Yesterday I was able to accomplish some business that I needed to take care of. I spent quite a bit of time working on booking some flights for my daughter and I and I did the majority online. I got to the point on her reservation where you click the final thing and it’s done and I got an error message that said I had to call. I dread business calls a little bit just because of the captioning and there can be some confusion passing information back and forth. I took a deep breath and made my call. I explained to the person that I’m deaf and using a captioning telephone and that there would be a delay from the time they speak until I see what they said and can respond, so I’d appreciate your patience working with me on this…..blah, blah, blah. Most people are very willing to work with me and I always make sure to repeat back any important info so there’s no chance of a mistake in the captions or a misunderstanding. It took quite a bit of time, but we finally got the reservation sorted out and I was a little frazzled, but felt good about the success.

The next call I needed to make didn’t go so well. I was trying to call a restaurant to reserve a room for my son and his bride-to-be’s rehearsal dinner. I tried 3 times (during a non-busy time of day) and they hung up on me all 3 times! Frustrating to say the least! I don’t know if they didn’t listen to me and just thought it was a telemarketing call or if there was too long of a delay from when I was aware the phone had been answered until I spoke. Whatever happened, I would see captions saying that someone answered, then start my spiel about the captioning phone. After I finished speaking it would say, “tone…..(recording)…..if you’d like to make a call, please hang up…..” I guess it’s bound to happen sometimes. Luckily Chet was home and he ended up making the call and taking care of the reservation. At least I’m out there trying!

My former ASL instructor, Debbie, told me that she would like to/be willing to meet with me to work on some ASL together! I’m really excited about that. We plan to meet on Friday. Better get some reviewing done before then!

A friend sent me a text message a week or two ago with an interesting observation. I have always been a person that is fascinated by and loves studying foreign languages. I was a Spanish major in college and got a minor in French. I took some Italian as well. She told me that she thought it was interesting that the thing that has happened in my life is related to learning a new language (ASL). She suspects that might not be a coincidence. I wonder if she’s right. Could be. It really is amazing how God works sometimes.