O-bama, 0-8!

Okay. I’m officially declaring my presidential pick for the fall elections.

It MAY have a bit to do with the fact that Santa Fe is Obama Country, and that I saw him in person when he visited Santa Fe in February… but I just have to go with the candidate that is honest, fresh, and incredibly energizing, among other factors. I still don’t know enough about both Democratic candidates to make a 100% “for-sure” decision, but I like what I see so far in Obama -and let’s face it (as much as it pains the feminist part of me to say this), we need a different family in the White House. Let’s stop the family recycling.

On February 1st, Obama touched down on Santa Fe and gave a speech in a nearby community college gymnasium. I was just dumbfounded by the number of people who showed up – I had no idea what to expect, to be honest, and miscalculated the amount of time we needed to get there in order to grab a good spot in the audience. The drive alone took about an hour and a half, and the typical driving time from our apartment to the gymnasium is 10 minutes.

Just mad crazy! Upon arrival, my jaw dropped even further into the ground when I saw the line to enter the gymnasium – NEVERending! Rumor is, approximately 5,000 people showed up, and there was enough room for only 3,000. Luckily, we used the *ahem* deaf card to enter the gym so we could secure a spot in the “ADA section” and see the interpreters a bit more clearly. The inside of the gymnasium was mad crazy as well…

Yeah, that guy’s head is an example of just how closely surrounded we were by people… Not fit for a claustrophobic person! Nevertheless, the energy in the room was amazing and quite contagious – consistent chanting, consistent waving of signs, consistent shouts of “whoooo!!”… you get the picture.

At least we were thisclose to the terps – that is, when people’s heads weren’t blocking our views 🙂

…. and thisclose to other NMSD people, as well! Hi, Hedy! 🙂

Say hi to my companions, fellow NMSD interns! It’s safe to assume they were feeling just as overwhelmed as I was that night.

Wow. We were THAT close. Of course, my camera’s zoom feature helped a bit 🙂 It was really neat to see his body language and facial expressions close up… it added to the energy of his speech really well.

People – do your presidential research. I’m realizing more and more how critical the upcoming elections are for the future of our country… Times are really shaky now, and all candidates have the potential to really shake things up, either for better or for worse. Obama, Clinton, and McCain have their own (and often very differing) views of how to run this country. It’s all a butterfly effect – you do your research, you vote for who you feel is best for our country based on its needs, the president will do their job (hopefully anyway), the country will shift towards that path. It’s up to you to choose that path.

Vote!

Long Overdue

It has been a while since I blogged! Usually, I enjoy blogging everyday or at least every other day but this semester, I find it so hard to find time to blog even one measly line! Today, I’ve decided to lock myself in the office and of course, because I don’t want to do my homework just yet, here I am!

7 weeks left to graduation! I am really looking forward to graduating and to be able to move on to new things! It looks like my mom, birth mom, mom in law, Jimmy, Niki (niece) and Olga (friend) will come to my graduation! I am still waiting to hear if 2 other people can come. It’ll be really exciting to finally graduate but also to have my mom and mom in law meet! They haven’t met in person and it’s nice that they will before the wedding!

Jimmy and I had hard time deciding on what to do after I graduate but because we need to focus on paying off our debts, we will be moving to Canada FOR SURE! I will move on the same weekend my family come for graduation and Jimmy will move after his contract at MSD ends. This is really exciting but at the same time, scary! It’ll be a big change for us, from a fast-paced big city to a small town in the true north! It’ll be nice to be near my family but Jimmy and I will definitely need some time before we find our “niche” in Ontario! I haven’t been in touch with people there besides my family and I haven’t found a job there yet. It’ll all come together in the end, I know it!

REAL Women, REAL Beauty show was a success! The audience enjoyed it, the cast enjoyed it and I did too! Some of them asked if we could give another show this year but unfortunately, most of us don’t have time for rehearsals and performances considering there are only 5 weeks of classes left! However, I’ve told Mary Lott (Campus Activities Coordinator) to make sure that the next director know to give at least 2 shows next year! I am glad that it’s over but at the same time, I am a little sad because it’s my last time directing the show. Who knows, I might be able to visit next year when they give RWRB shows in March!

7 classes = A LOT of homework. So therefore, I have to get to it now and blog some more later!

Theatre Project

I’m doing a project for my theatre class on the play THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS.. What I am required to do is pretend if I were to direct this play targeting Deaf audiences, how would I adapt Act 2 in its entirely without sacrificing the intended impact of the “Voice of the Man” or gutting the “voice” out?

The man is UNSEEN and outside the setting of the pub:  how would you stage and/or block the juxtaposition between that Man and the characters in the pub as played by d/Deaf actors?  The challenge is difficult: you have to try figuring out how to present the UNSEEN Man without resorting to ‘magic interpreters.

I find this rather difficult, but interesting at the time. I’ve been throwing ideas with how to do this without the person being seen…

Imagine Peace

Preparing for the big weekend DANCE performance at Gallaudet University. I am so excited while anticipating tomorrow morning show, which is the start of the performances. After dancing for 13 years you would think I am used to breaking a sweat in practices, but this performance is by far my most challenging. I am in 11 numbers which involve memorization, techniques, and plenty of practices! I must say with the help of my wonderful family that consists the dance companys’ members we had been each others support and motivation. This show is going to be GREAT and I can’t wait for the LIGHT, CAMERA, and ACTION!

