Autism Acceptance Month Week 3

On Tuesday after my World Archaeology class had gotten out, I went to the computer lab in the Union, and suddenly I thought, I ought to ask Laci to get coffee and hear about her presentation. At the thought I became increasingly nervous, but then I found a lump, right in the right pocket of my jacket: it was the stone Teresa had given me, and suddenly I remembered my promise to her, “Love someone who will love you the way you deserve to be loved.” I typed up the e-mail with great trepidation, and then, petrified, I clicked “Send.” A rush of excitement moved throughout my body. I e-mailed my paper for my World Archaeology class to Dr. Yelton by 5, as he had asked. I looked at my e-mail list, and saw no response, but then suddenly I realized I had earned something. I went on Amazon and ordered The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey flute solo book. 

On Wednesday I came to the Humphrey’s building to take my general education test, and it went so long that I ended up arriving four minutes late for the UCM Autism Spectrum Support Group Bingo Night, as opposed to my usual fifteen minutes before the meeting time. On my way I saw Hillary.

“Hey, Ben,” she said. “How are you?”

“Good, just tired of so many immature people.”

“Tell me about it.” She said, sympathetically. “Well, I’ll see you later.”

Again, only Tom had shown up for, and then I rushed to the Office of Student Activities to bet a Bingo roller and sheets. Soon the balls ended up coming out of the cage.

“Damn it!” I said and began picking up the balls. Tom helped me.

“Thanks, Tom.” I said, very grateful.

“Sure.”

He ended up winning one game, I won the next, and he won the last one before we ran out of time and cleaned up.

On Thursday finished my shelf for my toilet paper roll diorama made from beer cans. I called my mom and asked her if she could bring me home on Saturday morning rather than Thursday as I planned to go to an event that hosted all these different African foods hosted by the African Student Association at the UCM café Rock the Burg on Friday at 5. On Friday I took all my glass down to the Johnson County Sheltered Workshop, where I found six new bottle caps for my collection around the glass recycling. I saw a beautiful creek and got a picture of Whitman Air Force Base on the way. However, that day I went to Rock the Burg at 5:50 and saw the tickets were $5, which I had in my bank account at UCM, but when I rushed to the bank, I only had $16 in my account, so I rushed to the Ellis ATM, but as I got there, I found out I had left my student ID at the Union, and I went back and could not find it. It would probably turn up by Monday, but until then, I couldn’t withdraw money, couldn’t go to the Rec Center, and I couldn’t eat at the dining hall, or go to any restaurants, so I missed dinner that night, but I used that night to work on my Modern Sub-Saharan Africa case study paper. I went home the next morning with my mom and got brunch at Arby’s from the drive-through.  Then on the way home we bought some new shoes and a tuxedo for the Down Syndrome Dance at a thrift store. I got my hair cut before I went to the dance and met Tyler and Jack there. Later that day I worked on my Modern Sub-Saharan Africa paper.

 

 

 

The next morning my mom gave me a basket full of Easter candy, which helped calm my nerves about all my assignments and deadlines.  I met my Dad, who had a six-pack of beer with funky Laughing Buddha –shaped bottles called Buddha Beer for my Easter, which he had gotten from Beer Garden in Kansas City and from I’d be able to get a new bottle cap.  We met my grandparents at an Italian buffet before they took me back to school.  Before I left for UCM, my dad gave me $40 for dinner and breakfast for the next two days until I found my card.  Soon after I got back, I ate at Hero’s, finding a new bottle cap along the way, while reading a lot of that week’s reading for my Film Appreciation class.  After picking up much trash and recycling, I got back and posted my posts and responses for my Film Appreciation class.  I also worked on my Modern Sub-Saharan Africa paper. 

The next day I reserved an easel in the Union for my Autism Acceptance Month poster. I went to the Student Success Center at two to try and get someone to look at my Modern Sub-Saharan Africa paper, only to find the Writing Center had moved to the Humphrey’s building. I went there and after it was finished being looked at, and I still forgot to take care of a few errors, I sent it just in time. Afterwards I went to the library and found an article on Roger Smith in the New England Quarterly to do my article summary for my Early American Literature class, which I was only able to stretch to a page long, plus the bibliography, and also had a few technical errors. I still had not gotten my all my Autism Acceptance Month posts done by that day, although after twelve, I finished and posted one post called Eight Facts Your Average Autism Awareness Hawk Doesn’t Know. 

The next day I read all but ten pages for my Early American Literature class before going to that class, dressed in my Styrofoam cowboy hat (which interestingly enough, a classmate pointed out the fact that it had holes in) and my shirt tucked in for my role-playing presentation for my World Archaeology class. I went there, getting up from my seat one desk away from a female classmate (who I tried to get the attention of to get her to move some things off the edge of her desk), and when my turn came, I threw off my shoes, put my feet up on the desk, and gave my presentation as archaeologist Colin Renfaire in a southern accent. After class I went down to the Union and outside I saw a few girls from Alpha Omicron Pi sorority had a Pie-a-Pi event set up. I went over to them and said, “What’s this for?”

“It’s for Sexual Assault Prevention Month.” Said one of the girls.

“Well that sounds good.  Is it still going?” 

“No, we stopped at three.”

“Darn, I’ve been wanting to pie you guys for so long.”

I reached into my wallet and found only a one dollar bill and the twenty my dad had given me and handed her the twenty.

“Are you sure you want to give this?” asked the girl.

“Yes.” I said.

“Well for that you can pie me. Here.”

She put a bunch of whipped cream on a plate, and got behind the plywood, and I pied her, making sure to rub it in her face. Afterwards I got a picture of her, and a guy near me got a picture of us together. Then I got to work and finished my third weekly post called Something to Think About When You Appreciate Living Without Cold War Hysteria on how Sir Isaac Newton’s (who also was said to have autism) discovery of gravity may have helped the U.S. beat the Russians to the moon, and my other weekly post called Free at Last! Now What?  A Forum on College Life with Autism. I saw my mom had wrote on Facebook that she found my post I wrote the last night interesting and well-written and a friend of hers, who had a son my age who I knew with Asperger syndrome, also found it interesting. I got back and worked on my snack wrapper collage of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was also said to have autism.