Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #241

THIS WEEK IN REFLECTION

I about injured myself when I went to my Grab the Lapels website just now and saw a close up of an open-mouthed alligator image for my Sunday Lowdown #140. I guess in my focuses on preparing for interpreting chapel I forgot to add my regular featured image! It’s fixed now.

Okay, good morning! It’s just after 7:00Am on Monday as I sit down to write this, so my apologies. It’s the latest Sunday Lowdown in history, ha.

Monday’s chapel interpreting went well! I was not aware that my pony tail would basically be swinging around so much, doing it’s own interpretation, but I see it in the video. So many what we call “demands” cropped up, like the mic cutting in and out, the words on the back wall overlapping when the previous song’s lyrics should be gone, and the announcements using so many Christian idioms that I don’t know how to explain. How do you explain that someone died and are now whole again? Overall, though, it went great! I was not nervous at all. My interpreting professor said it certainly was “lively,” so I’ll take that as a win. I mean, it’s gotta be lively if one of the songs sounds like something Richard Simmons would work out to. Also, I was pleased to see a Deaf faculty member there getting into the music. I am not there to interpret for her; she’s there to take notes and give me feedback, but I felt so honored to look down from a stage and see her feeling it. Success!

On Thursday it was my turn to present on all the Deaf news that has happened since the last student presented. One of the stories was about a playwright’s opening night. The play is about three Deaf people who use a Ouija board. Then, they discover an old TTY and are able to contact Alexander Graham Bell, who is considered a villain in the Deaf community because he argued vehemently for taking away sign language access. To show the people using the Ouija board planchet, I made my fingers into that shape and moved it around. Just me signing, YOU-KNOW, GAME, PLAY, and me moving the planchet. I did this many times before it dawned on me that I was repeatedly signing VAGINA, and I almost died.

Saturday I made the two hour drive to Fort Wayne to go to Deaf Fest. I was there all day and then made the two hour drive back, so I was exhausted. If you’re curious, here is what Deaf Fest looked like.

IT DIDN’T MAKE IT TO GRAB THE LAPELS

Nothing this week.

THIS WEEK’S BLOG POST

I haven’t read all my comments, so I’m not sure yet! I’ll get there soon, but if you read and commented on my I Wish I Had a Red Dress by Pearl Cleage post, thank you.

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POST

I finished reading Outlawed by Anna North and will write the review ASAP. My goal is to have it up Wednesday.

BOOKS I BOUGHT

Books I paid for (that are not textbooks) since January 2023: totaling $41.38

BOOKS ADDED TO THE TBR PILE

How I managed to find time to add books to my TBR, I don’t know.

25 comments

  1. I read and enjoyed those Devos books some years ago because I’d enjoyed her novel Fat Girl on a Plane (reviewed on Dec. 5, 2019). I reviewed Day Zero on Feb. 6, 2020 and Day One on Jan. 25, 2021.

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  2. At last! I really was starting to worry a little bit but I refrained from sending a mum-type “are you alright” email because you did tell me a late post means you are having fun.

    I reckon this – “My interpreting professor said it certainly was “lively,”- certainly is a win, plus your assessor bopping to the music. Good for you. I don’t think I have the imagination to be up to the challenge so I’m super impressed. I think you are made for this work.

    I believe I did comment on this week’s post, so I accept your thanks. You can retract it if you find I’ve lied.

    Have a good week. I have reading group for the fist time at my new place tomorrow, so I need my sleep tonight.

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    • I will never say no to a mum-type message asking if I am alright. ❤️❤️❤️

      In this case, I was late not so much because I was having fun but because I spent all Saturday at Deaf Fest, which was almost 2 hours away. So, all day at the festival plus 4 hours driving. Then I had to catch up on homework. I am booked every weekend until October 21.

      Thank you for all your compliments and kind words, your care and your love.

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  6. Well done on your chapel interpreting! You know, all those idioms can be hard to communicate even for Christians who know what they mean. There was a woman at the church where I grew up who is French, but she grew up as an atheist and became a Christian in England. She and her husband were in France supporting a local church one time. She was translating as he was preaching, and I remember her saying how difficult she found it, because she’d learnt all those phrases in English and didn’t really know the French equivalents.

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    • Right!? We hear them and internalize them, but the someone asks, “What does that mean?” and we stand their with our mouths hanging open. Plus, these phrases have entered the language idiomatically, so something like “man can’t live by bread alone” may not have a Biblical connect for some speakers.

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  9. Wait, so Alexander Graham Bell tried to take away sign language rights? Ugh that’s awful!!! What a jerk.

    That chapel interpreting sounds very challenging, but also very fun! Good on ya.

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  10. So is there an actual sign for ouija board?? That story made me laugh!

    I was also surprised that Alexander Graham Bell campaigned against sign language. That seems cartoonishly villainous! What possible harm could it do to him if others choose to sign??

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    • Well, my first thought about AGB was that those folks would not use his telephone, but that’s a bit facetious. I have a book about him that I need to read for school, but I know his mom was deaf.

      So, a lot of times in ASL there isn’t a sign for something, so you expand on it or construct the action of what that would look like. So what your hands ACTUALLY look like on the planchet would be the better way to go.

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  12. I’m later than you. I was up north relaxing on Monday, but by 7pm (my time) when the post came out I was working again.
    You haven’t said if the class got ‘ouija board’ from repeated ‘vaginas’

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    • Well, I fingerspelled Ouija, so they knew what I meant. It was just me trying to make the shape of the planchet that got my fingers in trouble. Now I’m onto an assignment about a kid getting her head stuck under the porch, so I have to be careful not to suggest I’m being born instead of trying to dislodge my head. Although, I guess it’s kind of the same thing.

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