Azrael
Sep 20, 2007, 10:06 AM
It was completely insane but actually somewhat fun. Spent as much time in College Park as was possible, chilling with my sister and her adorable scottish roommate :love:
Naturally, she's totally spoken for, but regardless, she's cool as hell and very caring. She used to work with autistic kids in Scotland. Amazing woman.
Aside from that, my Dad's 60th birthday bash went very well. I wasn't all that hot on the idea of sitting around getting loaded with my stepmother's family, so I cranked up the ipod and proceeded to do the prepwork. I love the kitchen, it gives me an excuse to be antisocial (and just a BIT mean:"You ever gonna finish that?" me- "you ever gonna stop distracting me?") when it suits me :tong:
Peeled and deveined 5 pounds of shrimp, which were skewered and grilled. The marinade came out nice. Soy sauce, honey, mustard powder and a bit of reisling.
I managed to get JUST enough web access to not go crazy. My little brothers found me on myspace, though (I knew private was a good idea). I'm gonna have to make a new page now and make the existing one my decoy page. Makes me feel shitty, but the way I look at it, I'm protecting them all from their own insecurities. I'm iffy with the kids finding out(which could snowball from there). My sisters get it, but they're a lot older. I'm not saying I won't eventually grow tired and drop this act, just not yet. Makes me feel like a pussy saying that. Makes me think "keep telling yourself that, closet-boy". Part of me thinks that i'm kinda hiding out. ALL my friends know, but only about half my family. The ones who don't know, I love to death. They didn't talk about that particular subject much THIS time. It helped that I was drunk about 70 percent of my time there. My Dad REALLY loosens up when he gets not plastered but a wee lit up. He'll start singing Irish folksongs or lapse into Wagner or something (lawyer by day, tenor by night, for real).
It was a little high stress. Nothing mean, just so HIGH ENERGY. I can't believe a family can be this hyper on so many different psychotropic chemicals :eek:
I took my last day there to myself. Loaded up my backpack, grabbed my dad's trenchcoat and went to the metro station in College Park.
Took the green line into DC. Got off at the National Archives initially. Checked out The Air and space Museum first. That was fuckin' tight as all hell. Went in front of I think the Trade Commission Building adjacent to the sculpture garden (got some NICE pix there) and an old man was explaining several HUGE signs about a Law firm somewhere in there. I bummed some homeless folks a few cigs and talked to them for a bit. They thought I was one of them cuz of my pack. I'm like "naw dude, I just take my life everywhere I go" :bigrin:
I found a nice cafe, had a sandwich and some tea, then began my trek to Pennsylvania avenue. Saw a dude juggling a bowling ball as well as other strange objects, got a pic of course.
I missed most of it, but there were still quite a few protesters at the Capital building, some with signs reading "Legal citizen working hard for 20 years now". Some protesting the war.
Made my way back to the subway with a few excursions along the way. Took about 100 pictures. Hooked onto the red line at Chinatown and went to union station for lunch. Found Punk Planet's last issue at the newsstand. Front cover reads "Now the fight is yours". Find it if you can, it has an awesome article called 'Gender fucking the media".
Took the train to Silver Spring, went to my Federal lawyer uncle's office, hung with him for dinner, and finally got back to my dad's, packed and went to bed.
Also, I got REALLY STONED at the beginning and end of this already sweet day. Nothing like ridin' the metro baked :tong:
The way I explained my need for a day like this was "if I don't take a day for me it ain't a vacation".
My Dad should be alright with his prostate thing. I'm cautiously optimistic, as ever.
I'm actually thinking of movin up there. Not immediately, but after I get some money saved. I could get around up there without a car, which I think is badass. Main reason is my Autistic little bro. He's at the point where he could use a more encouraging influence in his life. His mother came right out and said "The doctor didn't push for him to be on drugs, I did". NOTE- my Dad is great to this kid, but my Dad works like all the time. He was gonna do all the cooking for his own birthday cause his wife's lazy and I'm like "Dad, get the hell out of the kitchen and go crack a beer!" He obeyed. Anyway, my bro takes concerta, ritalin and RISPERDAL. I'm not saying the low grade stimulants aren't helping him. Really. But the most potent Dopamine blocker on the market? That's a bit much for a person who IS NOT PSYCHOTIC, his parents (mostly mother) just don't have enough patience. Outside of all this, is the fact that this boy, my brother Daniel is brilliant underneath it all. I really think so. Autistic, not stupid. I wanna be around him for two reasons. I want to get him as eduacted as possible about what it means to be what he is. Also, I want to get him as involved as I can in managing his own care. I'm not saying I wanna totally mold him in my image, but I wanna help him actualize his very real potential.
Even if he can't ever live by himself, or drive a car, he could still create art, he could help other kids deal with this kind of stuff, he could grow and develop as an intellectual being, he could do much if he was properly motivated.
Here's what lit a fire under my ass. I'm on the phone with him one night. I ask him what he wants to be. He said "Mom said I could be a cashier". This made my blood boil. I said, "Dan, you can be whatever YOU want to be". I asked him what the doctors tell him about why he has to take pills and stuff. He says that they just tell him he's sick. This broke my fuckin' heart to hear. So many people with neurological quirks (even ones like myself who are fairly educated on the subject) are marginalized, talked down to or otherwise insulted by the people trying to 'fix' us (I'm not convinced we're not just a little different and not broken.
Self advocacy is where it's at. Thank the deity that crazy people live in the age of the web so they can network and look out for one another.
I'll be damned if that kid ends up in a facility when his parents die. I don't know about the rest of my siblings, but I won't allow it.
