I am a total mama bear when it comes to the kids I work with. I don’t mean to be – it’s just after spending so much time with them I almost feel like a second mama to them. I want to make sure they have food, water, everything they need for school…ect. I am with this one kid all day and then if he has activities after school (sports, summer school…) I do it all with him. I am just superprotective of these two boys – that sometimes I forget that I am just the Interpreter. I feel like so much more though – I know they trust me more than anyone else at school, and they respect me as a peer (great honor). When they need to talk to someone or they have questions (both personal and scholastic) they come to me. So, maybe you could understand why naturally I want to protect them. Their families are awesome as well – very tight and loving.

Last month when our school was having big problems with gang-related activity – my boys found themselves smack in the middle of it. These guys are wanting to belong to a group so badly – to be accepted for who they are – teenage identity crises. They found a clique, a group of friends who accept them for who they are – they just happen to be a part of a gang (wannabes). There was some tagging on a bathroom wall that was a little out of control – and even though these two boys had nothing to do with it, their names were brought up to the police as being part of it. I felt like crap as these two boys were pulled into the office, questioned and as their stuff was searched and confiscated. Their anger quickly turned into pain and fear – they couldn’t hold back tears and the feeling of being violated. What could I do? Nothing. It broke my heart just the same. I have been there for them – explaining things to them and helping them to understand why the adults were attacking them. These are good boys and they don’t want to be in trouble – they have been very good at listening and understanding.

What, actually, brings me to this topic tonight was a friend of mine at school who called me on being maybe too protective? I think my actions were correct – but he had a great point. Here’s what happened: Today my Deaf student and I were in the special education room talking to the teacher (my friend) when one of his students approached my Deaf student and began to make loud noises in his face. We all stopped talking and watched with bewilderment – what the heck was he doing? So, the other kid in the room told the one making the noises, “What are you doing? He’s Deaf.” Then they both laughed at the whole thing – that’s probably what pissed me off more than the noises. My Deaf student looked at me with a puzzled look – he didn’t know what this kid was doing. Then there they were – the two (special education) hearing kids were there having a good laugh at the expense of MY STUDENT! So, without thought I looked scornfully at this boy, and told him that was rude. He tried to explain (give his excuse) but I didn’t want any part of that – what he did was wrong and I wanted him to feel it! I told him he owed my student an apology. He told me, “But, he’s Deaf.” I told him that didn’t matter – he needed to look at my student and tell him he was sorry – I would sign behind his back. He did and my guy was so confused. I quickly explained what was going on and then again later when I had more time to make sure he understood what had happened. His face dropped when I explained what had happened, he thought that kid was pretty cool – and to know that a kid you think is cool just made fun of you, to your face – that just sucks. My friend was saying that I was a little too protective – not a bad thing – but I should have allowed my student the chance to take care of it himself. This is true – I should have. I cannot say that it won’t stop me next time someone is moronic, but I’ll try to remember – once again – I am just the Interpreter.

