Today went much better. All in all I wasn't so discouraged. Attitude really makes a huge difference I've noticed. I didn't run into as many corners and walls and my cane was able to catch most of my mistakes so I could correct. In travel I had to walk by myself to an intersection and wait for my instructor. Then we practiced crossing an intersection where buses pull in. We walked up to an intersection and listened to traffic patterns. Not quite ready to cross a busy intersection yet. I did run into someones car and started touching the back end of it and feeling around. I'm sure I look hilariously funny to people as I go around hugging parked cars and such. Can't imagine all the dirt I'm collecting on my jacket!
I had wood shop today. I'm excited about learning to use the table saw with no vision. He was teaching safety stuff today and the clicker rule, which is easier to use than a measuring tape. I'm already scheming about getting him to let me make a bed for my final project. I have wanted to make a platform queen sized bed, and what a great excuse to do it while blind. :-) I have a feeling I'm the only one who thinks that. I'm likely not going to be able to make that, but I'm sure there will be another fun project.
If you have great gluten free recipes let me know. I have to submit some recipes for us to make in the big kitchen. ALL UNDER BLINDFOLD!!!!
I'm actually noticing that it is way safer for me to walk blind than it is to be sighted and think I can see when I really can't. My vision is so deceiving. I have less than I think and usually can't tell. Sometimes it's obvious and other times it's not.
One thing I've noticed is the blind communities attitude to the public. Whereas I'm more apt to accept people's generosity with help and such and I'm more understanding when people nervously don't know what to do around me and the cane, I notice that others are not. There's this general attitude of "people are so ignorant and rude!" I have a hard time with that attitude b/c I used to be one of those "ignorant" folks that didn't know what to do when I saw someone with a cane. Personally I never want to get to the point where I develop an attitude against sighted people like that. I find that it helps to ease people's discomfort with my blindness when I openly converse with them and have nice conversations. Then they can see that "us" blind folks really are pretty normal and not so scary. I think I'm not the norm unfortunately.
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