Subway

We went to Subway for a quick dinner last night, and Brandt ordered his sandwich first while I was still deciding.  One of the two girls working there asked him if he wanted his sub toasted, and he didn’t hear her.  She looked at him expectantly and he said, “I’m sorry, did you ask me something?”  She repeated the question, and he didn’t understand her.  She said it again, pointing to the toaster.  Brandt said, “TOASTED!  Yes, I want my sandwich toasted.  Sorry, I’m deaf…” 

Both girls laughed, and the one making his sandwich said, “Ha, you’re deaf.  That’s funny!”  Then she asked what all he wanted on his sandwich, and again he didn’t understand her.  She looked at him and said, “Wait, are you kidding?”  He cupped his hand behind his ear and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you…” 

Now they weren’t sure what to think.  I debated when I should chime in.  “You’re not really deaf…right?” one of them asked.  “I’m sorry?” he said, looking confused.  The two girls looked at each other, getting uncomfortable.  “You’re just playing, right?  You’re not really deaf!” the second girl said nervously. 

“No, he’s really deaf,” I finally jumped in.  “He’s not kidding, he’s deaf.”

Brandt took out one of his hearing aids and showed it to them.  They both gasped.  “Oh my lord, I am so so sorry!” one shrieked.  “Oh my god, I can’t believe I said that to you, I’m so sorry you’re deaf!!” the other said. 

He waved them off, chuckling, and said, “Oh, don’t worry about it.  I’m used to it.”

I thought it was interesting that Brandt used the word “deaf” instead of “hearing-impaired” (he doesn’t like the more politically-correct term “hard-of-hearing”).  Each term brings up different connotations and different expectations about how a person might be able to hear and interact.  Just like the choice of using “hearing-impaired” versus “hard-of-hearing,” it’s a personal choice to use “deaf” instead.  My hearing is technically impaired, although not nearly as much as Brandt; and I can interact with others—for example, the girls at Subway—much easier than he can.  So by saying that he is “deaf,” it’s a quick way to let others know that he’s probably going to have a difficult time understanding them the first time they ask a question.

ALDAcon Karaoke

The Karaoke party on Saturday night of ALDAcon was scheduled from 8:00 to midnight, but we were having so much fun, it actually ran over!  I honestly had no idea what to expect from this party.  I hadn’t done karaoke in almost a decade, and I admittedly have no rhythm (although I do like to dance, I’m just awful at it!).

Here is the first e-mail I received about the ALDAcon Karaoke, a few weeks before the ’Con:

“Since 1992, ALDA has hosted its Karaoke Party at our annual ALDAcon through the generous support of the Verizon Foundation. Karaoke has become a cherished and fun source of support by reconnecting us to a huge missing part of our social environment—music. While we may not be able to hear or understand music as we remember it, by feeling vibrations, reading familiar lyrics on a screen and dancing with our ALDA family, it recreates those wonderful moments we've missed since losing our hearing.” 

And from the flyer for it:

“Your friends can all hear.  Your family can too!  They laugh and cut up, but you have no clue what's goin’ on.  You wanna sing your heart out and dance yourself crazy, but you are afraid of being off key and you can't hear the rhythm of the song.  Why hold back?? That’s not YOU!!!”   

These really helped me to understand the purpose of karaoke at a conference for deafened people (you have to admit, it sounds strange at first).  It was amazing to watch this group of deaf people singing, signing, and dancing along to all eras and genres of music.  Everyone was having a blast, myself included.  Yes, the singing was mostly off-key; but, mine was too!  I got up to dance to “Walk Like an Egyptian,” “YMCA,” “Stayin’ Alive,” and “Macarena.”  It was a surreal experience, to say the least.

My favorite thing about the karaoke was the balloons.  To “re-discover” music, you can blow up a balloon and hold it on your lap while loud music is playing—it’s incredible!  I’m not sure who first discovered this, but ALDAcon Karaoke prides itself on making the music accessible to everyone, with both the lyrics on the screen, and the balloons that allow deaf people to feel the beat.

