Last night I dreamed of my neighbor who has not been well in quite some time. I've been wanting to visit her ...prepare a meal for her family. O.k. Who am I kidding? I know I don't have time for that. So last week, I bought her a beautiful plant. Since she was in my dream last night, I knew that I had to visit her --today. No excuses.
The boys are having a snack and watching Sponge Bob, together, almost peacefully. I think it's a good time for me to make a quick exit to my neighbors house. My mom is at home, of course. I'm going over for 15 or 20 minutes. They will be fine. No problem, right? Right?
As I am leaving Red whines, "But where are you going? I want to come."
Really?
"Come on dude. I'll only be gone for a few minutes. I don't know exactly how she's doing. I want to visit her by myself."
Why I need to explain this...I have no idea.
"But I want to pray for her!"
"Great. You can pray for her from right here. I'll be right back."
15 minutes later, there is a ring at my neighbor's door. Guess who? Not one, but both boys. They are panting as if they've been running. I notice an object in Blue's hand. It's a bar-b-q spatula -a large one.
"I'm sorry mom but I just wanted to come over here and see Ms. C. and Blue was chasing me," Red says panting and trembling.
"Mom! You told him not to come over here, so I was trying to stop him! He just doesn't listen!"
What.the.hell?!
Really?
Imagine these two huge teenage boys, chasing each other across the street, one with a spatula in his hand, yelling at his older brother. "GO.BACK.HOME! You need to learn how to listen!"
My neighbor's husband is also standing at the door. Yeah. I'm slightly mortified.
I separate the boys and ask Blue to please go home. I can't send them both together, obviously. Blue objects at first, but finally agrees to go.
Well, neighbor! I hope you were up for a little excitement! No that's not just your pain meds kicking in. That's my real life crazy, following me to your house!
She invites Red in. She tells him to calm down. He prays with her. She is touched by his gesture. It was a beautiful moment actually. After a totally, ludicrous one.
We make a quick exit. I return across the street where Blue is waiting ...spatula still in hand.
He proceeds to tell me loudly how much of an idiot his brother is -and that was one of the nicer words he used. Oh, this is before I can even make it through the front door. Oh yeah. He is yelling and swearing loud enough for all of the neighbors to hear in the front yard.
The only thing that finally shut him down was when I told him, the neighbors just might call the cops because he is disturbing the peace!
After things simmer down, I remain in the front yard to do a little raking, and weeding. I only had 2 neighbors, stop their cars to ask, why I was breaking my back when I have 2 big teenage boys who live here, for free!
Oh neighbors ...you have no idea.
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| Watching the Sunset after the drama amethyst & reiki gemstones for protection from the crazy. Believe it or not I'm at peace. |
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