Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful day with your family & friends celebrating this wonderful day.

I'm currently down south visiting my family - my parents and I drove down to spend Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day with my grandparents, aunt & cousin. We're leaving early tomorrow morning to drive back.

Of course, I wanted to look my best when seeing my family, as I hadn't seen them for some time. So... what does a girl do when she wants to look good? (No jokes about beauty sleep not being enough, thank you!) Gets a haircut of course.

So off to the hairdressers Mum and I go. We both had our hair coloured, cut, and blow-dryed. Now most women, my Mum included, love to chat at the hairdresser's. You get the latest local gossip and just generally have a nice natter while drinking a cup of tea.

Slightly different for me - getting my hair done is a very silent event. I have to take my hearing aids out when the dye is being put in my hair - don't want the dye accidentally dripping onto or into my hearing aids and breaking them. And likewise when the dye is being washed from my hair I don't wear my hearing aids. There's also no point wearing them when the hairdryer is being used on my hair, as I wouldn't hear anything anyway.

So, a visit to the hairdresser's is a very silent affair for me. Instead of putting my hearing aids in and taking them out every 5 minutes, I just leave them out. I also can't lip-read at the hairdresser's as you're sat facing a mirror - haven't learned to mirror-lip-read yet!

Mum said that she and a few others tried to start up conversations with me, but because I wasn't wearing my hearing aids, I was oblivious. It must have come across as very rude. Luckily, Mum was there to explain to everyone that I wasn't intentionally ignoring them, I just couldn't hear them. I had explained this before I took my hearing aids out, but most people don't believe me because I don't sound like a deaf person when I talk.

So, once we were finished at the hairdresser's, we head off back home to pack and get ready. Fast-forward a few hours and it's time to go to bed.

I'm just starting to fall asleep when I notice that my bedroom has suddenly become lighter. I open my eyes to see my Mum standing by my bed. I ask her what she's doing. She moves her lips, but no sound is coming out. Or rather, it is, but she's whispering!

'Mum, I'm deaf, I'm just going to sleep, I'm not wearing my hearing aids...'

Oops. Even my parents sometimes forget I'm deaf. Turns out she was just checking that Snoopy, my cat, was in my room before locking up the house.

Fast forward a day and we've arrived at my Grandparents' house. Lovely seeing everyone again. We all catch up and soon it's time for bed. I'm sleeping in my cousin's room and wanted an early night. He wasn't too fond of that idea - he was playing some online game on the XBox and talking with fellow gamers in the 'scrim' (whatever that means).

I told him he could continue to play, it wouldn't bother me. As soon as my hearing aids come out, I'm deaf. So he can continue to play to his heart's content. He was thrilled and told my parents that it's great having a deaf cousin. It does have its uses!

Christmas Day was lovely as well. Unfortunately, both Mum and I have horrible colds. Which means my ears are all bunged up as well, making hearing aids useless as I can't hear through them anyway.

My Aunt brings out these candles. They're tall, thin and hollow. She put on in my ear and burnt it. When it had burnt down, she took it out. It had cleared my ear right up. These candles take away ear wax (gross, I know), clearing up my ear so I'm able to wear my hearing aids again. Brilliant! Dad also uses the candles (since he gets a build-up of wax making him almost as deaf as me) and they clear his ears right up as well. Strange things, but very effective.

The rest of the day passes and we're watching TV. The subtitles are on for me, as I left my TV gadget thing at home. The family come in and ask 'why on earth are the subtitles on?'

'Because I'm deaf.'

'Oh yeh!'

It's not just my friends and parents forget that I'm deaf, but my extended family as well!

Very easily done.

Anyway, it's about time I sign off and go and be sociable.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Deaf Girl

TV

I love watching TV. Probably a bit too much. I follow a lot of different series; Private Practice, NCIS, Dexter, Supernatural, Special Victim's Unit... Far too many! Now, being deaf and watching TV isn't easy. Luckily, most programmes have subtitles. For the ones that don't, I use the neat little TV gadget.

However, I do prefer reading the subtitles, as I have to sit in a certain position with the gadget and not move. It's a nuisance. But I am aware that subtitles are a nuisance for hearing people. Most people put up with it. It's just one of those things. But I do know that some people prefer not to watch movies or TV with me, as they find the subtitles distracting. It annoys them. It gives away what people will say before they say it. One time I was watching a movie with a bunch of people and someone said 'what idiot put the subtitles on?' There was an awkward silence until I said 'it's for me, I'm deaf'. He accepted that, was slightly embarassed, but I do think that it annoyed him.

It's difficult sometimes, knowing you are the cause for people's annoyance and there's nothing you can do about it. So for those that it frustrates, I try not to watch too much TV with them. Luckily, it doesn't seem to bother most people. And it means a lot to me when people put the subtitles on without me having to remind them and ask them. It does sometimes feel like I'm putting people out, and that I am annoying them for needing subtitles. But luckily, most people don't seem to mind too much.

But not everything has subtitles. It's always a nuisance when they don't. Before I got my nifty TV gadget, I had to have the volume on extremely loud if subtitles weren't available - very annoying for the people in the room!

On the subject of TV, there is one programme that I absolutely love. It's called 'Sue Thomas, F.B.Eye', and follows a deaf woman FBI agent. It's great. In my opinion there aren't enough shows that feature deaf or disabled people. Almost every show that I know of is about hearing, non-disabled people. It can sometimes be a tad bit frustrating - no one says that TV is realistic, but it does make it seem as if the world is made up of hearing people alone. Very few shows feature succesful deaf people as their lead character.

Yes, we are in the minority, but we are still here. Don't forget about us! Don't ignore us! You might not think it, but we are around. Most people don't notice, or they aren't looking. But there are a lot of us out there. Almost every day I spot people signing to each other. It would be nice to be represented on the TV as well.

Which is why I love Sue Thomas, F.B.Eye, as not only is the character deaf, but the actress is as well. It's lovely to see a deaf person be recognised as succesful in mainstream society. Of course, there are quite a few deaf actors and actresses out there, but hardly any are in many succesful mainstream programmes. This doesn't include Shoshannah Stern, who plays in Jericho - again, it's great to see deaf people represented in a mainstream TV series.

And I can name quite a few famous deaf people - the founder of Girl Scouts in America (Juliette Low), Connie Briscoe, Matt Hamil, Ashley Fiolek etc.

Not really sure where I'm going with this. I suppose I wish more 'minorities' were represented on TV - and that TV itself catered for deaf people by providing subtitles for every program - as it gets frustrating when the program I want to watch doesn't have subtitles, but the adverts do!

Deaf Girl