ASL Potluck Party

For our weekly meetup group we decided it would be fun to hold a potluck event at our house seeing Harley would not get home from work until almost 7 pm and the group meets in Bellevue at 7 pm. This way Harley could still participate and we get dinner out of the way too.

So we held an extremely successful asl potluck for the first time at our house with the new deck. I cooked up one of my all time favorites while growing up in upper Michigan: Porcupine Meatballs. I made a double batch (2 lbs of ground turkey) and they proved to be a hit as there were only 4 or 5 meatballs left over. It was a terrific spread! Everyone brought something different and some wonderful dishes!

In total there were about 15-16 of us there which is the largest turnout we have had for a meetup group yet. (LOL I guess the key here is that people like food. :o) ) Even some friends who live about 45 minutes away came to the event. One of them is hard of hearing and I met him in my refresher asl class last spring at the hearing speech and deafness center - HSDC. Both he and his girlfriend are taking asl classes at the HSDC right now. My other friend is just beginningto learn sign language from a book, the computer, and our meetup group but it does not work for her schedule to take a formal class.

One of our meetup group members is in high school but taking asl classes at the community college. She grew up with a very good friend who is Deaf. Her friend recently got a cochlear implant but is still a very good signer and uses sign in addition to what she gains from the CI. It was wonderful to have met her this evening. We also have another high school student in our meetup group who is hard of hearing. Like Sarah, Josh is taking asl classes at the community college. I believe both of them will have their two year degree by the time they graduate from high school. All three of them are very bright and hard working. I am impressed by their maturity and talent at signing!

After some great food and socializing, some of us enjoyed a nice soak in the hot tub. We are thinking of maybe making this a monthly event depending on Harley's schedule.