Free Neckloop From Clarity If Attending HLAA Convention

:)

HLAA Convention - June 18-21st

Hearing Loss Association of America is holding its annual convention AND celebrating its 30th birthday in Nashville, Tennessee at the monolithic Gaylord Hotel on June 18th to the 21st. You can check out the convention registration package and rates here. Hurry though, the rooms at the hotel are at 98% capacity and registration ends on May 24th. So, break out your happy finger and click on this link for convention details.

The keynote speaker for this year is Vint Cerf, Ph.D., vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google, and widely known as known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet." Anyone who had a hand in developing the Internet is alright in my book. He is hard of hearing and his wife is a recipient of a cochlear implant. I can't wait to hear Cerf's up!

I just so happen to have the workshop schedule here. If you take a gander, you see that Tina Childress and I will be giving a workshop called "Wireless Technology Made Simple", on Thursday, June 18th at 2:30. I'm so excited because I love bringing out the inner geek in people especially when it comes to helping them hear better with technology. :)

AND!

I am going to be representing Advanced Bionics on Bilateral Cochlear Implant panel that my buddy Wayne Roorda is hosting on Saturday, June 20th at 10:00. This panel will be made up of recipients of all brands. I encourage that if you have any questions or concerns regarding bilateral cochlear implantation and you are attending the convention, shoot an email to cipanel09@yahoo.com with your questions.

At the same time, my very best bilateral bionic belle, Jennifer and coincidentally Nashville's local HLAA Chapter President will be giving a presentation on Social Networking for Young Adults. She is just the person to give that presentation because she emanates social butterfly! On another note, please help Jennifer reach her goal for the Chattanooga Walk4Hearing on May 16th.

AND!

I will be volunteering at the Advanced Bionic booth just waiting for people to pick my geeky brain about cochlear implants and the Harmony processor.

AND!

I am HLAA's 2009 convention blogger!

I got some pretty big ears to fill here...

En Route to ALDA!

Guess where I’m going tomorrow thanks to all of you!?

Chicago for the ALDA Convention! I have managed to raise $800 to date which is a phenomenal amount, far more then I anticipated. As the tide of luck would turn, I was fortunate enough to be able to obtain a scholarship that covers the cost of registration and hotel. Many people, both friends and strangers, have helped me make this possible and in turn have helped me become a better person. I want to thank all of the bloggers for the posts they have written and for being part of this. I want to thank the people that have written me some of the most motivational emails that I have ever received in my life. You inspire me to make myself a better person! Thank you for providing me with your support even with the financial crisis that the United States is going through. I never thought that I would get this much but thank you for caring about what people talk about online.

My luck just doesn’t stop there. My bionic belle, Jennifer was able to get a scholarship quite some time ago to attend the convention. Through some miscommunication, she was left without a roommate. Welp! Guess who is her new roomie?! Moi! It was just meant to be. Chicago will not be the same after this. I am looking forward to meeting so many new people, dressing up for a night out on the town for the banquet dinner and getting into my gothic girl costume for the Halloween slash karaoke party. I am willing to bet that there a surgeon costume because we need to read lips after all :) I am looking forward to meeting some beautiful ladies who I give the utmost respect to, Karen Putz from A Deaf Mom Shares Her World and Laronda Zupp from Ear of my Heart blog. So excited!!!

Now, I am going to trying something new at ALDA in preparation for my new role for the upcoming HLAA convention in Nashville on June 18^th to 21^st 2009. I have been asked to be the convention blogger (Yay!) and I have graciously accepted with open fingers! I am planning on providing real time updates including video snippets and pictures. So stay tuned and be patient as I try to figure out this roving reporter role! :)

Again, I want to thank everyone with sincere gratitude for making this possible!!!

HLAA Convention Recap #3

With closing time approaching the Exhibit Hall, I managed to catch Laurie and Jennifer as they were just leaving the state leaders meeting and from the looks upon their face, nothing was accomplished. We started to gravitate to the opening session featuring the keynote speaker, Ollie Cantos. First glance, the Grand Ballroom featured the most coveted crystal chandeliers and sculpted ceiling niches that this east coaster has even seen. There were so many different layers of elegance to this room from the rich brocade carpentry to refined look of fabric upon the walls. Since my eyes are more apt to notice details in the distance, especially when you can't miss them, I noticed there was two huge screens, one was for the CART which stands for Communication Access Real time Translation. The other screen was for a power point presentation. There was a sign language interpretor bubbling around the stage as well. I noticed that the sign language interpretors out there all wore a black shirt which deviates from New Jersey interpretors, ours just slap on any old shirt of any color.

