Welcome to the Dark Side

Hey – Janelle – saw the new blog! Now we need to start working on Bev & Cindy…..remember there is another…….a sister!

This was our 2006 family photo!

I’m going try to post a video using my b-day present….nothing bad happened, so it was pretty good as far as birthdays go.

I was traveling this week. Usually I read 3 books a trip, one on the flights down, one while there & another on the flights back. However, I loaded up on Aspberger/HFA books to read. The one I started on the way down is called, Thinking In Pictures and is written by a woman w/ Aspbergers. I only got through 100 pages on the way down, 0 pages during the week and 50 pages on the first flight back (blogging from SLC airport). The problem is that so much of what she says goes to my very core. It’s like she can see in my brain. It’s very unnerving and I’m not at all happy about it. Unfortunately, there a lot of good coping ideas in there for me and Peter, so I have to keep slugging along. It’s made me very anxious. Up until this diagnosis, I had myself figured out in my own mind and convinced myself that I was normal and everyone was odd. And really, I wasn’t all that different, so I told myself as I kept paddling down the Denial River – or was it the Clueless River? Anyway, I’m definitely on a different body of water now and I no longer think I’m in control and I don’t have a clear path, hence the anxiety. Grrr. I did find a couple of Alexander McCall Smith books that I haven’t read, so I’ll probably read one of those on the last flight and listen to Hunt for Red October. Of course, NOW I know that my Red October therapy is classic HFA…grrr!

On the good news side of things, one of the Asperger books I got for Peter seems to be really helping him w/ the reading comprehension. It’s a story book written for kids Peter’s age w/ games in it to help them understand the story better. Rob is very happy with it. I’m supposed to find more like that……not sure it’s possible. Ugh!

I did manage to meet up w/ my very bestest friend from East/KW in Denver. She married a lovely man & is living happily ever after – Yaaaah!!! We all went through a corn maze. My favorite was the ADA signage in the maze. The path was definitely wide enough for a wheelchair…..but it was quite muddy. It’s a wonder the ADA act didn’t outlaw mud! Anyway we had a good time and the kids think we’re crazy! Hey – we ate a place I saw on the Food Channel – White Fence Farm. It was really, really good & they had a playground for the kids while we waited for our table. Why doesn’t everyone do that?

Speaking of food – I ate at a couple of really expensive places this week. One of them was really good (we should have gone to In-N-Out for the other). Anyway at the good one I tried quite a few new foods. The foie gras was actually really good – although I covered it in a TON of sauce, so it’s possible that I just like the sauce. I also had Mac & Cheese w/ white truffles. I tried a tomato gazpacho – that was horrible. I had salmon that was just amazing – it was by far the best salmon I’ve ever had. Even the spinach was good. Oh, and for desert I had a dish w/ warm chocolate beignets, homemade marshmallows and chocolate sorbet w/ a candied kumquat. If it hadn’t been a business dinner, I would have ordered a second dessert! I’m tempted to catch a flight back to O.C. so I can get more…..well, not so tempted after I think about the price. I think my dinner came out to $100. I’m putting everyone else closer to $150/head including drinks. Our environmental consultant was picking up the tab. They are definitely well paid! OK – gotta go catch my flight. Check out the Pack 94 blog – has photos of the last pack meeting and Rob wearing the Corn Head!