The Roads Below: Good When It’s Gone

Around 2008 I found out about a local Pop band; School Boy Humor, loved them! After finding out about them, I’m pretty sure I was at most, if not all of their shows.

Up until I heard of them I assumed all local musicians were crappy, for lack of a better word.

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Turns out I was wrong, like really…really wrong. Check out one of School Boy Humor’s most popular songs “Please Stand Up” below:

Fast forward to now. These days I would much rather listen to locals over any big time artist. There are so many local amazing artist/bands that have now become good friends of mine.

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Anyway, so…sadly SBH is no longer together; but the good news is Phil (lead singer) has another band now. (Country this time) The Roads Below click the link to be taken to their Facebook page.

Everybody knows I used to hate Country music, but it has really grown on my over the years. It’s hard to live in Arkansas and escape Country music, so I decided to embrace it. Not all of it, some of it still makes me cringe. Can’t stand a twangy, nasal-ley mess.

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Lucky for me (and you) Phil is super talented, and definitely does not sound like an annoying, twangy mess.

The Roads Below released a new music video for their song “Good When It’s Gone” today. Check it out.

If you happen to be in Little Rock tomorrow night (February 29th) you should head over to Stickyz Rock N’ Roll Chicken Shack to see them play. They will be playing with another talented friend of mine named Bree Ogden.

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She recently released a new song called “Months Now”

It’s a great song, I’ve practically been listening to it nonstop since it came out. Listen below:

School Boy Humor, The Roads Below, and Bree Ogden’s music can be found on Apple Music, or whatever other platform you use to listen to your favorite music.

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Here is a picture of Phil and I from November, the last time they were in town (they reside in Nashville now.)

-laurenmikael

🙂

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PS: I know I’ve been blogging a lot, just trying to catch up…since I went almost two weeks without saying anything recently.

So Tired…of this Chair

So, remember yesterday when I said I had a hard day?

I’ll tell you about it. It’s actually kinda funny now.

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I’ve had this huge electric wheelchair sitting in my living room for months. I don’t like the big ones, no offense to anyone who needs this kind…but they are just too “special needs” for me.

I am very independent and try my best to not view myself any different than any other person, like I’ve said many times on here I don’t throw myself pity parties just because my legs don’t work.

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So… anyway about a year ago I told my doctor about how I hadn’t gotten a new electric wheelchair in 9 YEARS. At most they (insurance) are supposed to let you upgrade every 5 years.

In the past I have been a very soft spoken person…so if things did not go the way they should, I would just try to let it slide; the problem with that is now it can be hard to get people to listen to me and get what I need done.

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I would call and/or meet with companies about my chair and whatever I needed and somehow for 9 years they kept managing to find a way to blow me off.

After my doctor found out about this I had a new chair probably within a month. Which is great and all…except they didn’t listen and sent me a huge chair (and sent blue when I asked that whatever chair I got be red. 😩)

Very similar to the one in the picture below:

See? Huge and screams “Look! Look. How special I am!”

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I haven’t used it in months…for the same reasons I told everyone I wouldn’t.

1. I’ve had pets die because of my other big chairs like this. I didn’t/don’t want it too hurt my sweet Dookie (which it has, he’s okay now though.)

2 It’s too big to navigate around my apartment without hitting things and messing them up. Now I have dents and scrapes on most of my doors, cabinets and whatnot.

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This seems like it’s going to be long, I’m sorry! Haven’t even gotten to the real point yet. Getting there I promise.

I’ve been asking people to help me get rid of it for months, I don’t want this huge thing taking up space in my apartment; it doesn’t exactly look cute. I’ve Googled how to dispose of an electric wheelchair, and found no real solution.

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Today I finally got sick of it and decided to at least for now put it out on my back patio. (Yes, I know…it may get ruined due to weather or whatever….but since I don’t want it and it causes more harm in my life than good, who cares.)

Somehow during all of this I managed to hit myself in the head with the very heavy, metal armrest, and also fall on the floor in between the huge wheelchair and the patio door. Not to worry, I got up on my own. My small electric wheelchair was close by, so I sat myself on its footrest and reached up to the controller….drove myself over to the ottoman that is on the other side of the living room.

