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.
Florida is good. Disney is good. I could use a trip to Florida, and I could use an excuse to scream. It's been a rough year.
ReplyDeleteBullies suck, but you gotta love the chance for sarcasm and clever retorts. Unfortunately, I often think of the good stuff afterwards and miss the oppurtunity while I'm in the moment.
Often when I'm out and about with the boys I used to nanny for (they are now 3.5 and almost 2... and they have a baby sister) I get comments. Sometimes the comments are good, sometimes the comments are terrible, and sometimes they are just plain stupid. The stupid comments are the funniest.
J (the 3.5 year old) is very capable of expressing himself in complex ASL sentences and is beginning to develop some basic reading skills. I may have to instill the art of sarcasm in him soon, but I probably should wait. He's lawyer-like enough as it is :)
Yeah, I was bullied like that everyday all through my jr. And sr. High school. I was always the the girl everyone loved to pick on and make fun of my speech and hearing.
ReplyDeleteAlicia the prescription is very specific. I highly recommend staying at a hotel on the same grounds as the parks, eating anything you want and using the fast passes for the big rides. Once you board a ride mandatory screaming is in order. The great thing for me is it doesn't matter if I loose my voice from it!
ReplyDeleteSorry you have had a rough year, me too. I find that along with screaming humor helps.
Anony so sorry to hear this. I know it doesn't help but these days we don't see much bully behavior in my area in regards to deaf kids. Well just as far as I know from our family experience. That pool kid was actually a shock!