Little Leaps

Sweet Good-bye

I had the opportunity to spend time with my parents, two sisters, and their kids for almost two weeks. It was fun even though I had to escape for a break. (Hiding in parents' bedroom.) The house was full of crazy (yelling, screaming, crying, happy, talking, exciting, etc--you can imagine the young kids would do..). I was sad to know that it was time for me to go back to my real world that including a job. My mom took me to Fresno airport and she came in with me to say good-bye. We hugged--while hugging, mom whispered in my ear saying, "I love you". There was no way to resist not to smile. I whispered back in her ear, "I love you, too."

Mom quick broke the hug and asked me if I heard that. My face showed a smile and nodded that I did heard her whisper saying, I love you.

Sniffing.. I LOVE YOU MOMMMY!

I got....

Well, it's not really permanent job yet but the person who hired me said it might become permanent if I did a good job with the position. I do not know when it will become permanent or will I keep the position for sure. At least I have a full-time job for ten months with benefits, an office, a computer, not great salary to start with but it's something to support myself for now, and happy to know that I'm alive for ten months.

It's sort of funny how I got a full-time job. And it's sort of long story. I'll make a long story short for you.

I'll create names so you wouldn't get lost in this long short story.

Bossest: Sabrina
Bosser: Judi
Boss: Ben

I applied a full-time position at University and waited for Judi, the bosser, to tell me the date for interview. About two or three weeks ago, Judi told me that I wasn't invited for an interview because they found better. I was disappointed because I was qualified for this position but I assumed the person must have PhD or something "wow" Judi and Ben.

Judi offered me to teach Tuesdays and Thursdays morning (two more classes, right now I have two night classes). I had to turn down the offer because the pay wasn't great and what if I got a job offer and would not able to work full-time because of that. So night classes would be considered to be extra $$ for me if I got another job offer.

So I applied another position at high school to teach American Sign Language (ASL) as foreign language. I was very impressed with their program. I felt that their program was organized and much better than the University. I thought maybe that one would be better for me. And much less commute! University would be 40 minutes without traffic.

I had to go through pain of screening, first interview, etc. for high school. During the screening I hit the score what they wanted from me, but I learned that high school principal does not want to hire any deaf teacher. She thinks deaf are not able to handle high school students because of communication. She does not want to hire interpreter because they will have to pay for it. AND ASL teacher, she is hearing, was going to retire (that's why the position was open) and told the principal that deaf cannot teach ASL classes. Principal believed her.

The worse part that the principal said if they (HR, etc) want to hire a deaf teacher, she might drop the ASL program. OHHHH! (Rolling eyes)

So during the screening, I met her and she said nothing to me. NOTHING! Serious, she just ignored me. The person who screened me was so embarrassed and explained to me what happened. Uh oh. Somehow I wanted to show them that I can teach and do not need interpreter for my ASL classes. I never need one for eleven years! I was qualified for first interview AND invited for second interview. Both turned out GREAT! Now I had to wait for third and final interview--that one will have to interview with THAT school principal.

I have been waiting for that interview more than two months. I have emailed and asked any idea.. The HR person said they have to find a place for ALL current teachers to make sure they have a job before they hire new teachers. Oh boy, they are STILL working on it. Blame on Union. :S

I even told one elementary school that I'm interested for a position to take one teacher's position. So far I applied three jobs. I was about to apply some more jobs.

Last Thursday late afternoon, I got an email from Sabrina, Bossest, and asked me if I'm interested full-time job but it will be a temporary visiting position for two semesters. Sabrina hopes they can renew it for a few years then make it permanent. So that sounds good, they will pay me little better than adjunct pay. But the position will require more work than just teach ASL classes. I will have to attend the meetings (blah), advise undergraduate students, assist with helping new ASL 1 instructors, etc.. AND I'll have an office and computer to keep myself busy.

Sabrina also said I'll teach four ASL classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays morning. (Umm that's what Judi offered me before...) Not bad. But Sabrina wanted to know the answer---now.. I had hard time to make a decision if I really want that job or not. It is so far to drive and not great pay but better than adjunct. Yikes Yikes Yikes! The next day, I knew the offer was best one so I accepted the offer. Now I'll start my full-time job starting this fall. It's a bit overwhelming because I will need to learn many things new to prepare myself to advise undergraduate students, etc. But same time I'm excited to improve my skills through serve the students, staff, and myself. :D

Well, I made it long story short. I now have a full-time job for ten months and hopefully everything will work out with staff. That one I haven't share the juices with you. Juices are unimportant, but the important is I HAVE A JOB! Heehee.