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Once I reached the ottoman I was able to put one arm on the ottoman and the other on the chair to hoist myself back into the seat.

It’s very interesting to have to drive a wheelchair while sitting on the footrest, but today was definitely not my first time doing so.

Here’s a picture of the smaller chair to make it easier for you to visualize me driving from the footrest.

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I love this chair! It is so easy to take places, folds like a lawn chair. It’s so simple to put in the backseat of an Uber, (even small cars) and just go out and do whatever I want and need to do.

Anyway…big chair is successfully on the patio, since I refuse to be a quitter. As if all of these shananigans weren’t enough, today also happened to be refill the water cooler day. Plus, I vacuumed the whole apartment.

Have I ever mentioned that people with Cerebral Palsy use up anywhere from 60 to 80% more energy to do any task than a “normal” person? Cause we do.

I’m writing this a day in advance, which means this all happened today…which means I’m exhausted and going to bed now. Goodnight!

-laurenmikael

🙂

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Kevin (err Brian’s) Famous Chili

I love The Office, so when I woke up this morning and saw the video above I was so happy! Poor Kevin/Brian.

Apparently it’s National Chili Day, didn’t know that was a thing…but practically everything has its own day now so…whatever.

Kinda makes me want to cook a batch, chili has always been one of my favorite foods.

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You may have already seen the video earlier, it’s been floating around Instagram and Facebook already today. I had a difficult day, so I am late to get this post up. Might talk about all the thing that happened today in another post soon, who knows.

Even Dookie loves The Office, he is so interested whenever it is on. Smart boy he has good taste, Shameless is another one of his favorites

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If you have never seen The Office, the video above probably means nothing to you, in which case. Fix that. Start watching The Office now (the U.S. version.) It’s on Netflix.

I will admit, it takes until around episode three or so to get good…just push through; it’s so worth it.

I think I’m going to have to start rewatching it soon. I really miss it.

-laurenmikael

🙂

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PS: …and yes, I know I have posted a lot about TV lately. Being in a wheelchair can mean lots of TV, seeing as all you have to do is sit there. Which sounds awesome; but trust me, it gets really old, but if you have any TV show recommendations feel free to leave them in the comments. I feel like I have already seen almost everything. I need something new.

Friends Reunion

Finally! I’m so excited! I have been waiting to hear this for a long time.

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I haven’t posted in about 10 days. I wasn’t feeling like myself, so I had to take a break, wasn’t planning on being away this long.

Earlier today I was praying for some good news, and a topic to write about….less than an hour ago I find out that a Friends Reunion is coming to HBO Max, along with all of the episodes from the original series.

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I’ve always loved this show, and still enjoy every episode (even though I’ve seen them all countless times) as much as I did when I saw them for the first time growing up.

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For years there have been fake articles going around about a reunion, which has been disappointing, but this one is actually real. All of the original 6 cast members posted about it via their Instagram accounts.

Yay! 🙂

🙂

If you liked this post (or my blog in general) a tip/donation of any size would be greatly appreciated! You can update the quantity in your cart to adjust the amount of your tip. Thank you!

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-laurenmikael

Don’t Spill the Tea

Everyone who knows me knows I love coffee, I can keep up with the Gilmore Girls when it comes to how much I drink coffee.  

…but I also really love tea. I’m sort of a coffee and tea snob.

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 When it comes to coffee my favorite is Oakland Coffee Works. They sell organic coffee, in compostable bags…the first bag of it’s kind by the way.  Oakland Coffee is owned by none other than my favorite, Green Day. (That has nothing to do with why I like the coffee) it’s just delicious; try it, you’ll see.  My favorite is Atomic Garden whole bean.  Whole bean makes all the difference guys, I’m serious. I’m spoiled now.  You can buy it from their website (linked above) or get it through Amazon.

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Yeah, so anyway.  This is supposed to be about tea.  (Hello again ADD, my old friend.)

A friend told me about Harney and Son’s Fine Teas a few years ago and I have been hooked ever since. I love every tea I have tried from them so far. 

My favorite is Hot Cinnamon Sunset

…but I have been drinking Peppermint a lot lately.

Birthday Tea is another favorite. Gonna be having a few cups on my 30th birthday in a few days (February 20th)

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HTTP://RWRD.IO/M31580R If you want you can use this link to get $5.00 off your order of $30 or more.

