Friday, August 28, 2009

The Sound of Silence

My daughter is taking "American Sign Language" this year. She has DVDs that she is assigned to watch at home. When she goes in to do her lesson on the DVD I still am surprised that she's in there in complete silence. There is no talking on the DVD.
Duh!

She has been sharing new vocabulary with me. We practice together. It is EXHAUSTING! By the time we finish a fairly simple conversation I am amazed at how much it takes out of you. I truly appreciate the wonderful gift of speech and hearing that I have. We take for granted the fact that we can talk and don't even have to be in the same room with a person or that we don't have to watch their every hand movement and "read" words that are spelled letter by letter.
Wow!

On another note, I have a new cell phone and a new wireless plan that includes texting. I am trying to catch up to all you people who have been texting for ions. If you do text me, realize that it will take awhile for you to hear back from me. And I will be the one writing in complete sentences (like a dork). I still don't recognize that it's MY phone that is ringing (or singing or whatever it is doing). I was at the pharmacy the other day and I heard this music start playing. It continued playing (I realized it was a phone and NO ONE was answering it !!) I glanced over at the man standing next to me only to discover him looking at me.

"Oh! Is that my phone?!" I said. It was! Of course by the time I discovered that and fumbled to get it out of my pocket, turn it over and look at it, it stopped ringing.

At home, I hear various phone sounds and I'm always asking if it's my phone (if it rings/sounds for longer than 2 seconds -- the usual time it takes one of my kids to answer their phones) but no, it's not mine. My son is living at home again. His phone does something (beep, play, ring, etc) constantly. "It's mine," he replies.

I think I'm getting a ringing in my ears. Don't know if I'm getting a brain tumor from talking on a cell phone or if it's from hearing all those "unnatural" sounds constantly. Maybe it's because people are TALKING (or texting) about me ... no, wait, that makes your nose itch, right?

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Off on a rabbit trail of sorts

I'm starting a new blog today.
This one will be a journal of my personal battle with ...

... you'll have to go there and see for yourself "with what?" ;0 )

The title of it is: lilredhen5-anewday

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Hurray for Hollywood !

The Walk of Fame in Hollywood. It is a pretty sight at night with all the lights and twinklies. It's a very busy spot ... lots of tourists. Countless tour buses, daring bicycle riders, constant traffic and policemen on foot. Movie star look-a-likes waiting to take a picture with you (as long as you agree to their "we work for tips" spiel first) and you have patience to wait for your turn.

I was surprised to see that the stars on the sidewalk are not well maintained (as I was led to believe). We came upon several of them that were dirty with muck and who knows what. We didn't walk long when we all detected .... urine. Yep, that was the smell. It was stronger at some points than others, but it always lingered.

Lots of souvenir shops and sadly just as many risque lingerie and streetwalker attire shops. Every one of them has a large display window on the walkway.

Hmmm ... a thrilling location for anyone who idolizes the Hollywood scene. It seemed like a trip to Sodom and Gomorrah for me.