First date

I'm now back at uni. Cat-sitting for Snoopy was fun. Although, there is one problem - I didn't wear my hearing aids for most of the weekend, so relied on my little gadgets to keep me informed for things like the doorbell ringing, phone ringing etc. That wasn't the problem. The problem was Snoopy.

She's a cat. She has super-hearing. I am a deaf human, I have hardly any hearing. She jumps at any little noise. She's lying on the seat next to me, and then suddenly she's sitting up, ears forward, staring at the door. Of course, me being home alone and deaf, I'm thinking 'oh shit, is there someone out there? Is someone creeping around the house and I can't hear them?'

Of course, no creeping of any sorts was done (as far as I'm aware). Her super-hearing was probably picking up the movement of mice outside. But her sleeping-to-sudden-standing-at-attention did creep me out a bit! I learnt that it isn't so much fun being a deaf woman home alone!

In other news, BSL class last night was fun. We signed the story of 'The Snowman'... and I'm pleased to say, I started thinking like a deaf person. BSL is a visual language. It's all about creating a picture. I didn't know how to sign 'making a snowman', so I thought about it. Okay, it's about showing people what happened. So I did. And I was right! Slowly starting to get the hang of this. Yay!

I had a first date yesterday as well. We had a wander around and went for a drink at a coffee shop. It was nice, he was funny, much laughing was to be had. Though there were awkward moments were I just couldn't hear what he had said, but it was obvious he was expecting a response of some sort.

So of course, I did what I always do when I have no idea what response I should give - make one up and hope for the best. It seemed to work.

He doesn't know I'm deaf. As I've said in a previous entry, it's difficult to know when to tell someone; the first time you meet them, once you get to know them etc. There are risks whatever you do - a lot of people can't be bothered to deal with a deaf person, think it's too much hard work. Or if you tell them too soon it seems like you're giving attitude and daring them to make a wrong move.

I don't know if I'll see him again or not - we had a nice time, but was there any chemistry...? I don't know yet. So we'll see what happens. If I do see him again, I will have to tell him I am deaf. And we'll see if he's one of those people that doesn't care, or runs for the hills.

Deaf Girl

Peace and quiet

I'm currently at home cat-sitting while my parents are visiting friends in Germany. It's lovely. I'm not wearing my hearing aids - what's the point, it's just me and my cat Snoopy - and I'm thoroughly enjoying the peace and quiet.

It's nice sometimes to just not wear them. They can occasionally make my ears all hot etc. So it's nice to not have to wear them this weekend.

Although, I'm not sure my neighbours would agree - they can probably hear the TV through the wall.

Okay, so I don't hear the doorbell, fire alarm or phone ring - but that's what my deaf alerter is for. So I'm wearing that little pager thing. Tell you what - it scares the hell out of Snoopy. The doorbell rang, and my pager - which I had put on the seat next to me, started vibrating (it's not like a phone vibrating - it's much stronger than that) and my poor cat who was sitting a couple of seats along, jumped out of her skin.

One minute she was all curled up on the sofa, dreaming about chasing mice or something, and the next she was on all fours on the floor staring at my pager. It was quite funny to watch.

It's nice not to hear sometimes and to just switch off.

Although I did put my hearing aids in for a bit today - had to go to the shops to get some stuff. Tell you what - I really had to use my lip-reading skills then. I have never seen the shops so busy, there was not a single parking space left in the car park - I had to wait about 5 minutes for a space to free up.

So of course, the shop was absolutely packed. And noisy. Especially after having a day and a half of silence. Very noisy. I needed to talk to someone behind the counter so that I could buy some Euros. I could not hear a thing she said. It probably didn't help that she was sitting behind some very thick glass. After asking her to repeat something a couple of times, I gave up using my hearing and instead focused on her lips to lip-read. It worked.

I might not get it first time, but I am getting better at lip-reading. I managed to buy the Euros with no problem, and even managed some polite conversation about Las Vegas.

And it's not just in the hearing world where lip-reading is useful - it's very useful in sign language class as well.

My sign language teacher is deaf with no speech. But she can lip-read and often when teaching us new signs she says what the sign is. Of course, she doesn't speak, but her lips form the word. A lot of the time the others can't understand her, as hearing people generally don't have the need to lip-read. I'm finding that it's getting easier and easier to read her lips (as she's a lip reader herself, she really forms each syllable so it's easier to read).

So - lip-reading isn't just helping me along in the hearing world, it's also helping me along in learning BSL.

Very useful indeed!

Deaf Girl