Mike, Laurie, Jennifer, and I strolled up the aisle to some grab seats as close as we could to the stage, we noticed a never-ending sea of chairs. We struck gold because once we managed to get seats in the second row right in front of the CART screen. As the hour drew closer to the commencement of open session, the sea of chairs was being replaced with people that suffer from a hearing loss, just as I do. I was not alone here. The feeling of being a minority was replaced with a signifying impression that I was among a group where people suffering from a hearing loss was a majority.

Barbara Kelly kicked off the opening session welcoming the lot of us. She introduced Brenda Battat, executive director of the HLAA and Anne Pope, President of the HLAA Board of Trustees who extended their wholesome greeting and salutations. Barbara completely blindsided Dr. Mark Ross with a surprise, the Lifetime Achievement Award. I quote Barbara when she called him the "Father of Audiology." You can read more about Dr. Ross here. When I first started reading the Hearing Loss magazine, I had read a few of his articles showcasing his expertise as an audiologist and a consumer. The May/June magazine that I appeared in, Dr. Ross wrote an article called, "Listening to Music through a Cochlear Implant." I have to admit when I was reading the other articles, most of contributors had three lovely little letters attached to the end of their names such as PhD or ESQ and I have the bookkeeper. :) At least I am in good company!

Now came for the pièce de résistance of the opening session, Mr. Ollegario "Ollie" D. Cantos VII, ESQ. (there are those three little letters again!) I am a little rusty with my Roman numerals but I think that VII means seven. Ollie is the Special Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Justice. His status of special counsel makes him one of the highest placed persons with a disability in the ranks of the federal government today. What kind of disability does he have? He was born blind. The status and the respect that he has achieved in his 37 years are truly remarkable. If you do a Google search on him, you will see a list a mile long of his accomplishments, awards, marathons. He is definitely someone you would want to rub elbows with. :)

When Barbara introduced him to the audience, we watched him make his way to the stage utilizing his white cane with such skill. Once he took his place behind the podium and began his speech, we were mesmerized with his careful and powerful dictation of motivational quips. He emphasized that there are several disability rights laws which he had no problem citing but they end up being buried and because of that, they lack in the enforcement. He stressed that it is dubiously important that those of us living with a hearing loss must reach out make the U.S. Department of Justice HEAR US to continue to enhance disability rights awareness and enforcement. He proved that he is downright serious about reaching out to us because he provided the audience with his email address and telephone number. This provided us with a way of cutting through the red tape and getting the answers that we need from the tippy top branch of government. He stressed the importance of "networking" with one another. He went one step further and said that he is staying for the entire convention he wants to talk to each and every single of us there. He wanted to hear what we had to say. When he was done talking, I think it is safe to say that he left a profound impact on us and was ready to put his tips to good use.

As he made his way to the stairs, he became dangerously close to a part of the stage that didn't have the steps. I think the entire audience leaned forward and gasped in unison. Jennifer, Laurie, and I stretched our arms out as if they were going to prevent him from taking another step forward. Next thing we see is Barbara scrambling up the steps to guide him in the right direction. Whew, crisis averted!

On Saturday, Ollie gave a workshop called, "The ADA and YOU." This was more like a lets pick Ollie's brain session. It was a full house, and questions were being fired left and right and he answered every single one of them. I've come to realize in the workshop that the issues that people with a hearing loss face with receiving simple accommodations to enable them to perform their job to the best of their abilities are very real and beyond frustrating. I knew the man was resourceful, but I had no idea that he was a walking encyclopedia and address book! This was a man that you had to develop nicknames for, Jennifer called him WikiOllie and I call him Olliepedia. The man is like the blind Einstein! Even if he weren't blind, I would still be blown away just the same by the ease of how he can just ramble off email address's telephone numbers, cites statues, and cases in milliseconds. We left with a whole sheet full of contacts. I have shared some of them with you in the bottom of this post.

Back to opening session on Thursday, we were ready to network. We were walking around networking and I noticed a man that looked as though he might have been born in my generation. I must say, I felt as though I was the youngest one there which wasn't a bad thing but I welcomed anyone that knows what wax on, wax off meant. :) Turns out his name is Zac from Denver, Colorado who is very easy on the eyes. He is the vice-president of his local HLAA chapter. We invited him to go to dinner at Johnny Rocket's with us and since we didn't scare him too much, he stuck around. :)

Left to right: Zac, Yours Truly, Jennifer, Laurie and Mike

While we were eating dinner, Jennifer decided to be mischievous and hide Mike's blackberry in her back pocket. By the time, that Mike realized that his third arm (blackberry) he started grilling us for its whereabouts. I had no idea that Jennifer cleverly disguised it until she miraculously produced Mike's blackberry from her back pocket. I finished the final bite of sandwich when Mike said to me, "Why you call me?" I looked at him as if he had three heads. I motioned his attention to my cell phone that was being suspended in midair atop a salt shaker. Unless my cell phone has a mind of it own, I didn't call him. I looked at it to appease him. It showed that I had one miss call and that miss call was Mike. So I fired back with, "You called me!" Well, it hit me and I started laughing uncontrollably, hysterically, tears streaming down my face and gasping for air. Since my name starts with A, it was a logical assumption that I might be the first entry in his address book. Somehow they managed to understand my unintelligible gibberish when I concluded, my dear readers that Jennifer's dereirre somehow navigated, quite skillfully might I add, through Mike's address book and rang my ass up. Talk about talent. :) We laughed so hard that our sides hurt.

