Hil,

have you seen the BBC show "The Silence?" I think that should give you a good idea about paternalistic attitudes towards Deaf.

I don't know if you can add another show to your analysis.

The couple of CSI eps too might help.

I haven't seen "The Silence." I've seen a few of the CSI eps. The assignment I was working on (which I just finished) was to do a critical analysis of a mainstream movie or TV show that has a deaf character, using information from the readings we've done this semester. I had one paragraph in there about figuring out where to draw the line between deciding the parents on "Switched at Birth" did something because they're hearing people with paternalistic attitudes toward deaf people and deciding they did it because they're just usual helicopter parents.

Analyzing all of Daphne's identity issues was kind of fun. And it got me curious about whether she'd identify as Puerto Rican or not. (Born to WASP parents, switched at birth with another baby, raised by a Puerto Rican single mother and grandmother in a neighborhood that looks mostly Hispanic, finds out about the switched-at-birth thing at age 16.)

I am patting myself on the back for finally answering emails I should have responded to days ago. It's sad.

I'm patting myself on the back for making it to 4 with this headache. Not my most shining moment. But I *have* to tidy my desk now. I get ribbed on it once a day. Curse you, neat freaks.

Good god, it looks like a paper bomb hit it.

I am consoling myself with the thought that at least I'm not an email black hole like Consuela's work nemesis.

Evil Boss's coaching is just about finished. She was doing so well these past many months. I came back from vacation, gave my final review to her coach, high marks. That Friday and every day this week has been an absolute disaster where I've either wanted to cry, scream, punch, or kill something. Last minute email to her coach to send my regrets and please to ignore every nice thing I said.

The good news is that I got a new boss who is super awesome and we agree on everything.

The bad news is that I fear she'll flee back to Maryland within the month.

My god, the woman is embarrassing.

We had a bequest for a children's garden that, with the location picked and the design in accordance with ADA, makes the project five times more than the bequest allows for. Evil Boss said, in front of board members and the landscape architects, me, the ed department, and my new awesome boss, that such and such board member could finance the whole thing, cuz he's just so loaded. The hell? Maybe the dude wants to finance his kids college education, or an orphanage in Haiti. You don't talk about other people's finances, and definitely not like you have a right to them.

Now I'm being told "Oh, no! You don't have to tidy your desk just because I teased you!"

Shut up, you big meanie. I can tidy if I want to.

Oh, and she said at the latest staff meeting, with a big fucking creepy smile "And even though no names were mentioned, I KNOW who said what!".

Like, was that a threat? Was that a power play? So f***ing inappropriate.

I'm not allowed to clean my desk, because I'm not allowed inside the house on nice days.

We had a bequest for a children's garden that, with the location picked and the design in accordance with ADA, makes the project five times more than the bequest allows for.

What makes an ADA-compliant garden so expensive? Most of the things that I could think of to put in a garden would be pretty cheap.

The only spec of land we can squeeze in an additional garden has a grade of over 20%, so in order for the paths to be to spec, we have to build a retaining wall that is probably 50,000 all on it's own. We're riddled with kettles. I think the only flat spot on the property is the parking lot, which then drops off into another giant kettle.