When I first lost my sight, friends came up with suggestions. “Here’s something you could do,” they’d say, their voices gushing with enthusiasm. They’d read a story about a blind guy who para-sails, a blind woman who ran the Chicago marathon, someone who canoed, another who loved his tandem kayak. “You could do that, Beth!” They meant well. I knew that. But at the time I was busy figuring out how to pour coffee into a cup without spilling. Put toothpaste on a toothbrush without getting it all over my hands. Write an address on an envelope. Did I look like I needed something to do?!

And so, I really appreciated it when the organizer of a fundraiser I spoke at on Friday night opened the evening saying, “You know, we read a lot of stories in newspapers about what people who are blind can do.” He mentioned the blind woman who is a chef, the blind guy who climbed Mt. Everest. “For our conference this October, we’re not so interested in what people who are blind can do; we’re interested in what they are doing. And they’re doing a lot!”

The conference he was talking about is the Vision Midwest Annual Conference put on by 12 State, Inc. From their web site:

The Vision Midwest Conference for blind and visually impaired individuals and the professionals who serve them offers educational, sports and cultural opportunities with a Midwestern focus.

It takes place on October 22 thru 24, 2010 at Alliant Energy Center in Madison, WI, and is the first of its kind. The conference schedule promises expert presentations on everything from careers to cell phones, cutting edge stem cell treatments to sensory gardening. One panel discussion is about relationships where one spouse is sighted and the other is blind, another panel discusses accessibility at art museums. And get this for a workshop title: “A Tactile Guide to the Solar System with Digital Talking Text”!

I’m slated to sit on two different panels at the conference: one about blogging, and another about writing as a career. I told the organizers it didn’t matter to me what day or time my panels were scheduled, as long as they didn’t conflict with this one:

Rod Maccoux (Green Bay, WI), Home Brewer and Wine Maker, on Home Brewing and Wine Making.

I don’t think our panels could face that sort of competition! Plus I want to go to the home brew and winemaking session myself. Not to hear what this Maccoux guy can do, but what he is doing!

Flo turns 94 today. She’s having her cake and eating it, too.

Flo – that’s my mom – turns 94 today. My four sisters and I schedule our annual Sisters Weekend around Flo’s birthday each year. Two years ago we all gathered in Louisville to visit our brother Doug and his wife Shelley. Last year we stayed at an Inn on the Fox River and treated Flo to her first ever pedicure.

This year we thought we’d treat Flo to another hotel room with us and take her to a musical. She liked the musical idea. “But how ’bout you girls all stay here with me?” she asked. “We can have a slumber party. It’ll be fun!” The apartment building Flo lives in is not an assisted living center, but a lot of golden agers live there. Her unit is pretty small. Two of us would have to sleep on the floor. We said, “Sure!”

Every three months, Flo’s building hosts a Friday evening cocktail party. Wouldn’tcha know it, last Friday was the night! Here’s how the party works: everyone brings an appetizer to the party room, affectionately known as the “Caribbean Room.” You’re supposed to bring your drinks down one at a time, and when you want another drink, you go back to your apartment, mix it, and carry it back to the Caribbean Room. Flo knew what she was doing when she chose her particular unit. It’s very close to the Caribbean room!

My brother-in-law Rich made a shrimp plate for us to share as an appetizer. Everyone oohed and ahhed. Rich and Cheryl’s kids (my niece Janet and nephew Ben) stopped by the party with their kids. Flo was tickled to have her great-grandchildren there, and the kids were well-behaved. When one of the other golden-agers complained about having kids there, Flo just shrugged it off. “Oh, well,” she said. “You can’t please everybody!”

Jack--one of the great grandchildren--hitches a ride with Flo.

Flo still walks on her own, often using a walker. She reads the newspaper every morning, and she passed her driver’s test last week. She gets behind the wheel once or twice a week, limiting herself to daytime drives. She can’t hear well, but she isn’t grumpy about that. If she doesn’t hear you, she cocks her head and says “hmm?” in such an adorable way that you just can’t help but smile.

During the car ride to dinner after the musical, Cheryl asked Flo how she liked the play. “It was good,” Flo said. “I just wish I could have heard what they were saying.”

”I know what you mean,” I called out from the back seat. “I wish I could have seen what they were doing, too!” Flo laughed. We all did.

Flo wanted dinner to be simple, so we headed to a tavern called Stimac’s. When the strangers at the next table found out it was Flo’s birthday, they asked her what kind of music she liked. Next thing we knew, Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” was playing on the jukebox. All of us, including Flo, rose to our feet to dance.

On the way home, we sang “Shine on Harvest Moon” and “Down By the Old Mill Stream” in harmony. Hard to know how we can top this next year, but knowing Flo, she’ll come up with another great idea. Happy Birthday, Dear Flo!

We're in the "Martha Speaks" book club!

Who needs Oprah to tell us what to read?! Just got news that Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound is one of the six books selected for the Martha Speaks Read-Aloud Book Club! From the PBS Kids web site:

At the core of the Martha Speaks Read- Aloud Book Club are six culturally diverse children’s books representing a range of genres and styles:

Once I Ate a Pie ( Poetry)
By Patricia MacLachlan and
Emily MacLachlan Charest

HarperCollins, 2006
A Kid’s Best Friend ( Nonfiction)
By Maya Ajmera and Alex Fisher
Charlesbridge, 2002

Not Afraid of Dogs ( Picture book)
By Susanna Pitzer
Walker & Company, 2006

Now Hiring: White House Dog (Picture book)
By Gina Bazer and Renanah Lehner
Walker & Company, 2009

Martha and Skits (Picture book)
By Susan Meddaugh
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000

Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound (Picture book)
By Beth Finke
Blue Marlin Publications, Ltd., 2007

