no way

[Guest guest]

Is this for real? Is this what these people want? " These people " are

NTs, or at least, people who want me to respond the way THEY would.

OK, I was just reading www.gettingthetruthout ( I think .org) and then

I went to:

http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/departments/closerlook/000677.html

The quote is about some shrink asking her if she remembers her

family's birthdays, so she gives him or her the dates, and the shrink

says that's the wrong answer! Why would this be a weird answer? It's

the most obvious answer I can think of. Especially since I have a

brother who does NOT remember the actual dates, and always calls a

couple of days later and goes through this whole thing about how he

forgot the date. It's not a big deal to me. I remember people's

brithdays, in the sense the shrink below might mean, ON the day, which

is then " too late " to send a card that gets there " on time. " Since I

don't like using the phone much I don't then call the person to

apologize for not having sent a card three days ago. I like to make

cards, so I start making one ON the date, then send it and it gets

there a week late, if I don't forget to finish it...But mostly I am

here thinking " NO WAY! THIS is what they want? [expletives deleted].

Get a life! " Why is there only one right answer?

My apologies to anyone who thinks I am going off on something so

obvious but all this autism stuff is WAY new to me. It is VERY

UPSETTTING, especially given the reaction of my friend last week that

I did not offer the kid some food when he showed up. I still don't get

how I was supposed to know to do that. I think I have to make a list

of " What NT people might want when they show up at the house. " Then if

any show up, I can read the list. I could even read it out loud to

them to ask if any of it applies to them. I don't care. I'm going to

get it " wrong " anyway, might as well be up front about not having a

clue what they could possibly want.

Plus the part at the end " Some of us speak in ways that our parents

find embarassing. " Remind me to write sometime about how I did not see

my grandparents for 25 years because my family was going to be

embarassed by me.

This is what I read that is making me feel rather pissed off. The

other reason I am angry most of the time is that I get almost NO DOWN

TIME anymore due to the financial situation. So I am in almost

continuous near-meltdown mode. Maybe one day I will write in in a

perky mood but it might be a few years.

Rhonda

<There are certain facts about people labeled autistic on which we can

probably agree. We look odd to neurotypical people. We answer certain

questions in ways that other people find strange ( " Do you remember

your family's birthdays? " a shrink once asked me, and then told me

that I should have said " I don't send them cards " instead of " April

24, May 16, July 12, September 7 " ). Some of us never speak. Some of us

begin to speak and then stop. Some of us speak about things or in ways

that our parents find embarrassing.>