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!

Changes

It's been ages since I've posted! Things have been insane since the last update, which was... well I don't even remember.  I still plan on posting about the Academic Bowl trips with photos attached and all that jazz.  I just need some more time in my day it seems.

I've been let go from my newspaper job in late May. That was a shocking surprise, but once I got over the shock, I was okay with it. I have been unhappy for a while there, so now I had no choice but to get serious about job hunting. So job hunting I did!  Of course, it was awkward.  Being deaf and trying to get jobs can be tricky.  The jobs always want to call when they want to set up interviews and such.  I'm still not ready to handle phone calls, and just about went out of my mind trying to figure out a solution for this.  I use the Sprint IP Relay app on my iPhone, but relay calls can be slow and awkward, especially when the caller isn't sure how to deal with it. I downloaded a couple of different captioned call apps, and decided to give Hamilton a shot. I absolutely wish InnoCaption was up and running again, they were truly the best app, with real live operators and the captions didn't lag much.  Anyway, I did the best I could with my job hunt. Did a few interviews, only to either not be hired or never heard back.

I did set up an appointment for a mock interview through the local vocational rehab. That was a complete disaster. I wasn't feeling all too well that day though, with my back hurting and my mind being all out of place. Came home feeling depressed and hopeless, only to get a call from Walmart saying they wanted to do an interview for the very next day. Okay! Did the interview the next day, then waited for the call back about orientation. Never did get that phone call, so I called them and found out they had tried to call me to no avail. Dang! But I made it to orientation and have been working at Walmart since around mid-June. The department managers are nice and understanding, and willing to answer any questions I have and work with me.  There have certainly been incidents where I just plain cannot make sense of what some customers want, even when they act it out. Those are always tricky, and I always feel bad that I can't make sense of what they want. But I'm working hard at Walmart, and doing the best I can to help customers when they need help. There have even been several mis-hearings as well (pinto beans or pickled beets? massager or mixed nuts? 16 or 60?). I stock shelves in the consumables department, which I am happy with.  It's pretty much a full time schedule (scheduled for 40 hours a week), 5 days on, 2 days off each week.

Soon, Walmart will not be my only job. I was contacted by someone at the state department of education, and she told me she was creating a couple of part time positions at the local Library Services for the Deaf and HoH. Awesome! For a few years, the library resource specialist and I have talked of going through the old photos and files and doing some archiving, but it just never happened.  But soon, the archiving project will finally get started! Not only will I be working on the archiving, I'll also be helping with the coaching of the Deaf Academic Bowl students, and doing community sign language classes with the other person who is taking the second part time contract position. There will probably be other tasks as well, but these are the three I'm aware of at this time.  I'm really looking forward to getting started with this job! They will work around my Walmart schedule, so that'll be nice. And for the fall semester, I only have one class on campus and the rest are being done online, so that shouldn't be an issue with working around my college schedule.

Also, after the visit to Gallaudet University in April for the National Deaf Academic Bowl, I started reconsidering the idea of attending Gallaudet... and filled out an application and sent it in. Gallaudet University has a Deaf Studies program, which really grabbed my attention. I have always been fascinated with Deaf Culture, Deaf history, and American Sign Language. I figured this program would be right up my ally, and it can be done online! Score!  Weeks went by, with emails back and forth with the admissions office at Gallaudet, and my having to gather transcripts and information and a video of why I want to join the program, etc., I finally got the acceptance notice.  I got the acceptance notice in email one day, and the official acceptance packet from UPS at my door the next morning! I was definitely very giddy with glee at the acceptance! After reading the acceptance letter, I also found out I could get a scholarship, which is amazing! I followed up with Admissions, and it turns out the scholarship is if I attend Gallaudet on campus, there are no scholarships for doing the program online. Well shoot. I was counting on staying at home, continuing with my job at Walmart so I can pay my bills, and doing Deaf Studies online. I'll just have to figure out a way to pay, see if there are any scholarships out there, see if FAFSA would continue to help (I've been receiving the Pell Grant for 5 semesters, and possibly again for this fall semester at the local college), etc. I already know Vocational Rehab won't be able to help as I just saw my counselor yesterday. Ah well, I'll figure out something somehow.  For now, I'll focus on finishing up my last semester at the local college and getting m Associates degree in General Studies, and going from there.  I do would like to spend at least one semester on campus at Gallaudet, just so I can get the full experience. Doing so, I would be able to see more of Washington, D.C., something I have been wanting to do for a while.

I'm most definitely going to be one busy gal soon enough!  Well, I'm already busy enough with my Walmart job, but I'll just be even busier when the library job starts and the fall semester starts. Yay! Here's to hoping I don't completely 100% lose my mind at some point :)

Randomness

Right on, I can see properly again! Yesterday, my mom and I had a girls day. We drove around, looked at a couple of houses (we're house hunting for my sister, as she and her husband [and little boy] will be moving back here in June), then headed over to Walgreens. Mom needed some random stuff from there. It was inside Walgreens when I realized my glasses were broken, again. The frame right around the lense broke. Same place as last year when it broke, except on the opposite side of the nose. Oh brother. Must be some weak frames or something. Went on the rest of the day without glasses on, which wasn't too bad. We went to the mall, had lunch and then saw "Marley and Me". Good movie, I enjoyed it! Good thing I read the book just in the last 2 weeks though, otherwise I wouldn't have understood it as well. Lately, I have been trying to read the books before seeing certain films (read the story before seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, read Marley and Me before seeing it, same with the Harry Potter series, etc... Films don't always follow the books 100%, but at least I get the general idea of what's going on whe I see the film in theater.. with the X Files movie, I read the book afterwards and it made a lot more sense to me!).

