paralyzed | FknBucky

Posts Tagged ‘paralyzed

Feb

Marriott No No

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: accessible, anger, ashamed, bonvoy, business, courtyard, cripple, dark, hurtful, like, love, marriott, mean, member, No, paralyzed, passion, principals, reward, sanity, titanium, upgrade, wheelchair, wrong, yes

What a week. I’ve had so many little things irritate the crap out of me that I have a feeling two more and I will explode. Don’t believe me?? Just try. Be the one that puts me over the edge. This is actually not recommended. The world can be a Dick sometimes and it just makes you want to smash things. I know I said that you should not blast all your stuff out into internet land, but today I break all the rules. Want to know some really dumb stuff?? Cool cause I’m about to blow it up.

I travel a lot. It is my thing. I stay in hotels a lot. I stay in Marriott hotels a lot. I’m what they call a titanium member and have been for a number of years now. I stay at the same hotels many times and know the staff there personally. Some of you might even remember me posting things like the Asheville Courtyard Marriott decorating my room for my birthday and bringing out a cake. Say what you want, but the truth is people love my crazy ass. Some of you have known me since I was a teenager and not much has changed. I simply love to laugh and mess with people until they laugh too. I went to war in my head after getting paralyzed to make sure I didn’t lose that part about me. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone thru and can’t imagine anything else in life ever coming close to the darkness those days represented. You don’t know and I pray no one I care about ever truly knows the strength it took to not embrace that darkness.

Another day we can discuss that. Or not most likely as I don’t particularly like going back there. It is painful and scary to be honest. Feeling great yet?? Ha. You should be, if I can smile and laugh you sure as heck better be able to. With my status comes rewards from Marriott. They vary in what they are, but the two most common are vouchers for a free night up to a certain point total. Most of the times these vouchers are good for 40,000 points which is plenty to get a nice room just about anywhere. The higher end Marriotts can be all the way up to 120,000 points per night, but your local Courtyard is usually about 30,000. The other option are suite night awards. Instead of one free night you can get five nights upgraded to a suite for no additional cost. A very cool option for vacation when you have some loved ones with you.

Marriott gave me a choice on which one I wanted, but the email asking me went into my spam folder and I never saw it. They have also given me 10 suite night awards sometime last year I never asked for as well. Yahoo Marriott!! Thanks for the free stuff. Here comes the kicker. They do not have accessible suites in many of their hotels. My colleagues I travel with are mostly all titanium members as well and they get upgraded almost every stay to a suite or better room. I do not, because I need the accessible room. It is what it is. I use a wheelchair and in order to keep my sanity I accept things like this simply because to get upset by means I’ll be pissed off all the time. I don’t have that in me.

Last week I thought to myself “Self why don’t you email Marriott customer service and ask them to swap my suite nights for vouchers.” Seemed really logical to me as I can’t use the suite nights. I’ve tried in the past and every single time the hotel does not have accessible suites making it pointless. I explained that I am paralyzed from the chest down and because of that unable to stay in the suites of their hotels. I honestly don’t think I was asking for anything crazy, but simply asking to have my reward switched to something that I can actually take advantage of. The reality is it is BS they don’t have accessible suites in the hotels. I know us cripples make normal people uncomfortable so it is discouraged to leave the house and certainly not to try and stay in an upgraded room. Nope us cripples usually stay on the 1st floor next to the laundry room and elevators.

I was met with a massive NO WAY no matter who I talked to. I was kind of taken aback like “whoa” what did I do wrong?? I had one guy tell me other guests can’t change their rewards so I shouldn’t be able to change mine. I asked if all the other guest were paralyzed front the chest down to which he replied he treats everyone the same way. While that is a “thing” in my personal opinion it was being applied wrong. I explained to him/her that I understand the policy, but was hoping they could treat me like a person and not just Marriott member number 3938364 (not my real number). In life and business a person needs to understand that being right is sometimes the incorrect answer. I truly thought someone would say “Oh man, that is not cool” and then figure out a cool way to help me out. Instead I was left feeling ashamed I even dared to ask.

I obviously didn’t take my first three NO’s and quit so I started to email more and more people about my situation. I can afford the stupid rooms, but it became more about the principal than anything else. My final email back from someone started out thanking me for my loyalty to Marriott and how much they appreciate my position. I’m assuming they appreciate I’m paralyzed, but not exactly sure what that statement meant. This guy acknowledged the suites are not accessible, making it impossible for me to use the reward, but they still refuse to change the rewards and I should stop because it can not escalate further. Escalating is what I do. I’m hoping it is what you do too. I am fine with keeping the suite night award, but that should mean I have every opportunity to use my reward just like others.

Maybe I’m looking at this wrong and if you think that please let me know because the way I see it sucks. I love Marriott most of the time. In fact I have written a dozen complimentary emails with one of them leading to a group of employees at the Courtyard Marriott in Asheville, NC to be recognized nationally by Marriott receiving an award. They could use their award as it was cash I do believe. I really believe Marriott should be better than this. What do you think???

Be kind to others unless you’re Marriott. Then do whatever you want because you are massive and trading out one crippled pricks suite nights to free stay vouchers will bankrupt the whole company.

