This past week was a busy one for us! Now that I've been taken off bed rest, I've been trying to go out and about more often. Part of that included heading up to Des Moines to visit Travis's family (we haven't been able to see them since my fall). Of the last eight days, we spent four of them in Des Moines, and it was an awful lot of fun.
Part of our time up there consisted of redoing the family's living room! I had been asked by Travis's dad to spruce up/makeover the main floor of their house, and we started with the front room. We actually got all the work done while Travis's parents were out of town over the weekend, which put us on a REALLY tight deadline, but it was a lot of fun, and really rewarding. This wasn't a complete overhaul - no new furniture or decorations, but I still think it's a dramatic change and am really happy with the results (and more importantly - so is the family!). So, here are the before shots:
Pretty nice, eh? It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint and new drapes can do! Taking down the wallpaper was definitely the worst of the project, but it was all fun once we started painting. I did almost all of that too, which was really nice - it's not often nowadays that I'm able to feel really productive. I did a lot of it from my wheelchair and the rest by standing on one leg, supporting myself with my left arm and painting with my right. Ha! A little tricky but I managed! Clearing out some excess accessories and switching out some furniture pieces also made a HUGE difference. This was a lot of fun for me, and I'm looking forward to starting on a new room this weekend! Woooo!
And as if those intense two and a half days weren't enough, we saw Les Miserables in Omaha on Saturday! Omaha is a three hour drive (one way) for us, so couple that with 3+ hours in the theatre as well as the drive back, and you can imagine I was pretty uncomfortable....I also had an extremely negative experience with the theatre staff...you'd think they'd never had anyone in a wheelchair come to their venue before. All I wanted to do was find a restroom before the show started - we talked to three different ushers, none of whom knew where to send me and they kept shuffling me around. Finally they sent me to the basement to an "accessible" room....which had two pull-open doors - if I had been by myself I never would have been able to get in. Then when we entered the auditorium, there were stairs to get down to my seat. We had called ahead to make sure I would be able to access my seat, and we were assured it would be no problem. They were about to just stick me in my wheelchair way in the back, separate from my family, when they decided I could enter through a different door, wheel all the way down to the front by the stage, and then come back up to my seat. When we tried to go through that other door, we were almost denied access because it was getting close to starting time. And I was close to tears. I'm not sure I've ever been so frustrated and, quite frankly, humiliated (although I do realize that they're the ones who should feel badly, not me). I've never had a worse experience with customer service.
All that being said, the show was wonderful. The music is beautiful and all the actors did an incredible job. Even with the pain and nuisance, I'm very glad we went!
Now I'm just trying to recuperate before the next weekend! Things are starting to really pick up again - it hit me today that camp starts in exactly five weeks, which has me feeling quite overwhelmed (particularly because I'm still in a wheelchair). My last visit to the doctor left me really disappointed, but I'm getting another x-ray in a week, so I'm hoping for better news then. Fingers crossed! I can't be wheeling around the auditorium all summer long!
