Just in case you were unsure of my maturity level, I present you with this:

That would be a photo of the chalkboard in our kitchen. It is me and my fictional manfriend, Edward Cullen. Yeah…we’re holding hands. We’re pretty much in love.

For the record, I am awesome.

I’ll be sure to invite you all to our fictional wedding.

Todays guest post is brought to you by
Steph Anne
from
Friday Glamour.
This is all part of the 20 Something Bloggers “Blog Swap 3“.
Don’t forget to go check out my post over on her site.

I’ll introduce myself…. my name is Stephanie and I blog over here. I didn’t know what to blog about for the Blog Swap but then I thought I should blog about the issues I have about Deaf Power.

I was born deaf and I can hear now with both my hearing aid and cochlear implant. I am grateful that I can speak very well and when communicating with others, I can lip-read and hear them so communication isn’t that much of a barrier for me.

Deaf Power…. there are deaf people out there that have so much pride in their deafness and sometime it conflicts with issues or their opinions. They’re stuck in their little “Deaf world” and I find it extremely annoying.

I am proud to be deaf but I don’t have Deaf Power at all. I want to be a normal person and strive for the best by myself without using deaf excuses. I’m up for the challenges. Every time I dream of my future I don’t always see interpreters there for me.

“Deaf people can do anything but hear.” - I King Jordan. That quote is very true. I am grateful that I can hear very well unlike some other deaf people. I don’t wear my cochlear implant all the time…. and I should. I need to so I can improve on understanding people better.

My biggest pet peeve is when deaf people are so disrespectful to hearing people and then hearing people misjudge deaf people and assume we are so cruel and immature. I don’t blame hearing people but it sucks that I have to deal with that and try hard to make them realize that I’m not one of “those deaf people”. I’m proud to be deaf in my own ways..but I certainly don’t live in the “Deaf world”. I live in the world that we’re all living in.
P.S. D-PAN (Deaf Performing Artists Network) is an awesome website with music videos signed by deaf artists.

-Stephanie

Hello Free and Flaweders! Below is the anonymous post sent to me for BlogSecret. There are more than 50 blogs participating. “What you will read below does not come from me, but it is someone else’s truth. Someone else’s life. Treat it with care. And, be sure to share your thoughts in the comment section as the author knows where their secret is posted.”

I made the mistake of thinking I was invincible. But to be fair, I was in high school, and everyone in high school thinks they’re invincible. I thought I could do everything, be everything, and never suffer the consequences. While my classmates explored American history, I explored my sexuality. I tried to fall in love, but even then, I knew there was a distinct separation between sex and love. So I had sex, and forgot the basic rules.

Small clues built up to the big realization. There was the fact that my boobs hurt; something I wasn’t used to, even during my period. There was the fact that I was paler than usual, and somehow managed to shed ten pounds where I didn’t have five pounds to lose. There was also the constant nausea, even when I ate my favorite foods. The answer came to me in a blue plus sign in the bathroom of a Burger King while my boyfriend stood outside the door, waiting.

So I made a plan. I was good at making plans. I called Planned Parenthood and made an appointment for the following week. I recruited my boyfriend to drive me there, as I didn’t even have my permit yet. I really thought I could get away with it, taking care of the details and taking steps to resolve my problem. But then I passed out while volunteering in the hospital. If there’s ever a place to pass out, it’s the emergency room - doctors and nurses at your disposal and rushing to your side - it’s enough to make you feel like an extra on ER. By then there were official tests to confirm my blue plus, but thankfully, due to patient confidentiality laws, my secret was safe.

It was Thanksgiving that weekend, but I didn’t want to put it off any longer, especially now that I had been so casually betrayed by my body. I called clinics, looking for a place to make all this go away. I lied to my friends. I lied to my mother, pretended everything was alright as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. There was nothing available until Saturday, closed for Thanksgiving and celebrating Black Friday. I made the appointment and wrote down all the details I needed to know.

The money was the hardest part. I simply didn’t have it. But I did have a white envelope full of bills that had not yet been deposited from my organization’s latest fundraiser. So I sat on my bedroom floor, counting out the bills until they equaled three hundred and change that would make things right again. I promised to pay it back, convincing myself that I was only borrowing, and not stealing. One more piece of the puzzle fell into place.

I remember that Thanksgiving in snippets. I remember my boyfriend coming over that evening and holding me in his arms, as though I were something to be cradled and rocked. I remember my grandparents and cousins and aunt and uncle and parents watching me carefully, afraid I would pass out again, like I did the night before. I remember begging off to bed early, tired of being watched. But I don’t remember the meal, the turkey, the stuffing, or the general atmosphere. Only the concern and suspicion. Perhaps that’s why I don’t enjoy Thanksgiving anymore.

