Safe & Sound in Printers Row

When Mike, Hanni and I decided to move from Urbana, Illinois to Chicago in 2003 we looked for a neighborhood that would be friendly, safe, and easy for Hanni and me to navigate.
That’s how we found Printers Row.
Printers Row is a tiny neighborhood in Chicago just south of the Loop. The buildings in our neighborhood were originally used by printing and publishing businesses.
Before electricity, printers used natural light to check their work, so the windows in neighborhood buildings are tall and wide. You know, to let light in. The ceilings are high, too, to accommodate old printing presses. Most of the buildings in Printers Row have been converted into residential lofts. There’s always a lot of activity up and down the street, so I feel safe. When I’m walking around with hanni, I feel like people are looking out for me.
Printers Row is close enough to the Loop that Hanni can walk me to my part-time job at Easter Seals and the weekly writing class I teach for senior citizens at the Chicago Cultural Center.

And so, the neighborhood feels safe, it’s easy to navigate. The last requirement: it had to be friendly.
Trust me, it is. In my previous post I told you about the champagne celebration at our local tavern. Now it’s time to tell you about our local bookstore.
Copies of “Hanni and Beth: Safe and Sound” arrived at Sandmeyer’s Bookstore Wednesday. Ulrich
Sandmeyer called me the minute the books arrived. Mike and I ran right down to admire the box load. One book had already sold by the time we got there – a neighbor had seen Ulrich pulling a copy out of the box and insisted on buying it right away.
“There’s not another book like it,” Ulrich said, marveling at the illustrations inside. “It’s going to sell very, very
well.” To that end, Ulrich immediately placed one copy of Safe & Sound in the front display window.
Ulrich owns the store with his wife Ellen — today she pushed that boxload of books on a pushcart to our friends Pat and Carol’s house on Michigan Avenue. Carol and Pat are the couple who watched Hanni while we were in Poland, you might remember my blog about how much Hanni loved her stay with them. Today Carol and Pat showed their generosity once again, hosting an open house to celebrate the publication of Hanni and Beth: Safe & sound. It was only when I sat down to write this blog post that I remembered: Carol and I met on the street! She had seen an article I wrote for the Chicago Tribune Sunday magazine and recognized me from an accompanying photo. She stopped me on the street afterwards to tell me how much she enjoyed the piece I’d written. We’ve been friends ever since.
I sat with Ellen Sandmeyer at the party, signing, Brailling, and rubber stamping Hanni’s pawprint into books for anyone who wanted to buy one. And lots of people wanted to buy one. Or two! or three! A woman from the writing class I teach even bought SEVEN — she’s in the Safe & sound Frequent Flyer Club now.
Neighbors were there, friends from my book club , my writing group, my senior citizen class came. My sister Cheryl surprised me by bringing Flo to the party — what a delight!
The event was wonderful. My neighbors are great. Once again I was reminded: Mike and I made the right decision when we decided to live in Printers Row.

Cheers!

Last week Mike, Hanni and I brought a copy of Safe & Sound down to Hackney’s, our local tavern. Jim — one of the owners — Showed the book off to everyone at the bar. I was so busy answering questions about the illustrator – “He lives in a farm house two hours north of Minneapolis.”, “No, I didn’t know him before. The publisher chose him.” “Hanni and I took a bus up there from Chicago, he watched us working together and sent sample drawings to Mike.” “Oil. each page is a painting. He did them in oil.” — that I didn’t notice Jim slip away downstairs.
When Jim re-emerged, he had a couple of bottles in hand. Champagne! Not only that, but real champagne glasses, too. Oo la la! Everyone in the bar that night celebrated with us.
Cheers to Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. And cheers to Hackney’s, too.

