Gui reminded me that it's possible to be ready for things you haven't specifically prepared for. (Thanks, Gui.) I also had my first real ASL conversation in many years. Well, "real" "conversation" in that I could catch pretty much all of what Ian and Lissa were saying and I could get across my point by fingerspelling the many words I didn't know.
Though I call myself hard-of-hearing, I feel like (and probably identify most with) a hearing person trying to learn about the deaf community andthis language that they use - I just happen to be a hearing person who... can't really hear. (For instance, when someone's signing and they have an interpreter speaking the words they're signing out loud, I can't understand the ASL or the interpreter's voice alone - I lipread the interpreter.) Not sure if there's a proper name for this - "hearing on the outside, deaf on the inside?" Or the other way around?
Cscott has been experimenting with unordered paths in a gloriously casual, fun, and quirky way. I have coworkers who think like this. All the time. How did I get so lucky? I also really want to try tackling this ticket. It's things like this that keep me plugging through weekends like this - 6 hours from now I'm going to be back in the office testing. Well, it's only one more week until release. A little less, even.
I keep wanting to go back to my 11-year-old self and say "No, really, kid, you're going to be okay - there is a place where you can fit into the world. It's called Boston."