Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: happy
  • Music: Jonathan Coulton, "Chiron Beta Prime."

In which ASL makes everything AWESOME.

Yesterday, I was demonstrating to a friend of mine (who finds my fascination with ASL charming, if odd) that I can now sign "Behold! For now I wear the human pants!" My grammar is a little wonky, but I'll be seeing Judi in a few weeks, so right now I'm just working on getting the signs committed to muscle memory.

A Deaf gentleman about my age saw me signing, and got very excited. He came over, and signed, "You know ASL?" (In the case of signs that I don't know myself, but whose meaning was evident from context, I'm including them to form actual sentences.)

I signed back "A little." Emphasis on "little."

He asked what I knew...so I showed him. Around the time I hit "working in a mine for our robot overlords" and "did I say overlords? I meant protectors," he started to look, well, dubious. Like there was a chance I thought I knew some ASL, when really, someone was messing with me.

Then I signed "The Turtle can't help you."

His eyes widened, and he proceeded to finger-spell "IT?" I nodded. He made an "S" sign, followed by a gesture like putting on a crown. I nodded again. He got even more excited, especially since now he knew I actually understood my messed-up assortment of signs. He had me teach him "robot overlords," and he taught me the sign for "weird."

ASL and Stephen King: bringing the world closer together. The best part is that, for once in my life, I can legitimately say that the Turtle did help us.
Tags: good things, in the wild, silliness, stephen king, wild adventures
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  • 62 comments

deakat

February 19 2010, 17:43:08 UTC 7 years ago

That is fabulous! It also tells me that it's time for me to do some Stephen King re-reading, because I don't get the reference.

How I'm going to fit that re-reading in I just don't know, because some people just insist on writing new books that I need to read, too.

seanan_mcguire

February 21 2010, 19:41:52 UTC 7 years ago

Go read IT. For IT is true joy.

deakat

February 21 2010, 20:00:03 UTC 7 years ago

Much Stephen King is pure joy. Oh! Oh! Oh! I just remembered that I dreamt that I was speaking with Stephen King last night, and told him how I picked up a copy of Carrie in a bargain bin at a K-Mart in '75 (when I was 15). It was passed along from teenage girl to teenage girl in my circle until it fell apart.

I am also reminded that I want to schedule a marathon viewing of The Stand. That will be how I celebrate getting the new job, I think.