Two Thoughts for Today

The picture above is a representation of Janus, the Roman god who could look into the past and the future at the same time. The month of January is named after him. At year's end, I think it's an appropriate time to look back over the last year while anticipating a bright future to come.

Dayenu is a thought that is resonating with me today. Have you heard of it before? I recently learned about the concept of Dayenu while reading Ed Dobson's book, The Year of Living Like Jesus. According to Dobson, dayenu, which is part of the Jewish passover celebration, means "that alone would have been enough, but for that alone we are grateful. Dayenu is learning to be grateful for what God has already done and not asking him to do more."

I like the idea of dayenu and have been thinking about how I might apply that attitude towards the people in my life. I want to be grateful for what they have done for me in the past and remove any expectations of what they might do for me in the future. For all of you readers who have left a supportive comment on my blog or dropped me an email, thank you. I am grateful.

Looking forward into the new year, I am inspired by a thought from the book One Square Inch of Silence by Gordon Hempton. While discussing his need for quiet in the wilderness, Jay Salter tells Hempton,

"I come here to renew myself, to remember what it is to be human, which is not to be listening to a lot of things telling me what to buy or who I am or who I could be, but to find out who I am, to remember who I am, and to take that back into the world."

I may not make it to the wilderness, but I hope I can bring some of that spirit to my blog for 2011. Learning what it is to be human, coping with a hearing loss, finding out what I'm capable of, and sharing it with the world.

Blessings to all of you for 2011.

Silent Night

I'll be silent on my blog until after the Christmas holidays. I'll return to share some end of year thoughts. In January, I plan to post a book review of One Square Inch of Silence by Gordon Hempton and include a question/answer interview with the author.

Seasons Greetings to all,
Speak Up Librarian

Tis the Season to Be Jolly

Today I attended my fourth holiday party within the last week. Whew, I don't want to get anywhere near a scale! The first one held last Wednesday was a university staff party. I walked away from the annual raffle with two Christmas CDs. Not bad. I wasn't named Employee of the Year, but a good friend of mine was, so I am very happy about that. She's such a hard worker that she didn't even take time away from her job to attend the party and have the chance to walk onstage to receive her award. Now that's dedication!

The next party I attended was the Chicago ALDA holiday social. This was my first time to attend. I think this event is almost a rite of passage. You aren't really a member of Chicago ALDA until you've been there. Kind of like you haven't attended the ALDA national convention until you've been to the karaoke party. Members of ALDA (Association for Late Deafened Adults) will know what I mean. I've heard stories but haven't been there myself. Yet.

Anyways, the Chicago ALDA social was held on Saturday night in this beautiful Victorian home in historic Oak Park. Doesn't it just look festive and inviting?

I came with my friend Ann, another newcomer to the group. Here the two of us are posed on either side of our hostess, Mary. She told me she has been a member of ALDA for more than twenty years. Ann and I enjoyed getting to meet more of the ALDA membership. Everyone was friendly and welcoming to us. And I have to mention the food at the party was outstanding.

Ann, Mary, and me

On Sunday my family attended a banquet for our afternoon bowling league. In the photo below, Charlie and I are holding the Strawberry Pretzel Salad we brought. This dessert features a pretzel/butter crust, a layer of cream cheese, sugar, and cool whip, and a layer of strawberry jello and strawberries. We topped ours with another layer of cool whip. If you'd like the recipe, just drop me an email.

Charlie and me at the lanes. We bowl
with a father/daughter team from our church.

Below is a shot of the food table at the banquet. Yummy. We ate while we bowled which made for a mellow afternoon of competition. There wasn't much of anything left at the end of three bowling games. Do you think we burned enough calories bowling to compensate?

Potluck Bowling Banquet

Today's party was the library staff holiday luncheon. The library was closed for two hours so no one had to be on public service duty during the party. I enjoyed spending time with coworkers I seldom see due to working in different departments and on different shifts. Best of all, after my table was finished eating, we reconvened to an adjacent area with comfy chairs where one staffer serenaded us on his guitar. He played his own songs which are in a folk music type of style. I couldn't catch most of the words he sang, but I heard the guitar chords clearly. It was so relaxing.

Last year at this time, I took time off for a baking frenzy. This year I've been working and have only made one batch of gingerbread men so far. To be completely honest, my son came up with the idea and made the dough himself. I only assisted with the decorating. In comparison to last December, I was feeling pretty good about my calorie intake. Until I wrote this post, that is. Realizing just how much food I've eaten at these four parties makes me see that I'm not really ahead of last year after all. Oh well, tis the season to be jolly....and well fed.

Luke and Margie May Return in Amazing Race 18

[Note: Video is uncaptioned.]

After last night's Amazing Race 17 wrapped up at the finish line, host Phil Keoghan announced a twist for the next season. Dubbed "Unfinished Business", this race will feature teams from previous seasons who came up short. The race's first deaf contestant Luke and his mother Margie appear in the promo video. Apparently not everyone featured in it will actually be racing. We will have to wait for the official CBS announcement to know for sure. The season will air on Sunday nights beginning February 20.

If you don't know who Margie and Luke are and/or if you didn't follow them on Amazing Race 14 back in 2009, you can get up to speed with my intro and recaps on their progress in the race. Below I have included their interview at the finish line of the race. This video is partially captioned.

If anyone knows if Margie and Luke are racing again or not, let me know!

Waiting on the World to Change

Note: This video does not have captions. The audio is the song "Waiting for the World to Change" by John Mayer. For those unfamiliar with the song, I have included the lyrics below.

