I've been thinking about my cat today. She is a lovely black and white tuxedo cat and every time I open the front door when I've been out, there she is, waiting to greet me. She sits next to me quite a lot (the closest I'll get to a lap cat) which is usually in the chair next to me or because I'm usually in front of my laptop, she will try to sit on my keyboard and reset the font and turn my screen upside down. But because she usually sits so close, it's useful because if there is a knock on the door or a noise outside she adopts her alert pose and stares intently at the direction the noise is in. Sometimes I'll be in bed and she will suddenly sit up and look at the direction of the window and it makes me want to look outside and see what has bothered her!!
She is very good at waking me up in the mornings, I don't need an alarm clock! (I don't use one anyway..) she gently nibbles at my feet or walks up and down the bed until I get up! If she wants food she will slink round our feet for all she is worth and meow until she gets what she wants. She knows how to get my attention and I think my cat is an excellent communicator!!
I had a zoom call with Access To Work today to see if they can help me with communication aids at work. I'm hoping to be able to sleep there overnight and have alert systems that will tell me if someone is ringing the house or if the smoke alarm goes off so we will see what happens.
I'm also still waiting to hear back from the audiologist in regards when I can get fitted for my new hearing aids, I'm hoping it should be anytime now (I want those sparkly glittery pink moulds!!) so I'll keep you posted.
I'm still struggling with the use of cloth masks but I guess I'm resigned to it for now. I feel that this is my new normal and I have to learn to live with it. If there are adjustments that can be made, then I'll do it but to be honest, I'm taking it one day at a time. I've decided that I need to give myself time to adjust to things, I've found it difficult in all areas of my life losing that automatic access to lipreading and I've had to mentally accept that, very begrudgingly. Sometimes I just don't feel like making a fuss when I can't hear or don't understand what's going on, I want to just get on with things and muddle through. Sometimes it feels too hard or it's too much effort to speak up but I know I must. I get very frustrated at times and need to be able to give myself a break. At the moment it feels like there's no let up but I'm really looking forward to the day when I can see your lipstick colour, your mustaches and your smiles.
I've decided that because I'm now in full time work, I'll write my blog fortnightly - it will give me more time to really think about what I want to say. So I'll see you in two weeks!