Disabling the disabled

I have to get on my soapbox for a moment.

I have a brother who is deaf. He's older than me by a year. He communicates 100% through sign language. He does have some limitations due to lack of understanding abstract things. He wasn't born deaf. He was born 3 months premature and acquired an infection that nearly took his life. The medicine to save his life is what took his hearing. Perhaps the prematurity or the medicine or the infection played into his ability to understand or not understand things. Don't know. Anyway...

My brother has a HUGE heart. He genuinely cares about people. He always wants to help. It makes him feel good about himself. When he works he works hard. He will do whatever job is placed before him if it is within his ability to perform. In the past he worked for a trucking company. He helped the guys who repaired the trucks and trailers that came in damaged (accidents etc..). He pretty much kept the shop in order and brought equipment to the guys when they needed something. . . .

My brother is single. He's super shy.. no... make that SUPER SHY when it comes to girls. He likes girls but has absolutely no clue how to go about being a friend to one let alone actually date one.

One day... Valentines Day... he bought a teddy bear and some candy for a girl.... who worked at the same company.... He put the gifts on her car in the parking lot... She went out and saw them.. freaked out and my brother got fired for... get this ... Sexual Harassment. He received unemployment payments and was sued and forced to return the money do to the "conditions" he was fired.

Fast forward to ... oh.. this week. He's been working at a couple of car dealerships in Phoenix. He cleans up the cars and gets them ready for customers when they are purchased. He moves the cars around the lot whenever needed. About a year ago the dealership went bankrupt and was bought out by another company out of Florida. Everyone basically was fired and re-hired by the new company when the change over happened. Restarted all the vacation time, health coverage (aka - no one had any for 3 months) etc.. The dealership said that they really like my brother. Said he was a nice and hard working guy but they just didn't have a lot of work for him at that dealership. Rather than firing him they sent him to work at a sister-dealership in a neighboring city (Scottsdale). He worked there for a couple of weeks then they passed him back to the first location (same lame excuse). He was batted back and forth for several weeks. No one wanting to give him work but no one willing to fire him so he could look for a new job (they would have to pay unemployment to him if they out right fired him).

. . . . Well, it was one of the times he was working at the dealership in Scottsdale that he was in the parking lot heading for his car to go home. He saw a co-worker from the dealership in the parking lot... a GIRL . . . He waved "bye" to her and got in his car to head home. Tuesday (his day off work) my mom gets a phone call from his boss saying that he has been fired because he violated some company code. Turns out another claim of "sexual harassment". The girl claims that he followed her to her house. My brother says that all he did was wave to her, that he never went to her house. They both had to travel the same path to the same highway. If they both left the dealership at the same time it would appear that he might be following her when in fact he was simply going to the same highway.

My mom has decided to not fight this. My brother communicates 100% through sign language. He can get by at work with people acting out what they want him to do. When someone is saying "I'm not interested in dating you... please leave me alone" they don't usually have an interpreter in their hip pocket. Both times no one went through an interpreter to explain the situation to him. He was just told "you're fired" after he did something he didn't know was wrong.

Makes me want to scream!!!!

What is wrong with some people?!?! If he had been let go when there wasn't anything for him to do he could have been compensated while he looked for a new job. Instead they have to play ping-pong with him until he is nearly forced to quit... or they can fire him for something stupid.

I use to work at a grape vineyard where I was the only young white girl within a 20 mile radius. I was in a minority of those who spoke English even though this was in Arizona. Numerous times while working there I was not just asked out but given a description of what the guy wanted to do with me on this "date". I never screamed Sexual Harassment because I knew these people were here because they needed a job... and I knew that if things REALLY got bad I had a "protector" on the property I could go talk to if necessary. No one ever touched me... it was all talk.

I don't understand why these girls freak out when my brother acts nice to them. I know he can't communicate with them in the same language... that doesn't mean they need to get him fired for him buying them a teddy bear and candy ... or simply waving good bye at the end of the day. Geesh!!!!

Hopefully he will be starting a new job at a place where they have several deaf people working there and are in the process of hiring 3 more this next week. I can't wait to hear the good news. If he really gets the job it will be the first time will have worked at a place where there are others there just like him.

I love my brother and his big soft heart. I hope that some day he can meet someone who will appreciate it and not take advantage of him.

Speed Bump

Well... Things don't always go as we plan. Would it be weird to hold a funeral for a piece of exercise equipment?

Tonight, while getting in my workout on the elliptical machine, it started making a very loud bump noise every time the wheel (in the back) was at the bottom of the rotation. I tried to baby it along while attempting to get some exercise... in the end it died anyway. It looked like it spilled its guts out on the floor. My husband has yet to open it up all the way, but looking through the part that fell off he believes that the rear axle broke. If we can fix it ourselves we can keep using it. If we can't fix it, we are out of an awesome exercise machine. We certainly can't afford a new one... doubt we can afford to get this one fixed (even doing it ourselves). We bought it Valentines Day 2008. We have used it a TON. So sad.

Can we please have a moment of silence for my favorite torture device?

Thank you. . .

Shhhh don't tell my fat cells that the machine is dead. They might hear you. I want to keep them on edge.

Countdown to 40

Today is Saturday October 8th. Lately I have had a LOT on my mind. In 41 days I will be 40.

I've always had goals in my mind that I would achieve by the time that date arrived:

1 - Be done having kids.
2 - Get my body back into the best shape possible.
3 - Be doing what I want to do for the rest of my life (job wise)
4 - Be financially stable and able to start having fun.

There are others but they are more "bucket list" type things. Not necessarily things that had to happen by a specific date.

How am I doing on my goals?
1 - As far as I know we're done. Feels right. I always wanted 1 more but finances and health have put up some major road blocks preventing any more additions to our family.

2 - Working HARD on this one. I've lost 25 pounds this year so far. I have been on a plateau for the past 2 weeks but have been hitting new all time lows again this week. How am I doing it? Big one is using the "livestrong.com" website helped me be MUCH more aware of calorie intake. I find that it's not hard for me to live on 900 - 1,500 calories a day. Sometimes I get majorly hungry and I eat but just watch portion sizes. Eating small amounts more frequently. I drink a large glass of water (my tumbler cups can hold 16oz or more of water) about 10 min before I eat. I feel full MUCH faster than when I forget to do this. I also have been using our elliptical machine for at least 1 hour 3 days a week. I'm going to be charting my progress on another post.

3 - This is still sort-of on hold due to the fact that I still have a 2 year old at home. I want to get back into the film industry. I LOVE the type of personalities film draws. Everyone is super creative and slightly crazy... or is it slightly creative and super crazy? I've recently helped out with rotoscoping on some of my husband's film projects. I miss being on set though. The "hurry up and wait" environment. I also love photography. I'm saving up for a Canon 5D (my current dream camera). It will be a LONG time time before that goal is met but I have to have something to aim for.

4 - This goal is the one impacting 2 of the 3 goals above. Our finances have been hit so hard lately that my hands are severely tied. We're squeaking by only with help. I have become a genius at feeding and taking care of a family of 7 on what we bring in every month. I should have a master's degree in frugality by now.

At the moment... The one goal that I can have the biggest influence on is #2 - my fitness level. I will be posting updates on that progress in another section of this blog. I'm pretty motivated and excited.