I was worried about the loudness of the music, since my mild hearing loss was probably at least aggravated by listening to music too loud over the years.  Luckily, there are special earplugs made for musicians that allow you to still hear all the frequencies of music, but lowers the decibel level just enough that it doesn’t damage your hearing.  I ordered the smaller size of musician earplugs, thinking that the adult size might hurt my ears.  They fit perfectly, and did exactly what they were supposed to!  I could still talk to people, and hear the music just fine; it just wasn’t loud or hurting my ears.  I actually started to wonder if the music was loud at all, until a Hearing lady at my table complained of splitting headache caused by the music. 

For the final song, “Wind Beneath My Wings,” we all stood around in a big circle singing.  Bob and Sarah were to my right and ended up standing right in front of one of the speakers, and I was just to the left of it with my leg pressed against it.  I could feel it shaking, hard, but the sound didn’t bother my ears at all.  After the song ended, Sarah yelled, “WOW, that speaker was LOUD!  I am in PAIN!  My ears are going to be ringing for a while!”  I felt guilty because with my earplugs, I was able to enjoy the music without any of the pain!

And now for some pictures.  Here’s a shot from “Hotel California”; Ken in the middle is signing while he sings.  They had a lot of cute props for people to wear on the stage:

This picture is from “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”  I didn’t participate because I don’t know this dance, but I did sing along:

“Love Hurts”

I’ve had a migraine this week (along with the constant whooshing) that is finally getting better, so tonight we went out to our favorite sushi restaurant to celebrate.  We didn’t want to sit at the hibachi tables, but there weren’t any regular seats available either.  So we ended up sitting at the sushi bar, watching the sushi chefs assemble all those delicious rolls (some of which were made with a large blowtorch!).

It was hard to hear, because there were two couples next to us who were really enjoying their beers, causing them to shout and laugh quite loudly.  There was also music playing overhead, of course, so Brandt was having trouble hearing, of course.  I was sitting right next to him, which helped some.

I try not to sing along with music, because it really bugs Brandt, but sometimes I forget.  “Love Hurts” started playing, and I couldn’t help but sing along for a minute.  Brandt looked around, confused, and asked, “What are you saying?  What’d I miss?”  I laughed and said, “Sorry, I was singing ‘Love Hurts.’”  He nodded, still confused. 

I started singing again with the last line, “Oooooooooh ooooooh, looooove huuuuurrrrttsssss!”  Brandt again looked confused, and asked, “What are you singing now?”  I chuckled; “Sorry, it’s still ‘Love Hurts.’”  This time I signed “LOVE HURTS” as I spoke.  He nodded again.  “Well, that’s better than the last song, I guess…”  I smirked; “What was the last song?”

“‘Loafers,’ you said.  Strange topic for a song.”

Ah yes, the classic 1975 hit “Loafers” by Nazareth.

Day 3 of ALDAcon

I’m still whooshing just as bad, but, I’m trying to just deal with it for now.  Luckily my alarm clock is also a sound machine, so playing the “waterfall” sound really loud gives me something else to concentrate on while trying to sleep, and it’s helping a little.  So, back to ALDAcon!

Day 3 started with the workshop “The Power of Nonverbal Communication” by Michael Bower, a Life Enrichment Consultant.  Mrs. Bower does not sign, but gives many presentations to hearing loss groups.  She explained that there are 3 parts to communication:

1. The words we say—only 7% of communication
2. The way we sound doing it—38% of communication
3. The way we look doing it—55% of communication

There are a number of things involved in communication that impact how we are perceived, including loud vs. soft voice, pitch (too high is shrill, too low is aggressive), how fast (‘brash’) or slow (‘simple’), universal sounds (angry voice, ‘pillow talk,’ etc.), touch, how we look while talking (facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, etc.), cultural issues (distance apart, what we wear), and body language.  Mrs. Bower explained that with practice and awareness, people with hearing loss can improve their communication through good non-verbal communication skills.

My second workshop was “Dating and Intimacy with New Partners” by Marisa Musso.  I was a little worried about attending this workshop, since I’m married, but it was the only workshop being offered about relationships.  Ms. Musso started by reminding attendees that “you are not your hearing loss; it is only a part of you, it does not define you.”  She explained that deaf and hard-of-hearing people are looking for the same things in a relationship as Hearing people are, with one addition:  they want a partner who will accept their hearing loss.  This can be difficult because it is common to get tongue-tied, and the fear of disclosure regarding hearing loss can be scary.

