Snapshots and Immersion Wrap Up

Greetings. For those that may not know, "snapshots," are what I call memories of specific things, incidents, or events. Here are some of the snapshots of immersion, in no particular order: my various experiences in mobility; some of the dishes I made in cooking and rediscovering the confidence in making those dishes; the home maintenance part of shop; buying my toolbox and some tools at Lowes; successfully running the table saw; going to places independently in and out of mobility (such as to the NFB meeting in February); my first day; telling a former caseworker, when asked what I was doing at the Center, "I work here."; seeing the many people that I've known from prior times at the Center, and seeing that they're still there; getting and depositing my first pay check; exploring a strip shopping center near my apartment on mobility one day; and many more.

There have been so many things in such a short amount of time, that its hard to recall all of the neat things that have been snapshots. Probably one of the most exciting things though is, that was only the first part of my time at the Center. In other words, its not the end, but rather the beginning.

I've also discovered other things in immersion. One relates to my goals in mobility. When I started immersion, my goals were two fold: to regain the confidence of independence that I once had, and to get to know all of the various systems and layout of Austin. One day though, I was talking with one of my coworkers, and he admitted that even though he's lived in Austin for a long time, he doesn't know all of the bus routes and systems. It then occurred to me that if he's not worried about not knowing everything about Austin, then why was I worried? So, then my focus shifted to building my confidence. That was a key point for me, since it in essence took away some of the extra stress I was putting on myself, of having to learn a lot in a short time. And, as I've written here many times before, the stress was at times more than enough. Anyway, after I realized that and shifted my focus, mobility became much more enjoyable. Not all of the experiences were fun, such as trying to problem solve your way out of being lost when no one's around, but I think I did accomplish the goal of getting my confidence back. Or at least I'm on my way to doing so.

Another big realization for me was the people I met in immersion. As I finished with certain classes, like Braille or shop, I would feel a little sad that I was done with the class. But then I'd remember that just because I was done with that class, didn't mean that I wouldn't see the person(s) again, since we worked together. This has been a constant back and forth with me. For those who may not know this yet or have figured it out, I bond with people really well. So some of these little changes can get to me. Case in point, after observing a computer class yesterday, I left and wanted to turn a corner and go to mobility, even though I knew my immersion was over. I was a little sad, but then I realized, "Hey, wait a minute, I can talk with them anytime."

I've also been constnatly amazed at just how many people work at this agency. At my last job, there were only 9 other people, not counting myself. This one has over 100. I find that cool.

I've found it interesting to observe interactions between teachers and students in different classes, such as Braille, keyboarding, and others. For instance, when on mobility, I would listen closely to how the instructor handled different situations with other students. One of the most valuable methods that teachers love but students hate (I've been on both sides, even before now), is when the student asks a question and the teacher asks a question right back, instead of answering. Even though I might have sworn to never do that, at one point many years ago, I now find myself doing it. As I say though, teachers love this but students hate it.

Over all though, it was a great experience. Now that my daily activities are returning to normal, perhaps I can relax a little, :) As I say, it's terribly exciting though to think that this is only the beginning, ...

Week 6 in Immersion

Greetings. Here's my final summary of my weekly immersion experience. Tomorrow or maybe Tuesday, I'll write an entry on my thoughts on the entire immersion process. Until then, enjoy:

Instead of breaking this up by day like I usually do, I'll write it by category. In mobility this past week, I did quite a few things, such as: go to an Irish pub on Friday in honor of Saint Pattrick's Day; get partly lost on the UT campus on Wednesday; get really lost in downtown Austin on Thursday; miscommunicate with my mobility instructor on Thursday's trip, so that I needlessly wandered around downtown looking for the van, and ending up taking the bus back to the Center, only to return at 5:45; tried to hook up with someone in the Irish pub, but in the time it took me to turn to my right and order the traditional Irish breakfast, she had disappeared; and other things I'm probably missing.

One memorable discussion was with someone from UT on Wednesday when we talked about why I was wearing the blindfold. Basically, he asked me why, and I said I was in training. He then said that I was doing a good job with getting around, even though I had the blindfold on, to which I answered, after chuckling, "Thanks, but I've been doing this for 20 years." He then asked me, "Really?" I said, "Yes, I've been blind for that long." He said, "Oh. I thought you were a trainer?" I said, "Well, ... I kind of am." I had a few good laughs about that after we separated, picturing the big question mark he probably had above his head, :)

Cooking. I hit some high points in this class as well, such as making a cheese omlet and fried chicken. The chicken was particularly challenging, since up until that point, most things that I had made in this class, I had made before. But I had never done fried chicken. I don't know if I'd want to do it again, but at least I know I can. On the other hand, I can clearly see myself making cheese omlets (one of my favorite breakfast items). Its not uncommon for me to, whenever I've gone out to breakfast on family vacations or with other people, to order the multi-egg and cheese omlet.

That's all that comes to mind for now, as far as classes go. This is probably the shortest immersion entry I've had so far. Oh well.