Hanni Unleashed

Every semester I give a guest lecture for a disability awareness class at DePaul University in Chicago. This semester, though, the class decided to come to me.
Twenty or so students piled into our apartment this afternoon to see where I live, how I manage in the house, and what my talking computer sounds like.
As an added bonus, they got to pet and play with a Seeing Eye dog. Hanni doesn’t wear her harness in the house – I know my way around, so I don’t need her to guide me. And when Hanni’s harness is off, she’s fair game – you can pet her, play with her, talk to her. The second her harness goes on again, though, she’s working. I ask people not to pet her or talk to her while she’s at work. Quoting Hanni from Safe & Sound:
“I like people, but they shouldn’t pet or talk to me while I’m working. That way, I can pay close attention to Beth. That way, we’ll be safe.”
Back to the DePaul students. I enjoyed having them over – they had lots of good questions. “How do you deal with trust? You have to trust a lot of people!” “Here’s a whimsical question: do you and other blind people dream differently than we do?”
A few students arrived early – one was thinking of majoring in journalism. It was fun to talk to her about writing, and her interest in journalism provides a segue to my next subject: my nephew Brian Miller is a writer, and he got a story published in an on-line magazine today!
Brian teaches English as a second language in South Korea –he has lots of interesting stories about life in Jeju. One of them was published today in World Hum. Brian and I found out about World Hum through my writer friend Tara Swords, her story “An Island in Costa Rica” was published there last year.
Obviously the editors at World Hum have good taste – congrats, Brian. Your aunt is very proud of you.
And now, it’s time to put Hanni’s harness on to take her out. Back to work –

Book People, Blind People, and Big (as in Adult-Size) People

Hanni and I gave a presentation in the BookKids department at BookPeople in Austin yesterday. I started the presentation by explaining that even though my eyes are open I can’t see. “When I was little, I went to school just like you – and then when I lost my sight I had to go to school and learn to do things all over again,” I told the kids.
Only trouble was, There were no kids in the audience — I had no idea that I was talking to a bunch of adults. Duh! It is so embarrassing now to think of how painstakingly (for the people in the audience, I’m sure!) I explained what Braille is. I encouraged the audience to try squeezing toothpaste onto a toothbrush with their eyes closed. I teased them, telling them they could borrow some of the Seeing Eye dog training methods to “train” their parents.
It wasn’t until I’d finished signing and paw-printing copies of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” afterwards that it dawned on me. I’d signed 20 books or so but didn’t talk to a single kid. “There were some kids mingling around,” the BookKids event planner told me. “But the audience was all adults!”
Well, adults and dogs, that is. A couple from Austin brought their Seeing Eye dogs along to the presentation, so Hanni had a little competition. That’s good for her – her head was getting big after those designer treats at the Renaissance Hotel!
Karen Thomas was there, too – she’s the editor of Dialogue Magazine. DIALOGUE is an international news magazine for people who are experiencing vision loss or are blind. It comes out in large print and on cassette, and Karen brought a copy of both formats for me. Guess what? “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound” is reviewed in the September/ October 2007 edition! I listened to the review — and the rest of the magazine — on my flight back to Chicago.
And now that I’m home, I’ve made a note to myself: in the future, I’ll start my presentations by asking the audience to say, hmmm, let me think. How about they say “Safe!” if they’re adults. “Sound!!” if they’re kids. Then at least I’ll know who I’m talking to!

