6 years… 2,190 days since I walked past the wrong end of a .45 hollow point.  Six years of some of my highest highs and certainly some of my lowest lows. Days, weeks, months and years slowly starting to blur together. My wheelchair starting to become just another decision that I make each morning. Starting to become an extension of my body.  I can’t help but think back to the team meetings we’d have each Wednesday while I was in the hospital. My therapists going over my care plan with my doctor while I reclined my power chair because my blood pressure was crashing. Hearing them say the word “years” stung a part of my soul. “How is this my reality?” I thought while feeling the blood circulate back to my head. I look over to my mom who attended most of these meetings with me. She sat there so thankful that her son was alive. Me… not so much. Here I sit in 2023. The culmination of 6 years of struggles and suffering. Enough “daily grind” to break most people. Yet, somehow we...

Warning: proceed with caution, spoilers ahead. I will mark the movie spoilers with a red font if you want to skip them. Number 1: “Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot” This movie is on Amazon prime video and is an extremely well put together biopic following the life and trials of Portland cartoonist & quadriplegic John Callahan. John had a hard upbringing and never came to terms with it and self treated his anxiety with alcohol. This film follows him dealing with quadriplegia among many other obstacles after a drunk driving accident that left him paralyzed. The main focus on the film is the way that John fights his addiction to alcohol by joining AA. Sober & with a clear mind, John finds love in an old nurse he had and he begins to draw crude and satirical comics. It gets very mixed reviews but John ignores the critics and becomes a comic staple item in Portland, OR. A few different things really stick out for me from this movie. The first thing that I had to ask ...

  To start this one off, we’re going to have to take it all the way back to 2015. I had just started talking to this girl from back home. She was beautiful and we had incredible conversation. I remember her birthday was approaching and I wanted to get her something but I wanted to keep it modest because we weren’t officially dating yet. I ordered her some flowers to be delivered. I had no idea that her favorite flower was a Gerber Daisy. Luck of the draw I guess.  The next 2 1/2 years would be full of trips to Washington for her and trips back home to New Hampshire for me. Our weekends consisted of trying to fit in a Sunday night FaceTime date while we went through the trials of a long-distance relationship. I knew this girl was the one. On one of her trips to Washington state we thought we would make a fun game of it and go look at engagement rings. In reality I was using this to get her ring size but she had no idea. We both talked about the future and what it would hold. We...

  Time is such a strange concept. Just a unit of measurement while we spin around a giant flaming ball of gas. Sometimes I wish more than anything it would speed up and sometimes I wish more than anything that it would slow down. But somehow it keeps on flying. I will preface this post by saying how blessed & fortunate I have been with my family. I haven't been witness to much of it within the last few years but my grandpa is currently battling dementia. I haven't been able to expose myself to it to see him because I don't want to overwhelm him but it really makes me reminisce and think about life. I've been trying to dig up pictures of my grandpa and I together and I realized something... I only have one. I realized the same thing when I got out of the Army and it is sad as hell. If you document a bunch in the military, or take selfies and "cool guy pics" you almost get labeled, so like a lot of other guys, I never did it. I wish more than anything that I...

When did life get so crazy? Honestly. I feel like life has become nothing but the hustle & bustle. It’s weird feeling this way after a stagnant day of artwork in my wheelchair. In the comfort of my own home. Next to my sleeping dog and fiancé. But here we are, looking back to what strangely feels like a simpler time. I found some “old” pictures of me and my brothers and cousins in NY after a surprise birthday get together for my grandma. We took this picture together after or before the dinner, not exactly sure when. All I know is that it’s a fond memory but it’s pretty tough to look at. Two of my cousins in that photo are together up in Heaven, God Bless them. I’m now wheeling around in a wheelchair. Some days it just hits me differently, today being one of those times… I was a junior in high school in that photo. Not a care in the world, just living in the moment with my family. You think I was thinking, “hey dude, enjoy this embrace because this may be the last time you get to h...

  Life Has Been Rolling  & it is a beautiful thing. I know that it’s been a little while since I’ve updated my Life Keeps Rolling community inside the actual blog website. Most of my content has come in the form of Instagram posts and I’ve ventured away from Facebook a bit. I’ve always gotten way fewer interactions there anyway. I actually went through a bit of a rebranding which was a lot of fun. I’ve found my passion in art and it has been incredible. I opened up my art account “Limp Wrist Art” and have been enjoying running my merchandise shop as well as creating art for others. I truly get a lot of joy out of making commissions and I’ve been using the money raised for little philanthropy projects. Check out my links but more specifically my art account for random illustrations! I try to post something daily!  As far as life goes, this year has been huge! During the peak of COVID, Kass and I started the hunt for our forever home and we found it in Litchfield NH. Ma...

