Season 7 To Be An Advocate Blog 19: Bad Days

 Bad Days

I think, in general, I am a very positive person. Obviously, not all the time; everyone has their bad days, but I like to think that people notice my positivity. On Thursday, August 29th 2024, I got off work at 4:00. I was getting off the highway 10 minutes later and I had the green light.

I made my turn, but unfortunately, someone ran their red light. He only hit my front bumper, and there was minimal damage, so no witnesses stopped. The guy who hit me pulled over, and I glared at him as I passed him to pull over, too. This guy, who couldn’t have been older than 21, mouthed “sorry” as I pulled over, and when we both got out of the cars, he said, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t notice that the light changed.”

I called the police, and then my parents and I was about to call Paige, but by the time I was done with my parents, the police had already arrived, so I just texted her. While I was on the phone, the other guy had been, too, and he started trying to put the crash on me. Long story short, because there were no witnesses, they couldn’t prove which of us was at fault (though one of the cops told me he believed I was not).

I got back to my parents' house, and Dad fixed my car. About an hour and a half had passed since the crash, and Paige had justifiably been stressing out the entire time. I picked her up from the apartment, and then we returned to my parents' house and ended up having dinner with our neighbors, Steven and Robin, their daughter Megan, and our friends Tim and Kristin. We headed home around 10, and unbeknownst to me, I ran over a nail at some point between Meadow Park, Dr., and the apartment.

I have been trying to save money on coffee, so I only go to the coffee shop to write once a week. However, Noah got me a gift card for my birthday, so I got up at 5:00 the following day to write there before work. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, turned on the light, and realized I had pink eye in my left eye. I called off work and set up an appointment for the Minute Clinic at 9:10.

The Minute Clinic was only five minutes away by car, so at 9:00, I got in my car, turned it on, and started driving. As soon as I started moving my car, it went G-dunk G-dunk G-dunk G-dunk because my tire was flat. I called a Lyft, got to the MinuteClinic just in time, and got a doctor's note and a prescription for eye drops. As the prescription was being filled, I called Mom to fill her in on how chaotic the morning had been, but unfortunately, my phone died mid-call… so I couldn't use it to call a Lyft to get home.

Once the prescription was filled, I started walking home. Three to five minutes into the walk, I saw a bus stop in the distance and realized that I had some cash in my wallet. As if on cue, a bus pulled up right then and there. I started running as fast as I could, waving my arms to let the bus driver know I was there. As soon as I got to the bus stop, the bus driver closed the door, made eye contact with me, and drove away.

I felt so overwhelmed at this point; I wanted to scream and cry and just curse out the next person who looked at me. I took a deep breath, building up for a scream, and just busted out laughing. I didn't want to laugh; it just sort of happened. When I started laughing, I began to think a little more clearly. I knew by that afternoon I would get my tire fixed, and by the following Tuesday (when I was allowed to go back to work), I would have completely gotten rid of the pink eye. It's tough in the moment to think positively. But if you can laugh at yourself, it makes it so much easier to get through your bad days!

Have a Greattastic Day and be Safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 7 To Be An Advocate Blog 18: Mitchmas 27, Part 2: The Last Pizza Night

 Mitchmas 27, Part 2: The Last Pizza Night

As I mentioned in my first book, The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child, the Anderson family, and my family would have a weekly date night when we were very little. On Thursday, the Anderson girls would come to my parents' house, and Rich and Barbara would go on a date. The following Thursday, Rich and Barbara would watch all the kids, and my parents would go out. The Andersons would always get pizza because it was just logistically easier with my autistic palette. After date nights stopped happening, the Andersons would still have pizza night every Thursday, and when I became friends with them again, I started joining them for pizza night. I attended pizza night, from the Miracle Child events until I started working at Kroger.

Now Rich and Barbra are trying to sell their house. In Rich’s own words, “It's just a pipedream right now,” so nothing is really set in stone as of the posting of this installment, but the move is, at the very least, the backdrop for this story.

On Saturday, August 24th, Paige and I were at her parent's house doing laundry around noon before Arden, Aspen, and Marshall came up from Cincinnati. After the three older Andersons permanently moved away after Covid, Mitchmas has been on a two-year cycle. 2021 was a big year, 2022 was a more subdued year, and last year was a big year, so I decided to lean into the cycle. This year, we planned to hang out at my parent’s house and have a very low-key night. We got to Meadow Park Drive around 3:00, and the girls and Marshall arrived shortly after.

