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Thursday, June 22, 2006

August - September '05: I was working hard on some new projects at my job. In mid-September, I had to evacuate from Corpus Christi with my family to San Antonio, Texas because of a mandatory evacuation of the coast due to Hurricane Rita . The hurricane ended up hitting in far NE Texas, so we were able to return home after only a few days. It was a crazy time and I have never seen such a massive evacuation from the coast of Texas. We were smart and evacuated early to avoid the traffic, so we didn't have to sit out on the interstate like so many others did.

October '05: After the mini-crisis of evacuating and dodging the storm, I had to deal with something even more traumatic personally. In late September, I began having problems with my vision and went through a series of emergency laser eye surgeries. Because of my vision problems I was unable to go to work or do any of my normal activities, including updating my blog. Abnormal eye pressure required surgery to insert a shunt in my left eye to help drain extra fluid which was building up.

November - December '05: November 9 was my 25th birthday, one of my gifts was a Zen Touch Mp3 player from my brother Ben. This gift was especially useful, as I wasn't able to read or stay occupied by getting online. He preloaded it with my favorite music and lots of audio books which kept me from dying of boredom.

In early November, I was still hoping my vision would improve enough to allow me to travel to Torino, Italy for the Winter Olympics in February. I had been planning and saving up for the trip for at least two years. However, by mid-December, it was clear to me and my doctors that I would not be able to make the trip. I was heartbroken to give up this dream, and in shock because my vision loss was so sudden and unexpected. At the end of December, surgery was needed on my right eye to insert a shunt to relieve pressure.

January - February '06: I was recovering from surgery, and listening to lots of San Antonio Spurs games on the radio (Go, Spurs, Go!).

In February, the 2006 Winter Olympics started, and I was extremely excited to follow the races of Apolo Anton Ohno, U.S. Short Track speedskater. As you may know, I have been following Apolo's skating career since I saw him compete at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Watching Apolo win his three medals (two bronze and a gold) was totally exhilarating, as I know how hard he has trained the past four years, and of his dedication to his sport. While I was watching the tape delayed broadcast of Apolo's 500m race, I felt like I was there, live, as he crossed the finish line to win GOLD! I was so happy for Apolo, that any disappointment about not being able to be there in person melted away.

I'm the webmaster of the Apolo Anton Ohno Portal, which has been sadly neglected since my vision loss began. I'll be able to update it more frequently, as I adjust to new technologies to compensate for my vision problems.

March - June '06: While searching for audio content online, I discovered Podcasting and the Podosphere. This new communication medium is exciting and is growing by leaps and bounds. I'm planning on writing an entry devoted to all of the podcasts which I enjoy, stay tuned :) .

There are programs I will be learning to use, such as Window-Eyes , JAWS , and Dragon Soft to help me navigate online and operate the computer via speech to text and screen reading technology.

Since I haven't been able to update in the past year, I have lots of interesting things to share and will be doing more regular updates once again. I'm looking forward to catching up on reading everyone else's blogs after I learn to use my screen reader program.

About work, I am in the process of retraining myself in order to return to my job, hopefully in my former field, Online Marketing.

If you're reading this please leave a comment, I'm not sure if I have any readers left at this point. Thanks.

p.s. I received help to type and post this entry, thanks Mom!

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