When I came home that Saturday, woozy from the general anesthesia and cramps in my stomach, I was met with a belated intervention. It was the first time I had seen my parents united on anything since childhood. My mom called my dad and he drove out with his girlfriend. They offered me a snow globe with a dolphin swimming inside, a reward for making the right decision. My stepdad stood there, stoic, while my mom barely hissed anger and disappointment, so upset was she. I wasn’t her perfect daughter anymore, of the A grades and talent and compassion. I was a teenager who made a mistake. A big one.
I told my best friend that weekend, a pillow held to my stomach as she sat quietly with me. I cringed when I went back to school and judged the pregnant girls there, forgetting that I was once one of them too.

The memory stays hidden until something brings it up to the surface. But every Thanksgiving, I remember the decision I made, knowing it was the right one for me. Every July, I count back the years to add them up to how old my child would be now. I always think of it as a boy, even though it was too soon to know the gender and I didn’t want to know anything else.

He would be six now.

When I play with my cousins’ children, building lego towers with them and knocking them down, my cousins ask if I will ever have children. I shrug, thinking to myself what would they say if they knew I would have had a child older than any of theirs.

Do I regret it? No. It was the right decision for me. I wasn’t ready to be a mother then, and I’m not now. But that doesn’t stop me from marveling at how much my body has changed, at how the smallest things can stay with you for so long, how once upon a time, I might have been returning home from a play date with a classmate tonight instead of sharing a distant memory from long ago.

Because I care about your relationship, I’ve come up with a list of reasons why Edward is bad for your relationship. It’s too late for me, but I’m trying to save your relationship!

Please check out my Twilight guide and let me know what it is you love (or hate) about the story and Edward. If you like it, Stumble it or Digg it. Your views are much appreciated

Also, don’t forget about the social networking contest at Must Love Geek.

If you get a chance, please leave a contribution to my Which Actor Would Play You in A Movie guide.

Stay tuned for my BlogSecret post later today!

My roommate and I were feeling a little giggly last night. It was one of those Sunday evenings where you don’t want to do much of anything except distract yourself with someone else’s problems and eat an unhealthy meal. I’m pretty sure we accomplished our goal as we didn’t get off the couch until 10 p.m.

So naturally, while in our funk, we decided making a vlog would be a good idea. Am I regretting it this morning? Probably, but it seems entertaining enough.

I don’t know why it’s titled “My First Project.” I’m still learning about iMovie. Also, at one point, my phone rings. It was my mom, not manfriend. And I do care…for the record

Enjoy and uh, don’t hate me for my goofiness

Here are my favorites from today’s batch of secrets. Don’t forget to check out the rest at PostSecret.

I have a feeling that this NaBloPoMo thing is going down the shitter.

Er, I mean welcome to my blog post. Happy Saturday! What did you do today? Me? I had a lovely breakfast of blueberry pancakes with my mother. Sure they came from a mix in a box, but they were tasty!

We then took a trip to Ikea to get some shelves for my wall. I really need to take picture of all of our Ikea purchases because they really make our apartment adorable.

I spent most of the day shopping now that I think about it: Ikea, Lowes, Dollar Tree, Produce World and Wal-Mart.

Let me tell you something about Wal-Mart! It sucks! Seriously. Do you have to be obnoxiously slow to shop there? As we were driving down the aisle, we noticed a guy loading up his car so we put on the turn signal and claimed it as our spot. He and his family putzed around the trunk for a while, probably discussing the cold weather. After getting in his car, he waited at least 2 minutes before turning the damn thing on. Once on, did he immediately back up? No. Sure didn’t.

So after waiting a good five minutes, he finally backed out. We got the spot. Yay.

This post is completely ridiculous.

Eff.

Like many bloggers I’m slowly developing an unhealthy obsession with Edward from Twilight. I’m at the part in the book where he and Bella first kiss. Sweet mother of hotness. Moving right along…

I was inspired yesterday by another blogger to find out what people rank as the best on-screen kiss. Naturally I’ve turned this into a community guide.

I beg of you to leave your answer on the community guide at Guidespot. Rather than just telling me what movie or TV couple, you can share a picture or even a video from YouTube! Guidespot is an interactive site and we welcome, appreciate and encourage the participation of readers.

Check out my picks here.

- I never drink a lot because I’m concerned about my liver. I worry that one day my dad might need a piece of it.

- I didn’t visit my grandpa in the hospital because it’s too hard to see him there. I feel selfish and know that I’ll regret it.

- I still haven’t gone to visit my aunt’s grave. It’s been more than a year since she’s died. I haven’t visited my grandma’s either. She’s been gone for 7. It makes me angry that after all this time she still doesn’t have a gravestone and I can’t afford to give her one.

- I’m lactose intolerant, but I continue to eat cereal, pizza, and ice cream.

- I’ve worked really hard to determine and create the boundaries I need, but I don’t always enforce them.

- I write on my blog more than I write in my paper journal. I worry that one day i will want to look back on all of this and it won’t be here.

- When my favorite TV character is happy, I smile; when they’re sad, I cry.

- I say “no worries” even when something bothers me. I just don’t like making a big deal out of something so small.