Connecting with Supernatural 12x11: Regarding Dean

Watching Season 12 of Supernatural on Netflix these days, and episode 11, “Regarding Dean” comes up. Just what Sam was doing for Dean to help his memory, made me think of my own childhood. There’s Sam, writing names to objects of their hotel room onto post-it notes and sticking them onto the actual objects. My mom did this when I was a kid, as a way to help me learn the name of the different objects. Being a deaf kid, I didn’t always hear the words, and it was while I was also learning how to read too. Being able to read these words on notecards taped to different objects helped me. It helped with my reading, and it helped me learn how to identify different things. I learned how to make the connection between different words to objects.

It’s funny how something in a TV show or movie will bring back memories.



Dean: This is a gun. This is a coat. This is a…a…a… light stick.


Sam: A light st– All right. We’re gonna get you some help.


Dean: Look, we could figure this out, okay? Don’t go callin’ Mom or Cass with this.


Sam: Fine, but until you get better…(Sam puts post-it note on the lamp with the word “LAMP”)


Dean: Lamp. Right. So close.





















There was also a scene where Dean is watching a security surveillance video from when he followed someone out of the back of a bar, and he was trying to read his own lips. This made me laugh

Dean: I’m trying to read my lips. “Now salsa you mittens”

Sam: You can’t read lips.

Dean: I can’t read lips.

This is true for many D/deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. A lot of hearing people seem to think just because we're deaf/hoh, we can very easily lip-read everything. Not true. And I'm proof of that. I'm a horrible lip-reader, can't lip-read to save my life really. I can only read lips if I also have the auditory input. Take one or the other away, and I'm lost.
My teachers at the deaf school worked hard with all of us, teaching us how to lip-read and listen, trying to give us as many tools as we could carry in our toolbox for life. They wrote sentences and words on pieces of paper, laid them out on the table/desk/floor/wherever we are sitting, and they will say the sentence/words and hope we pick out the right piece of paper. For listening, they would cover their mouths; for lipreading, they turned off their voices. We had a lot of practice as kids, but lipreading just didn't stick with me. Now as an adult, even with bilateral cochlear implants, I still need a combination of tools to make sense of what is going on around me.



SPN quotes and graphic came from ScatteredQuotes.com.

Long time no post!

It's been nearly two years since I last blogged. Sorry about that. I have been rather busy. Working two jobs, and going to college, I wasn't left with much time to even worry about this blog.

I am still doing well enough with my implants. I still see my audiologist every now and them to make some tweaks when needed. I contact Advanced Bionics when I need to replace a cable, doing my best to keep on top of maintaining my implants.

I no longer work for Walmart at this time. I have had a rough time with my mental health, and it just made things worse for me at Walmart. So I quit, because I needed to. I couldn't continue with the way my mind was functioning. I still had my other job so I am still working and paying my bills. It would be helpful if I could get hired at another job, but I still haven't had any luck with that. I don't even hear back from any of the places I've applied at, which is frustrating. But in the mean time, I am trekking away with my job at our library services for the deaf.

I was a co-coach again for Deaf Academic Bowl. We were only able to take one team this year, and we made it to the nationals. These students did fantastic, they worked hard all year long, and studied hard. This time, the team didn't have a chance to even get together and practice in person. They all kept in touch online and used Quizlet to quiz one another and keep everyone practicing. It worked out very well for them though, as they placed second at West regionals and we made it to the semi-final round at Nationals. Everyone enjoyed their time at the competitions, and we even worked in a bit of site seeing while we were in DC too, which was great!

And now, onto something that happened today. I'm in my office at the library, scanning things and fussing with my iPad, listening to songs. As soon as the song quit on the iPad, I heard this sound. Then I realized there was a light flashing right outside my office. What is going on, is that the fire alarm going off? Sure enough, it was the fire alarm. But... it's after 3:30, school's out, so this isn't a drill. The other two employees in the library came over to the doors to see what the fuss was about. The alarms are LOUD (remember, this building used to be a deaf school, and these alarms installed were specific for the deaf, LOUD and flashing).  It kept going off, 5-7 times in the 15 or so minutes it was going off. Finally it was turned off, and the hearing employee could relax. Every time the alarm went off, she about jumped out of her seat and had to plug her ears. Myself, and the other deaf employee, we were fine. Our cochlear implants and hearing aids handled the loud sound just fine, so the alarm wasn't that loud for us. The hearing employee complained it was too loud, so of course, I wanted to be funny and said "well yeah, this used to be the deaf school! Of course it's loud." Deaf employee also gave me a hard time, teasing me when I mentioned that I noticed the flashing lights outside my office. She had to share the story with our hearing employee.

When I was a kid, I was a student at this school for the deaf. And it was standardized testing time if I remember that right. So, I'm sitting at a desk, completely focused on this test. To eliminate any noise distractions, I had my hearing aids or FM off so I could focus. Here I am, completely focused and working away on this test.... and the fire alarm is going off. I didn't hear it, I didn't see the flashing light, and I was sitting right underneath the alarm. Everyone else got up and headed out in orderly fashion, as is expected during a fire drill. But there I am, still working away on this test, completely oblivious to what's going. So the interpreter (who is the deaf employee sharing this story with our hearing employee) had to get my attention and get me up and going.

Later, the custodian came in to clean up and he told us it was a kid who had pulled the alarm down by the cafeteria/gym. Kids, fire alarms are not toys and are not to be pulled for fun!