What I always always ALWAYS hated was when I was in a noisy environment and was trying to hold conversations... back in high school... say, in the cafeteria or at the football games... was that if I asked someone to repeat themselves, sometimes more than once (at this point, everyone knew I was HOH) they would mock the sign language while speaking really slowly and essentially just being jerks. More so the guys than the girls, but the girls kinda just laughed along with it. Of course, I would respond by signing "Go screw yourself with a ten foot pole" or something of that nature. But since it was a predominantly hearing culture I was in, the joke was lost on them and I had no appreciative audience.
But I do have a hilarious story - I worked at a Wal-mart eons ago, and made several friends there - well, one day some of them were interested to see how well I could lip read. Ironically enough, I demonstrate this ability quite a lot on a regular basis, even proving to hearies (love that term!) that they could do it too; simple words that everyone uses a LOT they seem to recognize. I always get them with vacuum, though, hehehe! I digress, though... back to the story!
So I was demonstrating my lipreading ability - my friends were quite impressed with how I could see what they were saying while they were not making any sound at all. The manager came over and asked what was going on, what's with all the laughing, why aren't you guys working, etc., etc. My buddy Jason explained what was going on, and then the guy covers his mouth and said
out loud.... "Bet you can't tell what I'm saying, huh?"
"No, but I heard what you said just fine!"
Laughter ensues, mayhem follows, full scale riot raze the city. Well, okay, just the laughter.
This happened over a decade ago, and it's still a recurring tale that gets told!