A Sad Story

No, I'm not going to tease you because today is April 1st. The story is a true story. Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, Thursday morning I was in mood to clean my apartment as well as washing clothes, work on PowerPoint for my ASL class, playing some games on the computer, and read a book while taking a hot bath. Wow, it looked like I had so much work to do! I better started laundry first before do anything else. I realized I would have to do about 4 or 5 loads. :S (Hint: It was not just my clothes.) One load I had to hun some t-shirts and some sweat pants up to avoid shrink. I went to the guest bedroom and hung the clothes up. While I was doing this, I heard a funny noise. At first, I decided it was from upstairs and ignored it.

The noise came back again but I realized it was a different noise. It couldn't be from upstairs because the noise was more close, hit metal something, almost sound like somebody tried to open the door, and it was just not the same noise upstairs tend to make. It started and stopped quickly--my mind started to panic--WHAT IF somebody tried to break in?! My heart pounded so hard and I walked to the door but saw nothing danger against my life. The noise repeated and it drove me nuts. But it frustrated me because I couldn't figure where it came from because it was random. I could not wait and listen because I did not know how long it would make a sound so I could figure it out where it was from.

I gave up and decided to clean the apartment and that cleaning made lot of noise including vacuum, moving things around, turn water on to wash dishes, etc. You get the picture how to make noise to overlap that weird creepy random noise. In an hour, I forgot about the noise and it seemed the noise decided to quit making noise.

This evening I thought I should get a good reward by taking a hot bath and read a book. Yeah, I deserved that reward after hard work cleaning the apartment. I walked into the bathroom and started the water to fill up the tub. I suddenly remembered that I needed to get my towel from another bathroom. I walked through the door, somehow--something was waving at me. I stared where the waving was from! SUDDENLY I SAW SOMETHING WAS IN THE AIR VENT! What was that?! It looked like something moving in there.. GASP!! WHAT?! Was it a big bug or something but my fear had increased and realized it was a BIRD! Serious, THAT bird was trapped in there. It hit my heart so hard and realized THAT NOISE was from THAT BIRD.. THAT bird must have been struggling to escape but couldn't! Now I knew where the noise was from. I felt SOOOOO BAD because I realized it was too late. That poor bird had died. MAN!

I saw that vent was so dirty. Oh dear, that bird must have been flapping so hard and the dust goes everywhere. Groans, look at those pictures! That poor bird. But why did the bird go in that place?! Fell in?! Sighs.

I was thinking what if I could identify where the noise came from and I could have saved that bird. Annie told me it wasn't my fault because I'm still learning with my CI's. Sighs, I'm curious how the bird got in there in the first place. Honestly, has it happened to you?

The worse part was that I did not want to turn heat on or anything. This morning I need to call the office to get that bird out and see where the bird came from. Imagine an animal trying to get in--a snake! YIKES! It would not be good.. I need something to distract myself from that vent. The End.

Excitement = Dangerous

Last Wednesday one of teachers at elementary asked me to sub for her assistant next day. I agreed and worked there all day. From that day, there was a little cute boy had a crush on me. For example during lunch recess, he was playing alone. I decided to keep him company while girls play off somewhere.

He gave me a chalk and asked me to draw him on the floor. He laid on the floor and I traced his body on the floor. He looked so happy but I asked him where hair? Eyes? Clothes? Shoes? (I think he is in first grade..) He did 'em all. After that, he said, "You down!" Obviously he wanted me to lay for him to trace me. I do not want to lay on that dirty floor! I decided and say, "Let's draw you again and you can label it whatever you want." He don't mind getting down second time to let me trace him again. He wanted to trace next to his body and I did. He got up and had a big smile on his face. He said, "GUESS (point to that body)".

I said, "Wait, wait, that looked like a ghost! That does not have clothes, eyes, etc.." He giggled and draw everything on it. Now he repeated saying guess. I had to tease him by saying lion? Monster? Ghost? He kept giggle and said no no no! He stopped and draw a heart middle of two people. Again, he asking me to guess who is that person. I still teasing him for awhile until he cannot wait much longer and signed, "NO! YOU!!!!" Oh... Me? What a little cute boy! He couldn't let me go. He glued me end of the school! Heehee.