After dinner, we all scrambled to our designated hotel rooms to get ready for BOWLING! I am not a bowler but give me a glass of rum and coke and I'll throw anything anywhere you want. :) I couldn't even recall the last time I went bowling. Laurie, Debra, Kim, and I formed a team, if you want to call it that. Jennifer opted out because she just had a manicure done. So did I but I'm a rebel, so what if I broke a nail. That was before I actually broke a nail. :) Deb was the bowler extraordinaire and tried teaching me some tips and trick. I applaud her efforts because I totally sucked, but I must say I was absolutely surprised at how horrible I was doing because I do so well on the Wii. :) She managed to get one really great throw out of me and then I bombed since I broke my nail. :) I even applied chapstick to my thumb!

Cowabowlinga dudes!

I couldn't even remember the rules because if you got a split you got a prize. I think when I had my cochlear implant surgery some of the bowling knowledge leaked out. As expected, I got a split and I had no idea I had to run to the booth and claim my prize. Everyone is yelling to go run and go get the prize and I hadn't the faintest idea of what the hell they were talking about. They were all pointing at this guy in a crazy hat and I walked gingerly in his direction. Kim came up behind me and grabbed my hand and kicked the walk up a notch. I claimed my prize and had my picture taken, again. My prize was plastic bowling ball and pin set. Was someone trying to tell me to practice? :) I walked back to my aisle thinking to myself what the hell am I going to do with this and apparently my face read the same thing. I thought that I could practice by setting up a mini bowling alley in the hotel room but in the end I gave it to housekeeping to give to one of their kids.

Then I decided to change my bowling technique and I wasn't doing too shabbily.

My expert technique.

Then I noticed Ollie was a couple of lanes down and I watched him get two strikes in a row. I took notice of my score - 8 and I walked down to see his score.

A blind guy royally beat me in bowling.

Sigh... to be continued!

Links:

Email Ollie Cantos at Ollie.Cantos@usdoj.gov

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 - prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by Federal agencies, in programs receiving Federal financial assistance, in Federal employment, and in the employment practices of Federal contractors.

Job Accommodation Network

National Counsel on Disability Youth Advisory Committee

National Youth Leadership Network

Office of Disability Employment Policy

Institute Educational Leadership

US Business Leadership Network

Americans with Disabilities Act

Google Division of Vocational Rehab – Provides services that enable individuals with disabilities to find jobs

Disability 101 - Discusses various disability benefits

Technology Act of 2004 – Support programs of grants to States to address the assistive technology needs of individuals with disabilities, and for other purposes.

Disability Abuse

HLAA Convention Recap #2

*I N H A L E S*

*E X H A L E S*

As the sun rose from the east, the rogue Nevada rays found their way through my wafer thin eyelids somewhere around six in the morning. I bobbed up out of my bed within five seconds because I wanted to waste not a moment here! Laurie was practically ready when I tore the sheets off. Jennifer was still trying to find out which way was up, but she was not letting go of the coffee mug. I decided to hop into the shower with my eyes closed in fear that I would let out a blood curdling scream. I worked some mojo on the ladies hair and kicked up the mojo on my face a notch :) As it would turn out, all three of us were ready in no time at all and we officially started the HLAA 2008 Convention.

Jennifer ran downstairs before Laurie and I got ourselves to the elevator. It did not take long to have my firsthand experience of how bilateral CI's have better localization because Laurie had a much easier time of being able to tell which elevator opened up. Apparently they "dinged." I'll be damned if they dinged because I couldn't hear it. It didn't take any time at all for a game of "lets find the elevator" to became a running joke among us. The bilateral users beat us unilateral users every time.

After marveling over Laurie's localization skills, we met back up with Jennifer and the Nashville crew. We got some coffee and breakfast before we went to register for the convention. Of course, we had to take pictures since there were many cameras swarming all around us. Aside from the lights flashing and twinkle stars floating in front of me, there was a certain honorary photographer from Kentucky that got goosed. That left us hysterical laughing. Shortly after that, we giggled our way to register for the convention and I met Cheryl Heppner and her hearing dog Galaxy. Cheryl is the convention reporter that you see here as well as the executive director for the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons.