Austin Loves Dogs, and Hanni Loves Austin

Hanni and I have stayed in plenty of hotels, but never before has a concierge offered us a gift bag…for the dog!
We’re at the Renaissance Austin Hotel – I gave a presentation about assistive technology at the Convio Summit yesterday, and tomorrow I’m giving a presentation about Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound in the Kids Department at BookPeople. BookPeople is the largest bookstore in Texas. We all know everything is bigger in Texas, so Yikes, Book People must be a pretty big place!
But back to Hani’s goody bag. Renaissance Austin Hotel is “small dog friendly” so it keeps a stash of goody bags on hand for canine guests. Hanni is not a small dog, of course, but her Seeing Eye status gets her in everywhere. Her goody bag was perfect for one of those toy-poodle-like dogs –a fancy paper bag, slick and shiny to the touch, tied at the top with a ribbon and everything! Inside I found a Mutt Mitt for easy “pick up” and a few treats for Hanni. The treats, I was told, were made by the restaurant’s pastry chef. But that wasn’t all – she also got a squeak toy (Hanni loves squeak toys) and a teeny-tiny rawhide bone.
Needless to say, Hanni loves this hotel.
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised at the goody bag. Mike, Hanni and I were lucky enough to be in Austin last June, and everywhere we went that weekend people – and businesses — were friendly and welcoming to dogs. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport even has a dog park! I
was so taken by Austin’s love of dogs after that June trip that I contacted Dog Fancy Magazine to see if they’d be interested in my writing a story about it. My article about Austin will appear in the January issue of Dog Fancy – look for it on newsstands in late November.
For now, I’ll reach in that goody bag for a Mutt Mitt — time to go out with Hanni before her goodnight snack. Hope she doesn’t get too used to these homemade dog treats – I can assure you, I won’t be making these at home!

Signing Safe & Sound in DC

          “Is your hand tired?” “You doing okay?” “Got writer’s cramp yet?”
Those are the questions I was getting last night at the Easter Seals national Convention. It wasn’t until Hanni and I got back to our hotel room that I realized why: I’d been signing books for two hours!
Here’s the deal: I work part-time for Easter Seals Headquarters in Chicago. I’m the “interactive Community Coordinator” there – a fancy-schmancey title that means I moderate the Easter Seals Autism Blog. You have Easter Seals to thank – or blame – for this blog I’ve started about my new book. It was at Easter Seals that I learned to use the blogging tools.
When Easter Seals found out Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound was coming out at the same time as their national convention this year, they arranged with my publisher to produce a special Easter Seals edition. The special edition has the same cover design as the regular book, but the inside book flap is different – it describes my connection with Easter Seals. The back of the special edition features the Easter Seals logo and explains “Vision 2010”: Easter Seals’ goal to serve 5 million people with disabilities annually by the year 2010.
I spoke at the Easter Seals President’s Council event last night — President’s Council members each give $1000 to Easter Seals annually. After my speech, each President’s Council member was given a copy of the special Easter Seals edition of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & sound” as a thank you gift. Members stood in line for me to sign and Braille my name into their books — Hanni’s paw print was rubber-stamped onto each copy, too.
It was such a happy occasion, it never occurred to me we’d been sitting there signing for two hours! Hanni noticed, though – by the end of the night her paw was in my hand, she was begging me to go home with her. Or in this case, to go back to the hotel room. And trust me, when we got there, we both slept very well. You know…safe & sound!

Be Prepared: Wisconsin Book Festival

More than 30 people gathered at the Madison Children’s Museum Friday night to hear me talk about “Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound.” A lot of the kids in the audience were Girl Scouts. By attending the presentation I did with Hanni these scouts not only made progress on their “Books” badge, but they got a headstart on their “Disability Awareness” badge, too!
The audience had tons of questions during the q and a part of my session, everything from “How does it feel to be blind?” to “How do you pick up the dog’s poop?”
My sister Marilee was with me at the event — she had flown in from orlando to chauffeur Hanni and me to Madison. We had a great time, as always, and Saturday morning came too soon. We had a quick breakfast, then took off for O’Hare Airport. I kissed Marilee goodbye there — she was spending the rest of the weekend with Flo. Flo’s our mom, and when I think of it, Flo was my Girl Scout leader.
I am typing to you from seat 18D on our flight to Washington, DC. Hanni is sleeping at my feet. Well, her head is at my feet — her bottom is tucked away under the seat in front of us It’s good she’s resting up — we have a busy few days ahead of us at the Easter Seals National Convention. Stay tuned…!

