Right?
Yup but, after 13 years with a blown sound system, I’m still not a comfortably social deafie.
This was a party where, apart from my boss (who doesn’t sign) and Jen, I didn’t know a soul. The joint was jumpin’ – lots of people movin’ groovin’ and mingling. BIG activity.
Remember, bitte, my sense of balance, my ability to keep from toppling like so many haphazardly stacked blocks, comes, primarily, from vision. In a big crowd I need to either hang on to someone/something or I gotta find the nearest comfy chair. Failing that, I gotta concentrate – make an active, focused effort.
My boss was introducing me around (I was flattered that she was, essentially, showing me off) BUT… If I’m to have any chance of more or less successfully reading people’s lips, I’ve got to focus, focus, focus. I had a choice – stay upright or attempt lipread-age. What’d I choose? NOT falling over of course. I grabbed Jen from her chat cluster and put her to work. I’d feel bad about this but I know Jen’s not a huge party chit chat fan. This was, possibly, more of a rescue.After a short bit, we zipped off to a back corner where we people watched, bibble-babbled with my boss’s husband and snarfed treats from the passing, beautiful, black clad catering staff.
The program began – speakers spoke. Jen ‘terped some of the intro remarks for me – specifically, all the shout outs to me and my boss. *BEAM* After the crazy-ass hours we put in on this, yup, it felt damn good.Question: Are elegant good looks a job requirement for catering crews? Don Jr. could get hired but doofusy Ugly Eric would be shit outta luck? OR are both way too dweebie and only Ivanka could score a gig?
And then Jen and I slipped out the back. I wish I was more of a party person. Next time, if there’s a next time, I’ll bring a cane to help with balance and I’ll shove my speech enabled iPhone into the face of whoever’s jawing at me.
That might seem rude but:
- it'd be less awkward/show more couth-hood than turning away from the person speaking to me while I hunt for a 'terp.
- it's an effective way of making conversation with someone whose lips I can't read for whatever reason.
Tumbling Dice – Stones
I'll have try that, sticking my "phone" up in someone's face. Probably shut them right up, which may not be a bad thing. I don't interact much outside my family and they just yell at me 😊
ReplyDeleteI encourage friends to use semaphore if they don't know any ASL. The flags are cumbersome to tote about but, ya know, pretty!
DeleteI rather enjoy the solitude. Gotta' chuckle though: I spend about fifty hours a week watching out for my four year old grand-daughter while my daughter works. She's figured out she has to be loud to get my attention from another room or across the yard, but not when we are at the breakfast table, which can be painful. The older kids have grown with it as it has been happening and have figured out how to modulate their voices to be not so loud and painful, one has even run the "I told you but you didn't hear me" scam on me, which earned him a good laugh and a half hour on the wall.
DeleteI work that shit in reverse -- someone says something I don't agree with, i just tell them "I'm deaf--don't know what you're sayin" and then I walk away. 😀
DeleteMy grands learned quickly that they need to speak slowly and I need to see their mouths move in order to "hear" them. The first sentence that stuck with them, in ASL, was 'can I have a cookie.' Of course.
No hable englass!
DeleteSi!
DeleteIt shouldn't be awkward for you at all to use an adaptive devise (both cane and phone) and it's a good reminder to those totally able bodied folks that not everyone is rocking their level of health/hearing/eyesight/cognition/whatever. Remember: you're the one making the effort and you've not nada to apologize for.
ReplyDeleteshouldn't but is.
DeleteI want to find a smoother way of introducing my work-arounds.