Ms. Musso went through a number of questions for participants to think about—questions to have answered before going out on your first date with someone new, so that you’re already prepared.  The first question is, when do you want to disclose your hearing loss?  This is a personal choice and could be prior to the first date; on the first, second, third, etc. date; when the other person notices, etc.  The second question is, how do you want to disclose your hearing loss?  Examples include:  apologetically (probably not the best approach); as a significant part of your identity; as an insignificant part of your identity; with confidence; with humor; or not acknowledging it at all.  The third question is, how would you prefer disclosure to occur?

The theme of the workshop was “Confidence is Sexy!”  Ms. Musso suggests disclosing a hearing loss in a positive manner, such as saying what you have learned from it and the bright side.  She gave us each a sheet of paper to fill out for preparing for a date, which includes writing some details about your hearing loss, tips for communicating with you, humor, how to show you’re proactive, and how to show you’re confident.  It is important to show your dating needs and habits, so anticipate possible barriers that could arise on a date (such as bad lighting or too much background noise), plan solutions for these situations, and be proactive by mentioning common problems before they happen.  For communication, Ms. Musso stressed that bluffing (pretending you heard/understood when you really didn’t) is not allowed when you and your date are sharing personal thoughts and feelings.  Be clear about what you need to be able to hear, and be honest when you don’t hear.

Intimacy barriers that stem from hearing loss include environmental (e.g. lights), attitude (e.g. avoidance), and emotional (e.g. fear and shame).  Ms. Musso reminded us that self-esteem is a very important factor in successful dating, and people with hearing loss often have self-esteem issues related to their hearing status.  She told the audience to keep in mind that many relationships end for the same reasons, whether someone has a hearing loss or not, but people with hearing loss and disabilities often blame themselves or their disability for the end of a relationship.

Websites recommended by the workshop include:

A Greater Date (online dating for Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing)

Dating4Disabled 

Dating Tips and Advice 

And a website about Self-Esteem 

Our keynote speaker at the Awards Luncheon was Patricia Graves, the president of Caption First and a pioneer in captioning since its inception in the ’80s.  She has developed the standards for CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) captioning, and is certified in “every state and national captioning certificate that exists.”  Ms. Graves is losing her vision due to diabetes, and drew may comparisons of going blind to going deaf, such as bluffing (saying “oh yes, that’s a lovely painting!” when she really can’t see it), and being accused of having “selective seeing” (people with hearing loss are often accused of having “selective hearing”—only hearing when they want to).  She said to her ALDA family, “You have taught me to recognize that limitations are okay, and it is okay to ask for help.”

My final workshop of the convention was Part 3 of “Communication Strategies and Basic Sign Language” by David Litman.  We reviewed family signs, and learned signs about time, weather, and emergencies.  I learned a new sign—HURRICANE.  Mr. Litman reminded us to “think visually!”  I loved seeing the room full of people eager and excited to learn Sign Language, and I am so glad that ALDA encourages its members to embrace ASL.

Our all-night Karaoke Party deserves its own post, so stay tuned!

  

Return of the Whoosh

Sorry for abandoning my reports on ALDAcon; my whooshing tinnitus has returned with a vengeance, and I haven’t been able to concentrate—or sleep—very well for the past 5 days.

It got a lot worse in Colorado Springs, which I assumed was somehow from the altitude because the high-pitched squealing in my left ear also returned with a vengeance, and it hadn’t been bothering me for a long time.  The altitude affected my sleeping anyway, and the squealing left ear and windy, whooshing right ear made it nearly impossible.  The high-pitched tinnitus went away after I’d been home about 2 days (around the time I could take deep breaths again!), but the whooshing stayed.  It got better—less annoying, not as loud; but it never went away.  Then it quickly came back as bad as ever, and that’s how it has been for 5 days straight.  Even when I’m watching television and can’t hear it, I can still feel it, pulsing and whooshing in my ear.  It feels like a wind storm in there.