I know everyone is into the term Spill the Tea lately, but these are yummy, high quality teas. I don’t recommend spilling them; the only place you’ll want to spill these teas is into your mouth.

-laurenmikael

🙂

If you liked this post (or my blog in general) a tip/donation of any size would be greatly appreciated! You can update the quantity in your cart to adjust the amount of your tip. Thank you!

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PS: The theme for my website is not very mobile friendly. I’m planning on getting a mobile friendly one soon. Until then, if you are on a cell phone and want to subscribe via e-mail, or follow my blog through WordPress…all of the links can be found at the bottom of my site. On a computer everything shows up on the right sidebar as it should.

PPS: The links above are affiliate links, meaning I will make a profit if you choose to make a purchase from the links, at no additional cost to you of course!

Green Day- Father Of All…- Fangirl Friday

It’s been a little bit, I apologize. I was going through a bit of blog maintenance, everything is good now, so it’s time to get back at it. This post is all about Green Day.

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For this post I’m going back to my Rockstars and Randomness roots. I’ve been thinking of starting some sort of Music Monday type deal on here; once a week or so write about what I’ve been listening to/or just anything music related. Maybe do it on Fridays instead and call it Fangirl Friday. I will also include any stories of personal interactions I’ve had with whichever artist is featured for that week. This way R&R still lives on in a way. Does that sound good to you guys?

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Today Green Day released their new album “Father of all Mother*******” I’m not sure if you know this yet or not, but Green Day is my all-time favorite band. Why else would I name my dog Dookie?

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I saw them live in March of 2017. Obviously they were on my bucket list. I was so happy to finally see them, I had been wanting to for years. They definitely did not disappoint. Not to sound cliché, but as their song (Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) implies…I honestly did have the time of my life.

This was my first arena type show to go to without a caregiver, I was so happy to be independent that night; going with caregivers usually meant that I had to leave whenever they were ready to go, seeing as they are the one who could drive. Good news is at the start of 2020 I became fully independent and no longer have anyone working for me. Now I just Uber when I need to go somewhere, have Instacart deliver groceries, and buy most of anything I need from the internet. I was just tired of being almost 30 (just a few more days ya’ll.) and feeling like I had a babysitter. I should have quit a very long time ago.

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Anyway, back to Green Day; sorry, I totally have ADD. I was as close to the stage as you could be. Being in a wheelchair actually comes with quite a few amazing perks. I was on Mike Dirnt’s side of the stage. He kept smiling and making silly faces at me the whole show.

When it was time for “Jesus of Suburbia” I stood up and hung on to the rails for the whole song. That song is 9 minutes and 8 seconds long. I was pretty proud of myself. Apparently, so was Mike; at one point in the song he looked over at me and the expression on his face was a happy type of shocked, like “Woah…! Wait a minute, she’s in a chair, but now she standing for us.” I’ll never forget that look.

The electric wheelchair I took to the arena had been breaking down a lot at the time, it was getting old; battery would hardly stay charged.

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Before the show. I sort of jokingly said to a friend “Wouldn’t it be cool if my chair broke right in front of Green Day, and then I had to hang out with them?”

Flash foward to after the show. My chair dies. (I always keep the charger in the basket underneath the chair, just incase I need it.)

I charge it in a room filled with Green Day’s family and friends. (A few of the members are from Little Rock, so they were having a little get together.)

Here’s a picture of Mike Dirnt and I while my batteries are charging.

Another prime example of why you should always watch the way you speak. You get what you say. Good or bad.

I also got to talk to Jason White for a little bit. His friends were nice enough to share an Uber home with me; they even paid for my half of the ride. Thanks Lindsey and Burt!

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Oh, right this is supposed to be about the new album. Squirrel much?! Haha!

New album is great. It’s a little different from their usual stuff. Which is always good, don’t want to get bored from the same ole thing, ya know? Not gonna lie, it took me a few listens to get into it. Each time I listen to it, it gets even better.

🙂

If you liked this post (or my blog in general) a tip/donation of any size would be greatly appreciated! You can update the quantity in your cart to adjust the amount of your tip. Thank you!

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-laurenmikael