Am still figuring out how to go about getting back on the CI track. Got a response from someone at the CI center asking how I would be paying for the CT scans (out of pocket of course... when will I ever get insurance? Hm!). I'll just have to really save up some money. Perhaps part of my tax refund will be used to pay for the CT scans, who knows. For sure, part of that refund will be used to pay for new glasses (and to pay off the credit card bill... sorry Mom, HAD to use it!). I know I'll get enough money saved up though. Then we'll go from there I suppose. Get the scans sent off to the doctor in Denver, maybe someday make a trek down to Denver (I don't see this happening for quite a while though, unless I'm willing to pay over $100 to hop a bus to Denver and find some way to get around Denver... err confusing). Next month, mom and stepdad will be flying off to Ireland, then in April we may possibly be flying out to North Carolina (depending on what my sister decides). Then May, there's Mother's Day at the flower shop. June, sister and her family move back and we will surely be helping them with the move. I'll have to talk to them and see if something can be worked out though. I'm still too much a wuss to attempt driving down to Denver myself. If I could go with someone, and we had the GPS navigator, it'd be manageable.

Got my glasses fixed today, and will have a new pair ordered soon enough. I've had my current pair for a couple of years or so, and with two breaks by now, it's time for a new pair. My prescription (which I got last year after getting my eyes checked since I was extremely sensitive to lights) is good until 2010 so might as well get the new glasses. I definitelly needed to get the old pair fixed though, otherwise I would have struggled through work, skipping lines and messing things up, which would have been bad.

DEAF

Ah blah! you kno what, screw it! I'm going to be DEAF today. Deaf as in, NO HEARING AID! I don't care what anybody says. I've got a headache, I'm tired, I don't want to work but I have to. I would much rather just go home and go back to bed. But no, I have to work, and suffer through work with a headache. Why I even have a headache, I don't know. Had it all night off and on, and have the headache today, off and on throughout the day so far. Excedrin hasn't kicked in yet, not sure if it will. Perhaps being DEAF will help. Course, having to deal with the tinnitus isn't fun, but I'd rather listen to the constant ring/buzz instead of phones ringing, people typing away at their computers and chattering up a storm, footsteps from workers working, desk drawers opening and closing, etc. I don't want to listen to all that noise today, no way.

Ok, so I'm a little grumpy today, so sue me. Everyone's allowed to have their grumpy days. Morning was fine, but now, blah.

deaf does NOT equal mute

Well well well. What do you know? My mom just told me something today, after I got home from work. We just got to talking about this and that, and my upcoming vacation, what's been going on at the Tribune, stuff like that. Turns out when Mom talked to Megan Moore on the phone the other day, Megan mentioned how she thought the editor, Clark, was an ass for not talking to me or something like that. Turns out she was the one who went to him and told him to TALK to me, that I'm easy to talk to and all. I had no idea Clark didn't know how to talk to a deaf person like me. I've worked at the Tribune since I was a sophomore in high school... And Clark's been the editor for a couple of years now, maybe a bit longer. And all this time he had absolutely no idea of how to talk to me? Wow, I'm amazed. The previous editor, Dan, he never had any problems. I remember he was always stopping by to check on me, or to make small talk every now and then. Clark, whenever he walked by, he would always just smile and wave at me. Also, it turns out that there are many others at the Tribune that are afraid to talk to me.

So... what to do about this. Hm. I should put up a list of how to communicate with a deaf person at my desk or something like that. I don't know, but these people need to be educated. Deaf does NOT equal mute. Deaf people are perfectly capable of communicating with ANYONE. Some may use only sign language, some can lip read, some can hear a bit, and then there are some that have to write notes to get his/her message across. Everyone have their own way of communicating. But really, it's not that hard to communicate with deaf people. Just talk to them like you would with a hearing person. Speak clearly, don't mumble, and please, do not raise your voice. Raising your voice will not make a difference.

I'll have to see if I can find such a list online, and I'll talk with Sally or Megan about this, and see if we can come up with a solution. I don't want anyone to be afraid to talk to me, I'm not different from anyone else. Sure, there will be times when I misunderstand or didn't catch everything that was said, so I'll ask the person to repeat. But hey, plenty of hearing people miss something that was said too, that's a normal occurrence.

I do remember having this orange bookmark quite a while ago, that had a Do and Do Not list of how to communicate with the deaf. This was probably years ago when I had one of these. I'll just have to look online and see if there's anything. I should also mention that if my hearing aid is hanging off my hear (instead of being behind my ear), that means I cannot hear what is going on around me (either the hearing aid is turned off, or I'm listening to music with my FM system, and I always have the hearing aid hanging off when I have the Fm on cause it's a bit of an extra weight that my ear can't handle too well). But all it takes is a quick switch and I can hear again, if someone needs to tell me something. No big deal. (I usually have to be deaf or have music playing at work, otherwise I hear all the electrical sounds going on in the building, from the lights and the computers, and those noises do give me a headache and I can't just block them out with my noise adapt setting).

I'm even considering writing a letter to the editor.... EVERYONE should be informed of how to communicate with a deaf person. Not just co-workers or whatever. EVERYONE should know. That's something to think about while I'm on vacation.