Life is rarely perfect, but it can be blandly normal. I admit that 2024 wasn’t easy. It ended badly. At least it wasn’t quite like how eventful 2023 was, with an ICU visit I’d rather not repeat. For now, I am attempting to accept the bland normalcy of life in…
Category: Writing
All things writing related in my life.
Offering excuses for not keeping up with The Autistic Me frustrates me, but life has a tendency to get in the way of personal projects. I failed to release podcast episodes for most of 2024. I blamed an overloaded teaching schedule and a two- to three-hour commute (each way, 115…
Taking on too much at work or in school is something I hear other autistics admit to doing. Add the ADHD many of us have and it’s a potential disaster in the making. We take on more than we can realistically manage, trying to prove our value while setting ourselves…
November 19, 2023, everything came crashing down on The Autistic Me… and our other web projects. What was meant to be a minor clean-up of our web server became a complete reset. We’re back online now. Things aren’t perfect — but they were far from perfect anyway. I am so far…
Podcast 0103, Season 6, Episode 13; 30 May 2023 Josh Stehle, Superhero Expert Josh Stehle is an autism author, speaker, advocate, and leader from Philadelphia, PA. His debut book, I am a Superhero Expert, explores autism awareness from his perspective as the brother of Zach Stehle, an autistic young adult.…
Anne is now nine, which for our schools would be the age for entering fourth grade. Instead, we’re back to homeschooling her and trying to identify why she struggles so much with academic tasks. My cousin has a master’s degree in speech and language pathology (SPL) and helped guide us…
Podcast Episode 0081, Season 5, Episode 12; 31 January 2022 Parenting on Pandemic Time The end of 2021 proved difficult, and 2022 isn’t off to a good start. Parental responsibilities once again derailed blogging and podcasting efforts. Pandemic parenting compounds the challenges of supporting our daughters. Despite our exhaustion, we have to keep the girls on…
Podcast Episode 0080, Season 5, Episode 11; 04 January 2022 Tracee Garner, author of Disability: An Anecdotal Field Guide for the Rest of Us Tracee Garner is a case manager for a nonprofit, a prolific novelist, and a writing coach. She’s also a passionate self-advocate for the disabled. Tracee was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at…
Exhaustion is winning. I’m tired. Call it burnout or fatigue or whatever else might fit. I cannot think clearly, I’m on edge, and I’m quite short-tempered with everything and everyone. I want a break. Time alone. Quiet time with minimal interactions with anyone… maybe no interactions at all. Before moving to…
With or without the COVID-19 pandemic, Susan and I would be updating our home. As I’ve written and discussed before, spaces are important to me and many autistics. We need to have our safe, quiet, calm spaces. For me, those spaces are the backyard and my office. Sundays are usually…