On the teaching side of things, I'm observing one computer class and beginning to monitor another. After several days in a row of doing things, I'm beginning to get more comfortable with the idea of teaching, not that I wasn't comfortable with it before. In other words, the observing and monitoring are helping me to move from an immersion point of view to a teaching point of view. Though I know I still have a lot to learn before I'll be teaching my own class, I feel better about the idea of teaching than I did even a week ago.

Over all, I've really enjoyed my immersion experience. It seems like immersion is different for each person. For the sighted person, its a way for them to get a glimpse into what a blind person goes through on a daily basis. For other blind people, it might mean different things. For me, it's been a good refresher of skills in some ways (like cooking), and a good confidence builder experience in other ways (like the home maintenance portion of shop class and mobility). As many people have said, I'm sad to see it end. After the first week and a half or so of adjusting and getting used to the rhythm of my days, its been very enjoyable. Not easy, but challenging. That's good though; I'd prefer challenging over easy. Some people say that immersion is the hardest program at the state agency, and I'd agree with them, since you are spending lots of physical, mental, and emotional energy on a daily and weekly basis, just to keep up and learn everything. Its not a cakewalk, but if you approach it in the right way, it can be very rewarding.

In my next post, I'll write more about some of these things for me, and look at some of what I call "snapshots" of immersion. If you don't know what snapshots are, then you can either refer to my mid-January post, "Snapshots of church," or wait for a definition in the next post. Either way, talk to you later.

Week 5 in Immersion

Greetings. Well, we've come to the end of another weekend, which means another immersion summary of highlights from last week. Starting tomorrow, will be week 6 for me, which means it is my last week for this phase of my training. For those wondering, more training has been talked about but as of yet, no decisions have been made. I'm guessing that I'll talk with some people about that this coming week. Anyway, on with the update.

Monday. I started my wooden Braille cells in shop class, which meant using the eletric tools that I had gotten familiar with the previous Friday. These included, among others, the table saw, the ban saw, the mider (not the correct spelling) saw, drill press, and another one or two. Out of all of them, the table saw was the one that made me the most anxious, and it still does, to some degree. However, an instructor was right there with me the entire time I was getting familiar with it and went over plenty of safety procedures with me. We even did several walk throughs in the method I would use to cut the wood. Even after all of this preparation and watchfulness of the teacher though, she still let me operate the saw and handle the wood all on my own. Sure, she was there to watch, and she told me that she would tap me on the shoulder if anything went wrong (to which I was to immediately stop and step back), but she never put her hands on my hands or on the wood. This did, and still does, impress me. Fortunately for my anxiety, I didn't have to run the table saw on the second cell I made since the wood was already cut. For the record, they say that they will help us make the first one, but then they want us to make the second on our own. The student isn't totally on their own though, since there always has to be an instructor in the room with the electric tools, to make sure everything goes right and to answer any questions. Other than that though, you're on your own and doing it independently.

Anyway, I finished my two Braille cells in 3 days. Here's a good segway into Wednesday. When I finished my second cell, I went into the main room to tell the teachers. There were several new consumers in there, listening to an introduction from the two teachers there that day. When I went in to tell one of the guys that I was done, he told me to come over to the table and asked me if I'd mind showing my Braille cell to the students sitting there. Of course, I didn't mind at all. As I passed it around, the teacher talked about me with the students, saying things like: "Here's a guy who thought he wasn't very mechanically inclined, and after a couple of weeks of instruction, went out and bought his own toolbox and some tools." As I stood there, answering some independent living questions from the teacher, all in front of the new consumers, I felt like I had come full circle. Instead of sitting at the table as a consumer, I was standing at one end, telling them that, "It can be done. You can be an independent adult. Look at me--I am." The teacher echoed my sentaments. In the words of my good friend, OGV, that was a "cool feeling."

Another cool feeling happened on Wednesday. I had gone outside to make a long distance call on my cell phone. As I walked down the sidewalk a ways, I heard someone with a guide dog pass by. I knew they had a dog since I overheard them saying something to it. Since there are, to my possibly limited knowledge, only 2 or 3 people that work at the main part of the Center who have dogs, I struck up a conversation. To my utter surprise and her amazement, it was one of my former rehab caseworkers. The next few statements went pretty much like this:

Former caseworker: "What are you doing here?"
Me: "I work here."
Former caseworker: "You do? When did you start?"

The cool feeling I referenced above was in the pride of telling her, "I work here." Anyway, we talked for a few minutes, and as it turned out, she was at the Center for some of the periodic training that caseworkers often do in the state agency. I saw her again briefly Thursday morning when entering the building. That was neat though, to see a caseworker that meant a lot to me, and one that I knew would work on my behalf.