"Waiting On The World To Change"

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

That's why we're waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And we're still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

My New Audiogram

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a new audiogram this week. Before the test began, I asked my audiologist if I could have the test done with my hearing aids in so I could see how much they help me. She agreed, but had technical difficulties with her equipment so the result on the pure tones was unusable. On the speech recognition part, I got 88% correct unaided and 100% correct aided. That's good to know as I mainly wear hearing aids to help me understand speech.



This was the result of my latest hearing test. As I had suspected, my hearing loss is greater than before. You can see how much by looking at the graph below where I've plotted both audiograms.



I'm disappointed my hearing has declined a little but not surprised.

Hearing Aid Mishap

See that tiny tip at the end of the tubing?
That part got stuck in my ear!

On my way home from work and en route to picking up my son from school, I casually reached up to switch programs on my hearing aids. Something I do without thinking every day. This time was different. One of my hearing aids didn't switch programs. I've had that happen before so I tried again. This time it switched but then the sound went crazy with feedback. "What on earth?" I wondered as I reached up to pull it out of my ear careful to keep my eyes on the road. A second later when I glanced down at it on my lap, I noticed the tip was missing. Uh oh. At the next stoplight I felt around my ear and thought I might have touched it. I was almost to my son's school by then so I continued on to get him. When he got in the car, I pulled over into an empty parking space, got out of the car, and checked around the driver's seat and on my clothes. No hearing aid tip. I asked him to take a look inside my ear. He couldn't see it. I decided to call my ENT's office.

Fortunately, the staff had not left for the day and they told me they would wait until I got to their office even though I was about 20 minutes away at the time. I was so relieved to have a plan of action although I did worry a bit in case the tip turned out not to be in my ear. Would the doctor be angry with me for wasting his time? I fretted until the thought occurred to me that as much money as an ENT doctor makes, it would hardly be a waste as I was sure I would be charged either way.

When we got to the office, one of the audiologists took a look in my ear with an otoscope. "I see it," she announced to my relief. Then the doctor came in took a quick peek of his own in both ears and took out something that looked like a thin wire. One of the staff told me to hold very still. In a jiff, he had extracted it. Phew, I was glad that was over. The audiologist left the room to get me a new tip and tube. Meanwhile the doctor was looking at my chart. "It's been more than a year since your aids have been reprogrammed, why not have it done now", he suggested. "After all you've come all this way", he said persuasively. "Do you have time now?" I asked the audiologist when she returned. "Yes, our office holiday party is this evening and I live too far away to go home first. I was just going to hang around here anyways."

With that settled, I decided to go ahead. Despite having an impatient, hungry teenager on my hands, I wanted to get my hearing rechecked. I was pretty certain I wasn't hearing as well as before and having it looked at now beat the hassle of scheduling an appointment around my job for another time. In my next post, I'll reveal the results of that test.

When I wrote about this mishap on facebook, I think I gave the wrong impression that a part of my hearing aid broke off or that a piece of the hearing aid tube snapped off in my ear. That wasn't what happened. I want to clarify that the round tip is a separate piece that fits very tightly onto the tubing. It's slipped off while I've cleaned it perhaps once or twice but never while wearing it. I don't know how this happened but the audiologist says it does happen occasionally. The important thing is to get it out as soon as possible. My audiologist said if I had left it in for a couple days, I risked getting an outer ear infection. Not to mention that my ear felt pretty sore anyways. I left my hearing aid out of that ear all day yesterday just to help it recover. Today it's feeling fine.

I hope this never happens to you, but if it does, get help as soon as possible. I'm glad I did.

What Caused My Hearing Loss?

Occasionally I am asked, "What caused your hearing loss?" Whenever I hear that question, I immediately suspect the person is asking because a) they assume I must have done something wrong and b) they would like to avoid doing the same thing. Whatever their motive may be, my answer is always "I don't know." After all, that's what my audiologist told me when I asked her. She said it was very common not to know the cause of a sensorineural hearing loss. Even so that hasn't stopped me from speculating what the cause might have been. Here's some of the possibilities I've mulled over from time to time.

• I used to clean my ears with Q-tips. Did I injure my ears doing that? No, my audiologist reassured me. Good to know, but I've quit using Q-tips on my ears anyways.
  
  
• Was it from listening to music on my walkman? When I was a moody teenager, I liked to have the volume up to block out the cruel world and wallow in my feelings of angst. After I got my driver's license I would "turn it to the right" whenever one of my favorite songs came on the radio. Actually I am still guilty of that.
  
  
• Was it from listening to live music in bars? I liked to go out dancing in my college years and remember one time in particular that I spent part of the night standing next to a speaker.


• Or perhaps it was more recent noise exposure. About ten years ago, my husband went through a gun phase and taught me how to shoot firearms. We always used ear protection at indoor gun ranges, but I don't remember if we wore them when shooting outdoors.
  


• Maybe it was from a louder bang. Once my son and I were walking in our neighborhood when lightning struck across the street from us. Instinctively I pushed my little boy to the ground and threw myself on top of him for protection. I didn't even fully understand what was happening. I saw the brightest light I have ever seen and thought someone was setting up a photography shoot with umbrella lights. Strange how your mind tries to figure things out in moments like these. I remember the light but don't remember the sound at all.
  


• Could it have been caused by my aversion to pain? A study published in the American Journal of Medicine March 2010 found a link between regular use of analgesics and hearing loss in men. I've taken plenty of acetaminophen and ibuprofen over the years for sinus pain, headaches, fevers, and muscle pain. Should I have toughed it out instead?


