Lila Stuff

Personal blog. Sci-fi, Muppets, comedy, stuff I've made, etc.

[humansofnewyork]

“Even if you’re on a boat you don’t have to be scared of waves because they’re just big pieces of water that come together when gravity falls down from the moon and into the water.  Gravity is all over the moon.  It’s in the bottom of the craters and astronauts can bring it back in rockets.  You don’t even have to put it in a bucket.  It just sort of follows you.  But there’s no gravity in outer space.  If I went to outer space I’d visit to a planet that’s a summer planet, where the aliens are swimming and drinking milkshakes and stuff.  That’s because summer is my favorite season.  I know all this stuff because I do science class.”

[aseaofquotes]

Sandra Cisneros, “Eleven”

[dabneycoleperson]

Visit Original Link

[dementia-by-day]

Don’t ask someone with dementia if they “know your name” or “remember you”

If I can, I always opt to ditch my name tag in a dementia care environment. I let my friends with dementia decide what my name is: I’ve been Susan, Gwendolyn, and various peoples’ kids. I’ve been so many identities to my residents, too: a coworker, a boss, a student, a sibling, a friend from home, and more. 

Don’t ask your friend with dementia if they “remember your name” — especially if that person is your parent, spouse, or other family member. It’s quite likely to embarrass them if they can’t place you, and, frankly, it doesn’t really matter what your name is. What matters is how they feel about you.

Here’s my absolute favorite story about what I call, “Timeline Confusion”:

Alicia danced down the hallway, both hands steadily on her walker. She moved her hips from side to side, singing a little song, and smiled at everyone she passed. Her son, Nick, was walking next to her.

Nick was probably one of the best caregivers I’d ever met. It wasn’t just that he visited his mother often, it was how he visited her. He was patient and kind—really, he just understood dementia care. He got it.

Alicia was what I like to call, “pleasantly confused.” She thought it was a different year than it was, liked to sing and dance, and generally enjoyed her life.

One day, I approached the pair as they walked quietly down the hall. Alicia smiled and nodded at everyone she passed, sometimes whispering a, “How do you do!”

“Hey, Alicia,” I said. “We’re having a piano player come in to sing and play music for us. Would you like to come listen?”

“Ah, yes!” she smiled back. “My husband is a great singer,” she said, motioning to her son.

Nick smiled and did not correct her. He put his hand gently on her shoulder and said to me, “We’ll be over there soon.”

I saw Nick again a few minutes later while his mom was occupied with some other residents. “Nick,” I said. “Does your mom usually think that you’re her husband?”

Nick said something that I’ll never forget.

“Sometimes I’m me, sometimes I’m my brother, sometimes I’m my dad, and sometimes I’m just a friend. But she always knows that she loves me,” he smiled.

Nick had nailed it. He understood that, because his mom thought it was 1960, she would have trouble placing him on a timeline.

He knew that his mom recognized him and he knew that she loved him. However, because of her dementia, she thought it was a different year. And, in that year, he would’ve been a teenager.

Using context clues (however mixed up the clues were) Alicia had determined that Nick was her husband: he was the right age, he sure sounded and looked like her husband, and she believed that her son was a young man.

This is the concept that I like to call timeline confusion. It’s not that your loved one doesn’t recognize you, it’s that they can’t place you on a timeline.

What matters is how they feel about you. Not your name or your exact identity.

[deebott]

This is so sweet omg

[godzilla-reads]

“You know how you let yourself think that everything will be all right if you can only get to a certain place or do a certain thing. But when you get there you find it’s not that simple.”

[screenshotsofdespair]

[sixpenceee]

Less variance, more scariance

[nevver]

Call me, Lorraine Sorlet

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

I do not need someone to complete me. But if you wanted to, we could walk next to each other into whatever is coming next.

Meghan Lynn (via onlinecounsellingcollege)

[deactivated8888-deactivated2018]

[cizayox]

This is honestly what i look like in my minds eye

[puddlecat]

Request. A worm.

YYYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH SLIMEY

[harrypotteronline]

Whereas beloved books, movies, and other pop culture ephemera can be fun diversions adding splashes of color to everyday life, Harry Potter has always been more, a behemoth presence informing everyone’s life, even now. For years, family parties saw two dozen cousins all exhaustively discussing whether Michael Gambon was a worthy Dumbledore, or who “R.A.B.” might turn out to be in book seven. Summers were spent in anticipation of the film and book releases, and people spent more than one with a homemade “NO SPOILERS” sign around their necks at graduation parties. There was always an urgency to stay tapped into Harry’s story and to see him through his predestined slog, because it was ours, too. On the other side of it, after all, we had grown up across many more years than he had. And what we found in that world was more familial than fandom.

[cinemagorgeous]

Quiet by artist Grady Frederick.

[scottandtess]

Tessa & Scott reacting to the CBC montage.

[lilastuff]

[earthstory]

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Hike through the jungles surrounding Arenal Volcano, in Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica. Watch for all the pumice!

[shawnphunters]

#watchfuturama meme (3/10 scenes): Named for his Uncle

“It’s all lies, every word of it! He wasn’t original, he wasn’t a martian, he wasn’t Philip Fry! And since when is he a ‘the?’”