ASL name sign for the new President, Barack Obama

As you all know, in the past couple weeks I have been fully involved in learning ASL, and becoming a part of the deaf community. I even find myself signing when there is no reason to be doing so, and no one understands me anyway(you gotta practice sometime). Well today, upon the inauguration of the new president my ASL class was taught President Obama's name sign that will be generally accepted by the deaf community. When you become a part of the deaf community you are given a name sign that describes who you are, and allows a much simpler way to say your name. Mine for example is extending your pinkie and touching it to your left shoulder and then to your right shoulder. This is based on the sign for Cleveland,a reference to where I was born and raised, which is the same motion only with the 'C' hand shape instead of the 'J'. So when introducing myself I would sign "Hi, My name is Julie or (insert name sign). This is helpful because from now on, whenever someone wants to refer to me, instead of having to spell out my name every time(which can be tiring and confusing), they just make my name sign.
Well anyway, President Obama is pretty popular with the deaf community so they honored him with his very own name sign. I think the explanation is very cool.



(Don't worry, there are captions for the signing impaired)

BOOK BLOG!

I have created the blog for my book project. I'm not sure about the background, let me know what you think.

YAY BOOKS!

An Update Of Epic Proportions!

So November and December came and went with no postings. Sorry about that! So I guess I will catch everybody up as much as I can.
Let's start with All Hallows Eve. As you know Athens is supposed to be the place to be on Halloween, but I wasn't feeling it this year so I high-tailed it up to Kent to hang with my friends there. It was a fun time and everybody had a great time.
I don't have too many pictures but my favorite costume for sure was my friend John as himself in High School, and Leanna as Barbra Streisand

We all had a good time just being together and watching movies like 'Silent Night Deadly Night 2' that has memorable scenes like this.

Next thing that happened was finishing school for another quarter. It was alright, but I'm glad it's over. My grades weren't too bad, but not my best. Then there was thanksgiving that I spent with most of the Ohio fam. We ate awesome food at Monica and Matt's house. The next day Cecilia, Monica, and I went out on black Friday, and it was pretty packed. It was fun to see the hoards of people looking for a deal.
I didn't do too much else with my December. I went back to Chillicothe and tried to find an apartment and such and then came back home. I visited with friends and then left for UTAH!!!
I had such a good time visiting Rowie and Gabey! After napping through my first day there we watched Kung Fu Panda, and hung out like woah. On Christmas morning we all got together and opened our stockings and then restrained ourselves from immediately opening presents by making breakfast. We had a cute little Christmas tree that we borrowed from one of Rosa's neighbors.

After we had opened our presents I made some kickin' pizza.

Gabey liked the Pizza, and Rosa did too, but I don't have any awkward pictures of her eating it :)

But I do have a picture of her serenading Gabe and I.

So we had an amazing and generous Christmas filled with presents and chocolate covered oreos! Two days later Rosa and I totally painted these amazing pictures. Rosa did the princess daydreaming about trogdor the burnanator, and I did the fanciful unicorn.


Gabey and I went to Salt Lake to see temple square, it was soo pretty. We got the cliche temple picture, and we look good.

Also, there wer sooo many of these bag things with really detailed and amazing designs poked them with candles inside. They had a bunch of different languages, including brail, so I went on the hunt for sign language, and sure enough, yay!





The rest of the week was filled with good fun, good food, and good times. Rosa was going to take me skiing... but I freaked out and thought I would die so we went bowling instead. It was good and very safe. I pretty much had an amazing time and loved it there.

For New years I have almost no pictures because I left my camera at Christie's house. But yeah, I started out the night at Christie's and migrated to Kent closer to midnight. It was a mixed bag of emotions. It was a lot of fun, but the new year always has a way to make people cry. I have a video of our count down, but it's on my phone and you can't see anything anyway.
Well that was just a summery considering the huge amount of events the past two months, but it will have to do. Right now I am in Chillicothe and I start school Tuesday, and I'm apartment hunting tomorrow. I'll keep everyone updated.
Oh yea, I hate new years resolutions but I made one. I vowed to try and read 50 books next year. I don't think I will be able to do it, but it won't stop me from trying. I'll be blogging about the books and I'll post the website as soon as I make it so you can follow along!
This is where I would normally put a song, but I'll spare you all.