In the works...

I saw my first Deaf Corvallis residents the other day ♥ A great reminder to me of the gift, languishing within me, awaiting an opportunity to share with my community. I will be dropping off my application packet at OSU on Monday, to get on the schedule for the fall term (begins the end of September). Mayhap there will be some cool community work available :)
I'm inspired to interpret my talks into ASL & I've offered to do others' talks, too (let me know if you'd like me to make yours available!). I can't wait to have this incredibly necessary information available to the Deaf Community at large!!
Now, I'm playing with a conceptually accurate interpretation of *unschooling* -- "none" + "school" --- maaaaybe, not exactly accurate enough, "Self + Boss + Learn"?? "Free" + "Learn" seems good, but public education doesn't cost any money, either ::bg:: "Open mind" + "Experience" + "Life" seems appropriate.... could be a lifetime of consideration and meanwhile I will become incredibly proficient at fingerspelling it!!

Blog Clarification

My previous post was in no way an attack on any individual, nor any organization and certainly not intended to insult any one of my friends.
Q-tip: Quit taking it personally.
As a recap, in case these sentences were missed:

**In total honesty I can say it's purely because my energy was focused on how the whole situation should be instead of working with how it is and what can be done right now.
**My thoughts were stuck in a 20 year old mire.
**There's an internal processing called for here...
**My mind got totally caught...
**I even put our Love Machine on craig's list to sell.
**the event holds incredible emotional value to me.
**I was really stuck in...

This blog is therapeutic for me. If someone is holding a gun to your head, forcing you to read my offensive thoughts, tell them to stop! They're not there by my command/request.
Continue to read here at your own risk.
I apologize if that has not been made clear. Now it has.

Interpreting and Unschooling

A marriage made in heaven, no? I embody both a deep understanding of, love and respect for, ASL/Deaf Culture and the Principles of Unschooling. Both represent incredible passions woven deeply into my Life's Experience. Why am I not interpreting at this weekend's unschooling conference?
In total honesty I can say it's purely because my energy was focused on how the whole situation should be instead of working with how it is and what can be done right now.
My thoughts were stuck in a 20 year old mire. A happy-memory-filled mire, yes, still not a productive place for my current energy to be invested. See, 20 years ago I was an interpreter at CSUN, specializing in the Engineering Department. When an opportunity came along for a student to attend a NASA conference in Cleveland, OH, I was first picked to go. My willingness to work translated to: Round-trip airfare, hotel room, $50/day meal allowance, $200 per diem for 4 hours of interpreting maximum. The rest of the time there was my own. The conference paid for local interpreters to do the jobs I didn't want to do (I picked fun stuff, like the NASA tour & famous engineering braniacs talking about topics that interested me).
So when I was asked to do an unschooling event, I was rearing to go! I checked local laws and found out how to align legally and ethically. And I pondered the pay issue. It is unethical for an interpreter to volunteer for a job that would normally be a source of income for another. I cannot undercut the local interpreters, nor can I sell my profession short, by offering my services for considerably less money than it's *worth.* And right now, in North Carolina, it's worth about $40/hour, portal to portal from the nearest city - at least an hour away.
There's an internal processing called for here... is it about the money? is it about the service? is it about the message? is it about our professional standing as a whole? What is my priority?
We live in a society, right or wrong, that uses cash value as an easy marker for actual worth. The cash value offered to me for my professional work was approximately $800. For 4 days of very intense, long houred, interpreting & facilitating communications.
My mind got totally caught on the thought "I'm not willing to take a pay cut that deep!"
I negotiated. I begged. I even put our Love Machine on craig's list to sell. Mostly because, even without the monetary value, the event holds incredible emotional value to me. Emotional Value cannot be measured and held up as *worth.*
What I really wanted was to be valued for what I was capable of bringing. I was really stuck in "It's not worth another $400 to get me there? REALLY?!"
And in reality it wasn't. It's not.
And in the here and now, I'm okay. I'm sure the event is okay. Life is good and all is as it should be.

Dear Sarah Palin,

You are the embodiment of why I cannot call myself a feminist. I don't believe that a paid job is ever more important than the unpaid honor of being a mother. Your children need their mother. Period. The fact you returned to work three days after giving birth to a child with special needs reflects how little your bonding with this new life means to you. You chose to have babies. As an adult, you are well aware that sexual intercourse without birth control means you run a very high risk of getting pregnant (Penis+Vagina=Baby; P+V=B, for short). The honor you feel in the receiving of this special soul is moot in the face of the disregard you've shown by putting your paid job over the needs of your child; all babies need and deserve their mother available to them. Will you openly and willingly disregard the needs of your family for the needs of this country? Your answer of *yes* only fuels my passion for your loss at the polls.
Further evidence of your disregard for your children is evident in your daughter's announcement of her pregnancy before marriage. Lord knows I have no issue with children conceived and/or born outside of wedlock -- I was a one-night-stand baby who's parents have been married for 40.5 years. I have HUGE issue with folks who stand on their bible and state "Abstinence Only" is the only method of sexual education our kids need. Looks like your hypocrisy has bitten you in the proverbial ASS, honey! If only your daughter could have come to you for support in choosing an effective form of birth control. If only you would have talked to your daughter about the options of physical love available to her. If only she'd known that outercourse and oral sex were of no to low risk for pregnancy & disease. If only you were open to knowing and supporting her first great love affair.
And while were on the topic of pregnancy... I really don't mind of a man thinks women are too stupid to be granted the same privacy in the doctor's office that the constitution guarantees all citizens; they're far from being a woman, it's okay. For a woman to support this idea, is completely beyond my human understanding. And yeah, that's exactly what I think the so-called "Pro-Life" movement really is: the overwhelming belief that the constitution doesn't apply to women, the weaker gender. So, we're smart enough to run for vice-president, leaving our children to the care of strangers, but we're not smart enough to have a private conversation/procedure at our doctors' offices? hmmmm... please explain how this makes sense in your mind. (for what it's worth, I am full-on Pro-Life, I think life is amazing and everyone who has a chance to live should take it; doesn't mean however, that I am anti-choice or somehow selective in my application of the constitution. I guess that makes me 100% Pro-Constitution)
I can't even touch on the politics you stand for... Have you seen the tenants of the Republican Party? They're here, on the official Republican Party page. If you read them carefully, you will understand, as I do, that I am more of a Republican than the people you're meeting with on a regular basis. Perhaps you should take these to heart, they're more important to the Vice President's job than the 10 Commandments. Truly. (e.g. while the commandments have nothing to say about shooting your best friend in the face, the republicans would say that act violates the first tenant: ...each person’s dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored)
I look even more forward to your ticket's defeat this coming November than I had before you joined the team. I think it's only fair for me to state clearly exactly why I'll be working tirelessly to ensure your family does not become the model of what is healthy, happy and right in America today.
Namaste,
me ♥

