music: "Left of the Middle," Natalie Imbruglia
Wow, today was cool. I went to Special Olympics at the district stadium. We all had buddies, and it was our job to get them to their events, make sure they knew what they had to do, cheer them on, feed them at lunch, keep them cool when it got up around 90 degrees (YUCK!) and so forth.
My buddy was a 9th grader named Gabe. He was deaf, confined to a wheelchair, and basically pretty nonresponsive. But he was really really sweet and very physically loveable. He liked hugs and pats on the hands and shoulders and high fives and thumbs-ups. He was loads of fun. He ended up winning a gold medal and two silvers, and I ended up learning a CRAPLOAD of sign language. There were two deaf girls that came along that basically don't have anything else wrong with them, so they helped teach me. That, and this big huge "dictionary of signs" I was given. Woohoo for dictionaries, eh?
Jenn's buddy was named Izella, and also confined to a wheelchair. She was simply darling, and had a sprig of fiesta ribbons fastened in her long black braid. She was so, so sweet. She won three medals, as well.
We had to ride a bus to the stadium from the school, so I learned how to operate electric wheelchairs, how to load a wheelchair onto a schoolbus (and off as well), and I can say the following things quite easily in sign language (not counting, of course, the alphabet, which I already knew):
Boy, Girl, Mother, Father
Restroom
Are you having fun?
Races
Hooray!!
Lights
Are you too hot?
Are you hungry?
Are you thirsty?
What is your name?
What grade are you in?
My name is...
Some random words: margarita, alcohol, hop, huge, United States, beautiful, sleepy, to, and, I, you, behave, no, yes, good job, hands, fingers, morning, sunshine, hold, in, noise...
In other news, I got a major hair cut today. Nearly four inches. The amazing thing is that it's still longer than shoulder length (only just barely). So that's quite a bit of hair. My hairdresser said she could carpet the floor with what she cut off, lol. Which is a little gross. But still, I look very light and fresh and summery, and I enjoy it a lot, no regrets at all. Woohoo for haircuts! IM me for pictures. :D