If you don’t know by now, I am a Sign Language Interpreter for a ninth grader at a local middle school. Technically he’s a high schooler – but the high school here is too small so they keep their ninth graders in the two middle schools. Thursday – of last week – in Health class they watched Super Size Me as an introduction to what eating junk food can do to your body. The teacher (an awesome teacher btw) popped in the DVD and hit play – forgetting about the whole captions thing we need for my student. So, like I usually have to do, I went up to him and requested the captions be turned on. He said sure and handed me the remote control, gesturing that he had no idea what to do. I told him it should be simple, just hit the subtitles button and voila! Nothing. Crap, now I had to stop the movie, go to the menu and try and turn on the English subtitles that way. The only problem now was there wasn’t an option for English subtitles – only Spanish. What the eff was wrong here?! So, I gave up the battle and turned the movie back on for the rest of the class. They didn’t finish watching the movie on Thursday and so on Friday I went in early to see what I could do – the teacher even brought in his 15 year-old son to try to figure it out – no luck. What I wasn’t getting was the very simple fact that the damn DVD does not have English subtitles. DVD’s do not talk to the TV the way VHS tapes communicate with the TV to turn on captioning. Captioning and Subtitles are two different technologies – one is built into the TV (captioning) and the other is built into the DVD player (subtitles). It’s hella complicated to try and figure it all out – and if you really want to know you can go ask the Computer-Vet, he knows. I just could not wrap my mind around this DVD not having captions – er oops, sorry, I mean subtitles – so I went out over the weekend and rented the damn thing! (It was a free rental – I had a coupon. I didn’t care wasting it since we have joined Netflix.) So, in the end I realized the stupid thing is not equipped with English subtitles, and therefore my Deaf student cannot watch the film and will be unable to enjoy the movie like his entire class of hearing kids got to – how fucking messed up is that?! I am so pissed off at assholes who won’t fork over the extra dough it takes to put the god-damn subtitles onto a DVD so that all of effing America can enjoy their films! It broke my heart today when I had to tell him that he wasn’t going to be able to watch it because it did not have the English subtitles. He looked sad, said it was okay, but I could see that he was disappointed. He really wanted to see the documentary – and because people are cheap he couldn’t! It’s 2006 and the hearing world is still shutting out the Deaf community – how jacked up is that?!

Please – let me know what you think about this. I want to write a letter to the filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock, and I would like to include any and all comments I get. My husband (Scott) is also posting this on his site and I hope to get many angry people commenting (on our behalf). This should not be an issue in today’s world – we’ve come too far from the days of segregation – this is still a form of segreation, we are still keeping them out. If you could have seen the look on my student’s face when I told him he couldn’t watch it – it would have broken your heart too.

Although when Shakespeare used this in Hamlet he was referring to the death of a Prince – here I am referring to the sweet little boy lying next to me. Samma is the greatest gift life ever gave me – a lot of crap happens in life and it’s when I look into his sweet blue eyes that it all goes away. The fact that I am his mommy and the most important person in his little life – fills me with pride.

We were watching the Olympics when we both fell asleep – not that they were boring, just on too late for us.

Sweet dreams!!!!

Yesterday (February 25th.) we hosted a birthday party for my 7 year-old neice at Pinon Plaza Bowling Center, here in Carson City. We got the invitations out a week ago last Friday – giving parents plenty of time to RSVP. Only two families RSVPed the weekend the invitations went out (thank you White and Berger families!) – the weekend came and went – no calls. Monday, Tuesday – no calls… I am begining to worry that no one is coming to the party except the two families mentioned above. Wednesday afternoon a woman called RSVPing that her grandson would be there – and then the nice lady on the answering machine apologized for calling so late. We had another message from a mother saying that her daughter was coming – yay! Okay, so now I had four out of the eight invited who RSVPed and were coming. Thursday no calls and I started to panic that this was going to be it and how much that sucked for Keirra (my neice) that her friends weren’t coming to her party. Though I almost looked forward to the small amount coming – this way Keirra could hang with her friends and I would have a chance to hang with mine (White’s and Berger’s). Friday I didn’t care anymore – figuring it was for the best – plus, we went to see the puppies and who could worry about life when you’re holding a two week old puppy in the palms of you hands? When we returned home Friday night we got one more call from a parent (whom later I found out that their plans were to go away this past weekend, but had changed at the last minute – I forgive you.) saying their daughter was coming. Now we had five out of the eight invited – that isn’t bad – right? I thought it rude of parents who couldn’t make the party not to call and RSVP with no’s. It would have been really nice to get eight phone calls for the eight invitations – I probably cared more about the no RSVPs than who was showing up. Although, I would have been a little pissed off if everyone RSVPed “no.” Saturday morning we all got up early – showered and left the house at a good time. Had to stop at the store to pick up the cake and balloon bouquet (which took like 20 minutes to get together!). We got to the bowling alley right on time for the party to begin! I brought a few extra goodie bags – never know who might bring a brother or sister. Then a little into the party a father stopped by with his daughter, said her name, said sorry they were late and left. No RSVP, no “Hi my name is…” Just here’s my kid – see ya later. I was like, “What?” The little girl had nothing to do with the way her father handled things – so we took her over, got her set up and had a wonderful time. The White’s knew this family, and I guess there’s a nasty divorce going on and parents are unstable… I guess I can understand maybe forgetting to RSVP – but he never apologized for not RSVPing. I don’t think the father would have even let me know he was taking his daughter home – had I not approached him. He was the last parent to come pick up – but, I was kinda busy talking and didn’t notice him come in. I looked over at the girls and saw him standing there waiting for his daughter to put her shoes on. Just makes me wonder, what are they thinking???