Paige and I walked out of my parents' house and greeted Arden, Aspen, Marshall, and Barbara. After a little bit of spontaneous dancing, we went to the Andersons' backyard. While we were there, Kid arrived after having moved into a new apartment. We all talked for about 45 minutes before Paige and I went to the store to get drinks. Paige and I returned from Kroger at 5:00; unfortunately, Arden was not feeling well.

The night began to unravel pretty quickly from there. Marshall made sure that Arden was okay, and the rest of us sat around, unsure what to do. By 7:30, we were sure that Arden was down for the count, but everyone else was getting hungry. “We should get pizza,” Aspen suggested.

“It'll be the last pizza night…” I said in a reflective tone.

We ordered the pizza, and Barbara and Aspen drove to pick it up at 8:00. At 8:10, they returned and yelled that pizza had arrived to gather us all in the kitchen. To everyone's surprise, Arden stumbled down the stairs, and we all started screaming excitedly as she joined us. As we screamed and ate, Marshall capitalized on the chaos by turning into an inspirational speaker. This went on for about 20 minutes, so I can't tell you everything that was said, but the gist was, “YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE! YOU GOT TO MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY DAY!” It was super cheesy, but it was hilarious. As he riled us up, we started playing catch with lemons, oranges, anything we could find, really. It was pure pandemonium.

As things settled down, I looked around the kitchen at my friends. As Rich said, it's just a pipe dream right now; it might not happen… but I'm fairly confident it will. So many Greattastic things happened in that house. I mean, I've literally written three books about it… I looked around at my best friends and my entire world. I felt a little sad that the house would be gone soon. I thought back on all the amazing things we did growing up and have even done in the last 5 years, and I am so happy that we have had so many memories in this house, from the recording of Miracle Child to this last pizza night.

Have a Greattastic Day and Be Safe 

J. Mitchie Ulibarri.

Season 7 To Be An Advocate Blog 17: Mitchmas 27, Part 1: Comedy In Traditions

 Mitchmas 27, Part 1: Comedy In Traditions

Some housekeeping before we get into this installment. A week after the events of the previous installment, Paige and I moved into our new apartment (Summit Crest Apartments). We have more or less completely moved in, though I still haven't moved my podcast stuff over from my parents, which is why it's been a little harder for me to post.

I call my birthday, August 19th, Mitchmas because I think it's funny. I woke up early on my 27th birthday to get ready for work at New Story. Paige wished me a happy birthday, and we played with her cat, Charlie, before I had to go. When I got to work everyone was wishing me a happy birthday, and I responded, “Merry Mitchmas!” Most people thought it was funny, though I will admit I think a few people were thrown off by it.

After I got home from work, Paige and I hung out at the apartment for about an hour and a half before we drove to pick up Noah. We ended up going to Buca di Beppo, which is where I’ve had my family birthday dinner since 2021. Now, there are two locations in Columbus, and one of them is closing, so we went to the other one. We had a ton of laughs at dinner, but the funniest part was at the very end. One of the managers came up to our table, and he said, “Happy birthday! I'm going to make you something very special myself.” We were already going to go back to my parents' house for cake and presents (minus Noah because he had a meeting). About 10 minutes later, a bunch of waiters/waitresses and the manager came out with this HUGE brownie sundae.

We asked for some to-go boxes for everything else, and once it was just us at the table, Dad said, “Watch this!” He then grabbed all of our dessert plates, put a small smudge of the brownie sundae onto each one, and put the rest of it into one of the go boxes, and then we all acted lethargic. The waiter was very caught off guard, and even though it only took him a few seconds to figure it out, he legitimately thought for a moment that we ate the whole thing in like 2 minutes.

After dropping Noah off at home for his Zoom meeting, we headed to my parents' house. About 20 minutes after we arrived, Kid and one of her best friends, Kayleigh, showed up. The card that they had picked out for me was a “from your daughter” card because, growing up, my “sisters” would call me “Mama Mitchell.” I don't really remember what started it, but I think they just did it because it was weird, and it made me feel awkward.

Since my third year doing this series (Season 4), I have written multiple-part installments for my birthday. Part 1 is almost always a depiction of my family going out to Buca di Beppo. I always have fun, but I think every few years, I relearn this lesson. Life can be monotonous and repetitive. To avoid boredom, you need to find the comedy in your traditions.

To Be Continued…