• Or did I take an ototoxic prescription medicine? My grandfather became deaf when he was given an ototoxic medicine in the hospital near the end of his life. I've checked through lists of medicines with ototoxic side effects but I can't identify any that I have taken. I have had the occasional antibiotic over the years, but nowadays I avoid them as much as I can.
  
  
• Was my loss inherited or genetic? Other than my grandfather's situation of sudden hearing loss, there is no history of hearing trouble on either side of my family. My parents both hear much better than I do. I found this out when my dad created a computer test for me that played musical tones up the scale. When we played his CD we discovered that my parents can hear multiple tones higher than I can. For me the room was strangely quiet while they were continuing to count out the number of tones they heard. No, I can't pin the blame on them.


• My father was a chemist and since I was a kid has always warned me about the hazards of chemicals. Now that I'm grown and have my own family, I've become the designated painter whenever we do some remodeling. I enjoy painting very much but have to admit that it has exposed me to fumes from paint, mineral spirits, paint stripper, varnish and other household chemicals. Could I have caused my hearing loss by inadvertently inhaling the wrong thing?

I don't know. It may have been the cumulative effects of some of these things and it may not have been from any of them. It's all a medical mystery to me.

What do you think?

My Audiogram in Color

Clever Steve of the Deafness and Hearing Aids blog has unveiled a new Audiogram Creator tool he made. I used it to create this picture for you. I hope it will help illustrate my level of hearing loss. The blue x indicates my left ear's performance and the red circle indicates my right ear's. This is the result from my first hearing test four years ago. My audiologist says my more recent audiograms haven't changed significantly.

I recently had someone look at my audiogram and he told me I was in pretty good shape for someone with hearing loss, that he could see why my hearing loss had gone undetected for some time, and that he could understand why I didn't want to use my hearing aids in certain situations. As you can see from the diagram above, I do have quite a bit of hearing in the normal range. The troublesome part for me is the high frequencies where the consonants fall.

Recently I had a relative introduce me to her friends as someone who had suddenly lost her hearing. Inwardly, I cringed a bit at that. I think it would be more accurate to say instead that I learned of my hearing loss in a sudden manner. Mainly because I was oblivious and in denial before that, but not hearing a fire alarm was something I couldn't ignore! Also I haven't lost my hearing. Not by a long shot. It's just rather reduced from what is typical for someone my age. Heh, at least that's one way to put it.

So wearing my hearing aids fixes everything, right? Wrong. The aids definitely make the world seem a LOUDER place to me. I can hear sounds clearly that are rather muted without the aids, like the way my keys jangle. But if someone doesn't have my attention when they speak, there is likely to be trouble with our communication. If someone's speaking to me in a noisy place or I'm tired or distracted, I'm liable to misunderstand. I also have trouble with people "sneaking up" on me. My husband gets irritated at how often I startle when he comes into the room. My son takes advantage of it to scare the living daylights out of me.

I have people comment that I do "so well" with my hearing loss. I usually take that to mean they're not experiencing any difficulty communicating with me. Actually because of the hearing I have, I often don't feel "deaf enough". I think people suspect I'm faking it or that I have selective hearing and are not interested in what they're saying. It's good to have my audiogram to show that yes I do have trouble hearing.

Be the Change You Wish to See

We ate Chinese take out food tonight and my fortune cookie had the following message "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Immediately it reminded me of this banner I had photographed in London last June. It was on display as part of a protest in a public square. I liked its positive message and snapped the picture as a reminder to myself.

What these words mean to me is that when I see something wrong in this world and feel the urge to do nothing but complain, I'm missing an opportunity. If I want a more accessible world for everyone, then I need to be part of making that happen. I need to advocate for increased accessibility within my own sphere of influence.

What does this quote attributed to Gandhi mean to you?

Thanks to Jonathan for telling me the source of this quote.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dealing with Disappointment

Disappointed
Originally uploaded by meibukan76

Last year at this time I was reading several fiction books about the Amish. At the time I was struck by a recurring theme of accepting God's will as the Amish way of handling disappointments. I was intrigued by this attitude. Sadly, I've seen people turn bitter when life doesn't go their way and I wanted to know how I might avoid travelling that road myself. I searched "God's will" on Google and found this beautiful Catholic prayer. It's meant so much to me that I printed it out and placed it on my desk where it is within my view at all times while I am work. I've found it helpful in dealing with the inevitable disappointments that have come my way over the past year. Perhaps you will find it helpful too.

Prayer to Accept God's Will

Give me, Lord, the strength and courage to accept Your will at this time of my life, and throughout my life. You know both what I want and what is best for me. Help me to recognize Your blessing and presence in all my needs so that my thoughts, words, and actions might reflect my trust in Your wisdom. Amen."

You may also want to check out this other photo of disappointment on flickr. It's guaranteed to make you smile.

Celebration of Family History

Me, my aunt Louise, my Uncle Gene,
my cousin Worley, my husband, and my son.

Genealogy has never been an interest of mine. I don't find investigating the family tree the all consuming passion that my husband, my father, and so many others do. Honestly, I never understood the fascination with one's ancestors until recently. My change of heart began with a letter.

Last August I received an elegantly worded invitation to attend the 125th anniversary of a historical society my great great grandfather had started. The current membership had tracked down all the living descendants of the orginal thirty-three founders and requested the honor of their presence at this momentous occasion. As letters like that don't arrive in my mailbox everyday and I hadn't seen my relatives that lived in the area for two years, I chose to attend and make it a family event by bringing my husband and son along too.