Land of Lincoln, Land of Libraries

Just got back from Springfield, Illinois where Hanni and I gave a presentation at the Illinois Library Association Conference. My friend Jenny chauffeured me to Springfield and back. She works at The Book store in Glen Ellyn, IL. The Bookstore received a special advance order of “Hanni and Beth: Safe & sound” – Jenny carted a boxload along to sell after my presentation.
It was a 3+ hour drive, and we arrived in Springfield Tuesday night just in time to grab some snacks at the hotel bar. And guess what? Wine and beer is cheaper in Springfield than it is in Chicago. We had fun! Hanni enjoyed her time, too, snatching the kernels of popcorn that’d fall on the floor from time to time.
The next morning Jenny, Hanni and I visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum before heading back to the conference to give my talk. My session was called “More Than Meets the Eye: Teaching Children about Blindness” and librarians from all over the state were in the audience. I was especially happy to find out that some of the audience members were from the Library of Congress Talking Book Service.
I first found out about the National Library Service Talking Book program back in 1985, while I was in the hospital enduring surgeries the doctors hoped would save my eyesight.
A hospital social worker brought me a big plastic box one day—it was the size and weight of a Chicago phone book. Twenty years later, I still use that oversized tape recorder from the Library of Congress to listen to books.
All I have to do to get books on tape is email my Talking Book librarian to order them. The National Library Service tapes are mailed to me in special containers. When I finish listening I simply flip an address card on the container over and slip the whole thing into any normal mailbox to return it free of charge.
An essay I wrote earlier this year about the Talking Book Program won a contest in Woman’s Day magazine. The essay is featured on the American library Association’s “I Love Libraries” web site — you can check it out at www.ilovelibraries.org .
I am, and have always been, a huge fan of books and libraries, and it was a great feeling to be in Springfield surrounded by the people in Illinois who make the library system run as smoothly as it does.

Law & Order: Special Dog Unit

Last Spring a cab driver refused to pick me up in front of the Hilton on Michigan Avenue. “I’m not taking her with that dog,” he said, then sped away.
The doorman took down the cab’s license number, then told me what it was. I got into the next cab and recorded the number onto my handheld tape recorder. Once I got to work I phoned the City of Chicago Department of Consumer Services to file a complaint.
Last Friday was our day in court.
Mike walked outside with Hanni and me Friday morning to hail a cab for us. I still can hardly believe what happened next. A cab slowed down, the driver looked past Mike and saw me standing there with Hanni. “No dog,” he said.
“It’s a Seeing Eye dog,” Mike explained. “A service dog.”
“No dog,” the driver said.
Mike was angry. “You’re going to court!” he shouted at the driver
“I don’t care,” the driver said, then sped away.
So my Seeing Eye dog and I were refused a cab ride on my way to testify against a cab driver who refused to give us a ride. Who needs fiction?
Mike took this driver’s license number down; I’ll be calling the city next week.
But for now, I needed to focus on the court case at hand. The cab driver I’d accused of refusing us at the Hilton had hired an attorney, and the attorney did everything he could to twist my story around. How far were you from the curb? How long did the cab sit there before it took off? You say the cab driver said he wouldn’t take you with the dog. Did the doorman and cab driver say anything after that? What did they say? You don’t know? How is it that you heard the cab driver say he wouldn’t take you with the dog, but then you couldn’t hear if they said anything to each other after that?
That last question was an easy one. “He was emphatic when he said he wouldn’t take me with the dog,” I said. “It was easy to hear him.”
The doorman testified by phone. I had to leave the room for that part, but I found out later that our stories didn’t jive. He told the court that it was a very busy day – I’d said the cab had time to sit there for 30 seconds before speeding away. The doorman couldn’t remember exactly what the cab driver looked like. “It was hard to see him through the partition,” he explained. That means it would have been hard for me to hear the cab driver through the partition, too – How could I have heard him say he wasn’t taking the dog.
And then it turned out this cab doesn’t have a partition at all. The cab driver’s attorney suggested the doorman got the wrong license number, it wasn’t this guy.
The only problem with that was that the cab driver had already given a statement that he didn’t see the dog when he’d refused me a ride. So he’d already admitted to not giving me a ride. But he said he’d been driving a cab since 1993, in those years he’d carried hundreds of Seeing Eye dogs and plenty of pet dogs in his cab. His ex-wife and her mother had a dog when they lived together. What kind of dog, he was asked. A German shepherd, he thought. He got along fine with that dog.
The doorman had testified that someone was standing right behind me that day with a lot of luggage. The attorney suggested the cab driver was so focused on the prospect of a big fare to the airport that he looked right past me.
In the end the judge ruled in our favor. “A hotel doorman looks at hundreds of cab drivers a day,” he said. The fact that the doorman wasn’t able to describe a cab driver who pulled up in front of the Hilton six months ago wasn’t enough to throw out the case. The judge said it was very nice to hear that the cab driver had picked up dogs before, but that didn’t really have much to do with what had happened in front of the Hilton Hotel in April.
The driver was found guilty of two charges. The first was for simply refusing to pick up a passenger of any sort. For that, he was fined $200. He was also found guilty of refusing to pick up a person with a service dog. For that he was fined $500 and had his license suspended for 29 days.
I did not do a dance of joy when this was over. Thing is, I really like cab drivers. They’re hard workers. I like chatting with them when I’m sitting in back. I tip them well. I feel a sort of bond with them – many of them are minorities, like me. Many of them are qualified for other jobs but have had to settle for something else. Like me. I know driving a cab was this guy’s livelihood. I didn’t like the idea of his license being suspended.
But I don’t like being refused a ride, either.
I don’t really want to go to court again, but I’m going to go ahead and file a complaint about the guy who didn’t pick Hanni and me up on the way to court Friday. I have a feeling cab drivers talk to each other a lot. If word gets out that drivers are getting their licenses suspended for refusing a service dog, well, maybe I won’t have to file complaints anymore.

