A Real Entry

[copied from dland]

Maybe if I start to write at school, I'll manage to get a whole entry in.

As for Idol, I agree with Yvonne -- too many little girls with cell phones voted for Sanjaya, who, as Jane pointed out, seems to be only technically a boy. But very sweet; as a teacher I would love to have him in a class and he's probably a wonderful son and brother. But it's a singing contest, folks. I don't know that any of the boys are really that good, except maybe Chris and whatsisname, the one that beat boxes. Many more talented girls this year. And that's all I have to say about that.

Aids. Well. I am already adjusting to them some, but I have a long list of things I need to talk to the audiologist about when I see him on Wednesday, a lot of adjustments for him to make. In general, they fit well and feel fine, but internal sounds are magnified beyond belief and although I can hear external sounds, I still can't pick out conversation when more than one person is talking, and I can't turn up the volume. The internal sounds are things like my own breathing, and chewing something crunchy is just a nightmare. Sounds that are close to me are also too loud, like the computer keys clicking, although some of that I know is what everyone hears and I just have to get used to it. Anyway, I have a list. I expect to go back with them every week or two for at least a month, maybe more, until they're fine-tuned for me. That's what you do when you get hearing aids.

I did realize this morning, though, that I can talk on the phone on my right side! That's something I haven't done in a very, very long time, and it means that not only is the microphone on the right side working, it works well, and that when the left side is properly tweaked, they should work in tandem very well. Listening to music on headphones, is, as I think I mentioned already, WONDERFUL. If I can, I'd like to get headphones that clip on my ears, since now I can wear those, and they'll be easier to carry around that headband phones; even though I have folding ones of those, they still take up space in my bag.

Using the phone on my left side is not great at home, because my phones don't have earpiece sections that are concave, if you know what I mean. The phone at work is fine over the hearing aid, but the home phone keeps smacking into it and causing feedback. I may try the home phone with a headset I have that I usually only use when I know I'm going to be on a long call, like tech support. I wonder if you can get a bluetooth wireless earpiece for a regular house phone? Wouldn't that be weird. I know someone who uses only a cellphone (I guess she's in a good reception area, unlike I am) and she has little kids, so she just sticks her bluetooth earpiece on when she gets up in the morning and she can answer the phone whenever she needs to, even carrying a baby. It's the future, man.

Oh, the reason I can't turn up the volume on the hearing aids is that I asked the audiologist to disable that control for now. Yes, this was stupid, but I was trying something. The volume is set by the computer program on these -- it's on this actually; only the left one is technically a hearing aid and the other one is a microphone and transmitter -- to be at the optimum level for me according to my hearing test. So I thought I'd try it at first with that setting. Okay, so maybe I didn't thrink it through. He can fix that on Wednesday in a trice.

Anyway, the school day is drawing to a close. (I've been writing this in dribs and drabs throughout the day. .... That's it! Good names for the hearing aids? Drib and Drab? Maybe it still needs work.)

I'm leaving in about 15 minutes, and then off to the ever-delightful Radio Shack for a weird little battery I can't find anywhere else (it's for the car CD remote), and then to the nearby teacher store for a good, old-fashioned pointer. I hope they still make them. Due to an odd series of high-tech circumstances, it looks like I'm going to need one. (Or else I need the stick from a classroom flag. Hmm. They've probably got those laying around the school someplace.)

Okay, okay, I'm turning off. (I'll post later from home.)


WATCHING DR. PHIL :: ENTRY #1396