Preparing for My Driver's Test

The day after I had gotten my grades for the last semester while mowing the lawn, I realized that as a person with Asperger syndrome, it may have been harder for me to learn to drive due to my tendency to retreat to my "special interests" during stressful especially from having suffered bullying and discrimination.  The next day I got a call from work asking if I could come in and work from 4-9, and I told them I would love to, so I drove to and back from work where I got another USDA cap for my collection.  Two days later I went to the bird store in Corinth Square where Hen House is located, and helped her shop there, and also got a new bottle cap from the drinks we bought there.  The next day I went to my art class and enjoyed doing my painting there. I drove to my art class and enjoyed doing my painting there as well as telling the women there about my recent love life story.  I drove to Einstein’s afterwards and home and when I got home I watched good videos on parking and parallel parking that.  I later looked at my Time magazine bookazine on Thomas Edison and found out he proposed to his own wife in Morse code, which struck me as interesting, as if he like one of the other autistics I have read about on Autism Myth Busters, seemed to prefer non-verbal communication over verbal communication, even if with the woman he loved enough to be his own wife.   I drove to Einstein’s afterwards and home and when I got home I watched good videos on parking and parallel parking that.  I later looked at my Time magazine bookazine on Thomas Edison and found out he proposed to his own wife in Morse code, which struck me as interesting, as if he like one of the other autistics I have read about on Autism Myth Busters, seemed to prefer non-verbal communication over verbal communication, even if with the woman he loved enough to be his own wife.  I went down to Prairie Village where I read about one of the first music therapy institutes still in existence and functioning as a museum in Turkey at the height of its glory in the 16th century.  As I got back from Starbuck’s I thought the gay rights, women’s rights, and Tibetan freedom posts I share also have their merit to the autistic struggle as it was the struggle of woman and ethnic and sexual minorities that has in fact inspired the disability rights movement. 

                The next day I called Hen House and learned I work on Sunday from 4-7 and Wednesday from 4-8.  Later I did a wood burning of a silhouette of the Fellowship of the Ring with the quote “Not all who wander are lost.”  I had dinner and chocolate cake dessert with Mom, Dave, and the Wendlands.  The next morning I realized Thomas Edison could have invented the light bulb because he had special interests as a person with Asperger syndrome and couldn’t sleep some nights and needed the light bulb to allow him to engage in his interests after sunset.  I went with Dad to meet my grandparents at the King Tut exhibit.  The next day I realized that special interests appear to be for people with Asperger syndrome what stimming is for people with “Kanner” syndrome, not that I believed these distinctions had any validity.  Later I drove to Michael’s before work, during which time I got better at parking, and I got frames for my Tibetan paper tapestry and my THRIVE certificate.  I drove to Hen House and got better at parking along the way.  There saw my old middle school classmate Marina Singleton, who is now working at Hen House.  After work I got the schedule and found out the only other time I work this week is on Wednesday from 4-8.  I got a new USDA cap from my drink afterwards, I realized that one thing that may have caused stress that complicated driving while I was at JCCC for the first few years was being surrounded by all these people after six years of only knowing a small,non-threatening environment like Horizon, and on my way home I realized I may do well in an autism-related field seeing how Dr. Roy Richard Grinker was ableto lead a groundbreaking study of autism in Korea with training inanthropology, while I am making my way towards a degree in Cultural Studies, that Einstein having Aspergers appears to corroborate with the fact that he played the violin, his life-long passion, before his speeches, considering how even for me public speaking is stressful, and I realized that some of the things that may have caused Einstein particular stress in his life are fleeing Nazi persecution, his divorce, giving up his first daughter for adoption, and the misuse of his invention the atomic bomb, and from the time I was sixteen until eighteen, the source of stress that could have complicated me driving may have been being a self-hating autistic.  I got back and starting turning part of a discarded t-shirt into a coffee sleeve, while I talked to my dad, who mentioned my Horizon Academy story being on their Facebook page in a link sent by my grandmom from our family friend Mrs. North, and he was very complimentary about it, as was my granddad.  Seeing my determination to be a translator, I realized that I like Einstein and other reputedly autistic people have an undying resolve at pursuing my passion.

