QueenAlpo Who?
The Short Version:
Deaf. Feminist. Queer-Minded. Snarkmom. Pagan-wanna-be. Cuer. Signer. Writer. Believer. Lover. Liar. Bullshit-cutter. Aspiring Yogini. Life-Dancer. Indian in a past life. Human.
The Long Version:
My name is Allison Polk. I live in my own personal soap opera, and blogging about it keeps me sane. When I was 20, I got pregnant and then Leah (aka my favorite mistake) came to live with me and her father in suburban Maryland outside of DC. Now I'm getting close to 30, only now beginning a journey into singlehood, and doing it while finishing up my MFA in creative writing.
Becoming a mother at such a tender time in my life has shaped me in ways I’d never imagined. Childhood dreams got put on hold, revised, and ultimately trashed. And then I found other life fantasies that were weirder and kinkier than anybody could imagine. But they’re mine, and I like them.
When Leah was about fifteen months old, I got fed up with her pediatrician, who insisted there was something wrong with my baby’s language. Since I'm Deaf and very contentedly so, I figured she was being another ignorant hearing pediatrician who didn’t recognize the validity of American Sign Language as a bona fide language and whisked Leah off to the audiologist to prove her wrong. I’ve been kicking myself in the ass ever since. Now we’re a bilingual family, primarily communicating in ASL, but also using cued English, with which I grew up.
Blame the "Alpo" on a high school boyfriend. He thought he was being cute. He was cute. Until he decided my best friend was cuter, that is, and ran away – twice – to see if she would go out with him. She said no. Yay for karma.
