Hello Lover! (I say to my blog in my Sarah Jessica Parker -Sex-In-The-City Voice). I've missed you so. So glad you could come out and play with me today.
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I haven't been able to write since Monday of this week. I've have really missed my outlet. My writing was replaced by something even better. My "Bestie" is in town for a visit. She came along with my god-daughter and their doggie, a little mini-Yorky named Loppi. They came to keep me company while half of my crew is out of town. One might say she came to help me from completely falling apart or totally loosing it by having to spend all that time alone with Red, listening to his non-stop complaints, and requests, and pleas of boredom.
Movie camp started this week for Red. It is the same "Script-to-Screen" camp offered by the Austin Film Festival, that he took last year. He actually asked to be signed up this year. It's an afternoon session, which made me believe I would have no trouble getting him there on time...NOT! He is still slow as hell when it comes to getting ready. I really do not think he knows the meaning of hurry, quickly, or on-time.
I wish I could tell you how it's going, but I can't get much out of him.
"How did it go today son?"
"Fine."
"What did you do? What did you learn?"
"I don't know."
"You can't tell me one single thing that you talked about."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Oh. I see. Well, if you can't tell me one thing you learned, it makes me think you didn't learn anything. If you're not learning anything, I guess I shouldn't waste my money sending you next year."
"What?! What do you mean you won't send me next year? O.K. uh we worked on our script today."
"Oh, great! What's your script about? Did you present any of your ideas?"
"No...I don't have any ideas."
"You told me about several ideas last week. What happened to those?"
"Probably no-one would like them."
"How would you know that if you don't present them?"
"Well, what's it about?"
"I don't know...I guess it's about a bully chasing someone around the school."
"That's all you can tell me?"
"I dont' really like talking to you about it."
Wow! From there the subject moves on to when I'm going to take him to Six Flags...This is so not anytime soon. Especially, since we're already in the 100's here in Central Texas and will be for the foreseeable future. Not to mention a zillion other reasons why he doesn't really deserve to go.
"You made me waste my money on that season pass, because you knew you weren't going to take me."
Yeah...I really held a gun-to your head and threatened you into buying that Season Pass.
I am happy to report that Red had an old friend come out of the woodwork this week. He met this young man in their first year of middle school. They remained in touch even after Red changed schools for a while...but when Kevin (let's call him) got busy with sports and new friends, we stopped hearing from him. Lord knows Red did not make the effort to stay in touch either. The friend is probably a little bored this summer, so he reached out -even sending me a message on Facebook with his phone number so that Red could call him.
After a long day of driving downtown, dropping Red at Movie Camp and hanging out in downtown for 4 hours until he finishes, the friend calls and asks Red to go swimming that night. Sucker that I am...I didn't want him to pass up the chance for A -some exercise, and B -social interaction with a peer. Of course, I take him. I watch from the car for a while as they interact with other boys who were already in the pool.
Before I know it, I see with my own eyes...my son --runs, jumps in the air, catches the football and splashes down into the water beneath him. For a moment there, I thought maybe I was hallucinating. That within itself is worth the effort of driving him over there.
I only wish that he could see him graciously receive all of his blessings with an open heart.
I wish that he could see as I do, that God is working in his life.
I wish that he could show a sign -just one sign, that he has an ounce of gratitude for anything.
I am always grateful for your clicks below! Thank you for playing!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Movie camp started this week for Red. It is the same "Script-to-Screen" camp offered by the Austin Film Festival, that he took last year. He actually asked to be signed up this year. It's an afternoon session, which made me believe I would have no trouble getting him there on time...NOT! He is still slow as hell when it comes to getting ready. I really do not think he knows the meaning of hurry, quickly, or on-time.
I wish I could tell you how it's going, but I can't get much out of him.
"How did it go today son?"
"Fine."
"What did you do? What did you learn?"
"I don't know."
"You can't tell me one single thing that you talked about."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Oh. I see. Well, if you can't tell me one thing you learned, it makes me think you didn't learn anything. If you're not learning anything, I guess I shouldn't waste my money sending you next year."
"What?! What do you mean you won't send me next year? O.K. uh we worked on our script today."
"Oh, great! What's your script about? Did you present any of your ideas?"
"No...I don't have any ideas."
"You told me about several ideas last week. What happened to those?"
"Probably no-one would like them."
"How would you know that if you don't present them?"
"Well, what's it about?"
"I don't know...I guess it's about a bully chasing someone around the school."
"That's all you can tell me?"
"I dont' really like talking to you about it."
Wow! From there the subject moves on to when I'm going to take him to Six Flags...This is so not anytime soon. Especially, since we're already in the 100's here in Central Texas and will be for the foreseeable future. Not to mention a zillion other reasons why he doesn't really deserve to go.
"You made me waste my money on that season pass, because you knew you weren't going to take me."
Yeah...I really held a gun-to your head and threatened you into buying that Season Pass.
I am happy to report that Red had an old friend come out of the woodwork this week. He met this young man in their first year of middle school. They remained in touch even after Red changed schools for a while...but when Kevin (let's call him) got busy with sports and new friends, we stopped hearing from him. Lord knows Red did not make the effort to stay in touch either. The friend is probably a little bored this summer, so he reached out -even sending me a message on Facebook with his phone number so that Red could call him.
After a long day of driving downtown, dropping Red at Movie Camp and hanging out in downtown for 4 hours until he finishes, the friend calls and asks Red to go swimming that night. Sucker that I am...I didn't want him to pass up the chance for A -some exercise, and B -social interaction with a peer. Of course, I take him. I watch from the car for a while as they interact with other boys who were already in the pool.
Before I know it, I see with my own eyes...my son --runs, jumps in the air, catches the football and splashes down into the water beneath him. For a moment there, I thought maybe I was hallucinating. That within itself is worth the effort of driving him over there.
I wish that he could see as I do, that God is working in his life.
I wish that he could show a sign -just one sign, that he has an ounce of gratitude for anything.
I am always grateful for your clicks below! Thank you for playing!!!
Logging you in...
Adelaide Dupont · 285 weeks ago
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.
nicole · 243 weeks ago
Risa · 230 weeks ago
LAH · 221 weeks ago
Maira L. Coral · 216 weeks ago
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...
Gavin Bollard · 209 weeks ago
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.
diyalabs6192603 11p · 192 weeks ago
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Spoil your cat · 122 weeks ago
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.
Duncan · 112 weeks ago