A post of NOTE...

I've been having issues with notetakers lately.

I hold a pen very awkwardly due to my CP, as I think I mentioned here before. As a result, I write slowly and I get bad hand pain when I write. I usually use an AlphaSmart to type my notes, but obviously I can't do that in math. So I have a notetaker. In past years, all of my notetakers have been more than happy to do my notes, and I've had no problems. Not the case this year.

First of all, it took my math teacher a week just to find me a notetaker. That in and of itself was annoying. She picked a girl who sits two seats behind me, which was also slightly annoying, because then my notes have to go through a whole assembly line before they get to me. But I could live with that. Until my notetaker started annoying me...

First she told me she didn't want to carry the looseleaf. I let that one go. After all, I have a whole backpack, I can carry the looseleaf. Then she told me she didn't want to carry the carbon paper because it got all over her clothes. I was slightly more annoyed at that one, but again, I let it go. Again, I have the space to carry it. Then on Friday:

Notes Girl: *groans* "Oh, I'm so tired!! Do I have to do the notes today?"
Me (slightly grumpy): "Yes. You do."
Notes Girl: *shoves looseleaf and carbon paper into Random Girl's face* "Here! Do you want to do the notes today?"
Random Girl: "Umm...okay."

Then Random Girl asked her how to do the carbon paper. Not me. She asked the girl who's only been doing my notes for a month and didn't get the hang of the carbon paper for like two weeks. Am I just being picky, but isn't that just so wrong??

And that whole exchange came right after I heard one of the custodians comment to another that "The wheelchairs are coming." when he saw my friends coming down the hall. Hello?? Wheelchairs don't ride down the hall by themselves! There are people in them!!

Yeah. So I asked Random Girl to do my notes from now on because there was no way I was asking the other girl again. She seemed to want to do it. Seemed being the operative word. We'll see how this all unfolds....

What defines disability? The Disability Experience

This question came up on a thread on my very favorite disability site, Ouch, where some people were pondering the vague comment by some of the moderators that "80% of Ouch users are able-bodied". Here was my response:

Hmmmmmmm....very interesting. See, the thing with this is I think we have to go past the stereotypical, medical definition of disability and start thinking of disability as a MINORITY group, much like any other racial or cultural group out there. Most of us have agreed in past threads that disability does have a culture, and even those who don't quite agree with that statement know that disability is a whole different world than the so called "able-bodied" or "normal" world. This board is not made up of all "disabled people" per se, however, it is made up of people who, "disabled" or not, are a part of the disability community in some way, shape, or form, and understand the differences b/w "our" world and "theirs", as I like to think of it. We have our own humor, ideas, etc. as this site clearly illustrates. The people who post on this board "get it", as I always say. Disability is not a medical condition, or even a state of mind so much as an....experience. We experience disability. Some of us, like myself, live it, and have lived it all our lives. Some of us are just beginning to tiptoe into this wonderful experience now, and are still coming to terms with the drastic differences. Some of us experience it through others, as some people have already mentioned. But no matter what, disability is a roller-coaster experience that will never leave you, no matter how "able-bodied" you may become. We are disabled. All of us, on this board, we're all disabled. We all know disability. We all experience it. We cannot, I repeat, CANNOT start defining who is really "able-bodied" and who is "disabled" on this board, because we know where it'll lead. First it'll start with animosity towards the supposed "ABs" and then, who knows? I mean, are we going to start moving towards a society dominated completely by those who we consider "disabled", and anyone who isn't disabled enough is eliminated? I know it sounds like something out of a science-fiction novel (one that I would probably write!), but that's what we're heading towards with all this pigeon-holing of people. Like I said, anyone who knows the disability experience is "disabled" in my eyes.

What say you? Let me know YOUR opinions!

We're all just so darn special.

Am I the only one who thinks that the term "special needs" is not only annoying, it's also somewhat patronizing?

Seriously. The more I watch the presidential debates (*cough* GO OBAMA!! *cough* oops, straying off topic...lmao) the more I want to vomit all over my TV screen every time I hear the term "special needs". And it didn't escape my notice that the other night, McCain actually had the audacity to use the term "very special needs"! Oh, so now we're very special?? I guess the normies weren't content enough to just label us plain old special!

I mean, I know special means unique and unique means different and we are different, technically, it's just...it seems so condescending. I know! Let's ask the dictionary!

Hmmmmm...I didn't realize there'd be so many definitions for one of my most hated words of all time! But one of the definitions for special seems to fit my point...

spe·cial–adjective: extraordinary; exceptional, as in amount or degree; especial

Someone please gag me. I mean, I know crips are fabulous and all, but I wouldn't call us extraordinary or exceptional. We're just ordinary old people with some extra challenges to face.

In other news on Spaz Girl's Political Rants, I started a post on Sarah Palin forever ago that I never finished. Maybe I should go do that now...