Asperger’s » Lauren's Tales

Aspie Moment

Aug 172010

I was stuck on the corner waiting for the light to change at one of the big four-way controlled intersections in Arlington. I had a migraine so bad that describing it was a waste of time. This dude walks up to me and says “I’m selling suncatchers as a fundraiser for my church.”

I was not in the mood to buy something. I was especially not in the mood to buy something from someone who couldn’t be bothered to shave his upper lip. I was, in fact, in the worst possible mood for some random street salesman to approach me. As if there is ever a good moment.

I asked him, “What would you do with the sun if you caught it?”

He kind of stares at me. “Well, uhm, I’m not really sure why you asked me that question.”

I replied, “You’re trying to sell me a sun-catcher. What would you do with the sun if you caught it?”

He gave a nervous laugh and tried to explain, not very well, what a suncatcher was, with reference to “you can buy them on the internet,” which is an interesting generational marker of no use in answering my question.

I eventually interrupted him. “Well, if you don’t know what to do with the sun if you caught it, what am I supposed to do with it?”

The light changed. I began crossing; I had to make a diagonal cross before the light changed, so I was walking as fast as I could what with the thunder in my head. He tried to follow me.

“Well,” he said, “thanks for your time.”

Of course, I answered like an Aspie. “It was only yours until the light changes.”

I bet he told the folks back at Church stories about me.

Labels are for Cans

News No Responses »

Feb 112010

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, this news report says that autism and Asperger’s will be conflated in the next DSM. I think this is a good thing. I’m tired of people thinking that Asperger’s is a ‘mild form of autism.’ They are the same disorder with slightly different manifestations. An autie’s lack of language skills can make the disorder to worse to people around him, whereas having the speech abilities that auties lack just makes my life as an Aspie miserable. No one can see that there’s anything different about me, and aren’t interested in explanations counter to what they expect to see.

Furthermore, Asperger’s has managed to get less ‘stigma’ than autism. Let us Aspies give the auties a leg up in that department.

Arisia

Away from the computer No Responses »

Jan 202010

I went to Arisia. It would have been nice to be on programming given that Wishbone came out last week, but organization is for other people.

Something important I learned as an Aspie is that when people ask how you are, you always lie. The catch is that sometimes I do not look ok and people will not take my word for it when I tell them. In the case of Arisia, I was experiencing the worst migraines I’ve had in almost a year. This led to many people saying “You look glassy-eyed. Are you ok?” I settled for telling them that the migraines weren’t nice, but that the drugs were.

Whatever.

Observation: there are lots of Aspies at cons. I mean, I knew this, of course, but damn.

Friday night was the Circlet Press party. I handed out lots of flyers. There’s something entertaining about offering people pieces of paper related to adult content. A few are emphatically not interested when you tell them Circlet publishes Erotic literature. But most are. I offered a flyer to a nice young lady whose eyes lit up like little sparklers. She told me that this was her first Arisia since she turned 18, and now she was delighted to go to parties that had been forbidden shortly before.

I had only bought a membership for Friday because I wasn’t sure how I’d feel. However, so many people I hadn’t seen in a long time were glad to see me. I decided to come back Saturday for more of the same.

I had a fantastic time going to parties and telling people that I wrote smut, would they like to check out my web site? This was even more fun after I found the rocket fuel party.

One gentleman informed me snootily that he didn’t need my site because his needs were served by Literotica.com. Have you ever looked at that site? I did once. I read the guidelines and found that everything that I had ever been advised not to write, and that everything that I had ever advised writers not to do, was required for Literotica stories. Ok, dude, you’re like, not a potential customer. No worries.

I also did some highly-useful schmoozing.

I found out something terrible. It was bad enough when all of my friends had kids. Now all their kids are starting high school. Augh!

Steampunk may be a bit overdone, but all the vendors of steampunk costume items work in leather, and their rooms smelled wonderful.

I had a great time, which made the subsequent minor snowstorm, the migraines it caused, and recent political events even more depressing. I’ll go have some more chocolate now.

A Review of Wishbone

Writing 2 Responses »

Jan 132010

Torquere’s in-house review of the book is right here. It pleased me that the author enjoyed it, though that isn’t surprising. They don’t find an in-hourse reviewer who hates the book. What did surprise me is how well the reviewer got it. As an Aspie, knowing that I’ve communicated successfully with people is a powerful positive experience. Almost as positive as hearing from people who told me they had to go home early from work after reading my fiction.

Edit: Ok, now all the url’s are fixed.