I’ve looked up all the horrible medical conditions that can cause whooshing, or “pulsatile,” tinnitus, but I don’t have any other symptoms.  No headaches, vision problems, dizziness, or high blood pressure (I just took it and it’s 108/67).  So, I think my only option is to get an appointment with an otologist or otolaryngologist (I’m not even sure which one I need!) and see what it could be.  I’m afraid I will need an MRI, which I can’t possible afford since I don’t have health insurance…

Day 2 of ALDAcon

Friday was a very busy day at ALDAcon.  We started at 7:30 with the Newcomers/Chapter Leader Breakfast, where us newcomers were introduced to the regional chapter leaders and were welcomed again to the ’Con.

My first workshop was “4G Mobile Technologies Creating Accessibility,” given by Mike Ellis and Ken Arcia with Sprint.  It’s too bad Brandt wasn’t there, since he’s such a technology-geek!  I learned that 4G can deliver mobile downloads up to ten times faster than 3G.  One of the great things for Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing people is fast, high-quality, 2-way mobile video, which allows for communication in Sign Language.

Next, I attended “The Battle for Captioned Movies—an ADA Case Study,” given by deaf lawyer John Waldo of the Washington State Communication Access Project (“Wash-CAP”), who also gave the workshop on Advocacy and Access the previous day.  Mr. Waldo explained that when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, Open Captioning print had to be burned onto movie film, making it expensive and cumbersome.  This is why the House ruled that Open Captioning was not required by the ADA, but was “encouraged.”  However, new digital technology has changed how Open Captioning is done.  The text is provided on a separate disk, which synchs to the sound of the movie.  Every movie theater screen has 2 projectors, one that shows the previews and one that shows the movie.  So the captioning is simply shown on the projector used to show previews (I certainly didn’t know that, did you?!).  I also learned that digital Open Captioning is provided to movie theaters free of charge by the Media Access Group at WGBH—the organization that invented television Closed-Captioning, Descriptive Audio, and Rear Window Captioning.  In the case of Rear Window Captioning, the captioning disks are provided to the movie theater free after the theater has paid to have the equipment installed.

Mr. Waldo gave an overview of all the lawsuits filed over the years for captioning in movie theaters, including the recent Arizona case that was the first time a judge had ruled in favor of requiring movie theater captioning (and the judge called the movie theater company “jerks” for not offering the captions voluntarily!).  Since movie theaters can no longer argue that captioning is too expensive, their current argument is that Open Captioning is “too distracting” to Hearing audiences.  This is why captioned movies are always shown at off-peak times and days.  Mr. Waldo explained the “New Jersey pattern,” named after the 2004 case where Regal Entertainment Group in New Jersey was required to have 12 captioned movie showings per week:  2 shows per day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, except for Friday and Saturday nights.  I am definitely going to ask Mr. Waldo’s advice for getting our local theater to offer OC movies more than one afternoon and one evening a week!

Next was the Appreciation Luncheon with Dr. I. King Jordan as our speaker.  In 1988, Dr. Jordan was named the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University (the only liberal arts university in the world for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students), following a student protest called “Deaf President Now.”  Dr. Jordan signs while he speaks, and has a very powerful yet down-to-earth presence.  He spoke about advocacy and how there is a difference between access and compliance with laws, saying “many places comply with the laws, but don’t really provide access,” such as the off-times of Open Captioned movies.  Talking about the lag-time on MSNBC’s Closed-Captioning, Dr. Jordan said,

“My wife won’t watch TV with me anymore because I bitch and moan so much about the captions!”

Despite this, though, he admitted that he has never filed a complaint with the FCC, nor has he written a letter to MSNBC or any other channel that has captioning problems.  He said, “We’ve all experienced the same thing; why don’t we do more?  It really is our responsibility.” 

My third workshop was Part 2 of “Communication Strategies and Basic Sign Language,” given by clinical social worker David Litman (I missed Part 1 the day before for Mr. Waldo’s workshop).  Mr. Litman had us review the alphabet, and then he taught family signs.  I was having another bout with altitude sickness, so I was glad they were all signs I already knew!

