Somewhat Silent

Weekend surveys are fun things. I’ve decided to start one here.
1- What are you doing this weekend?
2- How do you describe your hearing to someone that has never met you? (And does this vary online vs. in person?)
3- What is the absolute worst environment for lipreading?
4- What is the ideal environment for lipreading?
5- What size/color batteries do you use?
6- What type of hearing aid do you have?
7- What do you like/dislike about your current hearing aid?
8- Colored hearing aids, for kids- or for adults too?
9- Do you wear your hearing aids when you don’t have to?
10- Describe one sound that you can hear very well.

11- Bonus: Describe some “cool” aspect of your hearing that makes you feel it’s a funky experience rather than a disability.

Deafness has made me hyper aware of positioning.

I jockey for the best position on the bus or subway- where I can easily see the signs that will indicate my stop- or the overhead LCD screen that scrolls information about where the train currently is. Being in the wrong place, for most people, merely means being next to someone that smells odd, or being cramped into an uncomfortable position that is too far from the commuter-straps. To me, it means missing my stop- perhaps speeding off on a local-turned-express to Brooklyn or to Queens, or missing my stop on an Amtrak train. Ending up an hour or two out of my way.

It’s not only on the busses and trains, though. I’ll seek out the best table in the restaurant, and the chair that will allow me to sit with my back to the wall or to the corners to minimize the number of directions that background noise can assault me from. Most people deal with background noise. I deal with background noise amplified and fed-back through my hearing aids. Flattened out into what resembles a constant buzz of sound, rather than anything individually identifiable.

And cars- on a road trip I’ll try for “shotgun” (translation: passenger seat, not back seat). It’s the difference between being able to follow a conversation at all, and not being able to- except for tiny bits glimpsed in the rear-view mirror. Sitting shotgun, I can twist around in my seat and see both those behind me, and the driver. Otherwise I’m pretty much isolated by that two-foot shift in position.

A classroom- sitting in one chair vs. the other can mean passing vs. failing miserably. In a doctor’s waiting room, it can mean the difference between making and missing my appointment. At a job interview, it can make me seem like a confident young woman that understands every word–or a fumbling miscommunication. Standing in line in a grocery store at a slight angle rather than straight-on will allow me to see the stockboy and know that he’s shouting “excuse me!”, so that I can move out of the way and not be run over.

Everyone experiences the subtle influence that a small shift in position can have, but I don’t think that many hearing people experience it with such frequency, or with such every-day impact.

Saturday 25th March was my Mum’s birthday, Sunday 26th March is Mother’s day in the UK. I’m not normally conformist about such things as birthdays or hallmark holidays, but sometimes I get a good idea and am able to carry it through.

I went shopping earlier today and found a card which was all pink and girlie with a cartoon ‘girlie’ on the front. The text on the front says “Mum you taught me how to talk”…

The original ‘inner part’ of the card had the same cartoon girlie with a mobile phone in her hand blahing away with the text “so don’t blame me for the phone bill. Happy Birthday”. Now I’m the least girlie person on the planet, and I hate phones, not to mention WTF on a birthday card. So I carefully extracted the original and replaced it with:
A laser printout of http://www.barakta.org.uk/stuff/card.pdf

I’ll put a translation in the first comment.

Is there such thing, because what keeps hapening me is freaky! Im supposed to be severly deaf, and yet there has been more than one occasion where I cant here people who are talking right up close to my ear loudly, and then ill go and hear something that is way off in the distance and is really low! and it really does wierd me out!

One time (in band camp) sorry!! I was in the car driving with Keith and more often than not I find it difficult to easily hear him, I really have to concentrate because im not looking at him when he talks, but I hear him well enough to have a conversation.

some guy about 4 cars behind or infront of me I couldnt tell, Honked his horn and I heard it! And it was so wierd! and even Keith asked, how the hell did you hear that?!!

Again in Barcelona we were in one place where one of the Tutors said something behind me and I turned around and she asked, ‘you heard that?’ and I had! and then the two of us were in a museum and I couldnt hear her at all! What the hell is happening?!! has this ever happened to you? I can hear something at one time and then I cant another time, and people are gonna think im lying or something! and this is without hearing aids!! crazy!

I told myself I’d never do it, but here I am on a quiet Sunday and the result is that I’ve made myself a myspace.com profile. Now I feel as if I can stalk myself

Anyone else on there from somewhatsilent? If so, I’m at http://www.myspace.com/makropulos

Nigel