lessons

I was walking up to the cafeteria today when a woman stopped me at the front steps. She made a motion like she was holding a phone up to her ear. I shook my head because I wasn't sure what she meant, then slowly it occurred to me that she was asking if I had a cell phone. "Oh, a cell?" I asked, as I pulled it out. She started nodding vigorously and started moving her hand like she was writing. Slowly, it occurred to me that she was deaf and was asking for a pen. I found one in my purse, and a scrap a paper, and she wrote "Please call 711, then 864-xxxx." My first (stupid) thought was, "Is this a scam?", and then I realized that someone pulling a scam would probably not be a deaf woman on the steps of a NASA cafeteria. She wrote down "Bill - husband - deaf". So I called, AND TRIED TO HAND HER THE PHONE. Dork. She was pointing to her ears and shaking her head while my brain was shouting, "DORK - she CAN'T HEAR!"

Anyway, the 711 number was a service for the hearing impaired...I was instructed to dial the number I wished to call, then a woman came on line who read what Bill was typing and typed what I said back to Bill. (His wife was telling him to come meet her at the cafeteria). Is that not cool? You learn something new every few days or so. Like, don't hand a telephone to a deaf woman.