There, we got a snazzy blue bag to hold all our paperwork, schedule, information, and a huge name tag connected to a lanyard. Something told me there would not be a case of mistaken identity at this convention. No sirree, not here. I loved wearing name tags because that took the stress right out of introducing yourself or vice versa. I can't tell you how often I have screwed up names in those critical greeting moments that could make or break a future relationship. I want to show an example by introducing you all to my imaginary pal, Jake.

"Hi, I'm Abbie and you are?"
"Hi Abbie! I'm Jake."
"Hank?"
"No, Jake."
"Mike?"
"No, Jaaake."
"Frank?"
"J - A - K - E."
"Oh! Jake. Nice to meet you!"

I have had far too many conversations like this but if Jake wore a name tag, BOOM, instant karma! The name tags won me over in a big way. :)

The exhibit hall was next on our list and boy, was I unprepared. This was Geeks-R-Us for the likes of me. I was overwhelmed with all the booths, gadgets, and toys for me to fool around with and buttons to press. There was something for everyone! Just check out this list of exhibitors!


Advanced Bionics Corporation - Cochlear Implant company. For those who do not know, I have Advanced Bionics.

Alternative Communication Services

American Academy of Audiology

American Speech and Hearing Association

Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solution (ATIS)

Audient

Canine Companions for Independence - Unbelievable program!

Clarity, a division of Plantronics and leading supplier of amplified telephones, notification systems, assistive listening devices, and other communications devices for the Hard of Hearing and Deaf communities.

Cochlear Americas - Cochlear Implant company

Comfort Audio Inc

Costco - They sell hearing aid batteries, in bulk.

Consumer Electronic Association

CSDVRS

Dry and Store - I own one and I strongly suggest this if you live in a humid climate.

Eye Movement Integration: Theory and Practice

Fanstel Corp

FCC

Gallaudet Leadership Institute - A program to improve the quality of deaf professionals, leaders, consumers, parents, and community advocates in deaf-centric organizations.

GoAmerica

Hamilton Captel

HARC Mercantile LTD. - Assistive listening devices

Harris Communications

Hearingimpaired.net

Lifetone

Med El Corporation - Cochlear Implant company

Mobile Ear

National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID)

Oticon - Manufacturer of hearing aids or the politically correct term is hearing instruments.

Panasonic - They have the best cordless phone that I have ever used in my life.

Phonak - Manufacturer of hearing instruments.

Quick Caption - Provides real-time captioning, video captioning, transcription services and REMOTE real-time captioning.

sCOMM - Provides UbiDuo™, a portable, wireless, battery powered stand-alone communication device that facilitates a simultaneous face to face communication by two displays and two keyboards.

Siemens Hearing Instruments - Manufacturer of hearing instruments.

Silent Call Communications - Provides deaf alerting systems smoke detectors for the deaf blind alerting devices deaf-blind electronics.

Sorenson Communications - Video Relay provider

Sound Clarity - A site very similar to Harris Communication.

Sprint Relay and Sprint WebCapTel - These guys get two thumbs up from me! They provide Relay and online telephone captioning.

Teltex - aka Serene Innovations - Specializes in amplified phones, TTY's, unique notification and Smoke Detection Systems.

T-Mobile USA - Wireless phone provider with deaf and hard of hearing plans.

Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) - Leading trade association involved in telecommunications, broadband, mobile wireless, information technology, networks, cable, satellite, unified communications, emergency communications, and the greening of technology.

Ultratec Inc - CapTel phone

Verizon - Verizon center for solutions for customers for disabilities. I happen to have one solution: Lower your prices.

Each exhibitor will be updated with a description
just as soon as I can remember who is who!

You can see how that kept me busy for quite some time. I didn't have T-Coil activated but that didn't stop me from ogling blackberries and trying out the different gadgets. I was meeting so many people including the very lovely Barbara Kelly who is the deputy executive director and editor of the HLAA magazine who is a delightful and wonderful human being. I was so eager to start putting a face with all the wonderful people that I have been in contact with. I found myself in a constant flux of exchanging signs, hugs, or business cards with others. I can't remember the last time that I talked that much in a twenty-four-hour period. I talked so much that my throat became parched, but there is nothing like pink lemonade cure that :) Later on, Laurie and Jennifer decided to attend the HLAA's state chapter meeting and I was having way too much fun being a social little butterfly, so I opted to flutter around the exhibit hall some more until opening session....

To be continued!

