In the Newspaper, a Little Rant and the Night Run Again

Stop the presses! Or actually, RUN THE PRESSES! I was in the Salzburger Nachrichten! Thanks to a friend, I was interviewed to be part of an article in a newspaper. She wrote me and said "A friend of mine is journalist for the Salzburger Nachrichten and she is doing a piece on foreigners..." and I wrote "I'M A FOREIGNER!" and well, that was settled. I did a phone interview which was difficult because I'm better in person because I gesture a lot... sometimes inappropriately. Some friends have started turning their back when talking to me because of some of the gestures I do. I am doing one now. They would be disappointed in me. Anyway, yesterday we took a walk to Karlsplatz and I grabbed the last Salzburger Nachrichten and felt very Carrie Bradshaw. It was a big paper so I couldn't do the whole, shaking it open trick and looking at the picture of myself in the shop. That would have been obnoxious... but I would have still done it. So exciting!!!

The great thing was that I could do a small plug about the autism center so that was great! Speaking of autism... the Husband was at the playground with the Kid yesterday as is their weekend tradition. I was supposed to do some at-home yoga but I got sucked into the abyss that is the Taylor Swift Tom Hiddleston relationship and sat at my laptop for an hour, eating popcorn. It's PR gold, folks! When they returned, the Husband said "I just met a family who have an autistic son about Raphael's age!" and I said "Really?!" and he said "Yes. The boy goes to the same kindergarten as Raphael!" and then I said "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!" I'm a delicate and eloquent swan. The other child has been going there for a year. The Kid is at an integration kindergarten which pretty much means that out of 20 kids in a classroom, 2 have special needs. There are about 60 kids in total in the daycare (I have never witnessed 60 kids ever) so that would mean that there are approximately 6 children with special needs. Now, I'm not a math kind of gal but I think that it would be pretty effing obvious that if there were two children out of 6 with autism, perhaps... just maybe... they could have TOLD US! The thing is, is when your child is diagnosed with autism (and in our case, he regressed so we had 2 years of "normal" development), you feel like someone has stabbed you in the heart a million times. Your dreams are destroyed and your future is dim and you pretty much want to jump off a building and life is freaking unfair and you want to crawl into bed and never ever leave, but as time goes by, you deal just a little bit better with it (save for the time you drank too much at a fancy diplomatic party and then went for more drinks with friends and the topic was Nature vs. Nurture. No bueno.) It doesn't help when people don't understand or refuse to realize that you just can't go somewhere at the drop of a hat or assume you are exaggerating when you say you can't go to a kid-friendly show. It's hurtful when people with kids try to assure that their kids also have meltdowns (I know that tantrums suck big time but they are also completely different from an autism meltdown. Trust me. I have scars.) I'm lucky that the people I have in my life are incredibly empathetic and do their best to help out and that when I say we can't make it, they don't hold it against us and for that I am eternally grateful (Note: Thanks J.B. and K.D. for understanding that we can't make it today :) Have a present for J.B. We will talk.). But what is so key to parents of children with autism, besides evidence-based therapy and not re-birthing, is to have a community of other parents who know what you are going through. And that is why I am a little ranty because COME ON!

So long story short, I believe that perhaps we should have been introduced through the kindergarten. But what do I know... It's not like I run an autism page of Facebook which is also about creating a community for parents dealing with autism. Oh wait. OK. I feel better. Rant over. I don't hold grudges so by tomorrow, the anger will be over. I don't believe in holding on to anger. Sure, certain things I will stew over for a long long time. But I usually end up finding the positive in every craptastic thing that has happened to me. One of my favourite quotes is "He who angers me, controls me." Revenge is dumb and sucks you dry... but there is nothing wrong with sometimes daydreaming about it once in a while.

I also get a lot more worked up if I am not getting my exercise. I'm like a toddler on a rainy day. My energy needs to be released somehow and one of the best ways is for me to get a lot of exercise. Otherwise my energy gets poured into melting cheese and/or online shopping. So I have decided that I will do the Night Run again this September. It's a 5K and I did it last year and I almost died which probably had a little to do with the pizza I ate before the race. Maybe. Perhaps. That was the wrong way to carb load. I printed out the training sheet I did last year when I trained for the Frauenlauf and as of tomorrow morning, I am hitting the pavement. Gah! 9 weeks to go! Real runners be like "training for the 5 K is like training to go grocery shopping on a Monday morning". Heh. I also need to bring back the Yoga. I was definitely a lot more zen when I did the 30 day challenge a few months ago and if I can just aim to do at least 15 minutes of yoga a day (hopefully more but that might cut into my drinking time), I will feel a lot better. So spandex is out and at the ready for my first trot tomorrow. Wish me luck! And do not look out of your windows at 6 a.m. 4-5th districters.

I need to tweak my Beacon Beach House business plan a little the next week or so. Once the Husband translates it, I will start to hit up ministries and companies interested in giving me the monies. If you are a company and want a therapy room named after your company, call me... we can work something out. Unless your company's name is Hitler Inc. I have also decided to work on some prototype merchandise for the center. Since it is a beach theme, I am making nautical jewelry and then will introduce sweatshirts and t-shirts and totes. A friend is currently working on my logo and I cannot wait to present that! It is beachy and fun! Sidenote: I am totally having a Point Break viewing at a fundraising event at some point in the future. ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF ALL TIME!

I don't have too many plans this week. A quick drink Monday afternoon with a friend and then drinks and dinner on Tuesday. Otherwise I am trying to keep my schedule open in case something pops up and also to try and not O.D. on cocktails. In other news, my blog views have kind of exploded the last few days. I had over 1,600 views from Russia over the week. Again, I must ask, am I big in Russia? If so, AWESOME! This happened a few months ago so I need to research the posts getting the most hits and make sure I didn't say anything inappropriate which could lead to some international incident. Oh! I totally forgot to mention that I met the Ambassador of San Marino a couple of weeks ago. This was before the wine so I did not make a stupid joke like "San Marino, eh? Are you also their Olympic gymnast coach and bus driver? Cause you are a small country? Get it? Har. Har. Har." Sigh. Small blessings. Anyway, I wish you all a fantastic Sunday still! I am looking forward to getting back on track (running, get it? Track. I am on fire!) tomorrow and to having a productive week. Happy Sunday!

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