A Cat's Thoughts

   Final Semester

I have survived the first week of my final semester. It was a rough one with Internship, work and school all coming together to make for one very busy, very very stressing week. But now it's over and I am still alive.

Classes are going to be challenging, but that's how I like it. Especially in my Interpreting class. We are all quite aware of how important it is for us to have our skills in place when we graduate, so it comes as no surprise that our teacher is warning us that if we don't get there he will fail us. Being aware did not soften the blow when he said so in class on Monday. What did help was his supsequent explanation of how he was going to get us there. We will work hard. We will probably cry. But in then end we will be better interpreters. And that is the goal.

My last day at VECTOR - my internship - made me cry. The interpreting team were all so sweet. Every last one of them reminded me to pick up an aplication in the office before I left because they were sure that there would be an opening next year and wanted to see me get the job. They also all had wonderful things to say about improvements they saw in my work (and some good comments about what I still need to work on and suggestions for how to do that). The students were wonderful too. They wished me luck and hoped to see me again when I become a "grown up" interpreter. One of the DCD kids wanted me to stay so that I would be able to interpret for him. Even the teachers all had kind words for me. I have never felt so welcomed in my life - and then I had to leave.

Work on the other had made me scream. We changed database systems on Thursday, and wouldn't you know it - they loaded all the printers wrong. They also managed to screw up the security settings for half the secretaries so that they couldn't do their work. And on top of that, my boss decided that it was the perfect time to ask me to rearrange several of the storage closets (because I have so much extra time on my hands - yeah right). By the end of Friday the IT folks had managed to get out printers loaded properly and working. Now if they would just sort out N's security settings so that she can do what she is supposed to everything will work out fine.

Next week routine should begin to set in. Oh won't that be nice.

   They put me in the pantry

Last night was gaming night... and we had a blast. There was of course the usual herding cats atmosphere that our group gets into, especially when we haven't gathered in a while, but that's fun too. When we were gaming, our characters were just as tangental as we were.

In the course of our investigations, we got into a situation where our characters were linked magically in ways they've never tried before. In the end my character took the worst of it and ended up unconcious. The other characters first laid her out on the floor, because there was no furniture in the apartment. Soon they decided that they needed to get furniture, but didn't want the delivery men to notice the unconcious girl on the floor, so they stashed me in the pantry. Once they had the furniture all arranged, they brought me back out and tucked me into bed (so at least I won't know about being stashed in the pantry).

The session ended with at big "TO BE CONTINUED" just after a couple of the characters decided to head for home leaving my character and two others in the appartment - and just as six figures in black suites appeared.

Now I can't wait for next session to see who these figures are and maybe wake up.

   It finally happened...

... I flipped my glasses off my face while interpreting.

And ASL interpreter who wears glasses knows all about this one. Your hands are moving at a fast pace near your face. You know that your glasses are there, but for some reason you miss your mark and hook the glasses on your finger and off they come.

So far (in my admittedly short career) I had managed to avoid that particular hazard of the language. But yesterday, I not only knocked my glasses off, I flipped them all the way across the room where they were stopped by my mentors chest. Needless to say, the entire focus of the class changed (we had been talking about how to measure for cooking). The students (all developmentally delayed for one reason or another) thought that it was the most hillarious thing they had ever seen. Even the teacher and my mentor were snickering. I blushed - which of course just made the student laugh harder. I retrieved my glasses and gathered up my tattered dignity and tried to act as though this were perfectly normal. It took about 5 minutes to reign the class in.

My mentor tells me that doing that just means that I am now a real interpreter. Of course she also had to tell all the other interpreters that it happened and we all shared a good laugh.

   Year End Musings

2006 is almost over, and I've just realized that I haven't said anything here since August. My only excuse is that I have been busy (very very very very very busy).

Read on if you want to know the specifics. If not, have a good year. I'll post again next chance I get to take a breath.

   Construction Butts

The remodeling at work continues. I think I talked about this back in January. It was supposed to be done by April (the whole project to remodel all 4 in patient psychiatry units - plus Day Treatment as a temporary space). Well, they are still working on Day Treatment. They haven't even started on the other units. This doesn't surprise me at all.

