Remember The Time....

My family has been sick for days..... the icky fever kinda sick..... the thing about a fever is it sends you to a place we call LALA land.  This is a true story....

When my son was about 18 months I was a partner in an art gallery. It was awesome!!! So one day while I was at work on a soul sucking TV show somewhere in the remote regions  of LA my husband walked my son down to my gallery to write and handle the shop while I worked.

My son starts to puke.... uh ... then he turns white........ my hubby calls 911.... he walked so no car for the transport to the doctor and Haddy was really sick.....

I get a call that my family is stuck at the hospital on a Hollywood blvd... my son is naked and ..... they need a ride home. I am at some random location that I arrived at by following a map at 3am.

My husband calls for a taxi. At this point we know Haddy is naked because of the puking and invasive hospital stuff.

A taxi arrives.... my husband notices there is no car seat for naked Haddy.

"Don't worry, use the armrest"

A quick phone chain frees an executive from a show shooting close by who buys a car seat and transports my family home.


OK, so at this point I should of decided to move.... nope... waited a couple of years

There are folks in life I wish I knew- Alan Champion

I don't have many words for this but he is a person I wish we had  known.  My words are lost because how does one express celebration for a stranger who feels like a friend?

My son  has sat through so many shows ..... trust me........ this man was a true talent....


.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/theater/alan-champion-sign-language-interpreter-for-theater-dies-at-55.html

That Really Humble Moment

Not even really sure what to say.....

I have learned over the last 13 years that even when I feel like a two year old kicking and screaming the community we stumbled into will show a side of humanity that stills cares for the children, the folks who need a voice, the mamas who just need a map and the friends we find along the way.

From a very young age I  have refused to ask for help. Somehow I think I have branded my eldest with this trait. Tonight my son and I had a really cool conversation.


So first to quote my son, "Mom, really? Another hippie thought? .....Wait... what? What? I am going to have theater interpreters?? Larry?  No? huh? Mom what did you do??? I am confused...Oh..

*mama explains in detail*

 " mom I can't take that"  

 Sometimes it is not help but community. 

thoughtful pause, thinking hippie mama and deaf son.  

Deaf son at a later time " oh, by the way, I think they are doing "A Midsummer's Night Dream" next year at school!!!!!  " *turns out thirteen is the age of random multitasking thinking.......*

and second that hippie quote he was referring to,

Speechless and grateful for the gift of his community.

I remember..... I will never get mad... I will make the world change for me....

So about a million years ago,
I was born.
Nothing special, a white kid with a super pretty home.
Or maybe I just imagined it was,
Ever go back and see how small?
Later.......I found out my dad was super cool... he was an artist.
Me too?
Later I found out  that was wrong because we need to manage our finances..


My kid...... ?
OK-
Get your act together !   ........

No
Your act
Is fine

Mom will manage,
I will still embarrass you with my corny jokes,
My talking with your friends,
But you will manage on your own,
Laughing with me,
We have that.


By the time you read this
It will be so easy

Love,
Mom


A letter to my son before I get sick like my mom

Local Folks Check This Out!

See What I'm Saying

This is where my family will be Wednesday night! Hmm... great timing.......

Changed My Mind

Sometimes I want to kick and scream like a two year old.

Yep, at 44 years old I really do....

Uh... Yea the Deaf kid...

OK, so Haddy wants to apply for Summer Intensive Theater Camp at VSAA. Great! Only one problem, 

This camp is for VSAA students who are focused in theater. Yep, Haddy is.... but he is deaf. The teachers are providing this privately. That means ADA doesn't apply. That means that in order for him to participate if he is accepted he needs theater interpreters. He needs volunteers, qualified with a background in theater,  folks who can handle Shakespeare. 

Our family can't afford to hire them, ASL students can't do this. 

So what does a mama do? Sorry kiddo you are too Deaf to join? I can come and try but I need a team or a partner for theater. I am feeling a bit sad. like maybe I am not doing this right. How do I tell my kid I can't figure this out?

Funny the picture for the flyer is of my Deaf kid. He is the commercial for camp and I know the teacher wants him there maybe. I don't know, I really don't. 

Blech! Sometimes I feel helpless....

Huh

So my son tells me the ASL students at school have started telling him he is making mistakes with his signing. They are learning some different signs then he uses. Now what is interesting to me is when I was first learning I was told that you go with what the deaf person uses. I am also often told by Deaf people his signing is beautiful. They are often shocked by his fluency. Granted he wants to take ASL at the college level to polish his native language but it seems odd beginning students would feel the need to "correct" him.

I have a feeling the hearing ASL teacher is either using a different dialect than my son's or dated text book signs. I am also curious if the text book they use was published on the West coast.

Mty son is a native signer. He has a blended southern California/ Northwest dialect. For example the slang he uses is from years at the state deaf school and the deaf school in Los Angeles. Often the older kids come up with the slang so it can be regional. They ASL students are not taught slang.

My son also will sign some things the way he learned from the deaf community in LA because he likes it better. Signs like strawberry and cheat. This doesn't mean he is wrong.

This is not a big deal but I am just curious how much deaf culture the students are learning along with the language.

Where do I Start? Scream Therapy?

It has been awhile since I have posted. Life does that to people. It sweeps them away on different tangents sometimes floating far from where we start. Leaving us to swim back and get anchored. I have a few thoughts, not all very interesting, and I guess I will just vomit them out. Deaf stuff, mama stuff and if I have the energy a recipe (well maybe not a cooking class tonight)

Scream Therapy

I found myself a wee bit stressed out with my mom suffering from dementia, long story. I found myself suffering from panic attacks. Of course the first time this happened I assumed it was a heart attack and privately said my farewells. Well poo, just garden variety panic attacks.

 Turns out thrill rides are a great cure for folks like me who don't want to partake in the medication route. I decided on a Tuesday to fly out on the Thursday of the same week for Disneyland. Yep, two days to pull it together. You see the only choice I felt I had was to get far away and do something that required not a single brain cell and omitted any driving from the schedule.

IT WORKED!

Space Mountain is my new Xanax. As much as I feel like screaming up and down my street at home I am sure it would be met with visits from the police or at least gentle first responders with straight jackets. On a thrill ride it is expected you will scream your ass off. Your body must release something because after the ride I felt like a new woman!

That Asshole Kid At The Pool

OK so this is a hot topic. The BULLY. Haddy was only approached by a kid like this once when he was four. So at the Disneyland hotel we were at the pool feeling relaxed and groovy. Two older girls did the typical notice the deaf kid thing and tried to practice the few signs they knew behind a rock. That is cool and cute.

Next I see a kid around ten years old mocking Haddy.  She is whispering into her friend's ear making fake signs that are pretending he is "delayed". Yea, they used the "r" word. They thought I was deaf so it was easy to stand next to them and listen. They kept at it then enlisted the help of a boy to tease Haddy.

I could of let him handle it. He is really clever and can disarm  an idiot with his hands tied but just this once, fully relaxed from scream therapy, I let it fly.

I leaned down to eye level and said,

"You know if you keep  staring  really hard, he will turn GREEN * whisper * Yep, it is a deaf thing"

The adults who were sitting close by watching the little bully kids laughed.... thumbs up they show me..... the bully kids were embarrassed that everyone was laughing at them. Not so cool to plan a sneak attack on a kid when every adult around you is laughing at you.

Haddy was mad I stepped in. He doesn't get bullied an I suspect he wanted to do the honors.

He forgave me since he can't help coming from my body and I am a pretty OK mom.

I gathered my kids to go search for a ride we had yet to discover and scream with my favorite people.