The final workshop I attended was “Life After Deaf:  Adjusting and Thriving,” by Sharaine Rawlinson Roberts, the Marketing and Account Manager for Caption First.  Ms. Roberts became deaf overnight at age 14, after volunteering in a hospital in preparation for becoming a pediatrician.  She caught spinal meningitis from a patient and nearly died (doctors told her parents that if she lived, she would be a vegetable).  Her first thought when she came out of her coma was, “No one will marry me now.”  After graduating high school, she attended the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, where she “learned communication skills by socializing.”  She learned Sign Language, because there are “so many variables” for successful lipreading.  Ms. Roberts has a Cochlear Implant and is happily married.  Her “Tips for Survival” after becoming deaf are:

• Ask people to repeat what they said
• Learn fingerspelling
• Check into Assistive Listening Devices 
• Turn on the captions on your TV
• Seek out counseling 
• Do things that bring you joy
• Join ALDA

Speaking to those with Hearing spouses, Ms. Roberts advised,

“It will help your marriages if you try to learn a way to communicate.”

For “pillow talk,” she highly recommends learning some signs.

I skipped the Cocktail/Social Hour for a quick nap before the I. King Jordan Award Banquet.  The winner of the I. King Jordan Award was Dr. Jane Schlau, a late-deafened woman who earned her Doctorate in Education after she lost her hearing.  Her dissertation was about acquired deafness.  In her acceptance speech, she asserted, “Deaf people CAN!”

Bill Graham, the founder of ALDA, spoke about how ALDA was started with a Chicago pizza party in 1987.  Their first convention was held in a hospital in 1989, with 42 attendees.  It was the first time that Real-Time Captioning was used in a group, ever.  Mr. Graham said that without Real-Time Captioning, ALDA never would have become a major organization.  He told a hilarious story, where the new CEO of the National Association of the Deaf, Howard Rosenblum, asked Mr. Graham, “So how can we get some of your people to come to NAD?”  Mr. Graham responded,

“You’ll have to hire someone to do Crappy Sign Language!” 

I was doubled over from laughing so hard, because it’s true!  My sign language is not true ASL, and ASL is not used by the interpreters at ALDAcon.  While most ALDAns at the ’Con signed while they spoke, it was far from perfect signing—because if you’re late-defeaned, you probably didn’t grow up speaking ASL, and who can speak a language flawlessly that they didn’t learn until adulthood?!  I think “Crappy Sign Language,” or “CSL” as we started calling it, is a great tongue-in-cheek description of the popular communication style at ALDAcon.

A lady got up to speak (I forgot your name, I’m sorry!) about ALDA and how it had changed her life.  She said, “All of us are in the same boat, struggling to communicate.”  She ended by saying, “We are your family.”  This is something that I heard many times throughout the ’Con—that ALDA is a family.  I had read this on their website before the ’Con, but it really is something you have to see and experience in person.  It truly is a big family, and the ’Con is their annual family reunion.

Our final activity for this very long day was the entertainment, “Taiko with Toni.”  I didn’t know what to expect, so WOW was I surprised.  It turned out to be traditional Japanese taiko (“drum”) and bamboo flute music, and it was incredible!  First, Lance and Toni explained the different pieces of Japanese clothing that they were wearing, and then they explained the different sounds made by the drum:  don is loud, su is soft, tsu is silence, and ka is hitting the drum on its edge.  Everyone really enjoyed the music, and at the end, someone started a conga line.  I was exhausted, but Linda, the ALDA president, told me I had to join the line.  I cut in right behind Dr. I. King Jordan, and that was a surreal moment.  I thought to myself, “I’m conga dancing to Japanese drums behind the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University—how is this even possible?!” 

I forgot my camera, so here is a picture of Lance and Toni from their website:

First Day of ALDAcon

Technically the first day of ALDAcon was on Wednesday night, but I didn’t arrive at the hotel until 7:00 and the only ‘activity’ was registration.  I picked up my nametag, totebag, and program book, and met up with the two ladies I had been e-mailing, Marilyn and Jane.  We ate dinner, chatted a bit about their Cochlear Implants, and headed off to bed because we’d been traveling all day.  There was a Hospitality Room set up with card games, board games, and puzzles, and there was a group of people having a great time playing and laughing, but I was just too tired.  Thanks to the altitude, I couldn’t really sleep though.