Sons of the American Revolution

Due to our work schedules, we chose to fly in to a major eastern city late the night before and drive down to meet our family at the courthouse in time for the event. As I had just been there two years before, I didn't anticipate any travel problems. I was blissfully unaware that a complicated new highway system had been built in the meantime. Naturally we promptly got lost. The situation was more problematic because the one hour time difference between the Central and Eastern time zones had affected me more than I realized and we were running late. Fortunately, a quick cell phone call to my aunt got us on the right road once again. We arrived only minutes late. Luckily, someone at the local newspaper had misprinted the event's time by a half hour and the historical society chose to wait the additional thirty minutes before beginning. We were able to catch our breath, connect with our relatives, and be introuduced to the historical society director without missing a thing.

Me, Charlie, historical society members, and other descendants
gathered in front of the courthouse for a photo op.

Charlie cut the ribbon
(I was too slow on the draw to get the ribbon in the
photo, but you can see he still has the scissors in hand.)

Bringing a teenager to a historical society celebration seemed a bit risky to me. Although my son loves history I wasn't sure whether this event would hold his interest long. I needn't have worried. My son was treated like a celebrity by the historical society. All because he had the distinction of being the youngest descendant on hand. They asked him to cut a yellow ribbon to begin the event and later on asked him to start the food line at the reception. Before he could leave the table with his loaded down plate, someone snapped his photo saying, "We need to know what the younger generation is eating." Heh. As his mom, I was proud that he had dressed nice for the occasion with a tie.

Once inside the courthouse, we were treated to a history of the historical society. My ears perked up when I heard that one of the earlier members had been deaf. I was sad to learn that his hearing loss kept him from doing all he wanted to for the society. The good old days weren't always so good!

On a lighter note, the historical society had a funny story about a cannonball I found memorable. This cannonball was a relic from the war of 1812. It had been in the historical society office for as long as anyone could remember. Over time it had assumed the function of the society's doorstop, quietly propping the door open until the day in 1995 when someone took a second look and asked if the cannonball had ever been tested to see if it was 'live' or not. Well, no one had ever considered that possibility before so the local fire department was called. Turned out the society was using a live cannonball as their doorstop. The fire department took the cannonball to a field and safely detonated it. The remaining shards are on display in the society's museum.

After the society's 125 year history had been reviewed, the search for the descendants of the original founders was discussed. It had been quite an effort and the society membership were pleased at the number who were in attendance that day. Coming from Illinois, I think we had travelled the farthest to be there. They presented each of the descendants with a certificate and a piece of the ribbon which Charlie had cut earlier. Then it was on to the reception at the society headquarters.

As you can see from these photos, it was a lovely luncheon and we enjoyed it very much. It was wonderful to be a part of family history for a day. Maybe those genealogy buffs aren't so crazy after all.

Support Group New Members Luncheon

Karen and me at Anyways Restaurant

On Saturday I was officially welcomed into my local ALDA hearing loss support group. Previously, I had participated in several of their social events, but it wasn't until I decided to represent the group at the Chicago Deaf Awareness Day that I sent in my membership application. My timing turned out to be perfect because it made me eligible to attend a lovely New Members luncheon two weeks later!

About ten of us met for lunch at Anyways Restaurant in Oak Brook Terrace. [I'm giving the restaurant a shout-out because their food was delicious and their service couldn't have been better. We were given a room with large windows which gave us plenty of light to see each other's faces and hands. Our room had excellent acoustics as well, which can be hard to find in a restaurant.] There were two other new members besides me. The other ladies, our gathering happened to be all female, were mostly longtime Chicago ALDA members. I was really impressed by their dedication to offering support and friendship to newbies like me. They were women who had been dealing with their hearing loss longer than I have and they are wonderful examples that "life does go on". Several of them signed as they spoke which I found both helpful and admirable.

I was very happy to find out that one of the other new members is a blogging buddy of mine, Karen from A Deaf Mom Shares Her World. Karen and I have known each other online and attended some of the same events but this was our first time to be introduced. I was in awe. Karen is a wonderful writer and reading her blog inspired me to share my own story by starting Speak Up Librarian. When she smiled approvingly at me, I felt ten feet tall. Later, after I'd taken my turn introducing myself around the table, she even commented that I'm a natural at sign language. I felt so accepted by her.

One of the other ladies had a hearing loss story that was similar to mine, so naturally, I was drawn to her and wanted to know more. She was friendly and I hope to get to know her better through future events. One of the ladies offers a monthly informal support group meeting with a free sign language class following. This woman has such a kind, nurturing manner that I feel certain I could learn to improve my signing skills from her. I had no idea this opportunity was offered before attending the luncheon.

At the table, I happened to be placed with my back to a fireplace with a fire going. The warmth on my back was matched by the glow in my heart from the friendship and understanding offered to me from Chicago ALDA.

To Wear Hearing Aids or Not?

To paraphrase Shakespeare, "to wear hearing aids or not to wear them" is one reader's dilemma. She wrote me recently to ask the following question: Do people with mild or moderate hearing loss benefit by wearing hearing aids?

This has been her experience. One audiologist told her she didn't need hearing aids. A second audiologist said she did and she purchased a pair. She wore them for awhile, stopped wearing them, and has recently started wearing them again. In noisy situations and when people whisper, she finds that the aids are helpful. But she's self conscious about wearing them and has a spouse who is non supportive. She wonders if it's worth it when she can function without them.