The site outlines read-aloud sessions for each book, ideal for story hours at schools, libraries, scout meetings and book store events. During each one-hour session, children watch a Martha Speaks episode, listen to a book read aloud, engage in conversation about the book (using new vocabulary), and participate in a hands-on activity. You can download a bunch of very cool stuff to use during the read-aloud sessions at the PBS Kids web site:

• Resource guide (with discussion questions, vocabulary
  words and definitions, a hands-on activity, and activity extension ideas)
• Supporting materials (character cards, sticker template, children’s take-home book list, librarian book list, and M- A- R- T- H- A song lyrics), and
• Promotional materials ( poster, flyer, participant sign- up sheet,
  and customizable stationery)

Each of the six books selected for Martha’s Book Club coordinates with a Martha Speaks episode on PBS. For Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound, they suggest kids watch an episode where Martha wants to pursue her dream of becoming a real firehouse dog, but then realizes the job is not as easy as it seems. You can download this episode from the PBS Kids site, too. Is this cool or what?

The Martha Speaks Read-Aloud Book Club resource guide is three pages long so I can’t go into all the details here. It does suggest inviting a special guest to read-aloud sessions, so if any of you teachers or librarians are interested: Hanni and I would love to come.

That's Hanni and me at Daniel Street School in Lindenhurst, NY. I wonder how her dreams are?

• Do newspapers come out in Braille?
• I know we can’t pet Hanni when her harness is on, but can you?
• Are all Seeing Eye dogs spayed or neutered, and if so, why?
• Why did you buy a Seeing Eye dog?

I explained to the boy who asked the last question that I didn’t really buy Hanni. He did have a point, though. From the FAQ section of the Seeing Eye web site:

How much does a Seeing Eye dog cost?

Student fees of $150 for a first dog and $50 for subsequent dogs cover only a fraction of the actual cost of each partnership. Only through generous gifts to our Annual Membership Campaign are we able to provide a dog; its training; the student’s room; board; and instruction for 20 to 27 days; plus round-trip
transportation from anywhere in the United States, Canada or Puerto Rico; and follow-up services throughout the life of a partnership.

I did my best to explain all this to the boy who asked about buying Hanni. Then he raised his hand again. “So are you glad you bought Hanni?” My answer was a resounding yes.

I got another resounding “yes” after a question about how I know what people look like. A student asked about the people I saw before losing my sight. She wanted to know if I still remember what they look like. Answer:yes. Then came the follow-up question. “Do you use those memories to try and figure out what the new people you meet look like?”

Her last question gave me an opportunity to describe the way I think of people now — as huge swatches of color. (For more about all that, link to my A blind eye to race post).

I admitted that every once in a while I still do wonder what some people physically look like. Knowing my audience, I brought up Yankee shortstop Derek Jeeter. EVERYONE seems to love this Derek Jeeter guy. ESPECIALLY women. “Is he good looking or something?” I asked.

The students didn’t answer. The female teachers did, though. With a resounding “Yes!”

This Tuesday Hanni and I head to Long Island – we’ll be visiting three different schools while we’re there. During our last visit, I thought it was kismet that we were there the very day David Paterson was named governor. David Paterson lost sight in his left eye and much of the sight in his right eye after an infection when he was a baby. When he took office in March, 2008, he became the first blind governor ever in the history of the United States.

Paterson’s appointment gave me a great opportunity to brainstorm with the Long Island school kids we were visiting. “How will your new governor be able to read?” I asked. We talked about Braille. We decided a talking computer might help. If neither of those reading tricks worked, well, hey, he’s the governor. “He could just make his workers read aloud to him!” one third grader exclaimed.

Maybe the workers would give speeches for him, too. “Or maybe he has a good memory,” one fourth grader surmised. “Maybe he’ll just memorize the words to the speeches he gives!” Turns out that fourth grader was right. After Paterson was sworn in, journalists marveled at his memorization skills. Here’s an example from a 2009 column in the New York Daily News:

Paterson has been largely out of sight over the past week with no press conferences or public appearances. It turns out that’s because he has been spending most of his time working on committing his speech to memory. He said it has taken up about 60 hours to memorize his State of the State, which he has done by listening to a recording of the speech one minute at a time

These days journalists are not so impressed, however. Paterson’s memory seems to be failing.

Last month the governor was accused of violating state ethics laws when he asked for five free tickets to last year’s World Series. The seats were right behind home plate. At face value, they cost $425 each. Governor Paterson claimed he was attending the game “in an official capacity” and didn’t have to pay for them.

But then news came out that Paterson did not perform any official duties during Game 1 of last year’s World Series. Already drowning in a scandal (members of his administration, and maybe the governor, too, intervened in a domestic violence proceeding involving one of his top aides), Paterson faced calls for his resignation. He switched his story about the Yankee tickets.

The governor had always intended on paying for the tickets, he said. The check eventually sent to the Yankees was backdated. The handwriting on the check did not match Paterson’s signatures on other official forms. The Governor with the extraordinary memory can not explain the handwriting mix-up. Nor can he explain why the check was dated Oct. 27, the day before the game.

Selfishly I was hoping that the first blind governor might do better than this. But hey, I’m from Illinois. I’m used to governors acting stupid. The good news, if there can be good news, in all of the New York governor mess: None of the stories I read about the scandals mentioned one word about Paterson’s blindness. The fact that he cannot see is not the most interesting thing about him any more. Reporters don’t feel sorry for Governor Paterson because he is blind. They’re not going easy on him. They hold him up to the same standards as any other governor. In a twisted way, Paterson’s poor judgment helps prove a point disability advocates have been trying to make for decades. When it comes right down to it, people with disabilities really aren’t all that different than anyone else.