OH YA GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS 10/6/06 I have been blessed with the greatest friends anyone can hope for. Right now I am sitting at the computer of two close friends of mine who live in Vermont. Tomorrow we are going to the Cape in Massachusetts for the weekend. I probably will not come back home til Wednesday.

I love my home and my neighborhood is alright. Sometimes though, it is nice to get away. I usually go visiting my Vermont friends four times or more a year. Last time, they stopped by to take me out to lunch on their way home from a class reunion in the mid-west.

Through my traumatic brain injury, I have lost some really close friends. I know other folks with tbi have said the same thing happened to them. A few of my friends needed to take a break when things got really intense mid-recovery for me. The really good friends have stuck and stayed, just like I hope I will for them.

I had some personality changes because of my traumatic brain injury. For instance, I used to read almost exclusively fiction. Now I read almost exclusively non-fiction-- computer books and travel books. There have been other changes too. I have to watch that I do not get too excited or over-reactive to stimuli. I also have to remember to rest enough and yet challenge myself enough to keep progressing.

I can't lie and say wishy-washy things like, "Oh, I'm delighted this happened to me." I wish that it didn't. Since it has happened to me, I have to deal with things the way they are and my life the way it is now. I do not believe that any god 'wanted' this to happen or that it 'had to' happen. It was circumstance. It could have been anyone having a car accident but it wasn't anyone. It was me. Right after the accident, I knew something had changed. I have to make the best of what I got and that is what I am endeavoring to do.

~sapphoq healing tbi  ¶ 8:36 PM