About Me

I started blogging because I had a strong desire for connection. While I still have that desire, I also have an intense desire to inspire.

I was born with a birth defect called a Tessier Cleft. Think of a baked potato without the sour cream, chives, cheese and bacon bits, AKA the good stuff, and you'll have an idea of what I looked like when I was born.

In lay terms,, my face was wide open. It wasn't properly formed when I was in utero, and because of that, I've required 66 surgeries thus far to repair it. Bone grafts, skin grafts, cartilage from a bottle. . .

You name it, I've probably had it in my body!

You may be wondering why that's inspirational. Along with the facial defect itself, I was also born without eyes. Yes, that's right, a blind blogger. Have you heard of such a thing????? Well you have now! They gave me 72 hours tops to see if I'd 'make it'. When we hit the 72 hour mark they informed my parents that I would be brain damaged, physically sick and weak, and just generally not smart, bright, and incapable of doing anything but lying on my bed drooling. Not so fast!

Though I was drowning in my mother's amniotic fluid because of my face being split wide open, I was pulling out my feeding tube by Saturday. Born on Tuesday 1/14/1986 at what was then Saginaw General Hospital, taken by ambulance *thanks to a bounced check my grandmother wrote* two hours away to Motts Children's Hospital, by the time my mother had healed up enough to come see me 4 days later, I was yanking out my feeding tube and telling the nurses to 'take that!'. With a cleft lip and palate I still was able to drink from a bottle, though it was a special one, and when they broke my ankle to repair my clubbed foot a few months later I was kicking off casts faster then they could put them on. My mother has one, my Father has one and I believe both sets of grandparents had them as well!

I went to public schools, graduated 6 months ahead of my class in December 2003 despite being punched, kicked and spit on, and well. . .here I am blogging!

I've been working on my autobiography since 2005 and WILL have it out one day!! In fact, I already gave it to a prominent rock band's frontman who said if he had the money to cover all the costs he'd have it published already.

So back to inspiration. That is a pretty inspirational story if I do say so myself, especially. . . Wait for it. . . Considering I'm one of only between 10-20 people in the WORLD with this exact story. Yes, you read that right. So just imagine if you met me. You'd be meeting a rare person indeed. Tons of people have tons of struggles, but a Tessier Cleft, not so much.

That's not to say I'm not like the rest of you 20-somethings. My parents divorced when I was 18, but split up off and on 3 times before that. Talk about no stability! I've had cats and dogs die, been in a car accident, been in love, though it wasn't reciprocated *the worst kind of love there is*, and have a bad tendency of swearing, while not often, when it does happen it's like Eminem meets a sailor or a soldier! So yes, I am. normal. Though what kind of normal is open for debate. I am, I suppose, MY NORMAL, and that's really the only kind of normal there is. We are each normal, in our own normal ways of being normal.

Thank you for reading! I hope you find me delightful, and elegant, and yet decadent and sensual. Like a Reese Peanut Buttercup. Remember. . .There's no wrong way, to eat a Reese!