Elijah and I went to meet a friend of mine at an American Sign Language chat she sponsors at a local coffee shop. She is an ASL teacher in a city about 30 minuntes from us. I enjoy going to see her and sometimes there are several deaf people there(she advertises with the coffee house about the chat) and of course she has students who come.
Last night there were only three students who showed up, but we sat around and talked. Elijah played with dominoes that they had and then pulled out a board game. We played with him while we chatted. They also have live music and when the music started he told me it was TOO loud. I reached over and just slid off each coil! He looked at me and smiled and then kept on playing. We communicated with sign and with everyone knowing sign it was easy. He didn't sign back to us though. I don't think he quite understood that WE still had the loud music to contend with. We all were signing at this point, because it was easier to communicate that way.
The music stopped for a bit and I slid his coils back on. We talked, but as soon as the music started back up he slipped them back off. He looked at me to be sure it was OK and I gave him a thumbs up!
Now I did enjoy the music and at least with sign we were all able to communicate. The students liked it because it really made them practice their skills, because even if we did voice no one could not each other. The music was actually really good, and I enjoyed it. However, I envy Elijah a bit that he can "turn off" his hearing if he really choses in situations like that!
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