HLAA Convention Recap #1

The hotel shuttle bus whisked me away from the landing field of hell to the magnificent Grand Sierra Hotel in Reno, Nevada. On the way to the hotel, I was trying to text to Jennifer, Laurie, Mike and Phyliss all the while trying to hold a verbal conversation. It is a miracle in itself in how I remained intelligible through my texting. At first glance of the hotel, I have to say I was impressed with my new digs for the next four days because the picture on the website does not do the soaring glass architecture any justice. When the shuttle pulled up to the hotel, I started looking around for Laurie who I knew was near the front entrance. Then I saw a woman with a bright yellow shirt and a colorful necklace make her out of the hotel. My eyes were fixated on the woman with exquisite taste in jewelry and with every step she took, her big brown beautiful doe eyes came into focus. The second she smiled, I knew that it was the same woman in the picture of her blog. We hugged and hugged and hugged. We hugged so much that we squeezed the thought that I still had luggage to grab right out of my head. :)

I was just so happy to see her because this reaffirmed why i wanted to come to Reno to meet people just like her. Especially since for the past 17 hours I thought someone was going to have to peel me off a side of a mountain. :) I grabbed my luggage and began our way to check in to the hotel with Laurie by my side. Once I got my room key, we just started to gab on our way to the elevator. We hop on an elevator and she pressed the button for the 17th floor but it would not light up. She became perplexed and pushed it again but still nothing. She pushed a button to another floor and it lit up. She went back to the 17th floor button and nothing. I could do nothing but laugh because I contributed it to the irony that the button to our floor would not light up to my fantastic stroke of luck that I was having that day. I laughed so hard that I fell back into the chair that was conveniently placed in the corner of the elevator. She looked to me clearly seeing the irony of the entire situation and started laughing too. She decided to push the button on the other side of the elevator door and wouldn't you know joe? The 17th floor button lit up and we were up and up and away ─ laughing our tail ends off.

The next scene had Laurie and I standing in front of our hotel room. I got so excited that I started shaking. She swipes the card and opens the door and I gasped. I gasped at the sheer sophistication that the room was adorned in; the decor, the color, the ambiance lighting. It was all very Wang ─ Vera Wang that is. Music played in the background. Okay, I lied. It was my tinnitus. :) I peeked into the bathroom and it was all marble, mirrors and mood lighting. My eyes got wider as I took one look at the all glass shower stall and immediately thought how novel to have one of them in our suite. Why you ask? That is simple because seeing me naked first thing in the morning is the next best thing to coffee. One look at me in my birthday suit can scare a buzzard off a shit wagon.

Laurie decided to let me rest and relax for a few by joining some other HLAA members for dinner. I had this insatiable desire to wash off the LA smog and stir-fry stench of me but I wanted to stop and take a moment to appreciate the view that my wall-to-wall window had to offer. I watched the sun start to make its glowing descent silhouetting the rolling hills. A snappy little jingle from Fresh Prince of Bel Air popped into my head and this time, it was not my tinnitus.

I pulled up to the house at bout seven or eight,

I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo home, smell ya later!'

I looked at my kingdom,

I was finally there!

To sit on my throne as the prince(ss) of Bel-Air!

I chuckle to myself, I had been up for just about forty hours and I had no plans on slowing down any time soon. How could I? I was so overjoyed that I made it to Reno and I have my two feet firmly planted on good ol' solid planet earth. :) I would have said over the moon but I want to steer away from anything that has to do with ascension. I started to feel a little sluggish with my 40+ logged but I knew as soon as I got ready that there would a medium iced latte from Starbucks with my name on it downstairs. I hopped in the shower and the reflection in the mirror did a wonderful job of waking me up.

And just in the nick of time, Laurie came back to the room just as I finished getting ready. We headed down to Starbucks to get me a caffeine IV iced latte and wait for the entire Advanced Bionics group to come through. Unbeknownst to us, they were all waiting out in front of Starbucks while Laurie and I sat in this quaint little seating area. After ten minutes of them standing out there, Jennifer inquired about our whereabouts via text and we finally found each other. The first person I saw was Jennifer who was six feet of pure southern joy! Her unbelievable and endearing personality coupled with genuinely beautiful smile was so welcoming in this city of strangers. This was the first time we met in person but it didn't feel that way, it was like welcoming an old friend home. We hit it off fantastically and this was only the first night. :)

Then came, Mike Royer who is another CI user who is downright hysterical and a pretty sensitive and emotional guy. The flood of people just kept coming; Gloria Garner, Tina Childress, Wayne Roorda, Sheila Adams, Debra McClendon and her boyfriend Brian, Judy Wagner, Kim Brownen and her husband Michael and Nanci Linke-Ellis,. I was in contact with just about every single one of these people all through out my cochlear implant research and evaluation. The time that they spent answering any of my questions or concerns is wholeheartedly appreciated and meeting them meant the world to me. I think I mentioned everyone that I met that night but if I have forgotten anyone, please shoot me an email!