That said, enjoy the pix, more are on the way, and thanks for all who were keeping tabs on me!!!
-berserk-feral-kitty
Naturally, she's totally spoken for, but regardless, she's cool as hell and very caring. She used to work with autistic kids in Scotland. Amazing woman.
Aside from that, my Dad's 60th birthday bash went very well. I wasn't all that hot on the idea of sitting around getting loaded with my stepmother's family, so I cranked up the ipod and proceeded to do the prepwork. I love the kitchen, it gives me an excuse to be antisocial (and just a BIT mean:"You ever gonna finish that?" me- "you ever gonna stop distracting me?") when it suits me :tong:
Peeled and deveined 5 pounds of shrimp, which were skewered and grilled. The marinade came out nice. Soy sauce, honey, mustard powder and a bit of reisling.
I managed to get JUST enough web access to not go crazy. My little brothers found me on myspace, though (I knew private was a good idea). I'm gonna have to make a new page now and make the existing one my decoy page. Makes me feel shitty, but the way I look at it, I'm protecting them all from their own insecurities. I'm iffy with the kids finding out(which could snowball from there). My sisters get it, but they're a lot older. I'm not saying I won't eventually grow tired and drop this act, just not yet. Makes me feel like a pussy saying that. Makes me think "keep telling yourself that, closet-boy". Part of me thinks that i'm kinda hiding out. ALL my friends know, but only about half my family. The ones who don't know, I love to death. They didn't talk about that particular subject much THIS time. It helped that I was drunk about 70 percent of my time there. My Dad REALLY loosens up when he gets not plastered but a wee lit up. He'll start singing Irish folksongs or lapse into Wagner or something (lawyer by day, tenor by night, for real).
It was a little high stress. Nothing mean, just so HIGH ENERGY. I can't believe a family can be this hyper on so many different psychotropic chemicals :eek:
I took my last day there to myself. Loaded up my backpack, grabbed my dad's trenchcoat and went to the metro station in College Park.
Took the green line into DC. Got off at the National Archives initially. Checked out The Air and space Museum first. That was fuckin' tight as all hell. Went in front of I think the Trade Commission Building adjacent to the sculpture garden (got some NICE pix there) and an old man was explaining several HUGE signs about a Law firm somewhere in there. I bummed some homeless folks a few cigs and talked to them for a bit. They thought I was one of them cuz of my pack. I'm like "naw dude, I just take my life everywhere I go" :bigrin:
I found a nice cafe, had a sandwich and some tea, then began my trek to Pennsylvania avenue. Saw a dude juggling a bowling ball as well as other strange objects, got a pic of course.
I missed most of it, but there were still quite a few protesters at the Capital building, some with signs reading "Legal citizen working hard for 20 years now". Some protesting the war.
Made my way back to the subway with a few excursions along the way. Took about 100 pictures. Hooked onto the red line at Chinatown and went to union station for lunch. Found Punk Planet's last issue at the newsstand. Front cover reads "Now the fight is yours". Find it if you can, it has an awesome article called 'Gender fucking the media".
Took the train to Silver Spring, went to my Federal lawyer uncle's office, hung with him for dinner, and finally got back to my dad's, packed and went to bed.
Also, I got REALLY STONED at the beginning and end of this already sweet day. Nothing like ridin' the metro baked :tong:
The way I explained my need for a day like this was "if I don't take a day for me it ain't a vacation".
My Dad should be alright with his prostate thing. I'm cautiously optimistic, as ever.
I'm actually thinking of movin up there. Not immediately, but after I get some money saved. I could get around up there without a car, which I think is badass. Main reason is my Autistic little bro. He's at the point where he could use a more encouraging influence in his life. His mother came right out and said "The doctor didn't push for him to be on drugs, I did". NOTE- my Dad is great to this kid, but my Dad works like all the time. He was gonna do all the cooking for his own birthday cause his wife's lazy and I'm like "Dad, get the hell out of the kitchen and go crack a beer!" He obeyed. Anyway, my bro takes concerta, ritalin and RISPERDAL. I'm not saying the low grade stimulants aren't helping him. Really. But the most potent Dopamine blocker on the market? That's a bit much for a person who IS NOT PSYCHOTIC, his parents (mostly mother) just don't have enough patience. Outside of all this, is the fact that this boy, my brother Daniel is brilliant underneath it all. I really think so. Autistic, not stupid. I wanna be around him for two reasons. I want to get him as eduacted as possible about what it means to be what he is. Also, I want to get him as involved as I can in managing his own care. I'm not saying I wanna totally mold him in my image, but I wanna help him actualize his very real potential.
Even if he can't ever live by himself, or drive a car, he could still create art, he could help other kids deal with this kind of stuff, he could grow and develop as an intellectual being, he could do much if he was properly motivated.
Here's what lit a fire under my ass. I'm on the phone with him one night. I ask him what he wants to be. He said "Mom said I could be a cashier". This made my blood boil. I said, "Dan, you can be whatever YOU want to be". I asked him what the doctors tell him about why he has to take pills and stuff. He says that they just tell him he's sick. This broke my fuckin' heart to hear. So many people with neurological quirks (even ones like myself who are fairly educated on the subject) are marginalized, talked down to or otherwise insulted by the people trying to 'fix' us (I'm not convinced we're not just a little different and not broken.
Self advocacy is where it's at. Thank the deity that crazy people live in the age of the web so they can network and look out for one another.
I'll be damned if that kid ends up in a facility when his parents die. I don't know about the rest of my siblings, but I won't allow it.
That said, enjoy the pix, more are on the way, and thanks for all who were keeping tabs on me!!!
-berserk-feral-kitty