Anyway I left the school to meet friends for girls night to have sushi which was fun. We didn't leave the restaurant about 3-4 hours after we had our dinner. It was fun, but it killed me and I fell on my bed to go sleep. I had hard time to get up this morning. In my mind, thank goodness it's Friday and I do not have to do anything.

Annie saw that some of ski resorts made some snow overnight and wanted to go ski for one more time before it was over for real. The weather got too warm too early! I guess there is something for me to do. We went and had fun. I was so exciting because I have improved my ski skills. I have been scared to go blue (challenge than green, that anyone can go green even beginners..) I'm beginner for sure. Annie has improved greatly within two months and able to ski double black.. (if you see on the map, click on that map and it will takes you to the map where we went, you'll drop your mouth for sure..) I'm too chicken.. Too steep for me! I always gone for green. About two or three weeks ago, I finally went one blue here (Lower Heavenly) and proud of myself. I'm still too chicken.

Today we went to different ski resort and went green trail (Sidewinder)--of course. But this green trail is a bit challenger than other resort we went a few weeks ago. Second lift and I went that one and able to ski without being scared! AT ALL! I was thrilled to know that I was able to ski whole the way without stop and eh eh eh..

Annie challenged me to go different green trail (SnowPark) and (sort almost blue but not really..) I did it! I got so excited.. I wanted to go there again and again to get comfortable and continue improve my ski skills. After fifth lift, I had to stop and rest. Whew! About thirty minutes rest, I was ready to go back for more.. We got on the lift and ready to go steep... I feel like I was a pro ski for some reason (really not..) and almost arrived at the bottom.. I was having too much fun and decided to pick up the speed to get there faster.. Umm somehow I fell.... Yes, a fall.. BIG and HARD one. I didn't remember at all how it happened. I think I blacked out for few seconds.. I don't know!! Annie missed me fall but saw me sliding down head first on my back with my head lightly bumping on the snow. (Thank goodness I have helmet on my head!!!) I finally opened my eyes to see what happened suddenly I felt the pain on my right knee! OW!!!! (Serious, I can't remember how I fell, my body bounced, body circle opposite way, etc.) Anyway, OWWWW! I realized my goggle was gone. Well, it was off but still attached to my helmet. My poles were gone somewhere I couldn't see them. My skis were still on my boots and it made me puzzled because the binding was supposed to let it go when I fell (only if fell bad).

How embarrassing that Annie had to ask for help and asked Ski Patrol to help. They put me in a cool sled to bring me down to the building to see my knee. Annie had her opportunity to take a picture of me with her iphone. Sorry, you cannot able to see my face very well.. It's so bright outside and you can see snow melting behind me.. But I look cool to ride in that thing! You can see a thing that holding my knee to avoid moving my knee while ski down the mountain.

But I looked at that picture again and really it didn't look that BLACK when I was there.. I guess iphone didn't get the colors right. Anyway, now I'm FINE and a bit sore. We had to leave ski resort because I cannot able to ski in this condition. I had to put ice every twenty minutes and rest. Blah! I guess my ski season is really over until this December.. I hope I can remember my big pro ski feeling this December without feel scared to go down steep. Snow, see you this December, I will come back in good shape!

I wanted to say thank you to my helmet for saving my head, CIs, and eyes. Without helmet, I'll spending my life in crazy hospital with my family and friends sobbing for my life that has gone waste. Wear your helmet for anything such as driving a car... hm is it too much?

Rehabilitation Consult

I had an appointment with rehabilitation consult yesterday. Before Christmas I went to see Steve, my audiology, for my mapping. I asked him how can I improve my listening skills and he recommended me to get rehabilitation consult to lead me where I need to be.

Frankly, the result of the appointment has surprised all of us. Us? Who were involved in this appointment? Me, Annie, Kristen (rehabilitation consult), and Gary, an interpreter. You must puzzled why Kristen was surprised. I'll tell you why later on.

First I did not request for an interpreter because I prefer Annie and she knows me well. Annie and I arrived, found a spot to park the car even crowded, found a place to sit, and wait for my turn to go in. Kristen came in and look around the room. (I have no idea what she looked like because I have never met her before.) Kristen started to speak "Fife"? I raised my hand because it's ME!