Friday. On Friday, I made some potato salad in my daily living class. This was significant since, I'm pretty sure the two instructors met before hand and agreed to assist me as little as possible. They kind of had to since about 10 new consumers had arrived at the Center earlier in the week, though only two of them were in my class. However, in the words of one of the instructors, more or less, "I wanted to pull back and let you do as much as of it as you could without my help. And, you did. Do you realize that you did almost the entire exercise on your own? Independently?" She told me this last part toward the end of the time when I was getting ready to do the dishes. I then stopped and thought about what she had said, and realized she was right. I had done nearly the whole thing on my own. The times I asked questions were to locate a few things, or estimates on how long it would take to do something. Other than that, I had done it on my own. I remember smiling and thinking, "Well, if I don't have another daily living class in immersion, that's fine. I've arrived at the place I had been at before, with making things in the kitchen and feeling confident about it." I haven't yet told this to my teachers, since I'm afraid that if I do, then I won't have anymore cooking time. After all, I have really liked the cooking times. But, all good things must come to an end I suppose.

One other item before I close this entry. I had some adventures in my mobility class in week 5. Most days, I was sent to some specified places, most of which were in my neighborhood. One day, I was sent on a discovery trip, and asked to go down the line of stores in a strip mall area, see what they were, and make note of them. That was fun. I think I might have spent too much time at the mattress store, but that's the store's fault for making the ones I tried out, so comfortable. I'm thinking of getting a slightly bigger bed at some point, so I was pleased that this store was on the strip. There were other stores I found as well, some that were relevant to me and some that weren't.

Last Thursday though, I was sent to what ended up being one of the largest grocery stores in the state, an H.E.B., to do some shopping and get back to the Center. My instructor has written out the instructions in Braille for me, on several index cards. I made it to the store fine and did the short shopping. The way back was interesting though, mainly because the bus I was to catch, didn't go to where my instructor thought it went. I chatted with the driver for a few minutes, and then started to back toward the door, but he assured me that everything would be fine. To myself, I thought, "No it won't. I'm going to a place that I know nothing about, to streets I know nothing about, and you're saying it will be fine?" To clarify, since there may be someone reading this who might be saying, "But isn't that what you're being trained to do: handle unfamiliar places?" To which I would say, yes. However, and I suppose this is a work in progress for me, but I get real nervous about routes and streets that I am forced into and know nothing about. I'm fine about going to specific places though, like an airport, and problem solving to do what I need to do.

Anyway, my instructor ended up coming up behind me (since it was around 5:00 and I was real late getting back, and she didn't want me to miss my home bus), and taking me back to the Center by car.

The notable thing though was while I was sitting at the bus stop. There were several other men there, who might not have all been waiting on the bus. One of them came over to me at one point and said, "Can I ask you something? Why are you wearing those shades? Are you conducting an experiment?" I thought I'd have a little fun with him, so I said, "Well, I'm seeing what it might be like to be blind." He said, "Oh, that's what I thought. It must be a drag." I said, "Not so much. You might be surprised." Then, our conversation took the stereotypical turn into the following:

He said, "I guess your hearing is a lot better, ey?"
I said, "No. That's one of the big rip off myths that's floating around." (I had to speak "hip" with him since he sounded like one of these 30-something geeks; oops, just described myself, :)
He said, "Well, I don't know if it's a rip off. But, your hearing does improve, you know, like Stevie Wonder?"
I said, with a slight sigh, "You know, not all blind people are musicians like Stevie."
He said, "Really?"
I said, "Sure. There are blind: computer programmers, electricians, mechanics, teachers, lawyers, and the list goes on."

Our talk ended there, for all the education he might have gotten out of it. One funny thing though is that he thinks I'm just wearing this blindfold to "see what its like." What will he say, if and when I happen to come across him again, when I'm not wearing the blindfold but am still using a cane?

Well, that's about all for now. I'll write more next weekend on week 6, and then an over all summary of my immersion experience. Several impressions and thoughts have come up in past weeks that I've wanted to include, but will save for the over all summary, since they fit better there. Until then, have a good week.

Week 4 of Immersion

Greetings. Here are some of the highlights of week 4 in immersion, which was last week. By the way, my apologies for the larger second audio post. I guess that the largest those posts can be is 800 or 900 KB instead of the 500 KB that I previously thought. Now that I know how long I have though, I can better measure my time. Anyway, on with the recap.

First off, the week was a weird one since we had a Braille celebration all Wednesday afternoon and Thursday was Texas Independence Day, which was a state wide holiday. Though if you look at it another way, we worked 3 days, had a day off, worked one more day, and then had the weekend off. Not a bad schedule. I wouldn't want to do it every week, but not bad. Though, Friday felt weird since it seemed like it should be Monday, since we had Thursday off.

Last Monday on mobility, I went by bus to the neighborhood near my apartment, to one of the local grocery stores. My instructor met me when I got off the bus and we worked on the street crossing leading to the store. To my chagrin, the street crossing ended up being one of those complex ones I am gradually learning, with right and left turn lanes and different segments of traffic surges. I'm beginning to get more comfortable with these types of intersections, but I don't yet feel like I can cross them independently. We then crossed the parking lot, eventually (it was a big parking lot), and made it to the store. By that time, it was late in the afternoon and we had to leave. She got me back to the bus stop and assured me that I would go straight home, like I normally do. I was taking a different route of bus and wasn't sure of the ride back. Anyway, she said that I wasn't far from the complex and I'd be back there in no time. She was wrong. I didn't time it exactly, but about 40 minutes after I boarded the bus, I was let off at the stop at my complex. I told my instructor about it the next day and she apologized, several times, for the longer trip. It was no problem, but now I know for sure that if I go to that store on my own, I'm definitely not taking the bus back. Not just because I might have bags of groceries, but because the ride back took so long.