Warsaw Weekend

Whatta wonderful Warsaw weekend!  Weather was warm, we walked wherever we went. We witnessed where warriors waged war. We wandered where World War widows wept.
Wedding? Well, we waltzed, whirling wildly, wowing wedding-goers. Whew! Week-end, we were weary, worn-out, weak. Wonder why? Wodka.

Okay. Enough. But if you wondered how desperate I felt during that TEN HOUR FLIGHT from Warsaw to Chicago, now you know. I killed time dreaming up “w” words to describe the trip.

Yeesh.

The flights back and forth were well worth it, though. Friends from all over Europe met up with us in Warsaw, most of them were people I’d met 20+ years ago through my job working with foreign students. I lost that job when I lost my sight – that was before the Americans with Disabilities Act. That career ended, but the more important thing– these friendships – have endured.

And the wedding, of course, was fabulous. The service took place at city hall, where a woman translated the Polish vows to German. The reception was at the Palac Kultury i Nauki, Palace of Culture and Science. The Palace was built by the Soviets in the 1950s as a “gift” to Polish society. A web site about the Palace says the decision to combine traditional Polish ornamentation with Soviet architecture inspired Warsawans to baptize the Palace as “an elephant in lacy underwear.” I didn’t hear anyone at the reception calling it that, but then again – I wouldn’t have understood their Polish!

And so, like I said in the “w” paragraph, Mike and I had a wonderful time. That “w” paragraph is entirely true, in fact. Oh, okay, except for one thing. Although we danced — a lot! — at the wedding, we didn’t waltz.

As for Hanni, she spent the week in a Chicago palace – with our friends Pat and Carol on Michigan Avenue. When Mike and I walked into their condo to pick Hanni up, the star of “Safe & Sound” did not bound up to cover me with kisses. She did come up to greet me, but then quickly retreated to her spot in her new living room to chew on her Nyla bone. She guided me home safely, but I wouldn’t use the word “overjoyed” to describe her work.
I’m not worried about this – who can blame her? In the end, I think Hanni enjoyed her vacation as much as Mike and I did!