Monday has come and gone. Lots of lessons learned once again.
I started the day by setting up some pictures of the family and a few positive sayings around my office. Adam and Lauren started school last week and Megan started today. Michael has been 110% supportive, sending positive, hilarious texts. I miss them all A LOT. I want my office to be a little refuge and also a place that when people step in to visit, will know what matters most to me, my family.
Woodshop. Wood shop. I like spelling it as a compound word, but my spell check says the second way is the way to write it. Wood shop. Spent more time practicing my math skillz by using the click rule. I only have an hour in this class, so the time quickly passes. I am sure I will have more exciting things to write in the near future. For now.. I leave it at 1/16th.
Braille. It's a bit challenging, but I love the feeling of Braille under my fingers. I often reflect on the brilliant mind of Louis Braille and coming up with a solution of literacy for himself and ultimately an opportunity for all blind peeps to read and write. Today I was re-introduced to the Slate & Stylus, which in essence is a paper and pencil for the blind. I practiced writing full braille cells: Dots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 to get a feel of using the stylus to punch a dot into the paper. Cool beans. During class, my alarm kept going off on my iphone and I couldn't figure out how to turn it off permanently. My alarm is set to one of my favorite Tracy Chapman songs, so we grooved. Luckily the teacher and classmates are awesome in my class and we had a good laugh.
Home Management. Today my instructor gave me the choice to make an omelette or spaghetti sauce. An omelette sounded better and I wanted to cook bacon in the skillet. Up to this point, I hadn't learned to use the stove top or oven. My co-worker, classmate who started prior to me has some "GREAT" cooking on the stove stories that she will hopefully add in the comments. Let's just say they have to do with a hot skillet, oil, fire and a very calm instructor. I was able to prepare the omelette with little help. I cooked the bacon with zero incidence. Tip: Bacon stops sizzling when it's fully cooked. I diced some of my favorite veggies: Onion, green pepper, mushroom, and tomato. I successfully cracked 3 eggs and beat them to prepare the omelette. I believe I did it successfully without adding eggshell?? I LEARNED ALOT!! Here comes some of the struggles.... At one point, I turned the wrong burner on and my omelette sat cold, uncooked. Doi. The last struggle was a biggie. After sautéing the veggies, seasoning, melting the cheese, folding the omelette over.. it was time to transfer it to the plate. Are you with me? My instructor showed me a method where you place a large plate on top of the skillet, covering it like a lid. With pressure on the plate and skillet, you do a quick flip so that the plate is now on the bottom and the skillet on the top and gently raise the skillet off. If you do it right.. the omelette makes a safe landing on the plate and you can enjoy. My instructor advised me to do this method over the sink, "just in case" to avoid messes. Foreshadowing? Yup. I did what was described, but rather than holding the plate securely it went on an angle and the omelette ended up in the sink. After a deep, frustrating sigh I hesitantly felt where it landed. It landed skiwampus in the bacon skillet I had placed in the sink to clean later. All was not loss...at least that what I keep telling myself. Here's a picture of my creation. Not too shabby.
My co-worker (Amber) made a corn souffle. Look how pretty it is. (Don't ask me what a souffle is).
The other student in our class is in the process of making what sounds like a tai chow mein. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
Orientation & Mobility. Today was my first official lesson outside. My instructor, Brook asked if I had any concerns. Brook is blind. Some people may respond.. "What the H Mario? You have a blind O&M instructor teaching you cane travel?" Other than letting me take air off a curb to teach me a lesson to use my cane (hahaha), I trust Brook one hundred kajillion times. She is one of the smartest travelers I know. Not just saying that either. I had a lot of concerns about traveling outside, like getting hit by a car for one. Brook reassured me we were staying on the sidewalks today. The goal was to travel the perimeter of the building and come back inside through a specific door. For an hour, Brook gave me very useful tools to use that helped me feel more comfortable and confident in traveling. Of course one of those tools was to listen to my surroundings. Do you hear the flagpole? My response. No. How close was that car? Do you hear the traffic? What side is the traffic on? Do you hear the door? My family tells me that I need to clean my ears all of the time. My hearing or perhaps, listening skills kind of sucks. So, let's get this out of the way. No, I don't hear better because I can not see visually. One thing I have learned is that I am definately more aware. Aware of sounds and smells. Aware of how people are feeling based on their voice, sighs, sniffles. Aware. Word of the day. This experience was one of my favorite lessons so far, and I am sure I will have more to come with Brook and my other instructors.
Keyboarding. It did take two times, but I signed in successfully and progressed. Feeling good about the progression in this class. That's the goal. Progression.
Looking forward to sleep and tomorrow.
Nighters.