If not now, when?

On a big ride with Charlie yesterday, I began listening to "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. I know it's sinking in with the right message when:

Last night at Border's, H & I were looking at the Klutz kits and thinking of the ones we used to have; the ones Hannah used to have. He looked at me and asked are you gonna cry in the bookstore? I looked right back and said I can't very well be fully present in the Now if I'm sad and thinking about the past, can I? and he smiled the biggest smile I've seen in a long time It's a present mom, that's why it's The Present.

I've got a funny connection to Mr. Tolle, he's been dancing around my consciousness for a long while... NOW seems to be the perfect time for me to hear what he has to say (in his fabulous Freud-invoking accent!). Oak is my friend. He's just like his name, a big ol' strong log. Huge, even. He spent one year at a Zen monastery as a participant, volunteer, then staff member. His second year there, he was in the forest, silent. When he came out of his seclusion, the first human he encountered was Master Tolle!
It is the perfect time for me to hear the inspiring words, the message of "nothing else exists but right now" I'm sure I'll be throwing out quotes as I listen again and again and allow my mind to quiet and the messages to resonate in my soul ♥

Gillian, please explain...

Beck & Fergus:
Is it just me?

A Very Hannah Sign

Gwen & Gavin announced their baby boy's arrival on August 21 ♥
Zuma - Our favorite beach, the first beach to receive Hannah's Ashes
Nesta - Bob Marley's first name, we sing Bob whenever we think of Hannah
Rock - "...I'm a Rock"

THAT is all the way cool!

I'm a Winner!

...says at least one Quinn ♥

Today we are giving out a very special award on this here blog!

The Funniest Most Bizarre Comment Of The Month Award.

The winner of this highest of highest honors is non other then our own Diana!

"... speaking of the poops, er, Pope's hat, if you put a jock strap on your head upside down and begin to bless people who walk by... well, it's great entertainment until the guys with the matching jacket shows up."

For this very odd comment you win the best prize of all, an approving nod and stern handshake.

The comment is an ode to Big Joe; hands-down *the* most entertaining boyfriend in my soul's entire existence. The jockstrap/triple bless feat was the most fun, though it wasn't his only trick. I tell ya, those New Jersey Catholics take their blessings very seriously; if they'da thought he was joshin them, he'da been beaten on the spot. He couldn't laugh until he was outta broom's reach, after they'd accepted the blessing from his drive-by-jockstrap-headed-ness. He'd yell "Pasta e Fagioli" (pasta fa-ZUhl) with incredible vehemence and a shaking fist; no one in South Dakota suspected he was screaming "Macaroni & Beans." Everyone suspected he was crazy, though, while they peed themselves with laughter. He loved just calling out a random "Old Lady Name" and wave frantically until someone took pity and waved back; there never was an actual Mabel or Esther on the streets, and yet he always got a wave and brilliant smiles. Probably because on his last visit to town, he'd wolf-whistled at them.
So Thanks Big Joe, for checkin' on funnels that night with Chuck which led us to the brown van adventures & Thanks Quinn for giving me a chance to remember. Joe was really funny. I'm sure the jacket was comfortable ♥

Protocol for Phone Calls with Christine

I remember the days when calling long distance was a financial commitment. Our calls were budgeted. We shopped for the lowest long distance deal. There was a ring-ring-hang-up code with my mother-in-law. She'd call us back on her phone card. Seems as ancient a process as a switchboard, anymore. I moved away from Christine when she had two small children and a volatile marriage. We'd recently carpooled and worked in the same office. Ours was a huge separation experience. So I agreed to earn the long-distance expense of a desperately needed connection... by doing the dishes each and every time we spoke. I hate doing the dishes. This was a huge testament to my need for this call. I have free long distance now, so I tend to ignore her call, then return her call. Then I get to work. On something. Somewhere inside me, this policy has become ingrained. I. Must. Act. While. Talking.
Joyfully even.
This collection flew up just the other day. It's one of those few remaining moments when I hear Mitch's voice in my head.
I know he'd giggle at the lingering of his influence, at the depth of his impact, at the remembering of his Self. And as always, at Christine... for being Christine ♥ along with a muttering of Gratitude for Being, once again, an inspiration to diana ;)