We were getting rowdy in Starbucks and Tina had a bright idea to move to a table by the bar! Yeah, my kind of woman! :) I must have told my first flight story a dozen times. By the sixth time, I had the worlds smallest Appletini in my hand and I was starting to find the humor in my story. For the biggest little city in the whole world, Reno's martini glasses are pretty damn small albeit, it did the trick of calming me down. I must say they made me appreciate New Jersey's carafe size martini glasses :) I got to sign my first autograph and I had no idea what to say. It must have taken me five minutes to come up with something witty for Kim's magazine. I am clearly not used to this autograph signing business. More and more people kept joining in during the night a'chittin' and a'chattin'.

As the night wore on, the group started to thin out and gravitate to their hotel rooms. Mike's bright blue CI cap must have been knocked off somehow because I noticed it was nestled close to the stem of my martini glass. That is when I decided to be mischievous. I snapped a picture of the cap and sent it to Mike’s blackberry via picture message along with a ransom note. My roguish attempt was foiled because the blackberry he has does not accept picture messages. Rats.

Jen and I decided to self-tour the hotel ourselves. With our two legs propelling us every step of the way, we discovered how sleek and elegant this hotel really was until we hit the bowling alley's women bathroom.The pale blue flower power wallpaper, the red pleather loveseat and the bright orange tile with matching grout blasted our sensitive little corneas with a blast from the past. I waited for the disco ball to be lowered from the ceiling and bellbottom jeans to be thrown at our face. We left our elegant feeling in the bathroom of the bowling alley.

It was getting late, it was one o'clock in the morning but we was still running on Eastern Standard Time. That means it was three in the morning for Jen and four for me. We decided to go up to the room. Jennifer let us in the door and she began to tiptoe across the carpet because she did not want to wake Laurie up. I started laughing and that caused her to freeze as if she were a deer caught in headlights. I’m known for stating the obvious and this was no exception since Laurie cannot hear, just like us. I couldn’t help but laugh but Jen was so cute about it! I admit that it took some getting used to because I am always trying to being considerate of others when they are sleeping because I don’t want to wake them up. However, I am like a cow in a china shop and it is inevitable that I will stub my toe on the edge of the bed or my shin will hit an open drawer or my foot will find one of my dog’s squeaky rubber toys. My point is that it takes hard work for me to be that quiet and it is a welcome reprieve when I don’t have to because I am less likely to harm myself in the process.

After we got ready for bed, Jennifer and I gabbed until three o’clock in the morning. We obviously had a lot to talk about :) All of this happened and the convention hasn’t even started yet!

To be continued!!!

Related blogs:

Surround Sound

Jennifer's Picasa Photo Album

Laurie's Dance with Sound

Sheila's CI Journey

HLAA's 2008 Convention Coverage Blog

My Facebook Photo Album

Pandora's Box of Flying

Wow, I had an amazing time in Reno and you can bet your bottom dollar that a recap is coming. I met the Jennifer, Laurie, Mike, Gloria, Tina, Kim, Sheila and so many others! I need some time to try wrap my head around everything that happened there. But first, I wanted to tell you all how I did with my first, second, third, forth flight :) Hold on to your skivvies kids, it a long one!

For those who might be unaware or new to this blog, I have never flown prior to June 11^th 2008. I have always been afraid to fly ever since a doctor told me that I could lose the rest of my hearing and obviously this a moot point now. What was stopping me? A little thing called spiraling out of control, crashing and burning was stopping me. I consider myself extra special precious cargo and my life and every single second of it are invaluable. The unfathomable idea of ascending 40,000 feet in the air coupled with the fact that I am still a mortal being, a bionic mortal being, but a mortal being nevertheless did not bode well for my central nervous system. I was so anxious that I had to have my wonderful friend, Alex who is a Southwest employee talk me through every single step of the entire purchase process. After two hours of whining, I finally clicked the purchase button but not before an ounce of sweat oozed from my body. In alcoholic terms, this might have not been a bad thing but there was nothing potable about sweat unless you are a vegetarian.

Every time that someone even talked to me about getting on that plane, my palms would start sweating and my breathing would become labored. It wasn’t pretty. There isn’t many things that can send me into a full-blown panic attack but flying was one of them. I managed to keep myself busy to avoid actually thinking about it. I had everything planned out. I had maps. I had boarding passes. I had the security protocols. I had carry-on and checked baggage requirements. I was fully prepared for anything or so I thought.

