Hogmanay – or what the New Year may bring.

I do not do New Years resolutions as a rule. Not because I know they are futile and will be broken, not because I do not want to set myself something unnattainable as a target (although both of these are true in a way), but because I do not see why you should set yourself arbitary targets based on the date.

I intend to update this blog more often, it is just that life gets in the way so much.
Let me see what needs to be done in the next few weeks. This may be in random order as I think of it, rather than in date order.

First, you may need some background. If you are not interested, then that is OK, I will be posting more interesting posts soon I am sure

Flying. Airports. Meltdown.

Last time I flew, my husband was surrounded by armed police, I was 7 months pregnant, and I had my AS son with me.
I suppose that needs to be explained.
Well, the pregnancy explains itself, it is not that kind of blog, I mean the armed police thing.

Survived Xmas.

Xmas was relatively OK.
After doing the shopping at 3am on the eve, as per my last post, we had everything we needed.
1am Xmas day my mother called. One of her students, who had become a friend (mum teaches computers to the brain injured) passed away just before midnight, after a hospital transfer and (IMHO) medical negligence at the new hospital.

It is nearly upon us.

And no I do not mean Xmas.
I mean the shopping.
We go shopping at about 3am tonight. Thats 3am, on the morning of Xmas Eve.
Our plan is that most people wont be shopping.
Everyone that can be described as NT that we have mentioned our shopping plans to have looked horrified.
This is a good sign.
I am going to try something.
Do not think anyones going to get involved as they never comment here, but worth a go anyway.

Shopping at 3am on Xmas Eve.
a) That would suit me!
b) You are nuts!
c) Why?
d) Have you not done your shopping yet?

Answers in the comments please

Car alarm? What Car alarm?

Apologies for missing a bit of posting, but my arthritis took a while to chill out again.
So the title of this post? Kinda sums up my Saturday.
I was planning on travelling to Oxford to meet up with some old friends from a game I used to admin.
We get up and get the baby ready, pack the bags (forgot how much we need to take for day trips) and get ready to go to the car.

Arthritis

Just a note to apologise for not updating, I have arthritis in my hands, and it is flared up right now. Please comment on one of my posts with something you would like me to blog about when I can type better

Twitter Autism Day

So I should have blogged about this before it started, and I am sorry.
Today a group of people, across many countries came together using social media to raise awareness of, and support for Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and related issues.

If you are interested, you can keep up using #ASD on the twitter search, and joining in the conversation, and listening to the speakers.

I have gained a lot of followers today, @Araldia and something that came up was that many people are interested in how I managed to get to 31 without letting anyone else diagnose me as Aspergers.

I have well established coping strategies that I use when dealing with Neurotypical people, but it is hard for me to think about the order in which to write, so please, if you only comment on one post on this blog, pick this one, and let me know what situation you are up against, and I will blog within 24 hours where possible how I dealt with similar issues, and how our Aspergers son, our ADHD son, and my ADHD husband deal with it also.

Maybe what works for one of us will work for you?

So What Now?

So as you know, I got my BSc.
I was not expecting it, as I was sure I would be resitting this year, so had not thought about what next.
Part of not knowing what was next, was that the whole thing was in itself an achievement, I never even considered what to do afterwards!

Well everyone that has commented on my achievement on facebook, has asked ¨What Next?¨.

So someone in the comments asked me about my aspie profile from this site.
While I do not advocate self diagnosis, I feel that this tool a good way to identify possible things that can be then looked into further.

I do not feel, as you can tell from the title of the blog, that Aspergers is a disability.

http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

This one is different to most online tests, as it is measured not on the questioners bais, but on the weighted response of those with an Autistic Spectrum diagnosis, and those with no issues at all (Neurotypical).

Some things are worth it.

So after 8 years, the one thing I wanted more than all others has come to pass. I now have my BSc. It has been hard work, I have nearly given up many times, but I got there. I did it. On my own. *with support*