Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #164

THIS WEEK IN REFLECTION

Good afternoon, American friends in the Eastern Standard Time Zone! Happy Monday to those on the other side of the globe, notably the Australian folks. Sorry for the late Sunday Lowdown. I’ve only missed my deadline of 6:00AM Sunday one time, and I received texts, comments, and emails asking if I was okay. You guys are the friends I couldn’t have imagined. What kept me back this time is I spent all Saturday at a professional development workshop about ethics in interpreting. The event ran eight hours, plus two hours round trip for the drive. Then, I had to write up my paper about the event before I forgot anything and submit that for my introduction to interpreting class. By 8:00PM it was time to head to a hotel a couple miles away to meet Biscuit and my dad, who had just arrived in town. They stopped as part of their journey back home from their vacation in Arizona so they could see our new house. Nick is currently in Pennsylvania for a bachelor party (thoughts ‘n’ prayers), so it was just the three of us. Thus, no time to get to this post! Here is what has been happening:

Last Sunday morning started out with a friendly meeting with our new farmer. He’s an elderly gent who’s going to rent our 7.5 acres. I could tell he’d clearly gotten all dolled up for our meeting, and he’s super handsome, too. Like a dapper Sean Connery type with overalls and everything.

Monday we met the owner of the company that’s going to repair all the aesthetic issues with the walls throughout the house and paint everything. We chose a color called Dorian Gray. Well, mostly I picked the color and then tried to describe it to Nick, who is color blind but likes to be involved. Once the wall people are done we will slowly start moving things over, a bit each day. Our current lease on our apartment isn’t up until June 30th, so no need to rush.

After we met with the wall guy, next-door-Marjorie (Remember her? The 87-year-old lady who sold us the house?) came over, asking if I’d called her house phone. I had not, but while she had me in conversation, she gave me a gazing ball from her garage. She already has one, and now we can match. How cute! (update: when I took Biscuit and my dad over to see the house the morning of the 27th, the gazing ball was broken, for the wind knocked it over 😭😭😭).

This week I met with my advisor to choose fall classes. I’m signed up for ASL 5, Ethics, and Interpreting 1. I also added Deaf History and Subcultures during the May-mester. Okay, apparently they don’t call the May semester “May-mester” at Goshen, but that’s what we called it at the last college where I taught.

THIS WEEK’S BLOG POSTS

Stacey Levine’s short story collection My Horse didn’t get a ton of attention, but that’s okay. I know folks feel funny about short stories, and this is the third collection I’ve reviewed recently. And then Zora!, edited and assembled by N.Y. Nathiri, led me to learn more about Eatonville, Florida and the community there. During the book club discussion, I learned there are a number of new restaurants in Eatonville that are drawing quite the culinary crowd. Biscuit, did you end up reading this one? If you did, leave a comment on the post!

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POSTS

Betty G. Miller is a famous Deaf artist known for her contributions to De’VIA (Deaf View/Image Art, which is a group that celebrates artwork that captures the Deaf experience). When I looked for books about her, I discovered Deaf & Sober. I thought it was a memoir; however, it is a book about how Deaf people experience recovery from drug and alcohol addiction based on her experiences as an addiction counselor of over twenty years. Review Tuesday (I hope).

Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau is a guide on how to talk to and interact with folks who have disabilities so you do not perpetuate oppression. You may not realize you’re doing it. For instance, in the ethics workshop I went to this weekend, I learned the more you help D/deaf people, the more you oppress them. Review Thursday (I hope).

BOOKS ADDED TO THE TBR PILE

Owned Books on TBR at Beginning of Year: 202
Owned Books on TBR Last Week: 187
Owned Books on TBR Today: 186

Thank you, Bill @ The Australian Legend, for introducing me to Nalo Hopkinson!

27 comments

  1. I’m very curious to hear more about the helping resulting in more hurt.

    I definitely notice when your Sunday morning post is not there! You are so punctual that I can’t help worry a little but glad to hear it was due to lots of interesting things going on. This may be an issue on my end but in my WordPress reader this post is showing up as dated 5 days ago. So it didn’t show up in my usual scroll but only when I went searching.

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    • Oh…..Hmm. Not sure why the post was dated as older other than maybe because I started it several days before? I’ll bet if I had scheduled it it would say the correct date. Thank you for thinking of me. I am punctual normally, but the last couple of weeks have been so busy that I’m slowly getting behind. I didn’t post a review yesterday, so I’ll likely just have one review this week. I’m going to start writing it today.