I went to work on Tuesday and I left a couple of hours early because I had to leave my house at 2:30 am to make my 5:30am plane out of Philadelphia Airport. All the common sense in the world told me to pack my luggage and get to sleep early but by the time I got myself packed, my stomach was is a series of knots. I had this feeling that I was forgetting something. I kept hounding Alex and Geo online with my whacked out and completely unsubstantiated concerns. I wholeheartedly appreciate you two listening to me and I know it wasn't easy dealing with a crazed lunatic about to fly. Anyway, before I knew it, it was 1:00 in the morning was here and I had to get ready. I have been up for nineteen and half hours already.

It was 2:30 in the morning and I gave my mom and my dog a hug like it was the last time I was ever going to hug them. Perhaps I was a bit melodramatic but I was having a hell of a time suppressing this horrible sinking feeling that something was going to go wrong. Regardless I trekked on with the ultimatum because if I can get a cochlear implant, I can get on a damn plane to go to this HLAA convention because this is something that I needed to do for my own personal enrichment. Since I wasn’t going to cancel, I did the next best thing, I cried the whole way to the airport.

I cried just about the whole way, an hour and a half to the airport, tears streaming down my cheek effortlessly and my nose producing plenty of olfactory lubrication. I realized what I forgot to pack ­─ Kleenex.

Once I pulled myself into the economy parking lot, I told myself I could do this, just get out of the damn car and do this. After all the chances of being in a car crash on the way to the airport is much greater than an airplane crashing. Did you all know that? I knew it and I did not give a rat’s ass.

I whimpered as I got out and grabbed my luggage. I turned around in circles viewing the 6,000 some odd parking spaces for the shuttle. I saw something in the distance that looked like a bus stop. I ominously walked towards it. Once in the airport, I had no time to dwell on the morbid images freely flowing though my noggin. I had to check in my luggage, get the boarding pass, go through security, Purelled the bottom of my feet and find the gate. Note to self: wear socks next time.

They started to call people by rows but I could not hear the lovely agent of Continental Airlines because she felt the need to hide behind a wall and while she spewed out the numbers. This did not bode well for the deaf one here. So I found myself frantically glancing people's tickets to see if their row matched my row. Lucky be a lady and as it just so happened, a woman next to me had the same row. I followed her when she got up, presented my first official boarding pass to the agent and motioned me towards a dank cavern. I walked cautiously down the hall clearly showing my inexperience with rolling luggage...

I found my seat and I stuffed my 10 pairs of shoes in the overhead. I looked out the window and gasped at the sheer size of the wing. I started to get antsy because I wanted to get this show in the sky. They played a video that revealed all the important stuff like where the oxygen mask and life preservers were housed. How nice of them to caption it on a monitor the size of a CD case. I could hardly see the captioning!

We started moving and so did my blood pressure. I began to perform my self-taught by television Lamaze breathing techniques at this point. The jet roared its engines and sped down the runway and all of the sudden, there was no road noise. This was not so bad. My golly, we were flying! Land ahoy!

Five minutes later, I heard chimes and then the pilot made an announcement over the speakerphone. Mind you, I did not catch the entire announcement but I have all of you know that us deaf people are pretty damn good at piecing together the context of a sentence if words are missing. I am going to poll you people and let us see what you get when you hear just these words.

sorry - plane - mechanical problems - Philly - 15 minutes

I'll even give you a couple minutes to mull it over... If you guessed that there was a mechanical problem with the plane and we must had to back to Philly and ETA is 15 minutes, my god my good people, you are absolutely correct! I can’t make this stuff up.

But wait, it gets better! I am counting every single second to avoid hyperventilating; I noticed the pilot was just circling over the Philadelphia Airport for over a half hour, well beyond the 15 minutes estimate. I hear another announcement over the speakerphone. Quiz time again!

cannot - land - plane - divert - accommodate - Newark - 10 minutes

Alrighty then, the pilot could not land the plane in Philadelphia and we were being diverted to Newark Airport because they could accommodate us with an estimated time of arrival of 10 minutes.

If I was pregnant, I think I would have gone into labor right then and there. I was freaking out. I hide it well but I was on the verge of tears but I had none left after the hour and half long crying episode on the way to the airport. This was the beginning of a nightmare. I had a strange thought in my head: maybe I misunderstood the pilot. I’ve been known to misunderstand people especially over speakerphones. I decided to ask the cowboy with the alligator cowboy hat and a beer belly the size of Memaloose Island, Idaho to clarify the pilot announcement. Unfortunately, I heard this announcement right.

“Ma’am is this your first flight?” He asked.

“Yep.” I said through a deep breath.

He starts to laugh revealing his tobacco-stained teeth. I don’t think he wasn’t in a hurry to tend to the cattle back home in Texas.

