Today I was doing laundry, and there was this couple in there, and they were obviously having a good conversation. I was fairly deep in my work, and pretty much ignored them.

My clothes got dry, and their clothes got done in the drier soon afterwards, which was a good break in the conversation, so I went over and talked with them. Apparently the couple is from Missouri, coming back to the area after 30 years. It took them like 2 days (loooong time) to drive the distance, from Missouri to PA. I mentioned that I went to NTID/RIT and they were very impressed.

They were deaf, and all of that exchange happened in sign language. I told them soon after I started that I only remembered, a little sign. I think it was enough to make myself understood, if awkwardly. I also mentioned that I had taken a sign language course while I was at RIT (even though I don't have any deaf family.)

Even when my ASL skills were fairly new, I had no illusions about the depth of my knowledge - I knew I only had skills enough for a basic conversation. Now, I haven't used ASL in a real, even basic, conversation with someone probably in 2 years, so it was exciting to dust off the language skills and communicate with them. I think I made myself understood, and I got a lot of what they were trying to say (and, once they learned I only knew a little ASL they slowed down a little

Fun times... especially knowing that I'm one of the few people that can communicate with them (I know of a few deaf families in the area, but say, even generously, I'm one two or three dozen out of the 3000-4000 people in the area they could communicate with little frustration.)