Monday, April 25, 2011

Dear L.A.

I love you so!
I love that you hold so many memories, friends and family in your hands.
Thank you for showing me a glimpse of freedom on this long weekend.
Thank you for giving me a break from my reality of worries, Aspergers, teenage depression, anger and mommy duties.
Thank you for allowing me to see all of my brothers and sisters in one place, all together again.
Thank you for the added surprise of my brother Byron coming in from St. Louis.
Byron, Dad, Me and Ward Jr. (Kevin and Sheila MIA)

Karsen, Me, Ward, Friend, Mary, Byron, Kevin, Dad on Dad's 82nd! 
Thank you for giving me time with my 82 year-old father for his birthday.
For seeing him alert, alive, still flirting with women, for listening to the slew of curse words that come out of his mouth.
Dad -Flirting with the Laker Girls!
For the very strange "prayer" he said over our meal in which he says, "Whatever you do...love yourself first and grow up to be like me!" (By the way, God was nowhere in this prayer).
Thank you for taking me out dancing and for me seeing my old friends and my high-school prom date.  (Wow! that was exciting.  For a while there, I forgot who I was.)
Me, Prom Date, and middle school friend. Fun!!!!
 Jenny and Mary
 Rebecca

Sister Sandy

Thank you for the best massage ever from Ma Lee, this tiny Asian women (who darn near gave me a happy ending).
Thank you for the time, conversations and laughter that I shared with my girilfriend of 23 years.  Love you forever!

My Cutie-pie Nephew!
Thank you for allowing me to spend time getting to know my niece and especially, my nephew of 3 years.  (Wow! That boy can talk!)
Thank you for the hospitality of all who accommodated me in your lovely homes.
Thank you for all of my homies who drove miles to see me -if only for a short visit.
Thank you for the lovely weather you gave me during my visit, the sunny days and the cool nights.

It was Perfection!

I love you L.A.

I will be back soon.

Oh...L.A. you can keep your traffic!  It's the only thing that you have that truly sucks!

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Comments (9)

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Adelaide Dupont's avatar - Go to profile

Adelaide Dupont · 285 weeks ago

Dear Karen,

And for those of us who knew and appreciated these points in high school to a greater or lesser extent - always good to have a refresher and feel them through the current and future generations who we survived to be able to see.

I especially appreciated points 5, 7 and 10.

And young women not settling or settling down yet is a good thing.

"It's never too late to live our dreams" - but it may be too early for some of them!

And 8 of course.
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nicole · 243 weeks ago

Your heart and vulnerability can be felt in your words. The dedication of being someone's "person" is a gift, but can be draining. Thank you for identifying it for others to know they are not alone.
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Risa's avatar

Risa · 230 weeks ago

As always, awesome.
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LAH's avatar

LAH · 221 weeks ago

Glad you are finally getting some peace.
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Maira L. Coral's avatar

Maira L. Coral · 216 weeks ago

Dear Karen:
I was looking for information for my Multi-Genre Disability Research Project from my Early Childhood Special Education class on the web, when suddenly I came across your blog. I started reading this out of curiosity and I want to tell you that as you said yourself, you will not be Amanda Gorman, but you managed to make me shed some tears, perhaps because I felt totally identified with your words, especially in the part that you speak of your son. My son also has Asperger's syndrome, he is 19 years old and he is in the second semester of College. Also like yours, he takes classes from home, likewise my eldest daughter is also taking college classes from her room. At the same time, that I work as a preschool teacher from my kitchen through a computer, my husband sleeps in the room during the day because he works at night. Also in the afternoons I myself take virtual school classes. I am a 51-year-old Latin woman who began to learn the English language as adult, so maybe you find some deficiencies in my writing, however, I was very moved by how proud you express yourself about your son. Referent your mother, I liked the humorous tone that you give when your talk about her, so I did not want to miss this opportunity and stopped my assignments for a moment to let you know that your words do make a difference, since they reach the heart of at least those who have opportunity to read you. I want confess you that is the most long I have written to someone I don't know, because your words inspired me, thank you...
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Gavin Bollard · 209 weeks ago

Hi Karen,

Thanks for this post. I've been very distracted of late and so this was how I found out about our friend Kate. Kate's struggles were very real but they were so constant and so wide-ranging that it was difficult for people around her to address them. I think it's going to take a while longer for me to process all this.

I learned so much from Kate because she was always quick to point out the many injustices in the world. In her glory days, she was very much a crusader and she cared for everyone. Over the years, as her situation took its toll, I came to realise that it was the fact that she couldn't be put in a single specific category, that made the system fail her. She needed help that they weren't set up to provide.

She needed more care and she needed to be less alone. I'm so sorry that this has happened.

For a long while we were corresponding almost every day but a couple of months ago, I realised that she had become so stressed that nearly every interaction I had with her was starting to trigger her. I backed away to give her a bit more space. She only had a little time that she could stand to be online and there were too many things that she wanted to do in that time. I thought that by taking a step back, she could reach out to more people who might be geographically closer and able to assist.

Kate was a beautiful soul and she will be sorely missed by all of us.
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Spoil your cat · 121 weeks ago

Religion is usually a good thing, but not when it's extreme. In a religious community, there's usually less crime and drugs, but everything isn't good when it's intense and extreme.

Many of these living arrangement aren't good, and many of the people who run those places really don't have the residents' best interest at heart. Those places are like old age homes and foster homes, where you sometimes hear horror stories. They're hard to trust. But then there are good ones, of course.

The best thing for an autistic adult is either to go on living at home or working and renting an apartment and living independently, but that isn't always an option.
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Duncan · 112 weeks ago

I have a few friends who turned to religion due to the adversity of autism and special needs - and some who went the other way, seeing that no sane, kind god could do this to someone. In everything I do I try to at least think through the option of "what if I'm wrong?"

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