I've emailed her my two cents on the topic. It's an issue I've debated myself as regular readers of my blog know. I often take hearing "breaks" without my hearing aids because listening tires me. But I do wear them most of the time. Somewhere I got the idea that wearing hearing aids with a milder loss helps your brain adjust to hearing through them and is better than waiting until the loss is greater. Her audiologist told her that by wearing them now she would not have as great a loss in the future as she would if she didn't wear them.

Readers, what are your thoughts on this?

• Do people with mild or moderate hearing loss benefit by wearing hearing aids?
• Does wearing hearing aids help prevent hearing loss?

Praying Dog Video (Captioned)

This is a very sweet video with special appeal to Christian dog lovers. I wonder if Rusty could learn to do this...

Chicago Deaf Awareness Day

Columbia College offers a degree in ASL-English Interpretation.

I plan to attend this event and help out at a booth for Chicago ALDA (Association of Late-Deafened Adults). If you're in Chicago, please stop by.

Travel Opportunities with Discovering Deaf Worlds

Would you like to join Discovering Deaf Worlds on an international adventure that will connect you with deaf people and signers around the world? Well, here is your chance to take the trip of a lifetime to Costa Rica or Thailand and Cambodia.

DDW has partnered with socially conscious travel company GoPhilanthropic to offer innovative travel opportunities that combine culture, adventure, accessibility, and a way to contribute to international deaf communities.

As part of the DDW: Journeys program, you can zip-line through the treetop canopy of a Costa Rican jungle, visit a colorful floating boat market amidst the city canals of Bangkok Thailand, and explore the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. At the same time, you will meet with deaf leaders along the way, learn about the issues they face, and participate in local efforts working towards solutions.

All trips will be fully accessible to deaf and hearing travelers with guides fluent in English, American Sign Language, and the local sign language of each country (Thai, Khmer/Cambodian, and LESCO-Costa Rican Sign Language).

Additional information including the trip itineraries are available at the GoPhilanthropic website. This article came almost entirely from the DDW blog.

Personally, I would love to take the Costa Rica trip. Is anyone else interested?

Is Sign Language an International Language?

Photo taken by DDW Team in New Zealand and shared on flickr.

When I was telling my friends and family about Discovering Deaf Worlds, someone asked me if sign language is an international language. She meant, "Is it the same all around the world?" The answer is no. Sign language is unique to cultures and varies from country to country. When I took an ASL sign language, I was shown that there are regional variations as well. Deaf families may even use home signs that have special meaning to the family members.

Photo taken by DDW Team in Japan and shared on flickr.

Christy Smith and Dave Justice of Discovering Deaf Worlds experienced this firsthand when they traveled through Asia in 2007-2008. In their newsletters to supporters back home, they published examples of the fingerspelled alphabets for each country they visited. Their May 2008 newsletter includes the following excerpt:

....the first question our new hearing friends almost always ask is, “So sign language is universal, right? That must be cool to know a universal language!” But of course, sign language is not universal. The roots of sign language, just like any verbal language, are influenced by culture and geography. For example, the sign for “Thank you” in Japan is adopted from the karate-chop-like gesture a sumo wrestler makes after winning his prize money, whereas in China, “Thank you” is signed as a fist with a bending thumb to represent the subtle head nod Chinese people use to acknowledge thanks in passing.

Discovering Deaf Worlds holds this value to be central to its mission: "Local sign languages reflect the cultures in which they are rooted and must be preserved. "(October 2009 newsletter). While traveling through developing countries in Asia, Christy and Dave learned that Cambodia had no sign language before 1997 and the language is still in development today. In addition, Thai Sign Language was not recognized by the government as the official language of the deaf in Thailand until 1999. DDW is committed to helping the educational efforts of those teaching local sign languages. You can learn more by visiting their website at http://www.discoveringdeafworlds.org/.

In my next post, I will write about an exciting new venture that DDW has launched.

Discovering Deaf Worlds

Davin Searles, Christy Smith, and Dave Justice

Have you heard about Discovering Deaf Worlds?

This organization is the brainchild of Dave Justice (an ASL interpreter) and Christy Smith (a deaf contestant on Survivor). To get DDW started in 2007, the pair raised funds to spend a year traveling New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Thailand, Nepal, India, and Cambodia in search of deaf support groups in these countries. You can read the story of their adventures and the wonderful people they met along the way in their archived newsletters.

Three years later, Discovering Deaf Worlds is an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to empowering deaf and hard of hearing people in developing countries. Davin Searles has joined Dave and Christy as Executive Director and 9 board members have been selected.

DDW's first successful project was creating a film titled Discovering: Shuktara. This documentary tells the story of 18 boys and girls in Kolkata, India who were given a new chance at life after being abandoned by their families or escaping abusive homes. While many non-governmental organizations in India often overlook homeless children who are deaf, Shuktara embraces them. You can view a trailer of the film here.

The STAR (Shuktara Teachers and Role Models) Initiative has now been launched to provide training and educational materials for deaf Indian tutors to work with the children of the Shuktara homes on language development and vocational skills. The long-term goal is for the children to attain the skills, knowledge, and confidence necessary to run the homes independently. You can read more about it in their December 2009 newsletter.

In my next post, I will share more with you about Discovering Deaf Worlds.

Fall Treat: Concord Grape Pie

Concord Grape Pie

My son and I baked this on Saturday. It was our very first grape pie. We enjoyed making this pie together. The basic recipe directions we followed can be found at Cooks.com.

Concord grapes

This project started when I bought some luscious looking grapes at a farmers market. I had never purchased Concord grapes before. When I bit into them, the juice tasted sweet but the skins had a bitter taste. I knew my family wouldn't snack on them like we do the less flavorful seedless green grapes. I decided to look online for recipe ideas.