FknBucky

Apr

The Day. 19 Years today

By Bucktown 2 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: attitude, Colorado, Copper, cry, Denver, depression, drugs, go, happy, helicopter, kids, man, miracle, motor, motorcycle, pain, para, paralyzed, paraplegic, rich, scar, smile, stop, stregth, try, wish, woman

My physical scar is much smaller than the emotional ones I carry with me.

The only difference is now I sit down to smile.

I wrote this blog 9 years ago. It is just as relevant today as it was then. I’ve been paralyzed now for 19 years. It is hard, life is hard, and for one stupid decision I have a lifetime sentence. There is no parole, just more days guaranteed to be filled with pain, filled with depression, and filled with regrets. I make a conscious decision every day to not allow myself to go down this pain, depression, and regret highway. I don’t always succeed in stopping myself from spending time on this very lonely road which is never healthy, but it is always there begging me to come take the drive. It will let me go as fast as I want, no morons camping out in the left passing lane, and a plethora of other whiners waiting for me to start the ”Poor Me” conversation.

I could have easily died that day. Kind of a miracle I didn’t. Many of you wouldn’t have gotten to know me. So please read below. Take a moment to put yourself in my shoes. Please share it if you think others might benefit from reading this message.

April 1st 2002. I was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident at 1:32 PM riding home from snowboarding at Copper Mountain. I should not have been on a motorcycle that day, but I did it anyway. My inner voice that I usually listen to was drowned out by my ego and irresponsibility. I accept the outcomes of the choices I make because I’m an adult, a man, and a person that believes it is the only option. Those that spend their days finding ways to blame others for their problems are only wasting time.

I was in the median of the freeway and I saw the oncoming traffic and thought to myself “this is how I am going to die.” I accepted it and was strangely not afraid. I have never really had a fear of being dead, but I don’t want to die early, I just accept what happens. Then I was in the air. Flying & flipping head over heels. I was told later by a witness I did three full flips, but obviously I didn’t stick the landing. My head hit first and I broke the helmet that was saving my life. I believe the helmet pushed into my spine and smashed it.

I was awake the entire time and remember every detail. It was the hardest moment of my life to date. I knew I was paralyzed and I was scared. My feet and legs were point up, but my chest & head were twisted around. I had to take my arm and push against the ground to make my body look “normal” again. That was scary as well. A man from Africa got to me first. He didn’t speak English, but just looked at me. He tried to take my helmet off, but I told him not to with hand gestures. A woman ran up to me and held my hand, while her husband parked the car. While he was running over to me I could hear him say “Is he breathing.”

Then another woman showed up and held my other hand and proceeded to tell me that “she loved me”. This is when I started to think I was dying. That is what you say to people that are dying, and it started to freak me out. The first woman saw this and told her to stop, but the 2nd woman argued back that I needed to hear it. I was laying in the median of a freeway freshly paralyzed and still had women fighting over me. It is the cross I bear…

An ambulance came and took me to a hospital. What happened in that hospital was the scariest, hardest, and worst hour I can think of. The questions and answers are something I wish I could forget. You don’t need to know those details. I was then taken by a helicopter to Denver where I was in critical condition for a few days. I told the lady on the helicopter to give me some serious drugs because I didn’t want to be there right then. I said “I’ll deal with the rest of this tomorrow.” She did.

Every time someone asks me why I’m in a wheelchair, this is what runs through my mind. Still think it isn’t rude to ask somebody that question. I get asked by complete strangers multiple times in a day sometimes. Make sure your kids know better. It was ten years ago and my life has changed substantially. My views of the world, the government, and the way I represent myself. Being in the hospital was like attending my own funeral. People came from everywhere just to stand in that room to say nothing while saying everything. They came to stand there and say “I care about you Bucky”. This saved my life and ensured I would do everything I could to stay ME.

Doctors and nurses tried to trick me into taking antidepressants daily. I would get a little cup full of pills, but I would ask everyday what each one is. They would tell me not to worry about it, those were all good for me. I refused to take any until I knew what they were. After a week my sister told them to knock it off because I was getting pissed. I was supposed to be depressed, I had just been fucking paralyzed. It is natural. Somehow I still found time to smile in that hospital bed, and even tell jokes to ease the tension of everyone.

Life is a journey and sometimes it is fucking really hard. I don’t know what problems you have and personally I don’t care. I will care if you ask me too, but way I see it, until you do it isn’t my business. What I do know is that we all have problems no matter what race, religion, tax bracket, gender, age, or whatever other category you want to use to separate people. That is what we all are, just one plain label. People.

I’m not sure how I want to close this one. I’ll just leave you with this. I have overcome this and I’m a productive member of society. The man I have become is because I faced my problems and solved them on my own. Those challenges took a cocaine abusing, drunken, womanizing, snowboarder into a drunken womanizing guy in a wheelchair. I am proud of the man I am today, and who knows what I would be doing if it weren’t for those hardships.

As a community, country, and world we need to teach people that facing and solving your problems will make you a better person. It will make you a stronger person and teach you things that you never even knew existed.

Be kind to others. Don’t worry about the car that cut you off, the rude comments made online, or the outrage the 24/7 news channel is telling you to have. Just be kind to everyone. Not just the people that think like you do.

Fknbucky

FknBucky

Posts Tagged ‘paralyzed

Marriott No No

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