are transfer benches that are specially manufactured for bathroom use for disabled people. Since I cannot walk at all, not even stand, I have to use these benches to take a shower and do other things you do in the bathroom. And in case you are wondering why I cannot walk, the really short version of the story is I had polio when I was a seven month old baby so since then, when I was starting to give my first steps, I have not been able to walk. I lived all my life on a wheelchair and that’s the story.

We moved into a motel in NY, in Westchester County. This was only one room with a microwave. No kitchen, no mini living room or mini dining room. This meant we could not cook; the microwave was only to heat things really. Without having dishes or other kitchen utensils or a table, there was not much we could do, so we had to eat out or order food. But what can you actually order? There are only two things they deliver, Chinese food or pizza (and I would not have pizza regularly…).

Once a week we would visit Vic’s brother and his cook would give us a nice dinner and we were allowed to use his washing machine and dryer to do our laundry. He was very generous with us and tried to help us as much as he could. Some other night we would visit Vic’s mom and we would cook there and the three of us shared a meal together. It was nice. But most of the days it was just Vic and I on our normal routine.

Vic would go to work in the morning and I stayed behind adapting myself to the new environment again. By this I mean adapting to the different layout of the benches according to the dimensions of the bathroom. We had to consider the height of the bed in relation to my wheelchair that needed to be the same so I could transfer from one to the other on my own with a transfer board as a bridge between them. And also I needed to consider how soft the mattress was and how much I sank on it, since this would affect my ability to transfer to and from the chair. All these kind of things that you probably never noticed or even thought about, are things that I have to consider every time I move, travel, or even if I want to spend the night anywhere else other than my home.

At lunch time, Vic would bring some food, have lunch with me and get back to the office. The only thing I could do in the room was watching TV, or reading or praying so I would do that until he came back after work. Then we either went out to eat or order Chinese food. Meanwhile, we were still looking for an apartment during the evenings or weekends Some   times, we went to see an apartment at lunch racing against time so Vic could go back to work and he would take me to his office and I would stay at the employee’s cafeteria for the rest of the afternoon until he finished working.

Waiting there was fun, every so often, Vic would come down and introduce me to a co-worker, I could have snacks from the vending machines if I wanted to and I would pass my time writing letters to my friends on my laptop. Since this was a big building with lots of employees, the cafeteria was very big so I was not intruding on anybody. Sometimes, Vic would hide me in the conference room upstairs when nobody was using it. I was not supposed to be there to avoid liability for them in case of an accident. There I could make phone calls to Lima, Peru for free… This happened to be a Telecom company and making phone calls overseas was not unusual for them, since they owned the lines, it didn’t cost them anything and the employees were allowed to call, so Vic’s boss knew I was using the phone. I got to talk with my friends and family in Lima for a long time while waiting. It was a lot of fun!

Going to Vic’s office worked out very well and I was not in our room all the time! After work, we would go to the White Plains Mall and have dinner in the food court. This Mall is the scenario for my next adventure!

We will continue the story on my next post. Please leave your comments at the end of my posts; I would love to hear from you! Hasta la vista!