Originally Posted by JennyB

Hi Everyone,

I had a bit of a frustrating evening tonight and I need to rant.

I was invited out to dinner with some of my friends. It was arranged by this one girl who I have been arguing with for a while about my deafness. I would tell her it was frustrating when I was in a group because I couldn't speech read, and none of my hearing friends sign. She told me I was being selfish, and the world doesn't revolve around me and my hearing loss. We had a few conversations in the recent past that seemed to be civil and we were regaining our friendship, so when she invited me out tonight I went.

She is moving across the country on Saturday so it was a bit of a goodbye get together. She told me where they were going and I asked if we could go someplace else and she said no because everyone else had already agreed on that place. I got there late, because she invited me at the last minute, and it was very dark and very loud.

Although I can't discriminate speech anyway I do use my hearing aids for a bit of directionality to know where to look but with the background noise I couldn't even do that. I tired to have a few small conversations with other people but it was so dark I couldn't read lips. I sat there through dinner, with my blackberry to hide behind. I paid, and then I went to the bathroom and just started crying because I was so frustrated. I ended up leaving without ever going back to the table.

I am just so frustrated because she seemed to do it purposly. It was like she was throwing fuel onto an already burning fire.

Anyway, that is my rant...

Goodnight!

Jenny