A Long Couple Of Days

[chelseajmunoz]

I've been forgetting to mention that I haven't really kept up with watching the Netflix original show Marvel's Daredevil. I've watched a few episodes of that particular show with a friend of mine here and there but I don't mind if I miss entire episodes of that particular show. I just can't get into Marvel's Daredevil like my friend had thought I would. This week has been the busiest week that I've had in a long time. Yesterday morning I woke up fairly early so that I could go to the college i'm going to be attending to take the English section of the assessment that I'd been talking a lot about in my blog entries lately. When I'd arrived to the OSD though I discovered that that particular department at the college did not have the assessment in Braille as I'd hoped they would. When I asked why they didn't have the reading/writing portion of the English exam in Braille I was told that the college I'm going to be attending had just gotten a new computer software to use for this particular standardized testing. So I was the lucky person to try JAWS on the PC and see if I could at least read through the assessment independently. It turned out that JAWS let me fill out the demographic information about myself as well as my student ID number. However the reason that JAWS read that part of things well was because those things were done on the internet browser Google Chrome. When it came to doing the actual assessment part of things though JAWS didn't read anything at all. The only thing that JAWS kept repeating was "Blank. Blank. Blank. Blank. Blank. Blank." So I then turned JAWS off and as soon as I'd turned that particular screen reader off I was booted out of the online system that I was taking the assessment on. At that point I didn't want to mess with a screen reader anymore so I had one of the people at the Assessment Center log me back into the system that I was doing the assessment on. Once I'd been logged back into said assessment software I realized that I had no choice but to have my reader read everything to me that was on the assessment (including the punctuation and lack thereof). I was incredibly overwhelmed trying to go through an assessment that way because I know myself and I know that I don't retain information that I have to listen to, especially when I'm having to try and remember details about passages then answer questions about those passages. I don't know if there are enough words in the English language (or in any other language for that matter) to describe what an awful feeling it was for me to not have the tools I needed in order for me to be successful on the English portion of the assessment. It's no surprise though that because I had to try and memorize every bit of the information on said assessment I didn't do well at all. When my reader read the results of that part of the assessment I was livid!! I knew that my skills and knowledge of how to write, how to properly punctuate things and how to use correct grammar were far beyond what the results of the assessment dictated. Because according to the assessment I was placed in reading comprehension and some sort of writing class. Once my reader had read those results to me I immediately told him that I wanted to talk to the head of the OSD because I was unhappy with the results I'd gotten. So that's what I did: I talked to the head of the OSD (who also happens to be blind) and I told him straight up that the situation I'd unexpectedly been put in was not fair at all. I then told him that I was certain that my skill level for reading as well as writing was far beyond what the assessment results claimed they were. So he told me that the assessment could be taken again and whichever time I score the highest results in reading and writing would be the assessment that the college would keep in my records. However the fact that I didn't succeed at something that I know perfectly well how to do was a big downer for me. I felt like shit about what had happened. In fact I told a friend of mine that the fact I didn't have the tools I needed to be successful when I went to college several years ago was exactly what made me stop going to college in the first place. And then the fact that yesterday I'd done horribly on the English portion of an assessment was yet another reinforcement of how college was not for me. Yet the friend of mine who I'd been talking to about that particular experience helped talk me down by helping me remember that what had happened at the college yesterday was not my fault in any way. The same friend also reminded me that I could take my note-taker that is called a BrailleSense with me to the college whenever I chose to take the English portion of the assessment again. Shortly after I'd finished having that particular discussion with said friend, I asked said friend if he thought it would be too pushy for me to contact AIRA again considering the fact that I'd emailed that particular company within the last few days. My friend told me that contacting said company would show that particular company that I'm interested to participate in what that particular company is doing for blind people. So after my friend had encouraged me to contact AIRA again I Googled that particular company's phone number. When I called AIRA, that particular company's automated system gave me different options to choose from regarding why I was calling said company. So I chose to push the number on the