Exactly 4 years ago we were living in freezing Rochester (NY) where we both attended RIT. We lived together with a roommate in an apartment only a few miles away from campus.

I was on campus in the computer lab working on a project. A few hours later I decided to take a break because I couldn’t really receive text messages in the lab since RIT is a brick school! I checked my phone and received messages from Tyler and our roommate that said something brief like,

“The ceiling in our apartment fell through!”

I had no idea what to expect or think since they both were not responding back to my messages. I quickly got my things together and left. That was the longest 4 minutes drive home… unsure of what to expect or think. Is the old lady downstairs okay? Are our things okay?! Every possible thing was running through my head about what could have happened. I arrived and left everything in the car and walked up to the door and saw this…

Then I walked up and saw all the damage to our things…

(and that’s not snow – that’s wall insulation)

It turns out that the pipes were frozen and burst. Luckily for us, our roommate was home when it happened and had to call the office to have them shut off the water. The smell was so bad! The management crew did a horrible job handling the job. They didn’t leave a drying fan to absorb water from the carpet. They left us with a hole in the ceiling for days until they fixed it. And it took them weeks to replace the carpet.

This isn’t the first time I had my fair share of home disasters though. When I was younger we lived in Seattle and there was a really bad thunderstorm one day when I was at school. I thought it was an awesome day at first since the power was out and we were all playing games in the dark in our classrooms. I clearly remember the principal coming to my classroom and pulling me aside to tell me that my grandparents were on the way to pick me up because a huge tree fell on our house. I didn’t think anything too serious about it. I never really thought about asking my parents where exactly it had done damages to. I remember driving home with my parents and seeing that the impact was MY BEDROOM! There was a long branch poking down on my bed. For days after that I refused to sleep in my own room.

Have you ever experienced any house disasters like this or worse!? Do share!

Apparently I have an issue with the walls. I’m scared to hang anything up that I’m not sure about. I keep waiting until the spark comes…whenever that is. Once you put screws in the wall, there’s a HOLE in your wall. It was fine for me putting holes in my old bedroom at home, college dorm (oh… filling the holes with soap worked! shhh!) and apartments….. except for our house. You see… this is OUR HOUSE!

I also have a tendency of changing my mind too much. I know it drives my family and Tyler nuts. Believe me… I drive myself nuts sometimes too. Being indecisive is not fun to deal with when being a new homeowner.

I got the curtains I wanted from West Elm for Christmas. I love how airy it looks during the day when the sun is beaming in through.

I got a sconce for Christmas and it took me weeks to decide where to put it up! I couldn’t even watch Tyler put a hole in the wall and hang it up. It’s like your kid getting a shot at the doctor’s office.

People can stop hinting that our walls are bare. We are very aware our walls are boring right now and hopefully I’ll get over this lame weakness and find something we both love to hang up. SOON!

An old friend took this picture of me for a project she did in 2003

I have been often asked, “Do you wish you were hearing?”

…and I always proudly reply back, “No, I’m glad to be deaf”

Mainly because I can already hear with the help of my hearing aid and cochlear implant. I was very fortunate since I was born with a severe to profound hearing loss.

I can’t imagine having to hear every second of my life without an on/off switch. I have the choice to turn my hearing aid & cochlear implant off and not hear a single thing at night or whenever I want to, usually when I have a headache. However I must wear them everyday. I even used to pretend to ignore my parents when they called my name to ask me to do something for them and I’d blame it on dead batteries. (Sorry, Mom & Dad! I’m sure Lauren does that sometimes with you too!)

People assume I can talk and understand people just because I can hear. Not necessarily true. I heavily rely on lip-reading to understand what is being said. Some people even thought I’d be able to finally talk on the phone after getting my cochlear implant. Again, not true. I can hear voices/sounds coming out but I can’t make out to what people are saying on the other end because I can’t lip-read through the phone. If I was to call someone the person on the other end would have to only say – Hi, Yes, No, Okay, Bye for me to understand.

Although I wish I could understand people easily without having to lip-read and focus on what they’re saying that sometimes it’s a puzzle trying to figure out what people are saying. Hearing people can easily wander their eyes around and not have to have their eyes glued on the person talking. Tyler is so fortunate he can hear very well and had a lot of practice so he can talk on the phone & talk to people without having to look at them. I know I could be able to do this but with a lot of speech therapy.

I can’t fall asleep with my hearing aid on – every sound I hear wakes me up. I know hearing people can block out sounds if they wanted to. My sister and I both have slept through all of my Mom’s nightmares including one time when she ran around the house thinking my Dad was a murderer. Too bad I didn’t wake up to see that! 

 I’m glad I am deaf and sounds are not everything to me.