I did meet an interesting man on the bus who asked me the typical "sighted person" questions, such as if I've been blind my whole life, what I can see, how I lost my vision, etc. I'm fine about answering these types of questions, since let's face it, I'll be asked them the rest of my life. However, at one point he hit me with a totally unique question/statement, which I instantly marked down in a special category I have for people that ask questions without fully thinking them through. He said,"I guess its hard to walk when you can't see." I paused a moment, and then replied, "No. No harder than it would be if you could see. What does walking have to do with not being able to see?" He paused, stuttered, stammered, and never really answered my question. I don't want to talk badly of him, since he was very nice and simply didn't know. He was also very informative, telling me the names of streets every so often when I asked (remember, I had not been on this particular bus route before). However, all that aside, he was one of the many people that have asked me questions or made statements without fully thinking them through. In fact, this man's question reminded me of one that someone asked me when I was in college at the University of North Texas in Denton. The woman, while walking with me briskly to class, asked, "How do you get around campus without going up steps?" I felt like saying, "Look at my feet! What are they doing?" But I actually said, "Well, I guess I don't." And I left it at that. Anyway, another one for the books.

The Braille celebration on Wednesday was lots of fun. They had various tables setup with different games, all in Braille. There were games like Uno, Black Jack (which I ran this table for part of the afternoon), Scrabble, Monopoly, and others. There were also people that, at various points in the afternoon, stood up front and read things in Braille, talked about what Braille meant to them, or sang songs about Braille. Probably the best one, and funniest, was the first song. The director of the training center came out, and with a drummer accompanying him, did a rap on Braille. I think everyone got into that and had fun listening to him.

One thing that impressed me was a UT student at my Black Jack table who played with us as well. He said that he was getting a degree in rehabilitation and that he was visiting the Center for our celebration. He also managed to learn the beginnings of Braille from one of the Center's students. That was cool to watch. The UT student would close his eyes or wear his blindfold, and try to read the cards while we were playing. He did pretty well, for only having learned the dot configurations that afternoon. At one point, I asked him, "So, this is what you do in your degree: play Braille Black Jack?" He said that unfortunately, there was a bit more to the program than that, such as homework. All in all, it was a fun afternoon.

Friday morning in my cooking class, I made beef tacos, which was fun. I remember browning ground beef on the stove when I was a student at the Colorado Center some years ago, so this ended up being a refresher activity for me. However, after doing it, I feel like I can brown meat on the stove here in my apartment. I only had a few small tacos, in the small taco shells, so I put the rest of the meat in a freezer bag, which was about half the meat or more. I had the rest in tacos, or actually what ended up being some burritos, last night. That was quite good, and it was very satisfying to know that I was eating food that I had made myself. I'm gradually getting some cooking items together, so I can make things on the stove again. This coming week, I'm going to expand my stove cooking even more with omlets, chicken salad, and other things.

A realization hit me Friday morning that I tried to communicate to my instructor, but I don't think I did a very good job. It was: for myself and I'm guessing many students that go to training centers like this one, they enter the cooking class and other classes, with people (like their families) having told them what to do, how much to dish out, how to sprinkle on their food, and so forth. At the training center though, instead of them telling you how much to dish out, they say, "Whatever you want." In other words, they leave the choice up to you. This makes sense, but coming from a background where I've largely been told, at least by my family, how much to dish out, its refreshing to have a say in the matter. This realization led me to the thought, that this is another part of the freedom that I've written about in other posts: the freedom to choose. And, if the serving is too much, then I make note and do less next time.

Shop class on Friday was another matter. My choices weren't taken away, but I was given a tour of the big tools or the electric tools in one of the rooms. These included such things as the table saw, radio arm saw, plainer, and other things. The ones that I touched were turned off, but I was encouraged to touch and explore them, and to see where the all important blades were located. In my final two weeks of immersion, I will be making at least one, and perhaps two, miniature Braille cells out of wood. I learned that the first one, they will help me with and instruct me on how to do, that there will be someone there when I use the table saw and other equipment. However, the second cell I will be expected to do on my own, as much as possible. The thought of operating the table saw itself, much less some of the other types of saws in there, gives me the willies. Something about that spinning blade and running wood through it, and the possibility that I could lose a finger, or two. I'm guessing that this feeling is similar to one that many of the other students and staff that have gone before me, and ones that will come after me, have felt or will feel. I've done it before though in Colorado, and I'm sure I can do it again ... hopefully, :)

Last Wednesday, I got my first pay check. That was a good feeling. I've since deposited and am in the process of paying bills or setting up automatic payments for my bills. Wednesday also marked the one month point since I started working at the Center. Honestly, the two week point felt more meaningful and reflective then last Wednesday did. I suppose though that the Braille celebration was a good way to mark the time, grin.