I found a recipe that I had all the ingredients for except an unbaked pie shell. So we quickly rolled out some pastry dough ourself. Most of the work making this pie came from separating the grape skins from the pulp and then later pressing the cooked pulp through a sieve to remove the seeds.

This pie smells heavenly while baking. Your hands will also have a nice fruity scent from handling the pulp. While the pie was in the oven, I got out two grape motif heirloom plates from my grandmother to serve my son and me the first pieces of our dessert. Cooks privilege and no one else was around the house at the time.

I think this pie looks as delicious as it tastes. This just may be a new annual fall tradition at our house.

I Need My New Glasses!

How I Feel About Having to Wear My Old Glasses Again

In June, I posted about how I lost my glasses. To this day, they still haven't turned up. In August, I posted about how I got a new pair of glasses. Well, not long afterwards, I opened my case one morning to find the frame broken. Argh. All I could figure out was that the hard shell case must have been just a bit too small for this pair and over time the pressure on the frames snapped them. Sigh. I took them back to the optical shop for a replacement. The optician thought perhaps it was due to a weak frame rather than the case, but she promised to give me a bigger one next time.

On Friday September 3 I got the call that my glasses were in and ready for pickup. I was elated. It would be tight for me to get there before the optician left for the day but I managed to arrive 5 minutes before she left. I immediately put my new glasses on and put my old pair in the new, larger case I was given. Right away I noticed a difference in my vision but figured that was due to the bifocals. After I left, I stopped at the pharmacy and then drove home. By that time I realized I wasn't seeing quite as well as I should. I chalked it up to a smudge on the lenses.

When I got inside the house, I took my glasses off to clean them and saw 7 scratches on the left frame and 3 on the right. What!!! In disbelief I sprayed them with my lens cleaner and wiped them off carefully with the cloth provided by the optician. Sadly, the scratches remained.

I returned to the optical shop. The optician was gone for the day but another lady was still there at the doctor's office. I told her what had happened and asked her to take a look. She verified that indeed there were scratches. I left the glasses with her with a note for the optician. From the parking lot, I left a voice mail for the optician explaining the situation. I was very upset as you can imagine, but I chose to calmly explain the situation without any editorializing about what I thought of the service I had received. Over the weekend, I wondered what the optician was going to say.

The next Monday I got a call from her. She apologized profusely and explained that she hadn't examined the glasses before she gave them to me other than a quick look to see that the frame was replaced. She told me she would return them to the lab and let them know she didn't appreciate this type of service for her clients. Well, I was relieved to hear that.

Then I waited and waited and waited some more. My old glasses were really old as in I can't even remember when I got them. I was getting by but at first I experienced a slight headache from them and I missed being able to read and do crossword puzzles like I could with the bifocals.

Yesterday (thirteen days later) I called the optician. "Had she heard from the lab about my glasses?", I inquired. Yes, my glasses were in but she hadn't examined them yet. She didn't want to release them "too soon like last time", she said. Uh, huh. Then I sat by the phone all afternoon waiting to hear back from her. No call. No voice message. I wondered if she had looked at them and what the verdict was.

This morning with some trepidation, I phoned her. "Oh yes, Sarah, I needed to call you. Your glasses are fine and you can pick them up anytime." What a relief! If I could have, I would have left immediately. Later today, I will be picking them up and hoping this is the last time I post about eyeglasses for a long time.

This has been a life lesson for me in "speaking up" for myself - something I find rather hard to do.

Hearing Loss Support Group Picnic

Jen and me

Last Saturday two wonderful hearing loss support groups in my area met together for a picnic. Members of the Chicago and Northwest Indiana chapters of ALDA (Association of Late Deafened Adults) and HLAA (Hearing Loss Association of America) enjoyed an outdoor lunch at a park in Dyer, a town located on the Indiana/Illinois border.

At last year's picnic I met Jen [pictured above] for the first time. We saw each other again at the HLAA convention in Milwaukee and have stayed in touch sporadically through email and facebook. It was amazing to see her again at this event, one she drove a significant distance to attend.

Bill and Ann

I was also happy to spend time with Bill and Ann who are new to the group(s). They are a couple I know from my church who I have encouraged to come to other events, but this was the first one they were able to attend. It was interesting to share our hearing loss experiences. Interestingly, they've recommended that I sit by them in church so I will hear better. They said I've been sitting in a very bad spot for sound. Further into our conversation, I found out that Bill is sponsoring a short story contest and that Ann is in the process of writing a cookbook with recipes for cooking from scratch. I'm looking forward to hearing more about those projects.

As this was my third time coming to the picnic, I saw a lot of familiar faces. Big smiles and hugs were the standard greeting here. Even though I had a few butterflies in my stomach before coming, reminiscent of my first time, I was able to morph into a social butterfly once I arrived because I felt welcomed by everyone. Especially Kim, Tahar, Kitty, Marsha, Ann, Gary, Jen, and Linda.

I recommend that everyone with hearing loss join a support group and make friends with people who understand what it's like and will take the time to communicate with you. Here are links to the two groups that sponsored the picnic. They are national organizations with local chapters throughout the country.

ALDA - Association of Late Deafened Adults

HLAA - Hearing Loss Association of America

If any of my international readers would like me to add the links to their organizations, please leave me a comment and I will add them to this post. Thanks.

A Real Man

A Real Man

A real man is a woman's best friend. He will
never stand her up and never let her down.
He will reassure her when she feels insecure
and comfort her after a bad day.

