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!

Just had a tune up!

CI audiologist came up from Denver this past weekend, yahoo!  I was so worried she was going to come up towards the end of April, while I was in Washington D.C. with the Wyoming deaf academic bowl team for the nationals.  Whew!  Saw her at about 9:30 in the morning and made some adjustments to both processors.  We were able to significantly increase the higher frequency levels on the right processor (they are still a little low but we're getting there!), and increased the volume all across the levels a bit.  Ahh, much better.  More higher frequencies turned up means I will be able to pick up on more speech sounds that uses the higher frequencies.  We turned things up a bit with the left processor as well, and did Program 2 on both with UltraZoom and ClearVoice High.  Audiologist also enabled the setting so that I can just push a button on one processor and both Naidas will chance settings at the same time.  Much better!  Couldn't do any testing, for some reason the speakers in the sound booth weren't working.  Maybe next time I see her.  Still using just 3 program slots on my Naidas, which I'm happy with.  Program 1 is usual everyday program, 2 is for noisy situations, and 3 is 100% compilot.  Could have added 2 more, but it takes a while to cycle through the programs on the Naidas (there's a delay when changing programs, which I do not like).




Yesterday, I went to get some lunch for mom and myself.  We agreed on Dairy Queen, so off I went.  I didn't really want to get out of the car to get the lunch, so I decided to give the drive-thru a try.  First time I've ever used the drive-thru at a fast-food joint, and it was a success!  I was able to understand the speaker with no issues.  I was giddy when I got back to the house with our lunches and told mom all about it.  Yay!  Usually I just park and go inside to order to go.  But not on Monday!  I may start using the drive-thru more often at certain places.  Probably not McDonald's, they have 2 lanes for the ordering process and that just seems confusing.  Mom says she has a hard time at McDonald's because of the 2 lanes (speakers are loud so it's hard to tell which speaker is going off), so I'll avoid their drive-thru.




WYHI is this coming Friday.  Except, I won't be at WYHI.  The Wyoming deaf academic bowl team will be gathering at the library to practice for the nationals (we leave NEXT weekend for D.C.!), so I'll be at the library since I'm a co-coach (will do a write up about DAB in a separate post).  I'm pretty excited about going back to D.C., as I've been wanting to go back and visit, and appreciate D.C. more now than I did the 2 times I went as a child.  Wyoming Families for Hands & Voices is also doing a Family Fun Night this coming Thursday evening as well, and I'll probably go after ASL class, since I'm on the board.  Why not?  Might be fun!  Don't plan on going to the open-caption movie Friday afternoon for WYHI.  Not a movie I want to see, and I have 2 appointments that day so I'd be better off going to work for the afternoon and going to my 3 p.m. appointment.  Friday shall be a busy day!