Please indulge me in a bit of self-righteousness and indignancy as I continue to challenge the femme invisibility barrier.

I’d heard a few days ago that someone had complained that J and I were not lesbians. Of course we thought that was silly, but we weren’t sure who had said it, as the information seemed to have gone through a long grapevine. That night at dinner one of the deaf men I was eating with asked me if I was a lesbian. I said yes and he seemed fine with that. The question nagged at me though, until tonight. It was toward the end of the cruise, I was chatting with a deaf guy and his hearing boyfriend at the leather party, and I told them about this trange question. They were surprised by that, and we talked about it for a few moments. And then who should walk up but the guy I suspected all along. Now, this guy is a hearing interpreter from Baltimore; I did not know him before the cruise. He walked up, said hello, and then we had this exchange:

Him: Can I ask you a personal question?
Me: Sure. (knowing what’s coming)
Him: Are you a lesbian?
Me: Yes. (conversation was in ASL; I used an emphatic form of yes)
Him: Are you in a relationship?
Me: Yes, for seven years.
Him: How nice for you. Do you have a picture of your partner?
Me: Uh, not on me, no.
Deaf guy: Do you have a picture of your boyfriend?
Him: Well, he’s here. I can bring him over.
Me: She’s not here because she’s already going on a cruise this month with her mom, blah blah blah.

So then he went off, and the deaf guy, his boyfriend, and I marveled at the guy’s balls that he asked me such a thing to my face. I was miffed, but we talked about things like narrow-mindedness and interpreter ethics. I finally decided I was going to go, and I said goodbye to my friends. On the way out, though, I decided I was going to give the guy a big fuck you.

At first I went to the computer cafe to search for the guy’s email address. I didn’t find it, so I went to Flickr, found a suitable picture and printed it, then logged off. The total cost was $2.65 for this. Now, the picture I’d chosen was specific. It has me and A standing with Teddy, International Mr. Deaf Leather 2004, between us. Perfect. So I took it back downstairs to the party. (By the way, I did have a rum and coke in me at this point.) I couldn’t find the guy at first, but I ended up telling a couploe of other deaf people why I was looking for him. I also told M, the male terp, who mentioned that he’s been getting asked all week if J & I are straight. (At least five times, by hearing people but not the guy I was after.)

Finally the nice deaf guy spotted the guy dancing far away. I couldn’t see him, so the deaf guy offered to take the printout over to him. After a few minutes he returned and said “I showed it to him. He knows the guy in the middle [Teddy]. You’re safe!”

So I felt pretty good. But I still can’t fathom the question. Femme lesbians do exist, dammit! Just because 99% of the lesbians on this cruise are (sometimes soft) butch does not mean femme dykes are a straight man’s fantasy? (I think he might have been jealous that he didn’t get my job but rather had to pay to be there.)

My afternoon was fine; I did a lot of shopping. I covered most of the main tourist drag in Juneau at least twice, and bought gifts for almost everybody. I highly suspect I won’t have time or inclination to shop in Haines because I’ll be working there, and I don’t want to plan to shop in Ketchikan just in case I do get onto a kayaking trip. I was surprised to find the stores closest to the pier in Juneau had the best prices.

When I got back I was feeling antisocial, so I had dinner delivered so I wouldn’t have to eat around other people. Afterward I interpreted for the very funny Amy Armstrong; I struggled a lot in the beginning but after I took a break (during which M replaced me) I got more into the groove. I think tonight I will probably stay in. I have a bottle of hard lemonade I could work on. Maybe I will peek in at the PJ party briefly, we’ll see. I don’t especially care to see lots of men in their underwear.

Oh, another think that bothers me about J is how often she gloats about having lost 42 pounds recently. Yes, it’s an awesome achievement. Yes, she looks great. But I’d rather not hear about it five times a day.

I’m having lunch now in Juneau and I figured this would be a good time to write about my feelings rather than just what’s been happening. I feel quite comfortable around pretty much all of the deaf clients, but I don’t really around my co-terps. It’s mostly just J, really. She is an extremely assertive person, probably bordering on aggressive. She dominates all conversations and I get the feeling that she always has to be right. She also has very strong opinions about the role of an interpreter, and she won’t accept that any way but her way is allowable. I am tempted to let the interpreter coordinator know that not all terps are as angry and aggressive as J. I am just trying my best to get through this week. I know I don’t have to be friends with her, and I certainly won’t be. She admits that she bonds better with guys so maybe that is why she is so buddy-buddy with M, the other terp. Of course it helps (them) that they are also both smokers, and I make up excuses to leave when they light up. (If they were both drinkers, I could stick around and just order a soda or something, but something like smoke I can’t stick around for.) I think M has been pretty nice to me though; he complimented me last night on both my earrings and my dress. J is just so aggressive I can’t stand it.

