Deaf-initions

My brother in law is in town from Florida. He's the baby boy of five: four kids in four years, then six year later, there's James. My husband, the former baby of the original four, still has issues from having his baby-dom usurped, forty years later.

When I met Dan, James was 16. Dan told me "you'll have to meet my little brother. You'll like him. You'll just have to talk slow to him." Me and my big mouth, I say to my newly beloved "what? Is he deaf or something?"

Turned out he is. Oops.

So James, being sixteen, was left behind when Dan's parents went to Florida on vacation, so he could go to school. Since I worked nights, I was elected to be the one to go and make sure he made it up and to the bus on time, then I would crash at the inlaws house for the day. One of the days they were gone, there was no school, and in walks James with the phone, waking me up from a blissful day of sleep (I worked nights at the time). Hands me the phone and says "it's Sean."

Well, Sean can hear, so talking to him is no problem, but what transpired was almost surreal, especially when I was half awake. Sean had called for his friend Mike, who is deaf. James gave me the phone so that I could tell Sean what to tell Mike, and they got into this crazy argument. I don't even remember what the heck it was about, but I do remember finally telling him that it was more than a little crazy to wake me up, in the middle of MY night (don't worry that it was 11am), so that he could argue with his friend, and if they needed to argue, they should do it face to face, so there could be some lip reading going on. And that I was going back to sleep.

And I did.

Dan can do a near perfect James imitation, and frequently talks to his brother in his brother's voice. It's funny to listen to, and James doesn't care. Dan will break out in James-ese at random times, like the night that we were laying in bed, in the pitch black of night, and he suddenly broke into Sinatra's "Something Stupid," in James' voice. I almost fell of the bed laughing. But the funniest interaction I think I ever saw between the two was on Christmas a couple of years ago. Dan and James made quite a production of singing the one song that James could sign: "You Light Up My Life." Dan stood in front of the family singing in James' voice, while James signed it, in these wildly embellished signs. It was hilarious, because they were both so exaggerated.

But if you know them, that's how they both roll, so it's all good. And if you want something to light up your life, or someONE to do the same, take a gander at this crazy mad sexy gold bombshell 50s dress, from Blue Velvet Vintage. No argument here, it's gawgeous!