Communication barriers

[marcyp06]

My girlfriend and I have been together for almost a year now. I knew some minimal sign when we met and took a signing course at the beginning of our relationship. I do okay now, and she and I have no problems communicating when its just the two of us. She doesnt lip-read, so I sign 100% of the time (more SEE than ASL, and with a decent bit of fingerspelling). She has a bad habit of just talking and not signing around me because im hearing. Its quite ironic really- the hearing girl only signs and the deaf girl only talks. Anyways. I do okay talking with other people one on one as well as long as we're going at a slower pace and they are patient with me. But once im in a room full of deaf people having full fledged flying conversations... im screwed. I catch every 10th word if im lucky. I want to go to school and get into classes, because I would like to become an interpereter. But school isnt an option right now. I feel like ive reached a roadblock that I cant get around. Im not learning any more, and I truly belive its part of the strain on our relationship. Im scared that I will never learn enough to become anywhere near fluent; her culture is VERY important to her, which I fully support, so it worries me to think that she has to make so many accomodations for me. We have various relationship issues, like anyone does, but when you throw in the communication problems on top of it all, it just makes everything bigger.
Im not sure where to go from here. For people who have benn in deaf/hearing relationships where the hearing person was not a fluent signer (at least at the start) how did things turn out?