opportunity

I had the unique and totally unexpected opportunity yesterday to sit with someone while they discovered that they were completely deaf in one ear.


Its funny how you would think that you would notice, at some point, the imbalance. Like when I had the bug in my ear and my hearing was so impaired for a week. But the thing was, I never lost the hearing, I just had really f---ed up hearing and I think that is easier to notice.


We were sitting and trying to listen to music on the crackberry through the speakers but where we were was too loud to hear it. So I plugged in the headphones and handed them both to my friend, who heard the music (we thought) perfectly. Then, my friend graciously handed one of the ear buds over so I could share and got a puzzled look. The music was gone.


We swapped buds and still no music. They swapped ears and lo! Deafness apparent.


It remains to be seen and tested just how deaf.


What do you do in a situation like that?


Why, keep listening with your good ear while making a note to call a doctor and that is what we did.


It always just amazes me, how unaware most of us (myself included) are of how our bodies are functioning. We may know the basics but then a kind of...nonchalance takes over in which we just sort of assume that what we see and hear is always at the fullness of the experience. As if age and earbuds and all of that never really would effect "us." Until the day we discover, it has.


Its Sunday. Buraco day.


And it is like knowing you are going to the pool after a long hot week, I cannot wait.


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