Life has been very relaxing. For the first time ever, I am done with school and it feels great for now. During my brief stardom, I was recognized in public a lot. I actually went to the mall and people were staring and waving and walking up to me asking hey wasnt you the one on tv? It was kind of fun being a local celebrity. I was even asked to be a keynote speaker for an album release party for a christian singer here in North Carolina. I am thankful It feels good to get my story out there. I know my testimony is that I survived all the brain surgeries, I no longer have seizures and I accomplished so much despite my limitations. However, I wish I could also say I fully recovered from a stroke. Now that I have so much free time I have really been thinking about my future and I really want to learn to use my left hand again. I pray I gain the use back 100% but I will be satisfied just to use it again. I had given up on ever using the left side again. I forget about it so much. Because of my vision loss, I dont even know my arm is there because I can't see it unless I look down. After buying "One Handed in a Two Handed World and teaching myself to be independent years ago, I pretty much decided that I only needed my right hand anyway. Trying to use my left hand was just too worrisome and took too long. Its kinda hard to use your hand when you can't move your fingers or your wrist and you can barely straighten your arm out all the way. Well now that I have so much free time, Im ready to work on the hand again. I have been trying to sleep with the splint that straightens my wrist and fingers, but after tossing and turning until 5am, I decided I need to exercise more in the day so my fingers can be stretched out when I get ready for bed. Besides exercising, I have been thinking about graduate school, thinking sbout writing a book, and today I started the Daniel Fast. I also registered for a discipleship class at church. Since I am only eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes for my fast, I have to cook my own food. I enjoy cooking. I have finally been using the kitchen aids I ordered from sammons prestons years ago. The only challenge is cutting because my dad lost a piece to my cutting board and opening cans because I need two hands to keep the can from falling after the opener pops the top off. I am grateful for this free time. I really want to try my best to tackle the spasticity on my left. It seems like baclofen and exercise is the only things that can make a difference since botox doesnt. Maybe if I go back to exercising like I did when I was homebound for a year after my stroke, I will get the same motivation to get my left side stronger.