Thursday morning, we started with the Newcomers Workshop.  Cynthia Amerman, the President-Elect who had sent me that awesome welcome e-mail the week before, welcomed the 20 newcomers by name (she was too far away to see our nametags) and had us stand up.  Our first activity was a Bingo game, where we each had a Bingo card with descriptions taken from our Newcomer Form.  We had to go around the room and find whose name fix in each square, such as “uses sign language,” “has a Hearing spouse,” “enjoys gardening,” and “likes to write and knit” (that one is me!).  Next, Cynthia asked people to think of some advantages to being deaf.  A lady said that it’s easier to sleep because of the silence.  A man said that his room is right next to the elevator, but it doesn’t bother him because he can’t hear it.  Then she asked us to raise our hands if these had happened to us:  being embarrassed by bluffing (pretending you heard something and just nodding along), being accused of ignoring someone when you couldn’t hear them, losing friendships/relationships because of hearing loss, being left out of family conversations, and being exhausted from constantly straining to hear and understand.  Cynthia showed the sign for ACCEPTANCE, and said,

“You will find acceptance here, your home.” 

I think most of the room was crying at that point (myself included!).  Then another lady, Judy, got up to talk about communication.  She explained that ALDA “supports whatever communication method works for you,” because “if it works for you, it works for us!”  I just love this approach; it’s so inclusive and open-minded.  Judy explained that “we don’t have to bluff here!” because everyone can find a way to communicate—with signing, lipreading, or writing things down.  There were pads of paper sitting on every table in every room of the ’Con—even on every table in the hotel restaurants!  There were also small whiteboards that people could borrow.  She explained that the Sign Language interpreting done at ALDAcon is more English word order than ASL, and the interpreters mouth all the words to help with lipreading.

After the first workshop, we had some free time before lunch to tour the Exhibit Hall.  On the way in, I struck up a conversation with a Newcomer couple, Bob and Sarah.  Bob has been losing his hearing over the past few decades, and has Phonak BTE hearing aids and an FM system just like Brandt’s.  Sarah is the Hearing Spouse, and I couldn’t believe my luck that I had found a couple so much like Brandt and myself!  The three of us became instant friends, and we spent the rest of the ’Con talking and sitting together.  It was wonderful to be able to talk with Sarah about ‘Shadow Spouse’ issues like going to restaurants, being stared at while wearing the FM system, and having our husbands get upset when they misunderstand and think we’ve just insulted them.  She often had to repeat things for Bob when he missed them, and I knew exactly what that was like.  Bob recently missed being a Cochlear Implant candidate by only 8%, so I could definitely sympathize with that as well.  I was sad that Brandt couldn’t be there to meet them, but they got to hear ALL about him.

Our speaker at the President’s Luncheon was Cheryl Heppner, the executive director of the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons.  Ms. Heppner signs, lipreads, and has a Cochlear Implant and Hearing Dog.  She even wrote a book entitled Seeds of Disquiet:  One Deaf Woman’s Experience.  She is a hardworking advocate, focusing on improved telecommunications and captioning for television and movie theaters.  At the luncheon, she told us that the #1 gripe she hears from Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing people is about captioning.

The afternoon workshop I attended was “Organizing Effective Advocacy—Working Together to Build an Accessible World,” given by John Waldo, a deaf lawyer and founder of the Washington State Communication Access Project (“Wash-CAP”).  Mr. Waldo explained that advocacy done by individuals does not get much accomplished; the other end of the spectrum is filing a class-action lawsuit.  However, he suggested a middle ground—organized advocacy groups, such as his group Wash-CAP.  These kinds of groups are “more effective, comfortable, and strategic.”  When deciding what to advocate for, Mr. Waldo suggests developing a priority list, balancing what is “most valuable” versus what is “most achievable.”  Then, you must “identify who will say ‘yes,’ and who can’t say ‘no.’”  For example, when a movie theater company says it cannot possibly afford to install Rear Window Captioning, pointing out how many millions of dollars in profits they make every year can show them that they really can’t afford to say ‘no’!  If advocacy work is not successful, then you should consider exercising your legal rights.  Mr. Waldo said that word gets around fast, so this option doesn’t have to be used often to be effective, because it “gets the attention of the person who can say ‘yes.’”  His final suggestions for positive advocacy were:

• take and give credit
• publicize
• say “thank you”
• support and enjoy

Next was our guided tour of the Garden of the Gods park.  I was really dizzy and tired from the altitude, but I was determined not to miss the tour.  On the bus, I sat next to ALDA’s current president, Linda Dratell.  I told her about growing up with Aunt Louise, and about Brandt.  She was very interested in my story, and asked if I would be interested in starting an ALDA chapter in our area.  I know it would be a lot of work, but I’m intrigued at the idea!  We visited several areas of the park, and the scenery was breathtaking.  I love mountains, so I had a blast.

