sixwordstories | (no subject)

Yeah, I act too. Unfortunately yeah, it's not a very likely career for me but I still think it would be awesome. If I wasn't doing this, I wish I would be a professional baseball player. Yeah I am pretty fit I guess, I have to be. Between performing on stage, playing all the sports that I do and managing my diabetes, I stay in shape.

You're diabetic? That's the one that means you have to inject yourself, right?

There's 2 types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. People with Type 1 have to inject themselves with insulin and Type 2 can manage it with medication. I'm Type 1 so I have to give myself insulin, yeah.

Huh! I didn't know that! Is one too little insulin and two too much?

With Type 1, your body doesn't produce any insulin and with Type 2, your body is resistant to the insulin it produces so it can't use it properly.

Having Type 1, I have to constantly monitor my blood glucose levels and make sure they don't get too high or too low.

Does that mean you have to keep taking blood out as well as putting needles in?

Yeah I have to prick my finger to check my blood about 10-13 times a day and give myself insulin all the time. Insulin pumps help me not have to give myself shots each time though.

You must have really sore fingers by the end of the day! What's an insulin pump?

My fingers are really used to it, I've been doing this for the last 5 years. Plus I have a lot of calluses on my hands from playing the guitar and drums. An insulin pump is a device that you wear and gives you your insulin throughout the day without you having to keep giving yourself shots.

You'd think, if they can do that, they'd be automate the blood sugar testing too and, wait, you play guitar and drums? Doesn't the guitar get in -- you don't mean at the same time, do you? Hee! That would pretty cool, though!

You'd think... but that's a little different, I don't have to pay attention to when the pump's giving me insulin so I can keep going about my day but I have to stop every time to check my levels because I need to know what they are so it's not so bad.

I play the guitar, the drums, the piano and I sing. I don't play the guitar and the drums at the same time, no. But I do sing while playing all three instruments.

I wonder if you could play a drum with one foot and a keyboard with another foot while playing the guitar and singing? I mean, not you specifically, just in general! I can't even play one instrument! Well, I could probably play the drums, because all you have to do is hit things in rhythm, most of the time, and I figure I could build up to cymbals and clever things pretty quickly from there!

I don't think it'd be possible to play all of them at once well but you could probably pull off a few really offkey notes. The drums mostly is hitting thugs in rhythm but the hardest thing first to learn is how to have your hands and feet all work independently from each other.

::looks thoughtful, waving hands and tapping a foot as if drumming, then shrugs:: I expect it's a lot harder to do with actual drums than just thinking about it would make it seem!

::watches, bemused and chuckles:: Yeah, it's pretty hard to get a handle on. I started playing the drums when I was very young so I'm quite used to it.

Like my age young, or like baby young? I used to have a pair of toy bongo drums when I was three, because I got real sick and couldn't get out of bed, so I had them to play with! I dunno where they are now; I'd forgotten all about them until just now!

I had my first drum set at like... 4 but it was a toy set. I started really learning when I was around 8 I think. Bongos are fun to play around with, I have a set laying around somewhere.

I'm only five years behind then! Are all your family musical? Do your brothers play everything too?

It's never too late to start learning an instrument or anything for that matter. Yeah, my whole family is musical. Both of my parents are singers, they're the ones that started teaching us when we were young. Kevin plays the guitar and sings back up, Joe sings and can play the guitar and tambourine and my younger brother Frankie sings and I've been teaching the drums and guitar.

My brother sings really well -- he used to be in a church choir back when we did that -- but I've never been very tuneful! Can you learn that too?

You certainly can learn that! It takes a good teacher and a lot of practice but most people can learn proper tuning.

Hmm! That'd probably be real expensive, though, huh? It's not like I'd want to sing professionally or anything!

Yeah, vocal lessons can be a bit pricey. Maybe your brother could help you?

I don't think he knows how he sings well, he just sort of does! He tried to teach me how to take better photographs, and that sort of worked, but he can just look at a thing and now how to take it, and I'm not sure you can teach that sort of skill!

That's a good point. Sometimes it's just natural talent rather than known skill.