The party was fun and I think all the children had a great time. There were a lot more children that showed up than I had planned on having – but in the end it all worked out. I want to throw a thanks out to my friend, Victoria White, who helped helped me with party things – Thank You! I just think parents (or who ever for what ever) need to RSVP to a party – even if you are not planning on going! It’s the polite thing to do – plus we want to make sure to have enough cake! *wink*

Almost seven years ago Scott and I went to the pound in search of a new puppy for Scott’s ten-year-old dog, Jasper. There she was, a beautiful black and white puppy, waiting for a family. She was with her brother in a kennel – they had been abandoned in a local park together. Someone found them in a box (in the park) and took them into the pound – where we found our Ebony! She was the best thing we ever did for Jasper – not only did he get someone to play with, he got a life long confidant. They were a fit – like two puzzle pieces coming together. When we took Ebony with us on vacation (she was still a puppy) and left Jasper at home they both were sulking and depressed. As soon as we reunited them they were the happiest doggies – we never separated them again. Not until last summer when nature took its toll and ended Jasper’s 16-year life. Life’s not fair – and when your pet passes away it sucks more than anything! There’s nothing right about it – but with all life it must come to an end. Jasper lived a lot longer then he probably should have – he was a big dog (a big medium really). The reason he lived longer was probably because he had Ebony keeping him young. After Jasper passed, Ebony became depressed. We figured she needed time to greive and deal with her feelings. We have been giving her more attention and doting over her – it has been about eight months and our Ebony has only gotten worse. (poor Ebby) We asked the Vet what we should do and she told us to get her a puppy. So here we are back at the beginning – life has come full circle. We got Ebony as a puppy for Jasper, and now we are getting a new puppy for Ebony. I saw in the Reno paper a Corgi rescue had two litters of puppies who were in need of homes. I called – we went to go see the two-week-old puppies Friday afternoon and by the time we left, we had adopted a new little member of our family! He’s the cutest little thing! He’s a tri-color Corgi/Border Collie mix – he’ll be short (we hope). There will be plenty of pictures and plenty of entries here as we visit him each week until we bring him home in the end of April! We are very excited – we love animals and we want the very best for ours. If it’s going to make Ebony a happy doggie again – then we’ll do it! We’ll never be able to replace the pets we have lost – we’ll never stop loving them. We can grow and expand our hearts to others who enter our family – somewhere in the end we’ll all meet up again and be forever together. (Rainbow Bridge).

I cannot stand rude people – they piss me off! I am a very nice person – you treat others how you want to be treated in return. So, I am always nice and understanding – but sometimes it’s hard to be pleasant to those who are…well, assholes! I encounter rude people all the time – as I am sure does everyone. I notice that with some rude people when I show that I’m not going to take their shit they change their tune. Example – yesterday I called my son’s doctor, because I spaced it and forgot his appointment (oops!) I know they hate it when you do that – and I figured they weren’t going to be praising over the phone – but I thought they would be nice… They lady answered and as soon as I said that I wasn’t going to make my appointment at 3:00 she became pissy. I asked if I could reschedule, she misunderstood me and said – rudely – “It’s almost three o’clock now!” I answered – just as rudely – “Yes, I know that! I want to reschedule!” Her tone changed and she was the nicest person for the rest of the conversation. I don’t want to have to be rude in order to get the respect that’s due to me right off – damnit! If I give you respect – I expect it back.