tonight, I just got home from my christmas party of the season. It was fun, but a little scary at first. You see, it was also a Deaf party and I didn't know anyone there.
A couple of months ago I started getting e-mails from MNRAD (Minnesota Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf). I still have no idea how they got my e-mail address, but I decided that since they were inviting me to parties, I should show up at least once. Of course I checked out the organization first and found that it was a legit group and quite open and friendly. So Sweetie and I went off to a stranger's house knowing that only one of us knew the language.
But we had fun. We sat in the corner at first and just watched and people's hands flew in conversation. I was able to keep up with most of it, but my natural shyness mixed with my slow signing made it hard to get into the conversation. Then someone asked me a direct question and I was in. It didn't take long for me to get up a decent signing speed and I was enjoying myself. Meanwhile, Sweetie managed to find a conversation that he could join (we weren't the only hearing people there - it's just that most of them sign so it's hard to see them at first).
I met a nice man who is a science fiction fan. We talked for quite a while about writing and going to Minicon. Then we were joined by another man who like to travel and he told us stories about travelling through the US. There were even a couple of kids there - little kids who were just learning their first signs. They were a lot of fun to watch.
I'm happy that I went. I met a lot of nice people and got a lot of good sign practice in. I will definately keep their meetings and parties in my date book.
Posted by Becca at December 6, 2003 09:12 AM