I'm Back
I can hardly begin to explain this experience. If you've talked to me about signing lately, you know I've been discouraged. I've been doubting my talent (potential and developed), complaining about my lack of assignments (though blaming it on no one but myself) and saying nothing but "Let me get into the I(nterpreter) T(raining) P(rogram) and I'll be fine. Let me drown in sign day after day and I'll come back. Let me remember what it was like to DREAM in ASL, and then we'll talk. Ask nothing of me now."
Then last night I went to a Deaf social at a little Starbucks in the city. Robin, dearest Robin, came and picked me up, and in we went. I rode BART for the first time, which was cool. It's been a long time since I did any serious people-watching, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.
When we first arrived, I wasn't comfortable, not really. My receptive skills have been in a decline, and I'm painfully aware of it. How could they not be? I rarely get a chance to interact with Deaf people outside of interpreting, which means that normally, I'm the one doing the signing. That's great, except that when a Hearing person communicates with a Deaf person, the Hearing person sets the pace. For those of you who haven't been there with a foreign language, that means that if I sign better than I read sign, and I'm the one setting the pace, I get lost and it's my own fault. *groans* However, after about half an hour, the English faded away and I was lost in the staccato rhythms of pure ASL. My eyes grew accustomed to the movements like yours would become accustomed to bright light, and after a while, I rarely missed a beat.
That said, I met some really cool people. One of them, Dave, is my age, almost exactly. He's into drama, reading, science fiction, random bits of information about humans... He says I have a Deaf nose because I'm so interested in smells. Or rather, I'm so picky about them. The way a person smells has a fair amount of sway over whether or not I'm comfortable with them at the outset of an acquaintance, and some people have scents that I find absolutely delicious. Places all have scents. Everyone's house has a smell. Everyone's car has a smell. Everyone's books have a smell. No doubt you realize this, but I suppose not everyone reacts as strongly as I do to smells. I'm sure plenty of you do, though... *shrugs* Anyway. He's cool. I hope I can keep in touch with him.
I finally got to hang out with Robin's Jan. He's just plain awesome. Signs beautifully, reads my signs very well, is hysterically funny, likes my jokes as well.... He teases me, though, because I don't know about half of the foods he brought up. He's taken it upon himself to have me taste lots of Filipino food. He's converted Robin, though I know she was exposed to the culture quite a bit more than I ever have been because of her sister's fiance, Eddie, and his family. Ooo, and I saw Eddie again! So cool. He's one of the few people from school that I still miss as time goes on. He has to be one of the nicest guys ever.
I also met Jun... Greg... Oh, brother. I'm never going to be able to list everyone. I have restored faith in my sign, though, because almost no one knew I was hearing until I answered my phone. That was amusing. Ahhh. I'm happy. I wish I had more Deaf friends who signed pure, perfect ASL, but hey... I will. I will. I just have to.
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