The next day I worked on my toilet paper roll wall art some more.  Then I found one of my post cards that Mom sent me that I plan to frame as wall art and my ring that I had made at UCM.  I also stitched together a coffee sleeve.  Later I started on and got very far on a snack wrapper collage of Michelangelo.  The next day I pulled some weeds for my mom before watching her do her bee-keeping, and then pulling weeds some more.  Then we drove down to Rimann’s liquor near the Starbuck’s where we got some boxes for my recyclables.  I realized I can get so caught up in doing these things that I forget about things like learning to drive.  I got back and learned about several different types of Tibetan literature that have yet to be translated into English such as collections of songs by revered lamas and stories for conquering Tibet’s malevolent demons to allow the introduction of Buddhism.  After going to Starbuck’s and eating dinner I posted an Autist Dharma post on the recent Santa Barbara shootings.  The next day I got a lot of my recyclables sorted into boxes and on shelves, while working on my plastic bag mandalas.  Then I did some highway driving, which my mom said was really good and where I really improved on my lane-changing, before I went to work.  I got a new USDA cap on my break and I got another bottle cap from the drinks Mom got at Hen House and she gave me a new lanyard that extends and makes it less awkward to unlock my door at school.  Then I talked to my dad before going to Rimann’s and getting a new bottle cap from my drinks.  I got back and found a page on Pinterest that has given me good ideas for simple woodworking projects and it gave me the idea to make my own self for a lot of my books, some candles, perhaps for a candle light dinner with a girl, which I think would be really romantic, and some signs.  Later I read about how “being patient” with “the 10th request in five minutes from Tibetans to see your Lonely Planet book” “because it may be their only chance to see the Dalai Lama or other parts of the country” “can open locked doors (literally) to the monastery,” and I realized that may be my chance to access some of these Tibetan texts that I might love to translate into English.  The next day I drove to my art class, during which time my mom said she let her guard down with me driving, and got there and finished my painting.  I drove back taking Mom to the Wendland’s to return something Mrs. Wendland left at our house.  Then with my mom’s encouragement I unpacked all my stuff from the garage, and then started building my new bookshelf for my Lonely Planet books.  After that I talked to Tyler for an hour, and then went to Starbuck’s.  The next day I watched a show on beavers that Mom recorded and learned how they can help fertilize landscapes, and make their homes and live their lives, and it was pretty cute how this one beaver family “only objected to one visitor in their hotel-like homes: the filmmakers with their cameras.”  Later I got two new bottle caps from my drinks at Better Cheddar and one from around the glass recycling before I helped a guy who saw me and asked me to steer his car with a dead battery into a certain position before technicians could come to revive it, and he seemed pretty grateful, and I knew he would remember it like my granddad said people remember about my help.  I got back and mowed the backyard which my mom started on and the backyard.  Then I went to the Prairie Village art fair, where I saw Jack and Dan from work, before I enjoyed my Lonely Planet book at Starbuck’s.  I got back and finished my bookshelf, which looked great.  Then I called work and found out I work on Sunday from 3-8, Wednesday from 3-8, and Thursday from 4-8. 

On the first day of June while I was driving to Hen House, my mom heard they only go around the area of the DMV and the instructor was really nice from someone who recently got there driver’s license, and Mom said she wouldn’t have me do this and go out and drive on my own if she didn’t think I was ready.  She also confessed that when I first started learning that she doubted I would ever learn to drive.  I perfected my parking before I got back and got a new bottle cap from the sodas we got at Hen House.  Later I drove down to get our pizza order from a restaurant, where I saw Beer Garden next to where we parked.  The next day my mom said we should go take my test the next day.  Then we drove to work where I got a new USDA bottle cap again.  I also drew a Thomas Jefferson portraiture.  The next day however, my mom ended up deciding it would be better to get my driver’s test the next day, so that day I drove my mom to Shawnee Mission East high school’s glass recycling, then to Target, and then to Brookside.  Later I spent the whole night fighting nerves.  My dad told me he thought I could pass, and my granddad told me it didn’t make a difference whether I passed or not.  Then Mom, Dave, and I spent the night watching The Italian Job. 

 

The next day I had my usual café expresso at Starbuck’s before driving down with my mom to the DVM.  The wait turned out to be much shorter than I expected, and finally a short blonde woman, the examiner, approached me, beckoning me to take the test.  She appeared very friendly and we had some casual conversation as I drove, and, to my amazement, I drove at the right speed, obeyed all the traffic signals, turned well, and didn’t even need to change lanes.  Afterwards I parked in a lot perfectly and the examiner said, “Alright, you passed.”

“R…really?” I asked, pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.  I went in and a license was printed off on a sheet of carbon paper until such time as I got my permanent license.  I drove home with my mom one more time and made my old permit into a mirror hanging with my name, picture, Kansas state capitol building, and the name of my state and put my Buddha dashboard figuring in the front before I drove on my own to work.  My brother Cam got home that night and congratulated me.  I also called Tyler and told him the news.