Come watch !      This Friday, March 28th 10:30 am and again 7:30pm

                            or Saturday, March 29th at 7:30pm

Gallaudet’s Neighborhood

I was browsing the Family Watchdog website, which lets you look at a map showing where convicted sexual offenders live and work. I put in the address for Gallaudet, and I was both surprised and not surprised that there are at least a dozen living right next to campus. It surprised me a little bit because it’s not something I think about every day, but now when I park at Field House I will be just 200 feet away from them, because many live on West Virginia Avenue. And yet I was also not all that surprised. See, the area around Gallaudet is…not so nice. I always feel safe on campus but once you leave those gates, it gets a little scary. Lots of students live off campus in the blocks around the university, but I’m not sure I could do that…it just doesn’t seem like a good area.
As you can see in this picture, there are lots of homeless people who hang out right behind the GUKCC Hotel. I took this picture while walking to my car in the parking garage at the 6th Street entrance. Notice there is a chair on the right side of the picture…there’s also some other furniture around, and in this picture you can see their own little “tent city” – it’s there 24/7/365. I don’t really know what to make of it. It’s kind of a no-man’s-land there between the Gallaudet campus and the public school’s sports field. I guess whoever owns it doesn’t mind letting people live there. It’s kind of weird.

The smell of springtime

Well, the weather here in DC is finally starting to warm up. Trees are starting to bloom again, and color is finally being restored to the beautiful Kendall Green. All of this means that spring time is here! Yay! As I have said before, I am not a fan of cold weather and am glad to see Jack Frost giving it up for the year.

Kendall Green really is a beautiful area on campus and when the weather is right and the sun is shining you really get that collegiate feel of being apart of a campus community. People often bring their kids to run and play in the grass, or their dogs which always brings a smile to my face.

As the flowers begin to bloom however, they will of course need to be tended to in order to grow. This means that a massive amount of fertilizer (from animal waste) was just put on many of the trees and bushes outside. So, while the green may be picturesque to look at, it is anything but pleasant to smell. The campus is a bit fragrant shall I say this week. I thought I was imagining this whole scenario until friend and fellow blogger Meredith mentioned the odor as well today.

I think it is rather comical that we must all walk around pretending not to notice the stench that is Kendall Green.

Ahhh, productivity

Well, today was the first day back to school after spring break, and I definitely had a case of the Monday blues. I, of course had been staying up pretty late during spring break, so I had trouble getting to bed at a reasonable hour and waking up this morning was anything but fun.

Nonetheless, I had a really productive Monday. Today, I officially declared my major in Communication Studies which is pretty exciting. I had been waiting to declare because of some nonsense with the new curriculum and its compatibility with my transfer credits. For those of you who don’t know, Gallaudet adopted a new curriculum this fall, some say in response to the MSCHE’s decision to place the school on probation. All politics aside, this meant that I, as an incoming transfer student was recommended to follow this new curriculum. The only problem? It wasn’t really ready for transfer students. There has finally been some progress however, and it looks like two courses, or 8 to 12 credits of the 40 credits required for the general studies requirement will be waived since I transferred in as a junior. All of this is terribly boring I know, but it has been a stressful, and time consuming ordeal since my first day at Gallaudet. So, declaring a major was in a sense putting all of that drama behind me.

I also made an appointment with the internship coordinator for tomorrow morning to discuss possible internship sites for this summer. In order to graduate next May, I will need to take a few courses over the summer and would like to complete the internship requirement of the Communication Studies major over the summer. Hopefully the coordinator will be able to set it up for me so that this can happen.

I also got a lot of homework done today, which is good. I’d been procrastinating (as usual) and finally just got up and did some of it.

All in all, it was a good Monday, although another week of break would be nice to recover from last week 🙂

Enrollment Appointments

Today we got an e-mail announcing that the fall schedule was now available on Bison, and we could see when our enrollment appointments are. Mine isn’t until early April! For somebody like me who wants to have everything planned out ahead of time, making me wait until April is totally unfair. Why do they have to taunt me by saying the enrollment appointments are available, if they’re going to be so far in the future? Just tell me the fall schedule is available and leave it at that. Damn! Anyway, I am going to take SOC 101 and DST 201 next semester for sure, and I might take HIS 287 (Research Methods). I have to take a GSR somewhere because I’m under the new curriculum but they haven’t announced what the topics are. Well, one of them is there, it looks like it’s about African-American literature, but I want to see what else is offered. Oh and I still want to take Scuba Diving but it’s still offered from 7pm to 9:30pm so I’m not sure about that!

Marlee on Dancing with the Stars

Okay, I watched it too, like everybody else! Marlee was just so fabulous! I find her very attractive and she just looked amazing. And her dancing was so good! She came in 3rd for the women, it was awesome. I immediately logged into ABC.com and voted for her six times, the maximum allowed. Today I also saw this blog entry from Mo Rocca, the comedian, where Marlee responds to why she went to American Idol. It’s a great answer! And of course I watch her on The L Word all the time. I just like watching her. Yeah, I know a lot of people will say I am crazy, that she isn’t a good representative for Deaf people, or something like that. I don’t understand why some people have to criticize others for their beliefs! I like Marlee Matlin and other people don’t. Why can’t we just live with different opinions instead of people saying “Marlee is evil because she speaks with her voice” and things like that. Well anyway, I saw her on Dancing with the Stars tonight and she was so great. I love that she is a Gallaudet trustee now…it increases the chance that I might see her in person by about 3% overall!

Vote For Marlee Matlin!

As you may or may not know, the Deaf actress, Marlee Matlin was just on Dancing with the Stars.. Alot of my friends would like for you guys to vote for her! Please do!THANKS!

Either log online to abc.com or text 3412 to vote