I started the day by setting up some pictures of the family and a few positive sayings around my office. Adam and Lauren started school last week and Megan started today. Michael has been 110% supportive, sending positive, hilarious texts. I miss them all A LOT. I want my office to be a little refuge and also a place that when people step in to visit, will know what matters most to me, my family.
Woodshop. Wood shop. I like spelling it as a compound word, but my spell check says the second way is the way to write it. Wood shop. Spent more time practicing my math skillz by using the click rule. I only have an hour in this class, so the time quickly passes. I am sure I will have more exciting things to write in the near future. For now.. I leave it at 1/16th.
Braille. It's a bit challenging, but I love the feeling of Braille under my fingers. I often reflect on the brilliant mind of Louis Braille and coming up with a solution of literacy for himself and ultimately an opportunity for all blind peeps to read and write. Today I was re-introduced to the Slate & Stylus, which in essence is a paper and pencil for the blind. I practiced writing full braille cells: Dots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 to get a feel of using the stylus to punch a dot into the paper. Cool beans. During class, my alarm kept going off on my iphone and I couldn't figure out how to turn it off permanently. My alarm is set to one of my favorite Tracy Chapman songs, so we grooved. Luckily the teacher and classmates are awesome in my class and we had a good laugh.
Home Management. Today my instructor gave me the choice to make an omelette or spaghetti sauce. An omelette sounded better and I wanted to cook bacon in the skillet. Up to this point, I hadn't learned to use the stove top or oven. My co-worker, classmate who started prior to me has some "GREAT" cooking on the stove stories that she will hopefully add in the comments. Let's just say they have to do with a hot skillet, oil, fire and a very calm instructor. I was able to prepare the omelette with little help. I cooked the bacon with zero incidence. Tip: Bacon stops sizzling when it's fully cooked. I diced some of my favorite veggies: Onion, green pepper, mushroom, and tomato. I successfully cracked 3 eggs and beat them to prepare the omelette. I believe I did it successfully without adding eggshell?? I LEARNED ALOT!! Here comes some of the struggles.... At one point, I turned the wrong burner on and my omelette sat cold, uncooked. Doi. The last struggle was a biggie. After sautéing the veggies, seasoning, melting the cheese, folding the omelette over.. it was time to transfer it to the plate. Are you with me? My instructor showed me a method where you place a large plate on top of the skillet, covering it like a lid. With pressure on the plate and skillet, you do a quick flip so that the plate is now on the bottom and the skillet on the top and gently raise the skillet off. If you do it right.. the omelette makes a safe landing on the plate and you can enjoy. My instructor advised me to do this method over the sink, "just in case" to avoid messes. Foreshadowing? Yup. I did what was described, but rather than holding the plate securely it went on an angle and the omelette ended up in the sink. After a deep, frustrating sigh I hesitantly felt where it landed. It landed skiwampus in the bacon skillet I had placed in the sink to clean later. All was not loss...at least that what I keep telling myself. Here's a picture of my creation. Not too shabby.
Orientation & Mobility. Today was my first official lesson outside. My instructor, Brook asked if I had any concerns. Brook is blind. Some people may respond.. "What the H Mario? You have a blind O&M instructor teaching you cane travel?" Other than letting me take air off a curb to teach me a lesson to use my cane (hahaha), I trust Brook one hundred kajillion times. She is one of the smartest travelers I know. Not just saying that either. I had a lot of concerns about traveling outside, like getting hit by a car for one. Brook reassured me we were staying on the sidewalks today. The goal was to travel the perimeter of the building and come back inside through a specific door. For an hour, Brook gave me very useful tools to use that helped me feel more comfortable and confident in traveling. Of course one of those tools was to listen to my surroundings. Do you hear the flagpole? My response. No. How close was that car? Do you hear the traffic? What side is the traffic on? Do you hear the door? My family tells me that I need to clean my ears all of the time. My hearing or perhaps, listening skills kind of sucks. So, let's get this out of the way. No, I don't hear better because I can not see visually. One thing I have learned is that I am definately more aware. Aware of sounds and smells. Aware of how people are feeling based on their voice, sighs, sniffles. Aware. Word of the day. This experience was one of my favorite lessons so far, and I am sure I will have more to come with Brook and my other instructors.
Keyboarding. It did take two times, but I signed in successfully and progressed. Feeling good about the progression in this class. That's the goal. Progression.
Looking forward to sleep and tomorrow.
Nighters.
Marla, I am loving this blog! I would say you are much more "aware" than most of us. What a great thought and lesson though...to focus on being more aware, whether we physically see or not! I also think that your idea of a deep fried omelette is brilliant! Keep up the amazing work! (Because I am not very aware, my computer is choosing to publish my comments under Liz Gardner but this is really Susie...duh..er)
ReplyDelete#ilovesusie (and Liz)
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