Catching Up

It has been 2 days since I took the Level 2 Certification test. Let's just say it nearly knocked the wind out of my confidence as an interpreter for the Deaf. I walked out of the Deaf center with a wounded ego. Some parts of the test went fairly well, but I always hate to say that I feel good about something when in fact I might have done much worse. The absolute worst part was the voice interpreting from ASL to spoken English. The ironic thing was that I noticed that my voicing skills had improved in the last few weeks. Boy was I wrong! My abilities were more than just sub par. There were times when my mind went completely blank thus resulting in complete silence. In my own mind, I was totally laughing it off. I didn't really take it as hard as I could have, but geez! Oh well, I guess there's always next time! I am looking into joining some different programs that are available to help me hone my skills. Let's just say it will take a miracle! So now it comes to the waiting part for the next 3 months before my results come in.

Not that this part is important, but I finally cleaned my house yesterday! It was a great feeling, seeing as how I am not home as often as I used to be since work and other commitments have been keeping me busy. I don't like coming home to a dirty house with mountains of laundry everywhere.

On a side note, I stole myself away for the afternoon and went and watched Twilight. I have read the series 3 times in the last 2 or 3 months because I loved it and I love to read. I have to say that while the movie and the special effects were pretty well done, I thought they took too much out of the characters' personalities when they added in things that never happened from the book anyway. I thought they should have spent more time developing the story and the characters from the information derived from the book, and shouldn't have spent so much energy on adding unnecessary parts.

Any Suggestions?

So the long since talked about date has finally come. I am taking my Level 2/Intermediate Certification test for the State of Utah this coming Thursday. It is my first time taking it, and as of right now I am not nervous... yet...

I am wondering for those of you that are interpreters if y'all have any suggestions or things I should keep in mind for the test?

I have been told by some people that the test isn't that bad, while others have told me just go into it not expecting too much of myself. I like to have some kind of idea of what I am getting into. But then again they sometimes say that ignorance is bliss! I guess we'll just see!

We Got a New Car!

With the weather getting cooler the last couple of weeks, it has become too cold for Brandon to ride his motorcycle to work. There were a few times that we had conflicting schedules when we both needed the car. The thought of getting a 2nd vehicle occurred to us about the time we had to put 2 baby car seats in the back of our Neon, and moving the front seats up so far that Brandon's and my knees were practically up to our armpits. This was NOT comfortable at all. Then came to scheduling conflicts and that was it... we knew we wanted to start looking.

We knew that we wanted a car that would easily fit car seats. We also wanted something reliable and fun. We started comparing all of the compact SUV's that we knew were popular. Having grown up in a die-hard Honda family, I always wanted a CR-V. We did look at the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Toyota RAV-4 and the Subaru Outback. We looked online at several different websites and found some cars for sale in our area. We settled on looking for CR-V's in our price range. We visited a couple of dealerships in the area and test drove some really nice used cars. But we didn't really feel right about either of them. We were supposed to go to Salt Lake City on Saturday night for a play, so thought that with some extra time we would stop by the Ken Garff Nissan in downtown and take a look at their CR-V they had. It was beautiful and we fell in love with it immediately! It is the one pictured above, with the picture being the one from the website where we found it! It is four wheel drive, has a 6 CD changer, and the interior and exterior are immaculate! We were able to get a really good deal on it and couldn't be more thrilled!

Can Anyone Sympathize?

So today is November 2, and in two days the fate of the entire nation and our government will be voted upon and decided. This election is said to be one of the biggest and most controversial ever. Amidst all the public slander, mud-slinging, and other political garbage going on right now, I can't help but feel a little disenchanted with the entire idea of politics. I am not here to use my blog as showing my support for this or that issue, a certain political party, or even a candidate.

My big question is this "What happened to real politics?" It used to be that politicians took pride in their country and stood for real issues that the American public could understand and sympathize with. Candidates at any level, whether it be at the community, state, or national level had character and deeply rooted beliefs.

Today political figures exploit ways of appealing only to our emotions, or striking a chord with this issue or that issue. You only ever hear about the big time issues like the war, abortion, gay marriage, etc. But in fact I believe there are so many other underlying issues as well. Candidates look at each other and only talk about what the other person supports, or what they don't support. They make empty promises saying anything they can to get your vote. They dig up the skeletons out of each other's closets and do anything in their power to embarass or shame their opponent. Politicians used to be gentleman. They used to have class.

Please believe me when I say that I think it is so important to get out to the polls and vote. It is our God given right to do so. I just have to admit that I have become a little disenchanted with how things are run and done in elections. I don't like to know that if I vote for one candidate or the other, that I am possibly voting for the "lesser of two evils".