Couch 221: Definitely Spam!

Whatever works for you.

I started writing at 13 but lost those + the one I kept at 15. Not sure if it's been accidentally thrown out by my parents as there was a lot of moving around. Haven't been able to find my monopoly game either.

8 characters.

Thank youuuu.

"Do or do not. There is no should." - Therapy Yoda.

Either way is perfectly fine.

P.S.

On second thoughts, more is gained in therapy by speech than by silence.

/wave CE

Omg, I said “immanentize the eschaton” and CE appeared!

My words have greater power than I know.

Hmmph. Maybe it was all the single ladies...

CE - HOW ARE YA?! HOWS THE FAM? HOWS JACEDA? I mean Jacinda.

Yeah, I ended up emailing him something. He welcomed my message and said he appreciated it. He reassured me that this won't impact our relationship or interfere with how we end it, which wasn't consciously on my mind, but it was nice to have that reassurance anyway.

Jacinda is having a rare moment of petulence. She's saying she has a perfectly good solution to the housing crisis but she can't use it because NZers won't accept a capital gains tax.

Fam is fine.

I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or punch something.

Disability stuff again. 2 of my classes are remote this spring (ironically, including the great plagues one) but the third is small and I thought I’d teach that in person provided the university buys me clear masks so I can understand the students better. Okay, so I contact the ADA office. They eventually come back with no can do, the students who will wear the clear masks must request them. But to request them, the students must be registered with the school as having a proven hearing disability. Which of course none of them do. So, no masks. (I’m sure this is legal somehow. But it sure isn’t moral.)

Turn to chiding chair to see if she can do anything. She offers to buy the masks from the department budget, what kind? Send her the link to the kind my audiologist recommends and that my family uses and likes. $110 total for 10. She comes back with a bunch of Amazon links for cheaper masks. All to save fifty freaking dollars.

So, I am worth $60.

Like I said, don’t know whether to laugh or cry or punch something.

Well, here's another way of looking at it. You got what you wanted. WIN!

I know their cooperation as grudging, and I hate that. But life is not about winning the battle. It's about winning the prize.

This isn’t just about the $50. I don’t think you were here in August/September when I had to fight the school for closed captioning for one of my courses. For me, not the students. I got it, but it was substandard (far short of ADA requirements, and of inferior quality to what a student would receive—I know because I have requested closed captioning in my student role).

Basically, I have been indirectly repeatedly told by my school that as a faculty member I am not supposed to have a disability and that I am not worth accommodations. The chair thing is minor compared to that, but par for the course. (At least she thinks I’m worth $60, the school doesn’t even think that.)

I have been contacting lawyers I know in the area to find someone who specializes in ADA law to consult with, and I am considering filing an EEOC complaint.

Maybe I won’t do it. But I’ve spent my entire life being told in various ways that I am lesser because of my hearing, and to have it come from an employer I work my *** off for and who is bound by certain laws is unacceptable.

My feelings are not going to be brushed away by platitudes, unfortunately.

At least Info will get business out of it, I’ve already contacted her for an appointment.

This kinda reminds me of when my mom had breast cancer and the bank she worked at was giving her lots of flak about taking time off to go to doctor's appointments. She ended up quitting eventually because she felt so devalued. Monsters. Sorry you're dealing with this @@.

For what it's worth, if I knew you IRL, I wouldn't think you were lesser because you have hearing deficits.

One of my fondest memories from childhood is attending 5th grade at the local magnet school where the deaf and hearing impaired kids went. We had a joint choir where we learned sign language and sang and signed at the same time. It was really fun.

ATAT - sorry to hear that.

Why do singers think anyone cares why they are singing a song or why they wrote or really what they think about anything. Makes me crazy to go hear a singer and be trapped into listening to them blather on instead of just singing and being done.

In happier news, I didn't blow myself or the house or the pets up when I cooked the alcohol out of my everclear 190 tincture.

Excellent. That would not have immanentized the eschaton.

Though it might have immanentized esophagi and entrails.

Just dont go all Richard Pryor on us.

Oh and now who is being all Freudian, what with the entrails...

The freudians like bodily functions
The ancient romans and greeks (and possibly egyptians and assyrians) more entrail-ish

Not really interchangeable

Opposites attract.

It's certainly no fun working in a place where you are not appreciated.

Music is a singer’s art. It has meaning to them like a painter or sculptor. It is more than just performance.

Maybe it is time for a complaint. You do deserve better.

Chair caved. My value almost doubled overnight!

Still pissed at the university's whole system of providing faculty and staff accommodations, though, and still planning to talk to someone about it if nothing else.

Hi CE!