It is around six o’clock. I discovered something interesting while playing the piano. I was playing along and I notice that, ow, my neck hurts.. what.. what am I doing? And I realize I have my head tilted all the way back so I’m facing the ceiling. What the hey? And then I picture Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder and now I believe that somehow being blind and playing the piano makes you want to face the sky or something. Isn’t that weird?? What a strange phenomenon. Maybe not being able to see helps you to “feel it” more or something.
Sean will get home soon and I am excited to have some interaction. We shall order Thai food tonight so dinner will be a snap.. or will it??
Well, it’s around 8:30 or so. It’s nice having Sean. He is mean and likes to play tricks on me like silently stay just out of reach and then smack my tush and run away. He also likes to put tables in my way so I run into them, but that wasn’t on purpose. Eating Thai food was surprisingly easy. I remarked, however, on how bitter the peppers seemed. I don’t know if that’s my heightened sense of taste or if the peppers are just gross today. (We get this dinner every Friday night.)
Sean just came in and asked why I was turned to the side. I didn’t realize that while my body is facing forward, my head was turned 90 degrees to the side. Ha ha. What the crap? I think I am losing my mind. I’m really tired of not seeing but I want to make it, so I’ll try. Shoot, I just paused for a second to think about something else and I have no idea what I just said. I hope I was finished with that thought, whatever it was.
Sean just read my “journal as a blind person” to me. It is entertaining and weird because it seems like a hundred years ago. I swear I have no sense of time today. I didn’t know what time it was for the bigger part of the day and I felt no time pass from the light outside. It was just all the same. So it could have been twenty minutes ago or 20 years, I really can’t say.
I have learned a lot from this experience. I have a few hours to go but I think the most difficult things are behind me. I can move around much more fluidly (in my apartment) and I can’t believe how much I need to touch everything. It is strange, having to feel the exact placement of things. Also, p.s. cutting the pear and cheese went ok. It took a really long time. I had to get rid of the core pieces right away so I didn’t gather them up along with the regular slices. Also, cutting the monterrey jack cheese was hard. The cheese is soft, and it is also hard when you’re cutting with the back of the knife. Remember that. Sean said he was glad I didn’t try to push down on the knife with my other hand. I am too.
After a while I was just too tired to do things anymore. Getting from point A to point B was too taxing and for the last chunk I sat by the tv and listened to nonsense until Jeopardy came on (rejoice) . It’s been a good experience. I have a great respect for blind people. To move around outside let alone in a big city… man. But yeah, I’m ready to be done. My eyes had better thank me, whatever that means. I don’t know what it means. But, I will remember to thank my eyes.
2 comments:
I must say, your experiment is one of the most interesting things I have ever read. I am impressed that you did it, and I'd like to see (heh) a large-scale reproduction as a scientific study. It's probably been done, but it's not like I want to go to the effort of researching it.
Oh man.. i'm glad you thought it was interesting. By about Part III i was like, this is the stupidest thing ever...
But it's true, it was fascinating, all the things i learned. And i totally just scratched the surface because there were a lot more things i probably could have been doing other than sitting quietly in my chair for hours at a time. ha.. sad. Anyway... they should do a big study on it. Maybe i should be a participant. But then, i'd have an advantage.
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