Tuesday Morning, August 21st

How odd. I find myself looking ove rmy shoulder as I type to be sure Allie is not coming. I wish she could understand what the blog is and how it is helping me and many others learn and deal with the trauma and recovery we now have. I understand that it may be embarrasing to her for others to hear of how she is progressing and the trials and tribulations which accompany the healing process or possibly she reads is and discovers things about her which she may not be aware of and when she reads is it could sparks off a feeling of not being what or where she use to be. This could be the reason she is recovering the way she is. It gives me the ability to write about her progress, knowing that she will recover fully and if she does read it maybe it will geive her the hope for Full Recovery also - we all know it is coming. Interesting the many philosophical issues you can look at her - Ayn Rand watch out - (one of my favorite philosophers)

It's 8:30 am and Roni (my sister), Nancy and I have been sitting outside dringing coffee and tea for quite a while now talking about life in general and about Allie and how well she is doing, about the many teachers who want to work with her, about going to the inhouse rehab next week and about how frustrating all this must be to Allie - I think Roni put it a great way when she said that this happened at such a critical timne in her life that it must be very frustrating; about to graduate from high school - missed it, senior prom - missed it, off to college - missed it and to not remember the performance of the school play Throughly Modern Millie; it must all be so very frustrating. Stephen Covey in the Seven Secrets talks abot unconscious incompetents, conscious incompetnets, unconscious competents and conscious competnets. What he is saying is that the unconscious incompetent does not know they don;t know (where Allie used to be), then the conscious incompetent knows they don't know (where Allie is) can you imagine how frustrating that must be for her to know she doesn't know. She will say things like - what's that word when you do good in school and then they give you money to go to school and you tell her scholarship and she will say Oh Yeah. Very simple but sometimes (and probably many more times than we knoe) getting stuck on little things. The good news is that she is very positive and is back on her way to being a conscious compentent and with her singing she was a unconscious competent - she was so good she didn;t really ahve to think about what she was doing ( or at least that is a proud father typing).

Allie's moods have been very good recently and she is also getting very good at riding in the car, her wit is quick and she is usually very congenial, She still and never did like to be told she was not doing something right (and who does) but she is a quick study. Loves to talk and be with you but will also take a break as she sees fit. I guess the best way to say it is that Allie likes things on her terms - but who doesn;t. She is getting a filter and is just so gtreat to be around.

Thank you for all of the encouraging e-mails and letters. We are so blessed to have her home and have all grown so much closer together. I hope all of our friends in the hospital are well and are going home soon. I miss seeing everybody there, they were our family for a few months, the nurses and therapist and especially Mark Clark the man of the hour who really single handidly took Allie under his wing and boy did she love/hate him for it. I am not singleing out because everyone was great but Mark and Allie had a very special relationship, one I am sure she will always remember and one which I am sure he will to.

Allie's Dad