I miss A a lot. I know she misses me too, but she has lovies around her and I am all out on my own. I feel lonely a lot of the time. If I had the opportunity to interpret on a cruise again, I’m not sure I would. It’s just not enjoyable without her. If she could come with me I would do it, but the chances of that seem slim. When I didn’t order a drink at the party last night, one of the deaf guys asked me why. I said it was because I was saving for when I could go on vacation with my partner, and that seemed to be an acceptable answer. Yeah, I think if the opportunity should come up to do this again, I might not take it, and I won’t seek the opportunity out either.

Okay, now I remember why I hate makeup. I have never been a habitual makeup wearer, but lately I figured I’d try to look a little more adult and wear some lipstick and so forth. In my purse I have a few different lipsticks, two concealer sticks, and some various eye stuff as well as a nail file, clippers, and tweezers. This morning I discovered that one of my concealer sticks had come uncapped while in my purse, painting all my other makeup and the inside of the makeup pocket in my purse (which is not removable).

I have washed everything the best I could, but there’s still concealer all over the inside of my purse. I also had a tiny beanbag turtle in there that I got in St. Thomas; A got a similar octopus and so I carried my turtle around as a memory of that trip. The concealer has also not come off my turtle particularly well; I guess fabric in general is doomed when this kind of thing happens. I don’t even want to look at the purse anymore, I’m tempted to just put the damn thing up on Freecycle even though it was something like $50+ (it’s a nice purse).

Ugh, I am just so pissed off. This is not a good way to start a Monday.
(more…)

I just sent this via the IHOP.com “contact us” form:

Today was the first time I have visited IHOP in several weeks, and I noticed that you have a new menu. I was pleased to see you have added Chocolate Chip Pancakes to the menu, but I was quite dismayed to find that the Potato Pancakes are no longer available. I have not found these at any other major breakfast chain (Denny’s, Bob Evans, etc) and they were a major reason I chose IHOP over other chains. I still enjoy the rest of IHOP’s menu but I am very sorry to see the potato pancakes gone.

I guess I will have to start making latkes at home…IHOP’s potato pancakes were never anything like homemade latkes, but they were certainly easier!

Some things that have been annoying me in the past day -

• A’s MP3 player, which we bought in early April, has apparently died. It gives an error about the hard disk and refuses to start. When I plug it into the computer, XP knows it’s found a new disk drive but then doesn’t display it as a removable drive. It turns out that the PDP-602, also known as the GoDot M7170, is a piece of crap. I spent close to an hour trying to fix it to no avail, so tomorrow I’m going to contact the manufacturer to see about a replacement.
• It turns out that RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, which I received yesterday, has a majorly steep learning curve. It might as well be a completely different game from RCT2. It’s fun but challenging.
• People at work need to stop asking me about the goddamn office printer and fax machine. Yes, I know they’re in my cube, but you don’t need to ask my permission to use them. Yes, I know you have to step into my personal space - within about a foot and a half from me - to use the fax machine, but that doesn’t mean I want to talk to you. No, I don’t know why your fax didn’t go through, and I don’t care that you’re using up all “my” paper.
• I tried to install WebCalNG at least twice and I can’t get it to work. Of course I am getting the super-enigmatic 500 error, so I have no idea what’s wrong. This is especially annoying because WebCalNG seems to do exactly what I’m looking for in a web calendar.
• I am too weak to say no to people who come to the door selling things, and now I have a one-year subscription to Games magazine. I only paid $5 over the Amazon.com price for the subscription, and I guess it’s nice to be charitable, and I do like that magazine - but I didn’t need the subscription!

And so ends the bullet-pointed whining.