She walked to me and started to sign. I was surprised that she can sign! She asked me if I have seen an interpreter. That's where I got lost, an interpreter?! Of course, I ended up got an interpreter. My heart started to pump harder and it came from being nervous. In my mind, I hope he can understand me AND I can understand him. :S A few minutes later, Gary, an interpreter, showed up. My appointment has begun!

I have no idea what Kristen will plan to do with me. I assumed she would give me some tests including guess what she is saying, test my listen skills, etc. Kristen was really nice woman and I liked her. Gary wasn't that bad interpreter as I met before---WHEW!

My heart still pumping so hard and my head was trying to focus what I need to understand what's going on in the office. Kristen was explaining what she wanted me to do. I think at first was easy part--just tell her my experiences with my CI's. And she wanted me to tell her details such as do I understand the sounds? Words? Use CI's all the time? Music? You get the idea.

Kristen wanted to know where I am standing and which level I'm on. (I think stages of understanding and recognize around me.) I'm glad Annie was here with me because she helps me while I couldn't remember. For example I told her that I can understand a few words such as hello, bye, no, yes, I love you, etc. Annie helped me with that. I also told her about phone situation. She was surprised that I was able to understand a little. We were discussing about phone issues for awhile.

Kristen asked me what kind of music I liked to listen. I'm dumb so Annie helped me to identify which kind of music. I explained her my experience such as the music does affect my mood. For example when I leave the building in the morning, I would use upbeat music but after work or long day, I rather to listen calm music such as classical, soft music etc. Kristen started to get a bit excited and explain what to expect to separate the sounds.

Annie told them that a movie touched me. It was August Rush. End the movie, there was a music touched my heart. It made Kristen go ahhh. (I admit it was a bit cheesy....) Anyway, oh I forgot to add that, Kristen was impressed with me to compare my experiences before CI's and after CI's. She said it was important to compare because it shows the improvement.

Now Kristen told me that I will have five different kinds of test. Whew, I got through all five tests. THAT'S WHERE it surprised all of us. I know, I know, you're so curious WHAT has surprised us. Okay, I'll explain the tests.

Test 1: She handed me a paper that has about twenty listing. It has three words each.

Example:

1. Duck Cowboy Impossible

She has a thing to cover her mouth so I couldn't cheat. She will speak one of three words and I'll tell her which word I have heard. I got 'em 100% on that test. That was easy one.

Test 2: Again, she gave me a paper that has about 15 on it. There were four sentences for each.

Example:

1. A. Go to the front door.
   B. I want to go swimming.
   C. She is ten years old.
   D. I went to the store to buy juice.

I'll have to listen which a sentence she speak. It was a bit tough because I have to pay attention harder to recognize the word in the sentence. But I got ONLY ONE mistake on this test!

Test 3: (OH BOY!) That paper looked so HARD for me to do. Yes, other paper and it has about twenty on it.

Example:

1. She got the kit/cot from the car.

Kristen will speak a whole sentence but one word I need to identify which one kit or cot she used.

That test sparkled somehow that made us surprised how well I was able to do that and I made only ONE mistake from twenty! That shocked Annie a big time. Kristen's excitement grew bigger than before. Garry's facial expression was glued to a big smile/surprise for a while.

Test 4: (It's different than test 1, 2, and 3 because it's closed test and it has information there. For test 4 and 5, it called open test and it can be anything such as random. It's HARD for me.)

Kristen will ask me three or four questions or statements. (She ended up asked me three questions and one statement.)

She will use the black thing to cover her mouth and speak. I will have to answer or tell what I understand. Her first question was hard and I couldn't get it but identify some sounds. She liked me to explain the details. Anyway, Kristen repeated the question and I was close but not right.

It was "What's your name?" Tough but I heard S end of what.

She asked me second question.

I guess "Are you....??" That made Kristen wild because first part was right. I had to laugh because I was sort of guess and sort of heard it. Of course, Kristen repeated the question.

I said, "Are you happiness?"

Kristen laughed and was so happy but said you were so close!! It has H but not happiness. Third time she repeated the questions. (Oh she can only repeat three times.)

I said, "Are you hearing?"

That made her VERY HAPPY because it was VERY CLOSE-- What did she asked me question? It was "Are you hungry?"

You get the idea why the group got wild.

Other questions I forgot.. but it was my test 4. Let's go to test 5.

