Obvious FYI: I don't own anything that even remotely has to do with The O.C.!

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By the time Seth woke up for school the next morning, the blog had four hundred and thirty-two hits. But what was most outstanding to Seth was where the hits were coming from. By being a co-author of the blog, he was able to see the country location of the visitors to the site. There were multiple hits from Italy. But, as Luke had reminded him, it was called the world wide web.

"Seth!" Summer called as soon as she saw him at school that morning. "Seth everyone read the blog, it was awesome! That's great that Chino's doing so well, too. Just so you know, like everyone read the blog. People that I didn't even know went to this school asked me about it because they know I'm friends with Ryan. They're going to be all over you."

"I think that already happened," Seth replied, laughing. "I overheard people talking about it in the parking lot, and when I walked by, one kid asked me if I read the blog. He was serious. I told him I thought computers were a waste of time and I didn't even know who Ryan was."

"Seriously, Cohen?" Summer said shaking her head. "You would."

Before she could finish, Luke came running up to the pair holding a printout of the comments posted on the blog.

"Hey! Look at this!" Luke said shoving one of the pages in Seth's face. "Look at all these postings! Especially this one, ready? My dearest wishes go out to you and your family. It is so great to hear you doing better, Ryan. When you left us you were barely talking, and now look at you! You have improved so much! Keep strong! I will always be thinking of you and your family. You are all so lovely each in your own way. It was so nice to meet all of you and barring the circumstances, I wish I had an opportunity to get to know you more…Always thinking of you, Angelina. Dude she sounds hot!" Luke looked at Seth's red face.

"Seth who's Angelina?" Summer was now curious.

"No one…she must have been a nurse at the main hospital or something. I don't know. I was so, uh, distraught," Seth replied walking away.

"Dude she called you lovely obviously you met her!" Luke was laughing. "Don't walk away! I'm going to ask your dad what you did to be so lovely! Oh this blog is even better than I thought."

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Kirsten had just finished reading Ryan the first entry of the blog along with all eighty-three comments. She wasn't sure how many postings Ryan actually understood, but nevertheless, he seemed to comprehend the idea of the blog and seemed grateful. He recognized some names from school which made the doctors happy to see him begin to associate names with positive comments.

Ryan's day was filled with more of the same standing and balance exercises as far as PT went, but in OT and speech, they were getting more creative.

In speech therapy, they had Ryan doing word associations.

"Alright, Ryan. Do you remember what we did this morning? When we talked about different words?" the speech therapist spoke through the translator. Ryan looked a little unsure. "When we do the exercise again, you'll remember. Do you want to start now?"

"Ryan, I'm right here again, ok? You can do this," Kirsten heartened Ryan. He nodded.

"Good. Now I am going to read you a word and I want you to tell me something that goes with it, ok? Remember now? Like if I say 'tree,' you can say 'leaf.' Ready?"

Ryan nodded. "Remembbberr."

Everyone smiled. "Alright here's the first one. 'Kitchen,'" the translator spoke as the therapist pointed to the boldly-written word.

Ryan didn't respond right away, but looked as though he was making up his mind which word to repeat. The therapist noticed this and didn't push him.

"Ovvenn," Ryan finally answered. He paused and then continued, "No 'Stenn."

The translator shrugged at the therapist, unable to describe Ryan's speech.

"Oh!" Kirsten exclaimed, recalling what Ryan had called her when he first woke up. "'Sten. You mean Kirsten?"

Ryan's eyes grew wide as if to say, duh.

"Kirsten?" the translator asked, looking at the therapist and not knowing what to reply.

"I'm not the best cook in the world…I think he was referring to me staying out of the kitchen. Right, Ryan?" Kirsten smiled. She didn't even need to ask. She knew.

"That's great!" the therapist finally said after being explained the situation. "He's remembering so much! Ryan can you tell me something else that would be in a kitchen?"

Ryan thought for a moment. "Ssinkk," he decided and smiled when the therapist agreed.

"Ryan, does your kitchen at home have cabinets?" the therapist asked.

"Yesss," Ryan answered. He was instructed to use words and not to nod if he could.

"Ryan, what are some things people put in cabinets?" the therapist was interested to hear her patient's response. Since the contents of a cabinet are hidden, Ryan wouldn't be able to picture anything if he envisioned a kitchen. He would have to remember.

"Thhingss," said at length.

"What kind of things?"

Ryan paused, deep in thought. "Foorkk. Towwell. Cupp."

"Ryan! That's great! You are right!" the therapist was truly happy at his progress. "What about the beach, Ryan? What comes to mind if I say beach?"

"Shhackk," Ryan answered right away and looked at Kirsten.

Kirsten knew what Ryan meant and was about to elaborate, but the therapist silenced her and tried to coax it out of Ryan.

"Tell me about the shack, Ryan. Why is there a shack on the beach?" the therapist continued. Her job was part talking part psychology.

"Ffoodd. Ggoo."

"People eat at the shack? What do they eat?"

"Ffoodd. Thhingss. Workk."

"Keep going, Ryan. You're doing great. Keep telling me about the shack. Does it have a name?"

"Shhackk. Shhackk. Crabb Shhackk."

"The restaurant is called Crab Shack?" the therapist guessed, understanding.

"Yesss. Workk. Meee."

"You work at the Crab Shack? That is your job at home?"

"Yesss. Meee workk Crabb Shhackk."

"Can you say, 'I work at the Crab Shack'?"

"I…workk att… thhe Crabb…Shackk!" Ryan knew he did it perfectly.

"I think someone's ready to go home!" the therapist laughed.

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ATWOOD AT LARGE

Where Seth and Luke get an A and We Tell You About Ryan's Day

January 9

Successful

So we come at you today with many thoughts. First of all, thank you so much for all the hits and comments! Kirsten has read them to Ryan and she says he understands them. That's our goal! Let's keep it coming!

Second, we are happy to report that Ryan had another good day today. Keep reading for his accomplishments:

--In physical therapy he now expects a balance issue and is waiting to catch himself. They walked down the parallel bars today, therapists barely supporting Ryan as he held onto the bars, and he stood holding on for a whole minute. Of course, he almost fell asleep in the wheelchair on the way back to the room, but no biggie. The best part is the PT's are confident he's going to use the walker soon! All the leg press machine work.

---In OT today, Ryan proved he is now an accomplished clothespin-putter-in-a-bucket-er. For those who do not comprehend our misguided attempts at humor, the therapists dumped out like 50 clothespins and Ryan had to put them back into a bucket one by one. It was still hard for him on his weak right arm, but nevertheless, he still comes out in style!

---Finally, for the best part of the day, Ryan killed in speech therapy. They were doing this word association game. We were talking and we remember we saw cops do that to a convict in some TV show. But they do it differently at St. Francis. The therapist said, 'kitchen,' and Ryan pretty much said that Kirsten is a bad cook (sorry, everyone already knows it). They also said 'beach' and right away Ryan knew to say the Crab Shack! Never fear, our ever-popular waitress, er, waiter will be back again someday. Didn't they say that about Frost the Snowman?

So, dear Ryan. You have had another great day and we are very proud. We are all thinking about you here in the O.C. We wonder what you would have said if the therapists gave you that word…

Keep on getting better, Ryan and we'll see you soon!!

Until next time, this is Cohen and Ward, signing out.

Posted By: Seth and Luke at 3:27 PM---Click to comment---Links to this post---