Disability Deadlines

 

On the Monday after I got back from my third weekend at home, I took pictures of the lighting set-up I did for my shot remake for my Cinematography class and sent them to my teacher. I also decided to post The Friend of Autism Pledge on Facebook and tell people in my post that if they agreed with the pledge, to like it or put their name in the comment section. After I did this, I noticed I had gotten an invitation from Joshua John, a THRIVE mentor, to Disability Awareness Week taking place down in the Union that day until the 31^st. I accepted the invitation and went down there. Once there, I helped set up tables and met Barbara, who I asked about TheFriend of Autism Pledge, and she said she was ok with me putting her name on my sheet. Soon I saw my mom had liked The Friend of Autism Pledge, and asked me to add her name, along with two other Facebook friends. I also met a woman from the Social Work program, who Barbara and I told about the Autistic Student and Peer Organization, and she suggested I submit an article to the Non-Traditional Student Organization’s newsletter, as so many of their members were parents and possibly had an autistic child. I agreed with her. The deadline was by the 29^th. Also, a deadline for writing for the autistic community was the day Autistic Speaking Day on November 1^st when autistics from around the world submitted short written works (poems, essays, articles, etc.) for the Autistic Speaking Day blog in order to promote the idea that autistics can speak for themselves.

              On Friday I called the Ellis maintenance about my new broken blinds (the second time in that semester), went to the library and found an article from an issue of The New England Quarterly to do the article summary for my American Renaissance class, checked it out, got back and e-mailed my instructor asking for his approval for this article, and did a journal entry for my Anthropology of Food class before its due date at 5:00.  I then looked at my UCM e-mail account and saw Kristie had responded to my submission saying she would be happy to have the article in there. I also saw Erin from Camp Encourage had e-mailed me back, saying she saw The Friend of Autism Pledge, and would be happy to let me add her name to it.  

As I ran on the treadmill, I saw a picture on Pinterest made from bottle caps of god’s eyes of different sizes with each layer being a different color because they were made from different types of bottle caps.  After seeing that, I knew what I wanted to do to repurpose many of the duplicate bottle caps I had.  After all that I enjoyed one of the Grape Smirnoffs I had gotten the last Sunday (though I don’t really like vodka), from which I got another bottle cap, making this one perhaps the three hundred sixty-third bottle cap I had collected so far.  Josiah, meanwhile, helped me work on my bottle cap picture, using his math skills to help me figure out the number of different types of duplicate bottle caps I would need for each diamond.

                The next morning, I saw, to my relief, my post on the Autistic Speaking Day website, just as I had written it. After that I went to the hardware store and got some hot glue and a hammer. Then I went to Walgreen’s and got some toothpaste, a twenty-five dollar debit card, and some beers. I spent part of the afternoon putting up links to it on the Autistic Speaking Day website and The Autist Dharma on The Autist Dharma and Facebook. I started on my bottle cap picture, which was really fun, and I got most of the way through it. I also talked to Granddad, who was pleased to hear the news about my publication and was interested in my picture. Then, while on the treadmill, I got the idea to use the bottom of an aluminum can to make the top of my wind chimes. Then I got started on my wind chime. I went to Break Time afterwards and along the way got a great picture of the black-and-white night sky above the lit-up Rec Center.