January 1st and I’ve already achieved my New Year’s resolution. One of them, anyway:
I didn’t need to summon Bill Murray via phone after all. I watched a YouTube video (powering though the irritating formatting of the auto-generated captions) in which the creator talked about how old sewing machines stop functioning because they don’t like sitting around unused. So, I opened up my machine again and determined which moving parts caused the zig zagging motion. It took about 10 Q-Tips doused in isopropyl alcohol, a few milliliters of sewing machine oil, and manually moving the parts to work the fresh lubrication into the crevices to get the needle zig zagging again.
It would be neat to make the transition from repairing bikes to repairing sewing machines. To boost my chances of successfully taking the torch from Bill Murray, I’ll legally change my name to the female equivalent of Bill Murray, the actor: Catherine O’Hara. I doubt this is achievable within 2024, so I’ll save this resolution for another year.
I had to look up the difference between a resolution and a goal: a resolution is a statement of what you’d like to change whereas a goal is what you want to achieve.
Since I changed how my sewing machine functions, I can check that one off as a resolution well-resolved. Other than that, I’d like to mingle with the deaf community more frequently. My last post was the result of typing up a big block of text with all my negative feelings about my job and then deciding to delete it all so as not to be a killjoy over the holidays.
Alas, the feelings remain. Except my first job, which had me work with a deaf friend and a hearing boss, I’ve had to deal with varying degrees of ableism in the workplace. Over the years, I’ve let a LOT slide. I know it takes some people time to warm up to communicating differently, so I try to be patient. Sometimes, it feels like people forget that I’m a person with feelings.
Would you enjoy constantly finding yourself in physically in the middle of a conversation between two people who aren’t speaking a language you understand? What if neither of them lets you know what they’re saying and instead act like you’re in the way?
What if someone, despite being fluent in English, only speaks to you in a language you don’t know?
What if you have specialized knowledge relevant to the job, and instead of asking you for help, your co-worker summons some random salesperson? And you were standing right next to them the whole time?
What if they get someone else to translate their comments into English for you instead of just speaking directly to you in English? And you were standing in front of them all along!
The disrespect would seem blatant, no? Oddly, many people over the years figured it was okay to treat me with contempt because my ears don’t work. What if the worst offender–the person who treats you with such disdain because of something beyond your control–was seemingly well-liked by everyone else?
I’m fed up. The next time I need to ask this person something, I’m gonna ask them in sign language. No more trying to meet them halfway by writing/texting.
In more exciting–but still not very good news–on top of owl attacks, I have to worry about being attacked by the neighbours’ giant dog when travelling through the back alley. The roomie’s partner was attacked by a dog around 6pm last night and ended up ringing into the new year in the ER waiting room! They ended up waiting at the hospital for about 7 hours so that she could get a tetanus shot. What a memorable yet boring New Year’s eve for them!
I spent the last moments of 2023 with Jordi, who did not bite me. And Klaus, who playfully bites us.
