I TOTALLY understand....

This post is appropriate for me today since I'm fighting a cold and feel like crap. So this brings me back to this memory and the reason for today's post.

When I lived up in Knoxville, going to UT, sometimes I would hang out with my second family up there; my aunt, uncle, and cousins. One night, my lil cousin was going to be in a church play for the holidays and they invited me to come watch. Of course, I couldn't pass up a chance for free food (the church provided dinner before the play) and to watch my lil cousin, so I came along. As we're sitting around the table, my aunt and uncle are talking to all of their friends and I didn't know a single person so I was just sitting there watching everyone. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my aunt whisper to one of her friends "she's deaf so make sure you look at her so she can read your lips" (In case you don't know, I'm very observant and can read lips from across the room) However, when people are warned that I'm deaf before they actually meet me, they seem to jump to the conclusion that they have to over-enunciate every word while speaking loudly, which quite honestly, annoys the hell out of me. My aunt's friend looked very excited and so at this point I realized I'm about to embark on an interesting conversation.

About five minutes later, this friend of my aunt comes over and sits down next to me.
Friend: While speaking very loudly and over-enunciating "Hi Sarah, my name is so and so" (I actually don't remember her name)
Me: "Hey it's nice to meet you"
Friend: "I have something to tell you"
Me: "what's that?"
Friend: "About once a year, I get this really bad sinus infection and I can't just hear anything at all"
Me: "uh huh...."
Friend: "So I TOTALLY understand how you feel"

As she says this, she puts her hand on my arm and smiles like we've become best friends because of her ONE cold a year, she totally understands how someone like me, who's deaf year round and who has never had hearing, knows how I feel. I finally found my long lost best friend....