After the tour, we went out to dinner.  We had a private room in the restaurant, but there was music playing overhead which made it hard to understand people because it mixed with the noise from all the conversations going on.  Luckily, everyone that I talked to also signed when they spoke, so we were all able to communicate fairly easily.  I never would have been able to understand these conversations relying only on speaking or signing, but with both, communication was fairly easy.  It was amazing!

I took over 100 pictures at Garden of the Gods, but here are 3 of my favorites:

Panoramic with Pike’s Peak in the background

These rock formations are huge

Rockclimbers

Labor Day Movie

I’m back from a fabulous time at the ALDAcon in Colorado Springs!  I met a lot of amazing people, and learned a lot as well.  And I got to practice my signing, because almost everyone there signs at least a little bit!  I was sad to leave, and was actually crying along with many other people when we said our final goodbyes yesterday.  I can’t wait to attend next year, and Brandt and Josie, this is fair warning—you’re both going no matter what!  It will be in Indianapolis in late October, so we can have a nice (looong) road trip, and I’m recruiting anyone else who can fit in our car.

Unfortunately, I’m still recovering from Altitude Sickness (did you know that you can also experience bad effects when you return to low altitudes?  I found that out the hard way!), so I need another day or so to start tackling my notes.  I will also find out tomorrow whether or not my ASL Level 4 (or repeat of Level 3) class has enough people, so I might be running off to class at the last second.  I’m hopeful, but not expecting it to make…

Since today was a holiday, that meant that we could actually attend a matinee Open Captioned movie (the one day a week there is an afternoon showing in OC; the only nighttime showing is on Tuesday nights).  We had 4 choices, and I let Brandt pick.  The American is new this week and has a 61% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so knowing next to nothing about it, we decided to see it.  It wasn’t our style, and left us pretty confused, but, the captioning was perfect and I never heard anyone complain about it.  There were a lot of older people in the theater, and most of the actors had accents, so I imagine the captioning was a big help to many people watching.  I am very proud of the movie theater company for adding something new:  they put big laminated signs on easels outside each of the theaters that was showing an OC movie, announcing that it was captioned.  They’ve always taped little signs to the cash registers at the box office, but these new signs looked very professional.  Now if I could just get them to show captioned movies more than 2 days a week…

One of the workshops I attended at ALDAcon was about movie theater captioning, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
  

#8 Bites the Dust

Just a quick complaint before my trip to Colorado Springs for the ALDAcon.

Tonight Brandt took off his iCom for the night and put it on his dresser; when I walked by it, I noticed the neck loop was bent almost at a right angle.  I picked it up and yelled, “When did your new iCom break?!”  He had no idea it was broken, so we’re not sure how it happened or how long it’s been like that.  It’s broken in the same spot they have all broken, where the loop and the part that connects it to the iCom itself meet.  The loop is no longer attached, so the wires are exposed.

Brandt just got this new iCom a month ago—almost a month to the day.  It is a new model, with medical-grade silicone replacing the old plastic neck loop that kept hardening up.  We assumed that with the new, silicone loop, this wouldn’t happen anymore.  Apparently we were wrong.  I think this is the 8th iCom that has broken, although I lost count a while ago, so it could be more.

And while I’m complaining, even though this new iCom worked perfectly at the audiologist’s office, as soon as we got home it refused to play music or podcasts without skipping and stuttering, and every time Brandt connects it to his iPhone, it plays Frank Sinatra.  Seriously.  Sinatra.

Alright, enough complaining about Brandt’s ever-failing hearing technologies—I have to get my suitcases packed!  I don’t know how good my internet connection will be at the ’Con, after my awful experience in Philadelphia, but I’ll try to update if I can.  It might only be a Facebook update, so be sure to join the group!