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And spring quarter is here..

Posted On Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 By Re

Monday begins a new quarter for school. I should do better this time because my classes are only Tuesday and Wednesday. Last quarter it was Monday-Thursday and the last class was hard to make it to causing me to fail for lack of attendance and participation. I would easily make it to my morning class, consisting of either Intro to Medical Computerized Billing & Coding or Basic Medical Anatomy & Physiology. Go home to let the dog out, do some homework and get too lazy to go back to school for a 65 minute class. This quarter the same English class is 10 minutes after my Tai Chi class and lasts from 11am-1:30pm. This will make it extremely easy and no excuses not to be in class. I will just let my teacher know that on the days we are in a building slightly further away from my Tai Chi class that I may be a few minutes late.

The English instructor for the class is the same instructor I just said. She knows I will be back in the class and I understand it will be nearly identical to what we did last quarter. The only difference is the amount of assignments and reading because of it is now two days a week instead of four. This gives me only a slight advantage for the same reason why I failed the first time. I did some assignments and one of the essays but most of the work was done during class; thus, having me be back on the same level as the new students. At least I will know some of the class discussions we will be having and will very easily voice my opinion and thoughts.

Tai Chi starts at 10am. I have been use to waking up around 9am from the last quarter anyhow so this will not be a difficult wake up. I most likely will drive my car instead of taking the bus now that I will not be commuting between school and home as much. I will test this idea out next week and if it is too annoying or a pain to drive my car and find parking spots on campus, drive home, take dog out, drive back to campus during rush hour on the Guide. (#1 accident area, it is always suggested to avoid it as much as possible and the road my accident occurred on, 10 blocks South of where I have to cross it now at least.) I have preferred taking the bus because I walk down my block, dodge cars to cross the street and the bus picks me up every 15 minutes during 6-6pm. Drops off a block from campus or to be even more lazy or when body is in pain I can stay on the bus when it turns into another route and it drops me off in front of the main student class buildings. I like saving money on gas and kind of that whole environment thing as well.

Tai Chi, English 101, home until 4pm where I go back for my Beginners American Sign Language class. I realize that there is two and a half hours between English and ASL and there may be the possibility of slipping into the old routine of not making it to the last class. Difference is three major things. 1) The class is just over two hours and two days a week making it easier to be motivated for that long compared to 65 minutes and missing one day a week is like missing two days in a row. 2) As much as I love learning English, mostly re-learning grammar, new words and my personal creative writing and poetry, I hate it in a class room setting. I hate essays, especially English essays. My brain has the hardest time understanding the concept, flow, rhythm, citing. I was in near tears a few times both English classes this year.

and 3) I have been wanting to learn ASL ever since we were taught to sing and sign “Lean on Me” in grade 4. My Aunt-in-lawish is fluent or mostly fluent and it will be fun, helpful and good practice to sign with her when we see each other. I would like to add it to my resume. It may not be Hablo Espanol but it is a language easily over-looked that I feel is not respected enough. Deaf humans can not change to be able to hear and speak or if they are, it is extremely difficult and often embarrassing to try and speak when not able to hear because of other people’s responses. With technology I know there is much work on hearing loss but either way, these are medical conditions, not social choices. A Spanish speaking person can easily learn English, Russian, French or even LSM [ Mexican Sign Language] whereas a deaf person does not have a social choice to learn any oral language.

The few times I have interacted with a deaf person and worked with them by me mouthing, jesters or writing, I feel no different in conversation than if I were speaking orally. A high school boy use to drive-thru at BK when I worked there during his lunch break. The first time I met him, I was confused on why a car sat at the sign for a moment, did not respond to me, then drive to the window. He handed me a note with his order and demonstrated he was deaf. I smiled, placed the order, realized he did not specify his drink. I asked him, aloud, “O.J. or apple?” He responded with an O shaped mouth and a thumbs up, I giggled a bit because, yeah so he was cute and I was 19 at the time so it was acceptable, to flirt at least. When leaving I signed “thank you” which had a soft warm reaction and smile as he signed thank you back. Moving aside from flirting, working in customer service at registers and the person is able to speak or easily motion they are deaf, some stare back at the ground trying to keep eye contact minimal, probably accustomed to doing so because a lot of people shut down and robotic-ally go through the transaction. Others will smile with approval that I would still look them in the eye and talk to them as if they were not hearing or speaking impaired. One gentleman smiled and nodded his head as I told and pointed to the total, even got him to “round up” (bring the change amount to an even dollar) for donations and he thanked me a few times before I could even thank him. I noticed another time that he purposely went through my register over a shorter line register later.

I will step down from that soap box now. I just a really excited. My only fear is my left hand and the infused thumb metacarpal I have could make it difficult and painful.