phone that would put me through to an AIRA agent. However I didn't want to wait on hold forever so I then decided to leave a voicemail with AIRA instead of waiting on hold for an AIRA agent to come onto the phone. Because at that time I honestly wasn't in the mood to talk to someone from AIRA because I was still mad about what had happened earlier in the day. However as soon as I'd left a voicemail with that particular company a friend of mine encouraged me to call AIRA back and speak with an agent because doing so would help get my mind off of the shitty part of that day. Given that I knew that that particular friend of mine was right in saying what he'd said to me I called AIRA back immediately. The AIRA agent I spoke with informed me that I could find information on AIRA's website about what positions that particular company had opened at any given time. I then told her that I hadn't seen that particular option when I'd checked AIRA's website the first time but that I'd definitely go back to AIRA's website and check for that option again. The lady I spoke with then told me that if I found a position that I wanted to apply for with AIRA I'd just need to click on that particular job opening posting on AIRA's website and follow the instructions that said link would give me. I thanked her for her help and that was the end of hers and my conversation with one another. After I'd gotten off the phone with her though I logged onto AIRA's website using my iPhone. I then located the section of said company's website that would show me that AIRA was hiring people. And once I'd clicked on that particular section of AIRA's website I was able to see that said company had posted job openings that said company had available. None of the positions that that particular company had open though were things that I could apply for. That was kind of disappointing but at least I'd found exactly where I need to go to keep up-to-date with AIRA's employment possibilities. Shortly after I'd finished looking into AIRA's employment possibilities I thought of something else I could do to express my interest in AIRA: in one of the YouTube videos I'd watched about AIRA there was a guy who's kind of well-known within the blindness community who works for AIRA. So I thought of him and how in that particular YouTube video I'd watched of him explaining AIRA he'd given his email address in case people wanted to contact him. So once I'd thought of the fact that I could reach out to him I did so. In the email I'd sent him I introduced myself to him and shared a little bit of my story with him. In the same email I'd sent him I also shared the story of how I'd first heard of him which was that when I'd first moved to San Antonio Texas several years ago I met a guy who was interviewing blind people for a project that he was doing on how blind people perceive the world. The guy I'm talking about who works for AIRA now also happened to be one of the people who this guy interviewed about how he perceived the world as a blind person. I actually transcribed the audio files of the guy who works for AIRA when he'd been interviewed by the guy who was doing a project on how blind people perceive the world which was pretty neat. Because now I can say I knew about this guy when he was doing great things somewhere in Texas. Although I also was interviewed by the guy who was doing a project on how blind people perceive the world. So in the email that I'd sent to the guy who works for AIRA I also shared that bit of information with him: that I'd been interviewed by the guy who was doing a project on how blind people perceive the world. Shortly after I'd written the guy who works at AIRA a thoughtful email I checked my email. It turned out that I'd received an email from the lady from Apple who was the Senior iTunes Advisor that was on my case about how to unsubscribe from the job posting emails that I currently receive from Apple. In the email the lady had sent me she'd suggested that I block the email address that those emails are coming from and filter those particular emails. In the same email the Apple employee had sent me ,the lady also informed me that she'd continue looking into things for me if the information she'd come up with wasn't helpful in resolving my issue. I immediately replied to her email to let her know that those emails from Apple that I want to unsubscribe from are legitimately from Apple because I'd subscribed to receive those emails on Apple's website last year. A little while after I'd responded to the email I'd received from the Apple employee I looked for my BrailleSense so that I wouldn't have to hassle with looking for said piece of technology at the last minute in the morning. Fortunately I found my BrailleSense packed away in a little backpack that I'd put all of my electronic devices into. Thankfully I'd also packed all of the wires to said electronic devices into said little backpack. However I couldn't seem to find the charger to my BrailleSense which was quite frustrating. Fortunately though I used the only charger that looked like it could be plugged into my BrailleSense to see if said electronic device would charge overnight. Because for some reason even when I'd let my BrailleSense charge for a little while, nothing happened. All that my BrailleSense would do was reset itself when I gave the device the command to do so. I woke up fairly early this morning so that I could go to the college I'm going to be attending and