He will inspire her to do things she never
thought she could do; to live without fear
and forget regret. He will enable her to
express her deepest emotions and give in to
her most intimate desires. He will make sure
she always feels as though she's the most
beautiful woman in the room and will enable
her to be the most confident, sexy,
seductive, and invincible.

No wait... sorry... I'm thinking of wine.
It's wine that does all that.......
Never mind.

This gem came to me in my email today and I couldn't resist passing it on. If any readers want to share their idea of a real man, or if any men want to respond, please leave a comment.

Flowers for Friday: Pretty in Purple

Morning glory

Balloon flower

Shadows on the picnic table

There isn't much left blooming in our yard these days. Soon it will be time for the chrysanthemums, herald of the fall season. Autumn is my favorite time of year. I like the cooler temperatures and the sunny days seem even more precious when I know that winter will be next. What's your favorite season?

Black Sand ASL Movie

Have you seen the ASL movie Black Sand?

A deaf organization in my area sponsored a showing at a church recently. I was very excited about seeing it after my previous experience watching Gerald. This time I brought along my husband (who is hearing) so I'll share some of his perspective on the film too.

Black Sand is about a group of teenagers visiting Costa Rica and their stay at the home of an older woman who has recently been experiencing strange happenings around her property. For me the premise was reminiscent of Scooby Doo with its gang of young people and a mysterious creature lurking in the shadows. Not to give anything away but there's even an unmasking at the end!

That said, this movie is so much more. Nothing is as it seems. All your assumptions will be overturned before the final scene. If you like a movie with twists and turns, this is the film for you.

The title of the film has its own part to play in the plot twists. I found this interesting quote about black sand (the grainy stuff on the beach, NOT this movie) on a prospector's website:

The topic of black sand comes up in prospecting sometimes more than gold does! And it is very misunderstood. You often read or hear that the presence of black sand in an area means there is gold in the area also. This is not true.

You may want to keep that quote in mind when you see the film!

This movie has no audio. The story is told through ASL with English captions at the bottom for those like me who aren't fluent and those like my husband who don't know any ASL. There are no sound effects described. For my husband it was like seeing any foreign film but for me it was an opportunity to experience deaf culture.

To me the director did an excellent job of building suspense. In one scene there is a power outage and everyone is gathered around a table by candlelight when they notice one of them is missing. In another scene, one of the girls is hiding in a closet peeking through a crack wondering if she is about to be discovered. I thought how much more scarier it was for the deaf characters to have their vision limited in these situations. My husband didn't see it that way. He thought the lack of scary music made it less intense. In fact, he cracked that the soundman for the film should have been fired.

If you've seen the film, let me know your thoughts. If you haven't seen it, you can visit the ASL Films Black Sand website to read a synopsis, view the trailer, and book a showing.

A Little Late to the Julie & Julia Party

This weekend, my husband and I watched the film Julie & Julia. If you haven't seen it yet, this movie is about a young wife named Julie who takes on the challenge of making every recipe, 524 of them in all, from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the space of a year. At her husband's suggestion, she blogs about her experiences, both disasters and successes.

Almost everyone I know has seen this movie and recommended it. I don't know why I waited so long to see it. I guess it was hard for me to imagine Meryl Streep as Julia Child. I'm just old enough to remember Julia Child's first cooking series on TV and to have a fixed idea of what she looked like. But I needn't have worried, Meryl Streep drew me in right from the start of the movie. Of course, I've loved Amy Adams, who plays Julie, since I first saw her in Enchanted.

This movie was utterly relaxing. I found myself enjoying learning about Julia Child before she was "Julia Child" and I'm eager to read the biographical story, My Years in France on which half of the movie was based. I've been to France myself and have memories of their wonderful food. When I was there, I felt as though my stomach were smiling. To share that with my family, last night I made croque monsieur, the only French dish I know how to cook. Don't be too impressed. It's only grilled ham and cheese.


Did you know?

1. Julia Child's first cooking series was the first television program to be captioned for the deaf.
2. The movie Julie & Julia is the first major motion picture based on a blog.

Information obtained from Wikipedia.

I Thought My Cell Phone Was Possessed

I have a touch screen cell phone and have accidentally called people without knowing it. Oops. But today was a first. My cell phone actually sent out a text message while sitting on the floor of my car!

The lucky recipient got the cryptic note "gtg". Hmmm could my phone have meant "got to go". It seems plausible enough in the acronym language of texting.

Of course, this message wasn't sent to a good friend or family member who might actually get a laugh out of it. It was sent to a baseball coach my son wants to play for this fall. Someone I've only dialed intentionally once.

But that was enough for him to get pocket dialed the next day and to receive this strange message today. According to Wikipedia, pocket dialing is often triggered by numbers retained in cell phone recently dialed lists. The solution is to make sure your phone is "locked" before you put it in your purse or pocket.

I hope that coach doesn't think I'm crazy. I was starting to worry that my phone was possessed until I found this out on the internet. Has anything like this happened to you?

Waiting for Rain

The heat and humidity have been tough to deal with this summer. But weighing me down even more has been a long wait to see some answers to my prayers. In addition to my personal petitions, I've been praying for friends seeking employment in this tough economy, friends in need of healing, friends trying to sell their homes, friends who are close to completing a goal but haven't reached the finish line yet, friends ready to start a new chapter in their lives. When, Lord, when?

Recently I came across the following story at the Inspiration Point blog:

There were two farmers who prayed and asked God to send rain. It hadn't rained for quite some time and both were in need of it. One day, they were told “God will send the rain in time for the harvest.” The first farmer set about preparing his field for the coming rain. The second farmer did nothing. Guess who got to reap the benefit of that promised rain?

