A Perfect Adventure

Saturday was an absolutely perfect day.
These kinds of days are so rare and so blissful, that it's important to me to document, so as to cite it later when they skies are a little grayer.  And so....

I started it off at friend’s place, because of course all great adventures start after a sleepover with your best friend.  From there I got coffee with someone the Universe has placed into my coven — as in I met her by chance and have run into her accidentally a few times since.  Finally we are connecting with out cosmic aid, and it was an hour and a half of pet photos, stories of travels, and comforting each other about frustrations that we thought we were facing alone.

Next up was the Drama Book Shop, where I bought a play for the acting class I’ve been taking — oh right, I’m taking an acting class — and I discovered after years of being a patron of their business, they have a shop dog.  His name is Chester.  So obviously that was ideal.

Then I went somewhere to buy a present for my best friend, which I will not describe as she has yet to receive said present.

Next to a cheap pharmacy for lipstick and lemonade; then etsy to quickly snag yet another mug from the wonderful Allison Fretheim Ceramics (they sell out within minutes of being released), and then I made my way to a doctor.  As always I resent how necessary it is for me to go to one (and by one I mean at least five types on a regular basis with copays of $50 per visit), but I did so, spoke up about some issues I’ve just been enduring, and scheduled two follow ups.  Adulting.

As a reward for said adulting, I headed to a showroom for treats I’ve been eyeing for years.  On the train there, I saw two people signing.  After smiling at them and trying not to seem creepy, I signaled for their attention the way one should towards someone who is deaf, and said “hello I know a little sign and this is making me very happy.”  They brought me into their conversation, and we were happily signing all the way into Brooklyn.  I got off at their stop…needing to head back into Manhattan; but the whimsy, the kismet, and the bliss of communicating with someone in another language made the trip into Brooklyn well worth it.
They also told me about an Sign Language Center that offers classes, which I plan on taking.

In this happy whirlwind, I finally made it to Glossier, the showroom extraordinaire, and bought the gems that had caught my eye.  I then waited way too long in front of what I thought was the bathroom, and actually may have just been a door to a stockroom.

A photographer, a small and sweet young woman, saw me waiting and asked if she could take my photo in a mirror nearby with flowers.  I said sure and so we did an impromptu photoshoot.  It was delightful and flattering.

From there, I went home, got a tad lost, FaceTimed with my best friend as she finally dyed her hair, and then headed to a friend’s place for dinner.

I thrive in this weather; this day of not quite heat, but still a break from the air hurting your face.  I thrive with my friends; the delightful souls who’ve accepted all my weird little quirks and lengthy backstory and let me love them as much as I do.  I thrive on following chance paths that remind me that days like this are possible.

I face a lot physically.  There are days like today where I have to spend $100 on meds to breathe.  Just breathe.  I pay to live.  And so it's incredible when I have a perfect day, a residual of all the work I've put into getting this far, a dividend of the life I've been investing in.  I document it so as to remember, to have something to look back on when the weight of the fight feels too much to bare, so as to remember how lucky I still am.  Every day may not be this kind of adventure, but these days are well worth the wait and the work it takes to get there.

(the beginning of the journey; this one and the next)

Social Hibernation

I've spent to weeks in vocal and social semi-silence.  Speaking for my job all day caused me to strain my voice, and never getting a chance to heal caused a blood vessel to rupture on my vocal chords.  For those of you who've known me in my hospital days, you'll understand that the pain was almost lost on me, evolution has demanded I have a high tolerance. Still though, sharp pain is never a good sign and $50 in copay and $20 in medicine later, I had my injury discovered.

I spent the two weeks mostly on my own; being around others provided too infuriating of a difficulty to communicate.  It's without a doubt made me appreciate my ASL-speaking friends tenfold, for their ability to adapt and their patience to be understood by those who don't sign.

It's been a bit of a mental vacation, just before I go on a geographical one.  I return to work for four days and then fly out of the country for a vacation of two weeks.  It's been years since I've had a vacation, and half a decade since I've left the country.

I am thrilled to be taking a break from the racist insanity that consumes our headlines, though I anticipate many questions from those who live elsewhere.    I was studying abroad during the election for Barack Obama's second term, and was amazed by how thoroughly other countries watch our politics.  People who barely spoke English were finding the words to ask who I was supporting and insisting on it being Obama, someone more understanding of our influence on the rest of the world.  So while I'm excited to take a break from our national shame, I anticipate having to defend those feel it, not cause it.

We'll see.  Spending time in a country whose primary language is not English is always humbling.  We take for granted how easy it is for us to be understood, a theme not lost on me in these two weeks of silence.  Needing to adapt, to change something so fundamental in my day to day, it makes me marvel at others.  Polyglots, those with patience, those who are willing to help.

Language many not be universal, but compassion is.  I look forward to finding those who will help me along this upcoming journey, as well as those who  provide more obstacle than safety net; I'll likely learn the most from them.

And thus I return from my summer hibernation, slightly sleepy, somewhat sore, and extremely ready for change.

Just the Beginning...

And to top the day off, I just got to fight for the civil rights for one of my best friends and in doing so for the entire deaf community's as well. 

Because a movie theatre's showing room wasn't equipped to handle subtitles, they either wanted him to pay full price for half the experience or to come back later for a different show-room that was at a more expensive price. "It's only a dollar" the manager said, to which I replied "a dollar that represents him having to pay for having a disability."  He kept blaming the movie theatre's "system" for this discrimination, and yet society is other words is also a "system" and one that nobody will deny needs to evolve much further to include everyone's rights, not just the majority's. 

This man was morally wrong and entirely ignorant of it. He said he was "sad" that we saw this as discrimination.  Fortunately the manager's manager (of course we weren't going to let this slide) said that my friend could get in for free, but this time only. 

So it was a compromise for us today, but not for the next member of the deaf community that is entitled to subtitles. I am proud of the fire that gets ignited in me when someone I love is being oppressed and I promise you this isn't the last of this that you'll hear from me.

That said, today we changed the way that three people view their business and that is still a victory pulling us forward.