Ugly seaters and ugly peoples attitudes!

So yesterday I had great time at a little get together put on by Deja Powell. She had an Ugly Christmas sweater party. There were many people there and the variety of blind and sighted people was great. We ended up having like an hour long discussion about blindness and reactions that we get as blind people and putting a funny spin on it. One guy there kept saying the comments that he would hypothetically reply to people if he were blind. They were great! The thing is, when you are in a situation when a person comments on your blindness you tend to have many reactions. One reaction could be the 'oh I am so nice, never get mad and love to educate the public' reaction. Though this is nice, this is not always how we react, nor should it be. As any person, we have the right to get mad when people are ignorant and just plain out rude. Another way that we could react is with a F U comment. Though is feels so good at times, this might have a very negative result, and we may end up creating a hostile environment. My all time favorite way to react, is with the all powerful witty response. Being so witty that the person you are talking to actually gets a laugh, but also realizes how ignorant their comment was.
Let me explain. Many people tend to ask, "Are you really blind?" a good Chris response would be (Chris being the sighted guy at the ugly sweater party who had great comebacks to tell sighted people. We are keeping him on speed dial in case we need his wittiness)Are you really (insert your own phrase). Could be fat, white, female. Making your own choice of words.
I had a great time hearing blind people's experiences and how they dealt with them. But I also had a great time sharing with the sighted people there and getting their reactions. They were like, "Do people really ask you that?" And someone mentioned playing some other games, the sighted people were like, "No, this is way too much fun!"
I had a great time and my cheeks were in terrible pain from laughing so hard, meeting new people and sharing a bit of our lives!

My Rants

So Thanksgiving is over and the holidays are upon us in Louisiana! Lets start off by saying that Louisiana is a great place to be. The fact is I am not from here and feel the need to comment on every aspect of life and culture. I am sure someone could do the same thing in my community (oh wait, they have).
In Ruston there is not that much to do. So what do people do on their free time? They eat. Not just eat, but deep fried, battered, soaked in oil eat. Don't get me wrong, I love the food here, it is amazing, however can you say obesity? Louisiana is the most obese state in the nation. And we could assume that well its a personal choice, but the fact of the matter is that it is not. Louisiana is also one of the most poverty stricken states. Is there a correlation here? There definetivly is. Poverty leads to obesity, as opposed to popular belief. There are more obese people in our world, then there are starving people. But i digress. My point being that when peple are in poverty, they tend to eat fast food more often, and cannot afford the more expensive healthier food. All of this also leads to health problems and lack of education. So just a little heads up, if I gain a million pounds while here, I will blame it on the culture! ha ha.
Another interesting note is how the south is so proper. You could call it proper or patronizing. Did you know that in the state of Louisiana it is state law for school children to call their teachers yes and no sir, and yes and no ma'am. Not that there is anything wrong with being proper, but don't we have bigger fish to catch? Louisiana's educational system is one of the worst in the country and they focus on proper speech! ok then.

But besides form my little rant. Today is the first day of classes. However, I am not yet registered for class. Yes I barely got accepted into the school about a day ago. How does this happen? My answer to things seems to be, "well its Louisiana." And I am very familiar with how this culture works. This is just like Mexico. Whenever I visit Mexico or have anything to do wiht beuracracy dealing with Mexico I cringe. The fact is they don't have it together, and neither does Louisiana. Don't get me wrong, people are really nice, but sometimes that just doesn't cut it.