My aunt, a farmer with a talent for writing, shared this lovely description of the arrival of rain in an email recently:

This morning we woke up to the sound of angels singing: rain, blessed rain. It has been so dry here, lawns are brown, crops are shriveling. Farmers talk of nothing else. Now they will share to the 8th of an inch how much rain they got. We are thankful for every drop.

I want to encourage myself and others who are experiencing a dry spell that the rain we long for IS coming. Let's live our lives in anticipation of it and rejoice in its arrival.

My Prize Package All the Way from the UK

I enjoy photography and sharing my photos as part of my blog. When I found out my dear friend Liz was starting up a photography blog, I couldn't help but be excited about it. Then she announced a contest to name her new blog. Lucky me came up with the winning name "Through Liz's Eyes". My prize was this amazing package of handmade greeting cards.

Here is the link for Through Liz's Eyes and here's a link to some terrific travel photos she's posted there.

Astronaut Signs from the International Space Station

Expedition 23 Launch Day (201004020023HQ)
Originally uploaded by nasa hq photo

From the NASA website 7/22/10,

"The International Space Station has had guests from all over the world, representing myriad languages. But until NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson came aboard, one language was still not represented. Said to be the fourth most commonly used language in the United States, American Sign Language, or ASL, made its debut on the space station in a special video recorded by Caldwell Dyson.

In the almost six-minute video, the American astronaut spoke directly to the deaf community about what she does on the space station and how she became interested in ASL. She even offered several words of encouragement for young deaf students."

To read more and view this video which has English subtitles, click here.

To read more about astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, click here.

Intentional Eating

Last month I came to the point where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Coming back from the HLAA convention in Milwaukee, I came down with a virus - my 4th one this year. Determined to improve my health, I started researching how to boost the immune system. It was easy to find information on the subject with a simple Google search. A bit more difficult is taking it to heart and putting it in practice.

I've embraced the idea of intentional eating. Taking into my body those foods known to improve immunity. I've been working on this for a month now and thought I would share with you some of the changes I have made. In the past, I have eaten fairly healthy but my good diet habits were being undermined by my conviction that having sodas or candy as well wouldn't hurt me. My biggest change has been to cut out white sugar where I can. Soft drinks and sweets are off limits now. I also quit drinking coffee. Not so much for the caffeine as for the junk I put into it to make it palatable.

Here are the foods I am eating/drinking as part of my regular meals:

• Raw fruits/vegetables
• Blueberries
• Watermelon
• Probiotic yogurt
• Beef
• Nuts
• Spinach
• Local honey
• Green tea (decaffeinated)
• Fresh lemon juice in water
• V8 (low sodium)
• Pomegranate juice
• Echinachea tea

Note: these are NOT the only foods I'm eating - just the ones I have purposely added to my diet.

So far it seems to be working. I am feeling better. I've also gone back to using my neti pot to clear my nose of allergens. I still have fatigue that I attribute to my hearing loss. Taking a nap after work seems to help and doesn't prevent me from falling asleep at bedtime.

When I first started switching up my food intake, the pounds started coming off. I was really pleased about that as a side benefit I wasn't expecting . But as time has gone by my weight is creeping back up. Oh well.

Another side effect I experienced was getting a cold sore. This was most likely from my increased vitamin C intake. To counteract this I am taking a daily lysine supplement.

If anyone has any additional tips for improving immunity, especially those that have worked for you personally, I would love to hear from you. I have made a commitment to continue these changes for a whole year and then evaluate the results. When I was at the ENT doctor recently I asked why I was continually getting these viruses. Her response was that it's because I work in an enclosed environment. Well, I can't change that, but I will change what I can to improve my health.

My New Glasses

Here's a look at my new glasses. I found a pretty pair with a little more pizzazz than the black frames I had previously (which, by the way, are still lost). I went all out on this new pair. They are scratch resistant and anti glare for my computer work. They are also the lightest lenses available. I had to pay a lot extra for that but I figured it was worth it. After all my ears are already carrying the weight of my hearing aids. Best of all, these glasses darken when I go outside so I don't need to carry sunglasses with me.

Here's a closeup of the flowers on the side. There are little rhinestones in the center of the flowers and on some of the petals. Very feminine. Very Sarah. The color of these frames is burgundy with a lighter shade as a contrast. Would you say they qualify as "rose colored glasses"?

The biggest change for me is this is my first pair of bifocals. Yes, the eye doctor said the B word. But I was fine with it. I was actually looking forward to it. For awhile now, I've been taking off my glasses when looking at things up close (which may have contributed to my other pair getting lost). I really wanted to get glasses which would allow me to see both close and far. This pair of bifocals has no lines so I had to train myself to see the different distances through them. But it's been a few weeks and I don't even give it a thought now.

Having the proper eyeglasses (rather than the old, old pair I was wearing after I lost my black ones) has even made an improvement in my hearing. As the badge above says, "I hear with my eyes." While I was wearing the backup pair, my hearing definitely took a dive. It's so good to see things in sharp focus again.

I felt self conscious about posting a closeup photo of myself in my new glasses so I asked a friend to model them for me. Doesn't he look smart and professional?

Flowers for Friday: Hibiscus Hues

Hooray! My hibiscus are in bloom.
Look at all the hues my hibiscus have:

Pink hibiscus

White hibiscus

Pale pink hibiscus

Hot pink hibiscus

Burgundy hibiscus
Do you wonder what made the hole in this one?

This little beetle is to blame!