Well recently, they've been working on the Day Treatment area - they are giving us a new reception area. That means that they've cut the current desk in half and have hung white plastic sheeting over the gap. The white plastic has several uses - it keeps us from seeing them work (or not), prevents them from noticing that we can hear them, and keeps them from remembering where my computer is. They've been working a lot right on the other side of the plastic. So from time to time, I get to see their butts as they push up against the plastic. It's not a pleasent sight. One guy wears his jeans so tight I can count the coins in his back pocket. Then there are the times when they try to push their butts through the plastic right where my computer is. This keeps things interesting as I have to watch my computer to keep it from falling off the table it's currently sitting on.

Current rumor has it that the first of the inpatient units is going to move in tomorrow. Then I'll get to deal with the inpatient nurses (who don't seem to understand that I'm not in their comand chain even when we aren't on the same floor) and all the extra traffic that comes with an inpatient unit. And I'll bet they will expect me to know who belongs to the inpatient unit and who doesn't. Boy are they going to be surprised. (They were last time they did this). The rumor also says that our new area will be ready in 2 weeks maximum. Yea, I'm not going to hold my breath.

One week until school starts. Then new stress will enter my life and all this won't seem so bad.

   Busy (so what else is new)

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, but I've been busy lately. I don't really take a break for summer vacation - I just do different things. This summer has been different only in the intensity of the other things that I've been doing (or maybe the volume). Anyway, I've been busy. Here's a quick run down:

I went to CONvergence early in July and as I planned to sell enough jewelry in the art show to covere the costs, I had to make the jewelry. I also was on several panels and helping out at the party room for USFO. So I was busy. Since I also had to get the shirt I'm making for a friend's wedding done, I carried the rings with me everywhere - which turned out to be a great conversation starter (I even got Eric Weisman to ask me about it during a panel which ended up with him contacting me after the panel to talk more about it - way cool). I ended up the weekend with 2 comissions and a lot of compliments and with Sweeties contribution to the art show (I didn't let him chicken out this year) we made enough to more than pay for the room and admission. So we turned in our pre-reg's for next year.

I've also been writing - alot. I'm working on a novel and have 2 short stories almost ready to start trying to find a publisher. I had to cut out my SIMS time in order to have time for all the writing and still get the chaining done. I'm still working on the shirt, but I got one of the commissions done and the other should be ready for delivery by this weekend - assuming I can find a solution to the problem that has held it up this far. I've also been doing a lot of Critiques on OWW, I'm now over 100 lifetime reviews. That means that I'm closing in on my second busy bee.

I've also been working on my ASL this summer - I didn't want to loose the skills that I'd managed to pick up last year, so almost every Friday finds me at the BN at Har Mar mall chatting with a mixed group of Deaf, interpreters and ASL students. I've become enough of a regular that people ask when I miss a week. I think I'm going to try to keep that up during the school year, but we'll have to see how homework is - I have 2 credit classes and 2 non-credit classes this semester (so don't expect to see much of me). I also had my first real interpreting gig this Saturday. At Valley Fair, I was there all day - first at the front gates to help with anything that needed helping like the photographers. Then I was support for a show called "Movie Magic" that was a lot of fun. Then later in the afternoon I was primary for the stunt dog show. We expected that it would be an easy show, mostly just "look at the dogs". Not so - oh so very not so - The dogs were all prominent performers so they told the entire credit history of each of the dogs, in a rapid fire kind of speech that was really hard to keep up with. And my support person didn't show up. So I was out there all alone with 6 Deaf relying on me to tell them what was going on. 20 minuntes into the show, some of the older interpreters walked by and heard what was going on and came running to my rescue. After the show they all said that I did a fine job (Deaf included). Now, that's over, I can never again say that it is my first time - so hopefully that will keep my stomach from doing back flips next time.

So that's my life in a nutshell. I'll try not to let so much happen before the next time I check in (but don't count on it).