Rock on!

Happy Autumn!  Almost a week late wishing that but better late than never. ;-) Before the month of September closes out, thought I'd post a blog entry.  There are so many audiologically-related happenings that go on, but I don't get a chance to write about them all.  Today marks one month that I've been at my fourth-year externship site.  See -- writing about my clinic site for my fourth & last year of the Au.D. degree program is something I need to do.  That will have to wait for another blog post. ;-) 

Last Friday I went to my very first concert! :-) Well, honestly I've seen Celine Dion perform live on four different occasions...three times in Las Vegas and once in Phoenix.  However I was informed by a friend I knew back in college that ol' Celine doesn't count as "having been to a concert".  Heh heh.  So he bought tickets to see one of his favorite rock bands play at a local dive bar and took me along.  I had contemplated taking ear plugs to protect my hearing, but I sacrificed the outer hair cells of my inner ears to get the full experience of a rock concert.  And get the full experience I did...I nearly got sucked into the mosh pit.  That thing is insane!  So I sacrificed my outer hair cells AND my toes, because I did get my footsies stepped on pretty good a couple of times even though I was on the outskirts of the crazy mosh pit. 

There were three bands that performed at this venue.  My favorite of the three was actually the opening band.  When they were on stage, ear geek me was totally checking out their ears and noticed they were not protected. :-(  Same with Band #2.  Then the headlining band started to set up, and my friend noticed the more expensive drum set compared to the first two bands.  Guess that's because he's a bit of a musician by night.  As for me, when the band members took the stage in a cloud of smoke & multicolored strobe lights, I noticed that each band member had on musicians earplugs. :-) That's how I ascertained that this band had money...for guy friend, it was the drum set.  Heh heh.  For more information on musicians earplugs, check out http://www.etymotic.com/hp/erme.html.  I totally was like "hmm, I wonder if they wore ER-25" to my friend in the car after the concert.  Other "ear geek" moments at the concert included trying to guessimate at what decibel the music playing was at (you know, without a sound level meter ;-P) and thinking to myself "OMG! TTS!" constantly throughout the night.  For non-ear geek folks, TTS is 'temporary threshold shift' in which hearing improves after initial impairment following exposure to high-level sounds.  Noise-induced hearing loss is 100% preventable, but there is no method for reversing it once it occurs.  So protect your ears!

I'm "Hear 4 U Always"...and even rocking out on occasion.  Next time though I'll be sure to bring some hearing protection devices. :-)  Tidbits from military life such as "lead by example" apply in my new 'professional' life.  Oh, and ear geek is the new chic. :-)