Black or Red Ear "Friday"

The beginning of my week was really terrible. My youngest daughter was sick and I had to take her to the hospital because she was having problems breathing.  I had to sit in the emergency room for several hours early in the morning listening to a very loud breathing machine, alarms and intercoms.  I actually read an article this week that some hospitals can get up to 80-90 dBs, which is counterproductive for patients trying to heal.  I have problems with loud noises because of hearing recruitment.  You are welcome to read more about it on my main blog at http://www.myworldofsilence.blogspot.com/ -- just search for the keyword “hearing recruitment”.  My mastoid is still healing from a massive infection I had in June, and as a result my ears get irritated quickly - at least the left ear does.  On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I was still recovering from both work and the hospital visit, but at least I had the day off work and could wear my earplugs.  But I also had rush to get things organized for Thanksgiving to serve dinner for my family and my in-laws.  

 For the most of Thanksgiving I didn’t wear my hearing aids.  I didn’t wear them for a few reasons. We had music in the background and my kids and wife have high pitched voices, which sometimes bother my ears.  I had to rely mostly on lipreading, although wearing hearing aids has made me lazy.  We had a friend of the family over who is from a different country. He speaks English very well but his dialect made it difficult for me to follow the conversation.  I also  wanted to wear my earplugs because my oldest daughter decided we were going to do something new that night. . . .

YEP!  We were going to experience Black Friday.  We already did our Christmas shopping but wanted to be a spectator and see what other people do during the mad rush.  We chose to go to a mall rather than an individual store, in the hope of avoiding the worst of the insanity.  I have never seen so many people in one place at one time.  It is sort of like going to Disneyland and waiting in line for every ride for at least an hour.  I couldn’t even get any coffee.  We only went to two stores and then came home.  Elizabeth, my daughter, got a good deal on a Harry Potter shirt and I got a nice dress shirt at Macy’s.  The mall was really loud but it was a good thing my ears were in the BLACK for BLACK FRIDAY.