That's about all for now. I'm sure I'm missing some big thing or two, but if it comes to me later, then I'll add it. Until next time, which probably means next weekend, have a good week.

Missed Highlights from Week 3 in Immersion

Greetings. Here's another realization from me: since I'm working during the week, the weekends are becoming more and more valuable and enjoyable to me, since I can do what I want and not worry about working. I'm sure this is a simple truth that most Americans have realized long before now, but remember, I'm new to this full time work thing. So, with that, here are a few highlights I missed from week 3 in immersion.

On Friday, February 17, I had a funny experience on my mobility lesson. I went to a nearby mini-grocery store with my instructor and one other student in immersion. This other student was one of the many sighted people that was going through immersion, so cane travel and keeping track of where you are, your direction, and such things, were all new to her. After we crossed the last street, where the store was located, the student and mobility instructor had an intense conversation of direction and how to locate the building. I had already been told to go inside when I found the store, so I decided to go on ahead and let the instructor handle things. I must say here that when the instructor wasn't around, I would often ask the student, when she was confused or even when she wasn't, "Where are you," or, "What street is this?" I've since learned that this was very helpful for her and she gained a lot from it. Anyway, I quickly found the building and entered the store. I then reached up to my blindfold to adjust it, since it often gets hot while wearing it. Suddenly, I heard a loud voice off to my right which said, "Don't take it off yet!" This caught me off guard and I turned towards it and starting moving in that direction. I replied with, "I'm not taking it off, but adjusting it. Do they have you guys planted in here to make sure that we don't take the blindfolds off?" The man chuckled. I then asked him, "How long have you been watching us?" I meant the people wearing blindfolds during training, immersion and regular students alike. He answered with, "Oh, I've been watching you all for the past 5 and a half years." I then asked him, with a confused look on my face I'm sure, "Who are you?" He answered, "Oh, I work here." The full impact of what had just happened then hit me, and I grinned from ear to ear. By this time, I had made it over to the counter. After further conversation with him, I learned that this gentleman, named Steve, was a cashier at this store. I also took the opportunity to say, "Well, its good to meet you. Before you totally chastize me for adjusting my blindfold though, let me show you this," and I pulled out my state ID badge that was under my coat. I also told him that I was totally blind, so even if I had taken the blindfold off, it wouldn't have done me any good. Steve laughed. I've told this story to several people since it first happened, and I think its one of those "experiences" that everyone has in immersion, or even if they're a regular student, that you remember for years to come and look back upon with fond memories.

The other thing that happened in week 3 was the next day when I went to the Feburary meeting of the Austin chapter for the National Federation of the Blind. Let me briefly say that over the past 2 years plus in Dallas, I've been a little lax in my independent travel and thus have lost some of the confidence that comes from that. One of my goals early on in my mobility classes has been to attempt to get some of this confidence back, since here in Austin, I don't know hardly anyone and I can only depend on myself to get things done, at least at first. Leading up to this meeting, I had asked several people how to get from the bus stop to the meeting location, which was in downtown Austin, at a place I had never been to before. I first asked some of the members of the organization if someone would be willing to meet me at the bus stop and walk with me to the meeting. This didn't seem to work out. However, as I talked with different people about how to get to the meeting location, I became more comfortable about doing it on my own. I was assured by my mobility instructor that there were no complex intersections, ones with right and left turn lanes, etc., in the area. So, when the time came, I caught the proper bus, took it downtown, and successfully made it to the meeting with time to spare. I ended up not going back on my own since I went out to lunch with some people, one of whom drived. But mainly because it was very cold that weekend. I don't think we got out of the thirties that Saturday. So it was good to get a ride back. If I had to go back on my own though, I'm confident that I wouldn't have had any trouble. After that experience, my confidence sharply rose and I've felt better about traveling independently, even in locations that I've not been to before.

A few days ago, I talked with my mobility teacher about the remaining time I have in immersion. Even though we have a couple more things to go over in my neighborhood, and even though more students (regular ones) are coming to the Center this coming week, she assured me that she would give me more of those confidence building experiences. Truthfully, as long as someone doesn't send me to an area with intersections or places that are beyond my abilities, or that they know I'm not fully confident with, such as those complex intersections I mentioned earlier, I love those types of confidence building assignments. Ones where I'm sent to a specific business or location, and told to bring something back from it. In fact, I was sent on one of those assignments two days ago, to the same store I went to in week 3, and I was back within an hour with several items that I had bought while there. Some of those were chocolate related, and I made an executive decision to leave the receipt on my instructor's desk--not the chocolate, :) For those that don't know, I'm a big chocoholic and part of an unofficial chocolate lovers club (which I can't talk about, so don't ask, :)

So, those are the big things that I missed from the last round of highlights. Both of them were significant in their own ways, the downtown trip and being busted by Steve at this grocery store. I'll write later about what happened in week 4.