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  2. Does Dorian Gray get darker or lighter as time passes? Maybe in its youth it was black. I’m sure Nick will notice eventually.
    Great cover on your Nalo Hopkinson. The Wiki entry says “When she was younger, Hopkinson writes that she hated human beings, but has grown to love and be fascinated by the human race over the intervening years.” Should be interesting reading. But I think when I get round to another one I’ll read another of her novels.

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    • I was under the impression that all paint colors grow lighter with time due to the affect of the sun, but I’m not sure. The wall guy texted me last night and said they got quite a bit of color up, so it shouldn’t be too much longer!

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  3. I’ve just won True Biz by Sara Novic on NetGalley which is set in a school for Deaf folk. Fortunately there have already been some reviews which point out a few not-great aspects but it seems good in general. Is that one you know of? And good news about the house overlap, great not to have to worry. We had an overlap here except my husband was living in our new house in Birmingham and I was staying in his flat in London, working out my notice at work and going up for the weekends!

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    • I do know about True-Biz. It’s interesting that people would complain about a book about Deaf people written by a Deaf woman, but that happens. I wonder if those complaints are from the Deaf community and they are pointing out how things are different for them, or from the hearing community who may not understand Deaf culture.

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      • Oh, definitely from the Deaf community. I wouldn’t set much store by complaints from the hearing (Hearing?) community, just as I have taken note of complaints about a novel set among the Nigerian British community but wouldn’t be that fussed about White complaints. Have you read it and what did you think?

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  6. The ethics in interpreting class sounds really interesting! Is that specifically medical interpreting, or interpreting in general?

    By the way, it might just be my computer, but something screwy is going on with your posts for me – this one didn’t appear in my WordPress reader, the My Horse one is showing up as more recent on the website than this one (and I don’t think it showed up either), and if you published a Tuesday post as normal I can’t see it at all! I came to your website to see if you were okay as I am used to seeing you post regularly – if you aren’t getting as much traction as usual, that might be why?

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    • Karissa pointed out the same thing. I published my Sunday Lowdown the moment I was done with it, but what I didn’t think about was how I started the post several days ago. So, I think when I hit PUBLISH it simply used the original date. Thus, My Horse would come later. I actually have not yet posted anything for Tuesday because I am behind. The last few weeks have been really busy, so now that I have more free time this week, my blog is feeling the effects of business in the recent past. Thank you for thinking of me!

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    • There we go — I went in and manually changed the date on my Sunday Lowdown. It should appear in the correct place on the WP reader now.

      Also, I did not answer your question about ethics! I believe it is interpreting ethics in general. There is a separate medical interpreting class that I’ll take next spring. I’m terribly excited for it, though I hear it’s challenging.

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  7. Well, clearly I’m not one of those nice people who chase after you at 6.01am (your time)! I’ve been meaning all week to read your low down. I have a shore shoulder from all the keying I’ve done this week, and I am still way behind my TO DO list BUT I decided that I COULD NOT leave it any longer or it will be the next Sunday Lowdown. (I will probably be erratic over the next 2-3 weeks as we are off to Melbourne mid next week to see our son’s new home. They moved in this week and are surrounded by boxes.

    I do hope that elderly farmer gent is much older than Bill and I, because we are NOT elderly!!

    That Dorian Gray is lovely – I love grey as a colour. Did Biscuit like your house?

    I bet the Ethics class was interesting.

    Oh and I like short stories so I will check out that post at least. Sometimes we write posts that we know won’t interest others, but they ar important to us aren’t they.

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    • Sue, I remember you telling me that my Sunday Lowdown is great when you have insomnia because it comes so late at night where you live. I do like to be helpful! 😀

      The farmer is likely in his 70s, maybe close to 80. Already retired, for sure, and farming as a hobby. Biscuit and my dad loved our house and are so excited for us. We’re already puzzling out what the plants in the landscaping around the house are and how to care for them.

      The ethics workshop made me realize that I am not great at sitting for 8 hours per day. You sit and sit and sit and then some lunch, during which you sit, because what kind of goofball stands and eats, and sit and sit. By the end of the day my brain felt grumpy. But it was informative!

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