Turning A Deaf Ear To The World.

I have been deaf in my right ear almost since birth and it still never ceases to amaze me, that when I reveal this fact, people talk louder to me. If someone said they were blind in one eye, people wouldn't make pictures bigger for them The other thing they do that makes me laugh, is to ask if I wear a hearing aid. Um, I'm deaf in one ear, deaf as in a hearing aid would not work.

There are only a few times when I miss the hearing in one ear. The first is in bars or where there is a lot of mid-range background noise. It wreaks havoc on my good ear and no matter how loud a person talks to me I can not discern what they are saying, without reading their lips.

The next time is what I like to call, the shuffle. This happens when someone is walking next to me. I try to casually walk to the right of a person, but some people insist on being to my right, this ends up looking something like a bad tango. Usually I can resolve this by physically moving someone to my left.

When I'm on the phone. I can only hear the phone conversation and nothing else from the world around me. I remember an incident at work when someone was going crazy to get my attention. They were literally ready to kill me until they realized I could only hear what was going on, on the phone.

Lastly is when someone is trying to whisper in my bad ear. It's the whole, "What?", and turning my head that annoys me.

There are some advantages to my situation though. First when I sleep, I can turn a deaf ear to the world by turning my head on the pillow. I also am extremely proficient at reading lips and tend to stare at people's lips when they talk. A hint for the rest of you guys, women think you are really listening to them when you stare at their lips. Lastly If I want to ignore someone, I put them on my deaf side. This works particularly well at dinner parties.

You hear what I'm saying?