The latest news from RID…is that there is no news. For the past few months, every time I have seen any communication from RID, I have gotten excited. I have received a membership renewal reminder, my membership card for the new year, a form about voting, a reminder about voting…I have been hearing plenty from RID - but nothing I actually want. Just now I got an e-mail with this subject and preview:

From: [National Testing System Coordinator]
Subject: CI/CT Results
Preview: Dear RID CI/CT Taker, On behalf of the RID Board of Directors, Certification Co…

So of course my heart beat more quickly than normal. I’d never heard of e-mail notification of results, but this specifically mentioned the test I took back in December. Could it be they’re speeding the process up ever-so-slightly by e-mailing results? I opened it up to find…

[...]I am writing to say that you have not been forgotten. With the NAD-RID National Interpreter Certificate coming on line, more people have chosen to take the current performance tests than we had anticipated. With the increase in testing and rater attrition, the wait time for results has increased more than we ever expected it would. The RID Board of Directors, Certification Council and the National Office sincerely apologize. It is currently taking about nine months for candidates to receive their results.

Fuck! Can I just suspend all interaction with RID until my results are ready? I am resigned to waiting forever to get the results, but the messages about other topics, and even just saying “we’re still backlogged,” are really annoying. They already published a notice in a recent issue of the monthly newsletter saying they were very behind on processing results. I really don’t need this e-mail telling me the same thing! On the bright side, though, if it’s taking nine months, then I may only have a month more to wait. I have heard that if you pass, you get a big envelope (with your actual certificate inside), and if you fail, you get a regular envelope (with a letter explaining why you failed). I want that big envelope, and I want it now! I just hope it doesn’t come while I’m on the cruise, because then I won’t be able to find out about it immediately - I hope it comes before the trip so I can tell everybody I’m certified!

A week ago my car failed its safety inspection, so on Saturday I spent two hours waiting while its right rear wheel cylinder was repaired. I paid $345 and was told everything was fine. Today, on my way to work, I noticed the brake light was coming on intermittently; toward the end of the 20-mile drive it just stayed on. At first I thought I would go to the Jiffy Lube right near my work to have them see if the brake fluid was low. If it was, I’d drive to the Merchant’s tire center near home and have them top it off. If it wasn’t low, I’d drive straight to the Saturn service department and leave it with them. But then my wife reminded me that I should call Shell (where it was inspected and repaired) and ask them about it. I was told to bring it in and they’d check it out.

I made it there with no problems, fortunately. I waited ten minutes and then the guy came to ask me to join him at my car. He pointed to the right rear wheel and said something about a cylinder. My immediate mental reaction was what?!?!? and I pointed out that was what was fixed on Saturday morning. (He’d been there while I was waiting for two hours, but he wasn’t the one who worked on the car.) So apparently they either didn’t do anything on Saturday, or they didn’t do it right. In any case, I had to leave it there and they’ll fix it in the morning. I won’t have to pay anything, given that it was their error, but it is a major pain in the ass. I should get a refund for part of the $345 to compensate me for the pain-in-the-ass-ness of it all.

Here is a tip for you: if you are driving a car with amateur radio license plates, drive politely and don’t hog the road. Especially do not cut people off, go at a stop sign when it isn’t your turn, fail to stop at a stop sign, or otherwise cause people to slam on their brakes and honk their horns at you. You just never know when somebody you cut off will also be a ham radio operator, and know exactly how to use your license plate to find out your home address and send you nastygrams, sign you up for Scientology mailing lists, or leave stinkbombs on your doorstep.

The computers here in my agency’s interpreter lounge are used by a lot of different people, most of whom download crap onto them. Therefore, there is a lot of malware on these machines. There’s only one guy who’s responsible for maintaining all the computers in the office, so he doesn’t have time to mess with our machines as they’re not typically mission-critical. I only get into the office a few times a month, but when I’m here I’m often asked to try fixing these two machines.

I spent the past two and a half hours attempting to clean this one machine of a virus and adware and all kinds of things. I downloaded Ad-Aware and quarantined 180 items, but the message about a virus - located in C:\WINNT\system32\egedg.dll - kept popping up. Norton said access to the file was denied, so it couldn’t do anything about it. The problem has been going on for months and it’s been driving me crazy; the main terp logon has full administrative rights and I still couldn’t figure it out.

After much fighting and kicking and screaming (and consulting with friends via IM on my Sidekick), I managed to boot into safe mode with the command prompt and I was at least able to rename the file there. I was even able to move it to the root C:\ but I still couldn’t delete the damn thing. I removed all attributes and still nothing. I finally threw up my hands (it wasn’t my dog anyway) and decided to just boot Windows normally and surf the web. So now there is a file called C:\harmful.foo on this machine; I hope nobody touches it.

But y’know what? I haven’t had the message pop up since. Did I fix it? I don’t know. Will people screw up this machine again? Undoubtedly. But for now, it’s okay and I’m okay.