retake the English portion of the assessment. Once I'd gotten up I checked whether my BrailleSense had stopped being a PITA. And although said electronic device seemed to be working correctly at first I quickly discovered that when I'd turned on the device, my BrailleSense would stay stuck on the "file manager" part of the BrailleSense's program menu. Given that I didn't have much time to problem-solve what might be wrong with said device I waited until I'd arrived at the college to look into my BrailleSense's issue further. Shortly after I'd gotten ready though I called an Uber to come pick me up. Fortunately an Uber driver came to pick me up not too long after I'd called for a ride. Once I'd gotten into the Uber driver's car though she had to pick up someone else before dropping me off at the college I'm going to be attending. That particular Uber driver I'd had was not very talkative at all. Sometimes it's fine to me when the Uber drivers I have aren't talkative because I don't always feel like being Chatty Kathy to people (no matter who those people may be). But sometimes I feel a little sad in the moment that I want to talk to an Uber driver and he or she doesn't want to talk to me. Once the Uber driver had dropped me off at the college I'm going to be attending though I felt ready to conquer the world. I felt happy about being at the college I'm going to be attending. I felt happy about the fact that I was taking control of a situation that I didn't like the outcome of the first time. So when I walked into the OSD I told the people in that particular department of the college as well as my reader that I'd brought a device with me that would allow me to Braille the entire English assessment so that I could get a much better grade on said assessment than I'd gotten the previous day. Then once I'd gotten into the room that said college uses as a testing/assessment room for people I got my BrailleSense out of my backpack. I immediately plugged the BrailleSense's charger into a wall outlet at the college. I then tried resetting the BrailleSense a few times. Nothing changed when I did either of those things so I unplugged the BrailleSense's charger from the BrailleSense itself. Once I'd unplugged the BrailleSense's charger from the actual device I explored the BrailleSense thoroughly. I figured out that at the top right corner of the BrailleSense there's a button that locks the device. And vice versa: if a person pushes said button at the top right corner of the BrailleSense the opposite way, the BrailleSense unlocks itself. However I'd forgotten what the button at the top right corner of the BrailleSense even did because I hadn't used said device since sometime last year. The last time I'd used said device might have even been when I was at WSB in Little Rock Arkansas from late March to early/mid June of the same year. So anyway I'd forgotten what the button at the top right corner of the BrailleSense did until I'd figured out this morning that my BrailleSense had been locked. And how I'd actually figured this out was because I didn't give up on my BrailleSense problem-solving adventure. And when I got home I felt much better than I'd felt the previous day. Shortly after I'd gotten home I checked my email. It turned out that I'd received an email from the Apple employee who's looking into whether a person can unsubscribe from the job-related emails that Apple's job postings website sends out when people create job agents for his or herself. In the email the Apple employee had sent me she'd found an article that talked about how to unsubscribe from the general emails that people can receive from Apple (whether people want to receive emails from Apple about news on said company, software updates that said company is working on or any number of other things that somehow relate to Apple). So I clicked on the link that she'd given me even though I suspected that said link would not be what I was looking for. And sure enough said link was not what I was looking for. The link the Apple employee had sent me only showed people how to unsubscribe from the general types of emails that Apple could send to said people if said people subscribed to those emails. So after I'd looked at the link that the Apple employee had sent me I replied to said email to let her know what I'd discovered. This is so fucking frustrating! Ugh. A little while after I'd replied to the Apple employee's email I then read an email from Getting Hired. In the email that said agency had sent me I was informed that said agency has a new website now. So after I'd read that particular email from Getting Hired I sent a DM to Getting Hired to ask if my account for said agency had been deleted. In the same DM to Getting Hired I also told said agency that I was aware of their new website but that I no longer wanted to have an account with said agency. So in the same DM I'd sent to Getting Hired I also asked if said agency's staff could delete my account for me or whether I'd have to create a new profile on Getting Hired's new website then close my account myself. As my blog readers can probably tell I haven't had much time this week to devote to reading for pleasure. So hopefully tomorrow I can continue to read Braving The Wilderness: The Quest For True Belonging And The Courage To Stand Alone because reading for pleasure is one of my most favorite activities to do in the world. But I have an early day tomorrow morning so I should really go to bed now.