On February 11th, 2017 Kass got an open invite into the club that no one ever wants to join. She didn’t know it, but she became a WAG of SCI (Wives and Girlfriends of Spinal Cord Injury) the second that .45 hollow point met that bony son-of-a-bitch known as my spine.  I’ve already talked in length about my recovery in the hospital so I won’t hit on everything that Kass and I went through while I was in-patient. What I will talk about is how much we learned and grew during that time. It was extremely trying, especially on Kass who now faced the prospect of redefining her life to help me with mine. What Kass found while in the hospital was a community of extremely helpful, loving and quite frankly, bad-ass women to help her grieve, learn and grow. The importance of a community formed to educate & empower others who have been sucked into a situation as overwhelming as SCI is unrivaled. When Kass & I meet others facing the task of navigating an inter-abled relationship, the f...

“Let me tell ya ‘bout my best friend” Seriously though, what would life be like without dogs? And to appease any of my followers who are cat lovers I’ll say cats too... really just pets in general. I am here to tell you about the benefits of pet therapy. Before my injury, I saw pets as something to cuddle and play with. Growing up, I always had cats (thanks mom). Then in the army, I stayed with my friend who had a beautiful yellow lab / husky mix named Dixie. I would crash on the couch all the time and she would always sleep with me the whole night while I rubbed her tummy. That is where my love for dogs flourished.  While Kass and I were doing long-distance, we would discuss different breeds of dogs and talk about getting one when we lived together. We both agreed that we loved Australian Shepherd‘s and we picked  the name Kona based off of my favorite beer. I wasn’t sure when it would happen, but planning for the future was fun while I prepare to get out of the military. The...

Happy Friday everyone! I have to admit that the idea of doing a Fam Friday post intimidates the heck out of me. I avoid stirring up old emotions as much as I can because it can be a dangerous hole to fall into. That being said, after seeing how therapeutic this blog is for Joshua, I think I can handle one little post 😉   I’m assuming most readers are familiar with our story. Joshua and I crushed long distance for 2 years on opposite sides of the country. We made the most of every phone call, face time and text message. We lived for every visit we had, whether that was in NH with family or him spoiling me on adventures and nonstop dates in Washington. One month before he was supposed to come home to me, I got news that sent our lives into a bazillion different directions. The night of February 11, 2017 was the most horrifying, heart-wrenching, traumatizing night of my life. The time between finding out Josh was shot and in critical condition to actually landing at SEATAC the...

Hello  everyone!  I am Josh's mom, Maria and I  will be sharing my perspective on how Josh's injury has affected my life.  I have to admit, it seems a bit strange to  be talking about it.  So much of what I've endured over the last two years seems  insignificant  in comparison to what Josh has been handed.   My hope is that by sharing my story, other mothers  going through this  will  be  validated  in their feelings. February 11 th , 2017 started out as any other day.  It was a Saturday, so I got to sleep in and spend a leisurely day with my husband ,  Matt. We met up with our friends, Spyros and Angela,  for dinner at our favorite restaurant. It was just after we ordered dinner that Matt got  the phone call that no parent ever wants to get.  “Josh was shot" are the only words I remember. How I got from the restaurant to my home is a blur.  It was the beginning of my journey. Those early...

Most of you know that I just closed a huge chapter of my life. I am officially a veteran. The army has been my life for the past six years. Even since starting my life in a wheelchair, I’ve still been slaving away in the army. No matter how much I bitched and moaned about some of the typical government / military BS, I was and am still proud to have served. You just wouldn’t be a true enlisted soldier if you weren’t a little salty. So this begs the question, what’s next for me?  Well first I have to reshape my goals. Before I was shot, I had humble and realistic goals. I was going to go to a tech college to get certified as a diesel mechanic and work back home in NH. The plan was in full motion as I crept my way out of the grip of Uncle Sam. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “the best laid plans of mice and men”. Here’s a new one for you... “bullet, meet spine”.  At first I thought “okay, just give it a few weeks and my body will wake up. You’ll be back on your motorcycle and b...

First, I want to thank Josh for sharing this platform with me. I don’t typically shy away from talking to large groups but realizing 14,000 + people have visited this page makes me hope I can meet the standards Josh has set. This is Josh’s dad, Matt and I want to take this opportunity to talk about what changed for me on February 11, 2017. It was 6:04 pm ,   Maria and I had just gotten our food at one of our favorite restaurants (T-Bones). We were with some friends (they’re really more like family) when my phone rang. I saw it was Zach and I was just about to “bitch button” him and send a text saying we were eating and I’d call back. I thought about that for a second and realized I had not spoken to him for a   while because he was just back from Afghanistan . S o I decided I would answer it so I could hear his voice and then tell him I’d call him back. I thank God for a lot of things in my life and answering that call is one of them. My world was rocked with just the words “D...