Nice Car!

On Friday night, Brandt and I went for a nice long walk (hasn’t the weather been wonderful?!) and then went to one of our favorite restaurants.  For whatever reason, the seating hostess always tries to seat us in the room with the sports bar.  It’s loud enough in the regular dining area, so adding the noise of 2 big-screen televisions and screaming football fans is just impossible.  The hostess always thinks it’s strange when I ask her to sit away from the bar.

About halfway through our dinner, she came up to our table and asked Brandt, “Do you own the black BMW?”  He nodded, and I knew that he thought she was asking if his meal was good.  Before I could jump in, she said “You do?  Wow!  Nice car!  Well your headlights are on…”  He smiled and nodded again.  I opened my mouth to tell him what was going on, when she again told him his headlights were on and he needed to turn them off.  I shook my head and said, “No, we don’t own a BMW, sorry…”  She looked at Brandt, confused.  “But, he said you did.”  I shook my head again.  “He didn’t hear you right.”

I turned to Brandt and explained what had happened.  “Oh, I thought you were asking if my food was ok.  It’s good!” he said.  Then I had to re-explain to the hostess that no, we don’t own the BMW and it was all a misunderstanding.

As we were leaving the restaurant, Brandt asked me, “Did you see the couple next to us?”  The older couple?”  I nodded.  “They were celebrating their anniversary!” he said.  Puzzled, I said, “I heard them order some sort of wine, but how’d you know it was their anniversary?  Did they have cards or something?”  Very proudly, he said, “Nope, I read their lips!  The man toasted ‘To another 23 wonderful years.  Happy Anniversary.’”  I was amazed!  “You can read lips that well?!  And you were eavesdropping on their conversation?!”  He smirked.  “Yep.  It keeps me somewhat connected to my surroundings!”

  

Lovely Sandwich

I think my hearing is getting worse…

Over the weekend, our friends Cassie and Basil came to visit, and I had a really hard time understanding either of them unless I was looking right at them.  Riding in the backseat of their car, I strained and struggled to make sense of their words, and walking around at the zoo was equally difficult because I was walking several steps behind them (I was really tired!).  I’ve known Cassie for 15 years, and I don’t remember ever having trouble understanding her in person.  I’ve had some difficulty on the phone with her for the past few years, but I assumed that was (mostly) due to us talking on cell phones.

I don’t have a problem with hearing sounds, I don’t think.  I can still hear all the little pops and creaks of our house late at night, and the random annoying neighborhood sounds.  But my speech comprehension is not doing so well.

Last night after dinner, Brandt was getting dessert, about 8 feet from the kitchen table where I was sitting.  I asked him what he’d had for lunch, and I swear I clearly heard him say, “A lovely grilled chicken sandwich.”  I laughed and said, “A lovely chicken sandwich?  And what made it so lovely?”  He looked confused and said, “Well, it was grilled, and it had lettuce...you know, nice and healthy.”  Apparently he had said “HEALTHY grilled chicken sandwich,” not “lovely.”  {sigh}