Blinking Boas, Chubby Checker, LIS, Queen, Marty and Brianne

Paaaaaa-OH-tie and I have a little thing going...he thinks I'm flirty *licking lips and smiling*

Paotie...I'll tell you a little secret - Sofia has a white fluffy boa that lights up...I may have borrowed that a couple of times...
Hmmm. Well, the day started off on an interesting note (musically speaking) with my monster pre-school class from hell that destroyed me last week. I came armed and pissed off this week and pulled out some Chubby Checker. Yes, I twisted and shouted like a madwoman with the shocked little ones, and when the teacher ran into the room alarmed and shot me a look like "What is going on???" I responded, "SURVIVAL, GIRLFRIEND!" Phew, made it through that lesson like a champ.
Then, I went to hang out with my friend Rosy who was working on the book making corrections on what we went over yesterday...the translation is really going well. She works for BBC Grosseto, the baseball team here that won the Italian National Championship last year,

so the baseball parts of the book have become a "team effort" and people I don't even know keep coming to shake my hand. Unbelievable. I can not wait to do the Dedication Page!!!! I've been busy collecting people's credentials, one audiologist even blushed, loving this. While I was in Rosy's office, her friend Monia came into the room. Remember all that destiny, premonition stuff I wrote about way back when? Monia is hearing and has always been passionate about deaf culture. She did her thesis on LIS and signs. Her nephew was born deaf. Surprised? She taught him LIS, and she said that the fact that he was able to sign made his life considerably less frustrating. I asked her to ask her friend if she could give me private lessons, I have no time for a course, so I'm going directly to the source. This experience with deafread.com has been so motivational for me that I feel the need to learn some sort of sign language, especially if the book provides me with the opportunity to speak and tell about Jordan's journey. Divided put me in contact with a deaf gentleman living in Rome who is married to a deaf woman...they speak four languages in their home - ASL, LIS, Italian and English. Unfreakingbelievable. Working on it!

Then.......I went to this private school here in Grosseto where Jordan eats lunch with his class every Friday because he has an extra music class in the afternoon. Guess who was sitting across from him??? That's correct - Martina-Marty. (aggressive witch!) (takes one to know one *wink*)

After this I headed for my Middle School lesson. The first question they asked when we sat down: "Jodi, do you know the musical group Queen?" Where the hell am I? (Did see We Will Rock You in London - going to Dublin this summer with students)

The second question: "What does Another one fussdaduss mean?" OH MY GOD!! It took me about two minutes to translate that to "Another One Bites the Dust" and suddenly I had visions of Scott Weller, my first love, dark black hair, blue eyes, and I roller skating around the gym of Church Lane Elementary School to that song. Remember the long rubix cube snake thing, yeah, he gave me one for my birthday. I never kissed him...one of my rare regrets in life. *Sigh* I told them that "to bite the dust" means "die." So, yes, throughout the entire lesson they would turn to each other and say, "Bite Dust." I made them write it down so they could at least say it correctly, I am a model teacher. Okay, I have to go there. The next question out of their mouth was, "Jodi, what does beach mean?" They meant "bitch." It's an Italian thing the inability to pronounce the short i vowel. "Shit" becomes "Sheet" etc. They made me laugh so hard that I took them out to Sweet Kiss for some gelato. I got a nutella milkshake


...KAREN...screw Steak and Shake - you ain't tasted nothin' til you've tasted a nutella milkshake! They are the best when you are PMS, can you believe I got my period a week early? Do you know how aggravating it is that I missed the opportunity to be a bitch for a week? Totally shocked me.

Anyway, the big moment of this post is actually this news. RALLY CAPS was reviewed by a ten year old girl, and this is what she had to say (really interesting!):
Inspirational story of kids, January 30, 2008
By Reader Views "www.readerviews.com" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

Reviewed by Brianne Plach (age 10) for Reader Views (1/08)

Do you love one sport more than any of the others? Jordan loves baseball and he thinks he is pretty good at it. He wants to make it onto the traveling team. Due to a tragic accident, he is unable to make it. Just when he thinks that his life will never be the same, he realizes his life is not the same, but could something good come out of bad?

Jordan ends up meeting another boy who has to live a hard life. But the other boy doesn't seem to make that big of a deal out of his disability. The boy has to wear a hearing aid! But even with a hearing aid and facing incredible odds, he still gets to play baseball. Never say the dream of playing baseball is impossible. With persistence, inspiration from unlikely places and determination, no mountain is too high to climb.

"Rally Caps" is a great book for baseball fans, both boys and girls. "Rally Caps" is an inspirational story for kids. I particularly liked this book because I too play softball. One of the other girls on my team last year had hearing aids in both of her ears. I was inspired by her and her determination to be a success. I couldn't help think about her when reading about Jordan. Don't let any thing keep you from playing your favorite sport. Play Ball!
I LOVE (emphasizing)that she called the cochlear implant a hearing aid because she identified the character in the story with a deaf friend who wears hearing aids. She "got" that the deaf character was the strong character...doesn't get much better than this!
I think I'm taking the day off tomorrow...