This Past Week in Immersion

Greetings. First off, I think its kind of funny and a reflection of my current lifestyle, to look at the kinds of posts I was doing before I started working full time and the kinds I'm doing now. Before February 1, I was putting up many links to interesting articles, and a few journal like entries. Now, after February 1, my posts are mainly of the journal variety and not much, if any, linked stories. I'll still put up a link to a story, or an article in its entirety, but the main reason why I haven't done so is because--I don't have any time left to do that anymore. Funny how that thing called time disappears after you go from not working hardly at all, to working full time. Anyway, I've kind of come full circle, since when I started this blog about a year ago, I never thought I'd be journaling very much, and look at what's happening now.

Anyway, on with the summary. I must say that its hard for me to recount everything that happens to me in a week, since my days are full of different classes, experiences, and incidents that happen. And I simply wouldn't have space, or well, time, to recount everything. Perhaps I will if we ever talk on the phone or in person. Until then, here's the highlights from this past week, ending February 24.

Monday of the week stands out, mainly because it was one of those all staff holidays: President's Day. I haven't had this particular holiday off in several years, since my early days of college in fact, but I got it off now. I've since learned that as far as holidays go, my agency didn't used to take many of them, preferring to let them pile up and then give the staff an extra week at Christmas time. Now though, since the consolidation of many of the state agencies under the Health and Human Services Commission, more holidays are taken. Therefore, the trade off is taking the holidays as they occur instead of in a larger slice in December. As for me, I can definitely appreciate that extra week in December, but I also think its a good idea to have them in doses and take them as they come. Besides, this way, you get 3-day weekends, and everyone likes those. Another interesting note here: I've also since learned that we don't get Good Friday off. Now, why we get President's Day off and not Good Friday is beyond me, but that's the way things are. I've yet to verify this with my boss, but I've read that though we don't get Good Friday off, we do get the following Monday off. So it all balances out in the end I guess.

Tuesday was an interesting day, since in my shop class, I moved to learning how lamps work and working with wires. This is another one of those things that I never could have imagined that I'd be doing. But there I was, trying to split twist and wrap the electrical wires around some screws on a socket. At that time though, I did not know some tricks to get the wires around the screws, so consequently, it was very frustrating for me. I never completed the task in the hour I had, because each time I thought I had it done, I'd test it by pulling the wires on one end, and they would pop right off one or both screws on the socket.

One note from the previous weeks' shop activity: on Friday, February 17, I successfully put together a toilet's inner workings (without the water inside, thankfully), a fauscet, and the sides to a box fan. The instructor I was working with, made the observation that I was very mechanically inclined. Here's another personal revelation, since I've never thought of myself as mechanically inclined. Here's something I never knew about myself. I still don't consider myself a big time handy man, but I suppose I can do what needs to be done. Several times thus far in the home repair portion of shop class, when someone's made the comment to me of, "Looks like you're doing a good job," I've always replied with something like, "Yes, but I have no idea of what I'm doing." Though I was kidding, there's some truth to that. In other words, I think that I could have successfully taken apart the fauscet and put it back together if left alone, but I wouldn't know what any of the pieces were called. Anyway, something else to mark down in the personal revelation category of my immersion training.

On Wednesday, I got quite a scare, when my mobility teacher took me down to a complex intersection and asked me to evaluate, and then cross, it. We're talking about an intersection where one 4-lane street crosses a 6-lane street. Throw in some right and left turn lanes, and cordinated traffic patterns when the lights change, and you've got one confusing intersection. Looking back, I think the goal for my mobility instructor here was not necessarily to teach me how to cross this type of intersection. After all, there's only so much mobility work you can do in a 6 week immersion session. Rather, I think it was to evaluate my prolem solving and O&M skills, and to see how I might handle an intersection like this. Personally though, even though in the end, I successfully handled this intersection, I'm not going to walk back to one and attempt a crossing on my own. That's too complex for my tastes. In fact, I'll avoid one before I have to cross it. That said, a few hours after the lesson, I did have a since of pride for having conquered that type of intersection.

On Thursday, I conquered the lamp exercise in shop class. The instructor that was there, since there were many that weren't for various reasons, showed me some tricks in working with the wires and getting them around the screws in the socket. Thus, I almost completed putting a lamp back together, after taking it apart and learning what the pieces were called and where they went. When I had the lamp totally apart, and the instructor then told me, "Ok, now put it back together, and while you're doing that, I'm going in the other room to cut some wood," I felt very confident about doing so. When she came back in about 15 minutes later, I was wrapping the wire around the screws and tightening the screws in the socket. I was even able to thread the electrical wire through the lamp before class ended. This Monday, I'll complete the exercise. I'm not sure what's after this one. I've heard that the final thing is to fix a belt on a vacuum cleaner, but I'm not sure if that's right or not. Some people have said that the lamp is the last thing in the home repair course, so we'll see.

