ASL/Deaf Related | + E

Blah Things:

A friend of mine is going through a very hard time. I know she can get through it. She doesn’t think she can. I don’t know what to say. I held her while she cried. I’m home now. In an empty house. I need a hug and to be held. I need to cry and I can’t.

Two women I love have had miscarriages in the past 3 weeks. One was my cousin. One a woman I recently had a class with.

The relationship with my mom is *shakes head*

I saw someone today that I haven’t seen in months and he said that he didn’t want to offend me but there was more life in me before. I tried to think back. I was so stressed out when we met last fall. Too many classes. I was grieving over all the lgbt youth suicides..but when we met there was a pregnant woman around and then later the baby. Pregnant women make my heart open up. We met at a good time. I told him I was just tired. Lots going on. There’s life in me still. I’m just trying to figure out my next move. Trying to get centered in my heart again. I need to find the joy within. I just smiled as I wrote that.

Ok Thing:
I got a C in ASL IV. A C is satisfactory. It will bring down my GPA (I have a 3.95 right now) It won’t be too bad. I’m okay with it because that’s clearly what I earned. ASL IV was not the 4th language class but actually the 1st interpreting class for the ASL Interpreting Program at my school. I got A’s on the quizzes, the written tests, the midterm, and all my papers. I didn’t do well on the stories. Storytelling is what it’s about. And it’s funny because that’s what I really want to do. Be a storyteller, English and ASL, written, oral, and sign (sigh). We had 4 stories and a major story for the Final and those 5 stories added up to 55% of our total grade. I don’t know what I got on the final story but I averaged a C for the stories. I got one B. I improved as I went along but it was an 8 week class and not enough time to really get comfortable. Other contributing factors would be that the class was 9-1 twice a week (my earliest class in the past year was 230p , we also had an incredible amount of hw, video watching, community hours and no tutor or other ASL students around to ask for help or converse with. The class started with 17 people and on the last day there was 8 of us. I’m just happy I finished. It was a really fun class overall. My teacher was great and funny and nice and my classmates were cool. Out of the 4 ASL classes I’ve taken it was my 2nd favorite. ASL I taking the number 1 spot. I took ASL I last summer. It was an incredible amount of work but my classmates were really dedicated and cool and we studied for like 1-2 hours every day in addition to class. That class was in the afternoon for two hours four days a week. It was a better schedule for me. I’m okay with the grade because..well I just think it’s fair and I did my best and my best was C-level satisfactory. I can deal with it.

The Good and the Interesting:

I met a cool someone today. When we shook hands they held my hand for forever and their hand was cool and nice and comforting. I’ve been running hot the last two days. Seriously warm. But not a fever. A bit unusual but no worries. We talked for a bit. I told them they were gorgeous, beautiful, handsome (blushes) because they are. I realized just now that I opened with, “don’t I know you, I feel like I’ve seen you before.” Oy. Cliche. But I was sincere when I said it, I think we’ll be friends. Can’t wait to see them again!

Thursday night I went to the clinic where I get my T for lab results from bloodwork, STDs and Hiv, and to make my next appointment. The system was down but we got the chart the old fashioned way (ha ha) and I’m doing well. I’m clear. My weight is up 8!! pounds but I know why. I’ve been eating tons of bread this summer. I’ve gained a pound a week. I know I can lose that quickly. My blood pressure was 120/90. I’m happy about that. It’s been borderline and a bit high the last few times and they were pushing medication. They wrote a script a month or two ago but I didn’t fill it. I wanted to see if I could bring it down myself. It’s one of the sucky things about being on T. Gotta watch the BP, heart, cholesterol.

My penpal from Canada messaged me today!

Working on stuff for the Genderqueer group some friends and I started recently. I want to change our blog theme and we’re about to get a custom url for our FB Page

I’m in the middle of a really fun read.

I am healthy and alive and optimistic in the midst of it all.

T-shot tomorrow!!

Highlights of the day:
I woke up.
Listening to a couple lectures from The Teaching Company Masterpieces of Short Fiction DVD
Being there for a friend and her family.
Megamind (so cute and funny!)
making origami

Summer school started this week. I am taking one class. American Sign Language IV. It’s the fourth language class and the first interpreting class in my school’s American Sign Language interpreting program. There is soooooo much outside homework. Videos to watch, events in the Deaf Community, reading, writing, and group work. There are 17 people in class. Half want to be interpreters. The rest of us just want to learn the language because we love it and it may be of use later on. I think I’ll go for my certification at some point but I don’t want to work as an interpreter as a career. I want to work in the education field. Kids 0-5. Also learn more about Deaf art and literature, storytelling, poetry, drama, performance.

Today our teacher was sick. Most of us were already at school or on our way. 9 people showed up to class. 5 of us had checked Blackboard, our online classroom update site, and found out our teacher was sick and he left instructions with what we needed to do today. So..we were at the library watching the video we were going to watch in class. He was able to find a sub after all so..after about an hour the rest of the class joined us. It took over 3 hours to get through the video. We were learning mouth morphemes, which is a huge part of the structure of the language. We have to turn in our handwritten notes next Thursday. We also have 12 short chapters to read (I’ve read 3). Two more videos to watch (I watched one), and two quizzes next week. The class is only 8 weeks. It will be intense.

Sunday, I start a write-a-thon I sent out emails today looking for sponsors. This is my page.
I’m excited about that. That’ll be 6 weeks. So ASL and writing is what I’ll be doing steadily for the next couple of months. I’m psyched about that.

I started two projects this week. One is a new blog on tumblr, which is poetry-centric with an emphasis on audio versions of my poems/and or favorite poems. Another is a short something or order that I will hopefully finish next week. I wanted to work on it tomorrow afternoon but it depends on how my morning goes.

I feel more tired than I have in I don’t know how long. Seriously. I need to rest. I know that I can’t be at my best if I don’t get proper sleep. So..I will go to bed at a decent time and take it super easy over the next couple of days.