Once we got to Newark, I got my ass off that plane quicker then you can say Chewbacca! They decided to retire the aircraft that I personally thought was the great idea! We had to wait around for another plane that was hopefully mechanically problem free to be loaded up with our luggage. While there were taking their sweet time to load the luggage back on the new plane, I ended up missing my connecting flight in Houston (which is by the way where I started to blog) to Reno. While I was waiting I text my friend who just found out she is preggers with "If I die in a plane crash will you name your baby after me?" She texted me back with, "No lol."

The plane was ready and I was in no particular hurry to get back on the plane. I was one of the last one to board and once I sat down, I buckled my seatbelt and we take off ─ again! I kept peering out my window that was fit for a dollhouse trying to recall the rate of acceleration of a falling object just in case something went wrong, I wanted to have ample time to say my prayers. My eyes must have refueled themselves because every time I looked out my window I would start to cry. I think if a good healthy dose of Xanax were offered to me, I would have snatched it up by the bottle. Actually, any bottle would have been good.

Houston around 12:30 in one piece. I had to go to the ticket counter to get my new flight plans. I was expecting an easy non-stop direct flight right to Reno but no such luck! I had to go to ─ LOS ANGELES AIRPORT! That scared the hell of me. I hear horror stories in Los Angeles. I kept questioning the customer service rep if she was really sure that was the only airport I could go to. After repeating mself for the fifth time, “Really? Los Angeles?” I could see I was getting under her skin. She handed me the boarding pass and I could see that I had fifteen minutes to board the plane. I hauled ass because I was in Terminal A and had to power walk to catch a train to Terminal E to board the plane. Note to self: do not wear heels while flying. This is was such a lovely start to my vacation, don't you all agree?

I cannot make this stuff up. I board the plane and I had the unfortunate experience of sitting next to two individuals that reeked of rice vinegar. When I finally got to Los Angeles, I smelled like a stir fry. At first glance, everything that I ever read about LA suddenly became true. It was nothing but smog and it smelled! I thought to myself how much better New Jersey smells and I never thought I would say that. This huge grey cloud just lingered over the city. It took me no time at all to realized just how big Los Angeles Airport is. I was trying to find the gate to my connecting flight to Reno and I couldn’t find it. I had a Continental boarding pass. I just came out of a Continental gate. Common logic proceeds to tells me that Continental that would be flying me to Reno. Apparently, logic does not work here because I stopped to ask for direction for the hidden gate and I was informed that my connecting flight was Alaska Airlines which appears NOWHERE on my boarding pass.

I discovered quickly how Los Angeles airport does not accommodate deaf people well. Between the jets roaring, the baggage couriers bustling, women’s heels clicking, escalators rotating, cash registering ringing and people chatting, I had a hell of a time trying to understand what terminal Alaska Airlines was and it was not a good time for me to have a dead cell phone. I had to find a shuttle bus marked "A" which took me roughly 45 minutes to track down in that mess of an airport. Once I board the shuttle bus, the bus driver spoke with a distinct Nigerian accent. We had a wee bit trouble understanding one another but he got me to Alaska Airlines in Terminal 3!

I had to go through the whole security scan again with taking my shoes off. I am a little anal about where I put my feet. I ran to the nearest bathroom and doused my feet and its ten pigs with Purell. While I was in there, I decided to wash my face and pretty myself up for Reno. I found my gate and sat right in front of it. I was not moving a muscle as long as I had Gate #33 in my line of sight. I turned around there was a Samsung charging station situated right next to me. Things were looking up! I plugged my cell phone and whined to my mom whose only response was, "Only you Abbie, only you." I was two hours away from my destination and I didn’t think it could get any worse, .

I was clearly wrong. We got on board and I didn’t even take a look at the plane as I was walking up the steps. I took a seat to the window and took a look to my right and I saw PROPELLERS! Big ol' black honking PROPELLERS! I was on a friggen PROPELLER PLANE.

My nerves were officially shot at this point. To make matters worse, the pilot was an honorary a tour guide. All I heard him say that this was a beautiful scenic route and I flipped my CI off. I was not the least bit interested in him selling me snow peaked mountains and rugged terrain that we could just spiral down into and no one would know how to find us. How I managed NOT to have a panic attack, one will never know. After him flying over the Pacific Ocean and veering back over mountain, I think my heart stopped working. About ten minutes later, I looked out my window and saw images that resembled Google Satellite. That was just a testament of how high in the air I was! I was not handling this situation well at all.

Finally, I arrived in Reno at 7:30pm pacific time. I head off to baggage claim and I was fully expecting my luggage to be lost. That would have been the icing on the entire trip but my luggage arrived safe. I don't think I would have cared if it was lost. I hopped on the hotel shuttle and officially started my vacation and it only took 17 hours!

Later on that evening, I met a guy from Australia and as it turns out, he got to Reno quicker then I did.

My flight plan...