Test 5: She wanted me to copy her voice and it can be anything.

Example:

MMMMMMMMMM, me MMMMMMMMMM

EEEEOOOO EEEEOOOO, me copy EEEEOOOO EEEEOOOO

Sometimes I was close, sometimes I got it right. Kristen, again, was surprised because she thought it was hardest part of tests.

Oh yeah-- she speak something such as a word.

I heard the beginning of the word that has SH in it. I speak "SH"?

She repeated and I can't figure but SH?? SHOW? Somehow I speak "SHOE" and I hit the jackpot! Kristen was SO happy with my results.

For some reasons I feel she was so happy because there is a hope for me to improve my listen skills. It almost made everyone cry. Guess what? It made my day VERY HAPPY with good results. Kristen recommended me a listing to do. I do not want to put you sleep. :D

My experience with an appointment was VERY GOOD one. It gave me hope and it made me want to work harder. My next step is to get therapy to practice my listening skills. Whew.

A TV Show

About two weeks ago, a friend introduced me a television show called "Lie to me". First before I blah about this show, I saw this commercial on the television and I thought it was another crime or murder show. I hate watching a show with blood, dead people, etc. It's not my type show, so I was not interested until my friend told me about the show. I was suspect and afraid that it would show blood, blah.

I decided to watch the first episode of "Lie to me" to see for myself. That first episode surprised me because it was about how to tell a person was lying. It called "microexpressions". After that episode, I was wondering if those could be true. I decided to research and learned about the man, Dr. Paul Ekman who said, "facial expressions of emotion are universal and not determined by culture".

Dr. Paul Ekman work with director to make sure microexpressions were correct. He gave them the face pictures of famous people to use on the show. It was so interesting to watch this show. I couldn't remember but the show or Dr. Paul Ekman said people can lie but the body or face cannot. That's how he used microexpressions to find the truth.

You can google Dr. Paul Ekman or the show and learn about microexpressions. It turned out I enjoyed this show because I like to learn about microexpressions. Annie and I discussed about deaf culture because deaf people use lot of facial expressions as part of language. Are those "deaf" facial expression difficult to read or it's just "universal and not determined by culture"? It would be very interesting if they use deaf people in this show. Maybe I should write a letter-mmm..

Anyway if you're curious to watch this show but do not have a television cable like me. You can watch it on Hulu.com. It's free! But Hulu does not have first and second seasons of this show. I think Annie said it has third season on Hulu now. You can get some idea of this show. :D

Ski Days

It was time to say bye Lyon and Oklahoma. A day before I learned that Baltimore might get lot of snow and might cause delay, cancel, etc flights. Uh oh! I was wondering how long the delay might be or will my flight be cancelled? I checked my flight website and said it was good and still leaving on time, eh.

The next day was beautiful weather in Oklahoma. I checked again and still saying it's still leaving on time. THAT made me extremely nervous because it made me imagine the plane landing on the icy road--blah blah. Well, my plane left on time and landed on time. Whew!

Annie told me that the schools were cancelled and decided to pick me up. (Her sister was supposed to pick me up.) She surprised me by going to a little vacation to a mountain for ski. I can't believe she takes a risk to drive in this condition because snow is not over yet. We ended up staying there for two nights.

We arrived a ski resort and decided to go ski. I wish I could film this condition -- umm I really can't see where I'm going! My goggle decided to be foggy. My glasses liked goggle's idea and became foggy as well. Double fogies. Can you imagine me ski with both foggy? I had to remove my goggle to see where I am going. Good thing I didn't hit a tree! But the icy/snowy wind hitting on my face, it was GRRR because I want to put my goggle on! Of course, it caused me to stop frequency to remove my goggle and see where I am. :S

I learned that it was different skiing in powered snow and groomed. Powered was a bit difficult to ski! I had so much fun skiing in this condition because Annie and I continued laughing at ourselves for being idiot skiers. :D

That picture was blurred but look behind me. The condition was a little better because it was starting clear up. In this picture, you can't see several paths behind me as you supposed to see.

Thanks Annie, I had fun time.

Hello Oklahoma, Bye Oklahoma!

I had an opportunity to visit Lyon's family for a week in Oklahoma. I'm grateful that Oklahoma's weather decided to behave for me. I had a great time with kids and my sister! I was amazed how Missy and Dave handle with four wild kids! Wink.