The other interesting thing that happened Thursday was in the morning when quite a few students met in the main lounge area, to split into groups and go to explore an Amtrack train station and a Greyhound bus station. I was in a group with 4 other students and 2 instructors. Both stations were very interesting, though I think that the Greyhound might be more useful to me than Amtrack. After all, I don't see myself taking Amtrack anywhere anytime soon, I could be wrong though. Anyway, the goal here was to problem solve and in a controlled manner, to discover the different stations and figure out how to get around them and accomplish several different tasks. Such as, buying a ticket, locating the proper bus/train to board, etc. At the Greyhound station, I found out that a round trip ticket to Dallas costs $59 for a weekend trip. This is good to know, though I much prefer flying to going by bus. Its the way I've always done it, and I don't see any reason to change now. Besides, as far as actual travel time, Southwest gets there quicker. But who knows; perhaps one weekend I'll take the bus just to see what its like.

One funny thing that happened was at the Amtrack station when we were trying to locate the train tracks and where to board. We (the students), found the tracks with little problem, but then someone heard a train coming. Imagine the sight we portrayed to anyone looking out the lobby window: about 5 or 6 blind people wandering, some reaching down to feel, the train tracks, when a train was in the distance. I can imagine their nervousness and anxiety, and that might explain the announcement that the ticket agent made a few minutes later, warning those close to the tracks to move back closer to the building. He didn't refer to us specifically, but I have a feeling he was probably worried about those weird blind people.

Yesterday, in mobility, my instructor had me walk in essentially what turned out to be a capital letter P, as far as the street configuration of the streets I walked on. She said I didn't have to cross any major or complex intersections, but she did want me to follow several streets and make a square, and then come back to the center. I thought, "Fine," and after talking about the route several times, I set off. She used street names and directions, such as north, west, etc., in her route description, so it took me several run throughs to fully understand what I was to do. I usually don't have a problem with this, but I'm not familiar with the streets in that area around the Center, much less in Austin at large, so that's why it took a few times. Anyway, starting out on the route, I had to walk down to 45th street, which was the same path I took when I went to Chipotle a couple of weeks ago with my coworkers. I had forgotten how far that was and how much my calves and feet hurt, before I even got to 45th. In fact, even though I didn't actually cross many streets in my square/P configuration, I actually ended up walking between 10 and 12 blocks in total. To say that I'm not used to walking that much would be an understatement. I had to stop twice in the route to sit down and rest because my feet and calves were hurting.

In part of the route, my instructor said that I'd come to a brick wall with a gate spanning the street. She told me how to go through the gate, in following the brick wall back a ways, but I didn't fully understand. So when I finally got to that point in the route, I was stumped. I looked at the gate, every inch of it, the brick walls on both sides of it, read some signs in print that had raised or bolded letters, which said, "Visitors Only," and something about unauthorized entry. Anyway, suffice it to say, I couldn't find the opening that my instructor was talking about. I finally went back to the gate and felt the number and placement of horrizontal bars on it, and thought seriously about climbing over it. It would have been uncomfortable, and I did wonder if climbing over it would have been considered as part of that "unauthorized entry." Finally, my instructor came over and gave me a clue, which when I followed one of the brick walls a little farther, I finally found the opening she was talking about, and successfully finished the route. While looking at the gate, the walls, and talking with my instructor, I made the comment to her, "I feel like I'm trying to sneak into the castle."

I took a hot bath last night, at the suggestion of my mobility instructor, to relax and sooth those muscles, but I'm not sure it helped. My feet started hurting while I was going over to the apartment complex's office today to pay the March rent. It might take me a little longer than I had thought to get used to this exercise and walking thing.

I have some other thoughts about my immersion so far, but I'll put those in another post. This one's long enough. Until then.

Today in Immersion

Greetings. Here's the news of today.

This morning, I met with my O&M (orientation and mobility) instructor, which for those that don't know, its the "cane travel teacher." Anyway, she had a couple of hours free and had scheduled me in for this morning, so we could have some personal work time. Which I very much appreciate. If there's anything that I know I could benefit from in my immersion training, its learning the layout and how to get around Austin. Today, as in several past trips, we went to my neighborhood and walked around some of the streets, locating places and practicing street crossings. I mention all this because I learned where a health or organic food store, called Sun Harvest Grocery, is located near my apartment. This morning I learned where it was, and this evening after I got home and fed Tony and took him out, I went to Sun Harvest to pick up a few essentials--all on my own!! There are several turns in the route over there, but all in all, its about 2 or 3 blocks or so. That felt real good. On the way there, I was talking with my friend Heather from Dallas on my cell phone. I really haven't shopped before at many health food stores so I'm not sure if this is the standard or if Sun Harvest stands out among them. I'm thinking their selection and variety is the standard, as far as having lots of health food and not many "regular recognizable" brands of things. They are kind of a mini-grocery store, where you can get milk, frozen foods, a few ice creams, cereal, and other things. They even have a bakery. I didn't explore that since it was in the evening and I was ready to get back home and put my feet up.

Austin has been and will be different, from Dallas, for me as far as doing errands. In Dallas, I had several people that "helped" me do my errands. Here, I don't know anyone, or anyone sighted anyway. I'm starting to get to know a few people, but not like in Dallas. I mention all this to say that I'll be getting back to doing things and going places on my own, because I have to. If I don't, then it doesn't get done. I flourish in places with good layouts and bus systems though, such as Austin and Denver. Going to Sun Harvest this afternoon reminded me of that freedom of travel and independence I had back in college and in Denver when I was at the Colorado Center for the Blind. I think I'm going to like this kind of freedom, :)

I'm experiencing that freedom in other ways as well, like in my daily living class this morning after mobility. Today I was going to make macaroni and cheese, which I successfully did. That gave me a little anxiety, especially when bringing the pot to boil, before I put the noodles in, since I had the usual fear of burning myself. I learned some cool nonvisual techniques though, such as using a long handled fork or other cooking utinsil, to help center the pot on the burner, instead of touching the burner and possibly burning myself if it was on. As always though, the best part was doing the taste test afterward. I will be making other things in daily living too, such as chicken salad, pancakes, and more. It reminds me of when I used to cook in Colorado, and I'm beginning to remember how to do some of this. The big thing though is that after making the mac and cheese today, I feel like I can make it on my stove in my apartment, and that's another part of the freedom I mentioned above.

This afternoon was spent at Lowes, looking at cabinets, washers and dryers, and buying several screw drivers and a good looking plastic toolbox to put them in. I'll probably get other tools later, but only when I learn how to use them and have a need for them.

Over all, it's been a great day. For much of my immersion training thus far, I've been busy, taking one thing at a time, figuring out where things and places are, and basically getting the lay of the land. However, now that I'm nearing the end of my second of six weeks, I'm starting to relax and enjoy the training, as many of my coworkers have been telling me that I would.

I still feel that pride of working full time, much less as an instructor (sort of), when I feel my ID card that hangs around my neck. Every so often, when I get caught up in the tasks or classes that I'm doing, I'll reach down and feel the ID card, and then be reminded of that pride and satisfaction of working where I do.

Emersed in Emersion

Greetings. I've started my blindfold, or as they call it "emersion," training and things are going good so far. I started on Tuesday. The first couple of days were tiring and a little stressful, mainly because I was still learning where things were in the building. Today I felt more confident about where things were, or at least the places I frequent, than I did the previous days. I'll be the first to admit that I may not be able to find a room right away, but at least I feel confident about finding it in a reasonable amount of time, instead of getting lost, which is bound to happen several times anyway.

Two things have already come up that are challenging to me. The first happened today where I got chewed out by one of my coworkers about not wearing my blindfold. I've had discussions with a few of the staff members about this very topic, of whether the staff who are blind should wear the blindfold. My thought is no, since it seems redundent for a blind person to wear a blindfold. However, the person that I was talking with today said that we wear them to support the people who are either fully sighted or have some vision, since they have to wear them. A different person I was talking with yesterday at lunch put it well. She said, "Is the point to training people in the skills of blindness, or to make a statement." The staff here are split on this issue, and I'm sure the debate will go on. For my part, I'm wearing my blindfold. Not to support the people who have to or the nonvisual techniques (even though I do believe in nonvisual techniques), but mainly to appease the people who say that it's a statement. And really, after the first hour of wearing it this morning, I didn't think about it. I went through my classes, which are the same as the students take (Braille, cane travel, daily living skills, industrial arts, and others). There were a few times in the day when I did think about it, but only briefly.

The other thing that happened was in industrial arts where I had to take apart and then put back together several locks which are embedded in wood. I should say right off that I've don't considered myself to be mechanically or home repair inclined, so this activity has been very challenging. The first simple lock took me 25 minutes, to disassemble and reassemble. The second lock, which was a dead bolt, took the rest of the time on Tuesday, which ended up being around an hour and a half. Disassembling wasn't hard, but putting it back together and lining up the screws, was very hard. I did the third lock today, and that took about the same amount of time as the second. Today's lock was a standard lock, but with a switch on one side to flip one way or the other, to lock and unlock.

Even though I was royally frustrated by the end of Tuesday's time, after dropping some screws several times, and having to line up the screws, two hours after that, I thought to myself, "I feel like I can now go to a home improvement store, get several screw drivers, and fix the screws on my apartment door." As it happens, next Thursday, the people who have industrial arts are scheduled to go to the Lowes Home Improvement Store, and I now have my chance to get those screws, and perhaps other tools. I might even look for a toolbox for them. I still may not be very home improvement oriented, but at least I will be able to fix some of these things myself, instead of asking for and waiting for someone to come over and do it for me. The next lock is on a make shift door, which I'll have to take apart and then reassemble. I'll do that one tomorrow, and it will probably take the entire 2 hour time too, but that's ok.

Everything else is going fine. I'm gradually getting into the groove of a 5 day work week. I'm still tired at various parts of the day, but that will go away in time, hopefully. I think that I'm going to learn more about my neighborhood from one of my coworkers again this weekend, so that will be nice.

Until then, this is the tired, but satisfied, Wayne signing off.