Thanksgiving Break 2013

        On the day I went home for the Thanksgiving break, we started brainstorming for our final project, to be worked on in class and outside, for my Drawing I class: a drawing of a still-life. I got the idea to make dancing and drumming Africans from plastic bottles caps with wire for the arms, Easter egg shells for beehive huts, clay cross graves with straw flowers suggesting the dead died recently, deacons made from plastic bags and wire carrying a body, and the dancers and drummers to show life goes on for the still life, inspired by a story I read in one of my Lonely Planet books of Africa about a man who lived in an African village for years, and saw a funeral a day due to AIDS, the theme of my drawing to be that life goes on. My teacher thought that sounded like a good idea. Later I read a lot of the reading for my World Masterpieces class. Afterwards I sorted some recycling in Ellis and put my recyclables in my closet. I also called work I found out I work on Sunday from 10:30-7, Monday from 12-6, Tuesday from 10-6:30, Wednesday from 8-4:30, and Friday from 10-6:30. I checked out and drove home for about forty minutes before my mom and I stopped at an antique shop, where I had a good time petting the owner’s cats, though realizing that I would soon be home with one of my own cat’s dead body and I got a pocket knife. I got home and found my Lord of the Rings flute book lying on my bed. After that I worked on my bags woven from Walmart bags. I also talked to Tyler who I learned is starting a bottle cap collection. I decided to give him some of my duplicates and make him a box to store them. I went to see Jim Gaffigan afterwards and thought he was very funny.

                The next morning before I went to bed, I sorted out some bottle caps for Tyler during which I found a new one for my collection. After I had breakfast, I went into town and got a haircut. After I got back, I talked to my friend Erin on the phone. Then I practiced my flute for half an hour playing The Prophecy from my Lord of the Rings flute book, though it used a different fingering system than I was used to and had to adjust to it. Later I worked on my figurines from bottle caps. Then I watched World’s End with Mom and Dave. 

                The next day I went to work. I got a new Snapple cap for my collection from my drink at lunch and afterwards I got the December 2013 issue of National Geographic and the Historical Collector’s Edition Obama. I also got the idea to make my bottle cap fish look sort of like Rainbow Fish, from a story book from when I was younger. After I got home, I watched a YouTube video of a scene from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Extended Version, which I thought was pretty funny, and would love to see, even though I didn’t think there would be much to add. I showed it to Dave, and he thought it was funny too.

                I went to work the next day, getting another Snapple cap during my break. After I drove home with Dave, I realized that it’s good I do my job as many people might love help out after tiresome exhausting jobs, like, as I learned last year, a social worker in a house with thirty screaming kids. Later I worked more on my figurines made from plastic bottle caps and Cam got home. 

I went to work the next day and got a new Snapple cap on my lunch. I also learned about the children’s book that inspired my bottle cap fish idea called Rainbow Fish about a fish with beautiful scales which he was so proud of and one day a fish asked for one of his scales and he rudely refused and after that none of the fish wanted to play with him so he went to the Mysterious Octopus who told him that he should share because it would make him happy and he did and it made him happy, which I guess is sort of like the message of Buddhism. I thought that it could inspire me to write a screenplay where a guy is rejected by his community after he refuses to share his great wealth and is rejected by his community and tries to find a place where he isn’t asked to share what he has only to learn to give back to the community he belonged to. I also realized that Gandhi and his followers living with few possessions may have made them more humble and less likely to be violent and more likely to die for their cause as they had nothing to lose like for that matter suicide bombers or people who commit self-immolation in Tibet, and if Gandhi and his followers had used violence, as opposed to non-violence, the British may have not been able to fight the Nazis as they may have been too overtaxed fighting the Indians and other rebellions throughout their empire and many people on the spectrum lagging behind in basic motor skills and having selective mutism may just be a more extreme version of trying to escape reality.

                While I was at work, I saw the Shawnee Mission East choir working, playing, and begging for money at the store and realized this was the effects of the budget cuts. By the end of work, I made $39.50 in tips. I got home and I realized that part of diversity is about the context in which we talk about different groups. I also worked on my bag woven from Hen House produce bags.

                The next day I walked to work, seeing some gangly-looking crows on my way to work. At work I got three new Snapple caps on my breaks and lunch. I also saw a girl from the Shawnee Mission East choir look really upset as she forgot to bag a customer’s groceries and couldn’t get them to her in time. 

                “Don’t worry. It happens,” I told her. She seemed to feel better. Then after buying a two-liter bottle of Pepsi I realized I could put the top over my Buddha statue with the wrapping as light switch plates and covering the bottom with foil to make an incense burner. I asked Cam if he still wanted his old bottle caps, and he said no, so I got twenty-nine more bottle caps for my collection. I also went to Winstead’s and the Pathless Land with Granddad, the latter where I got the December 2013/January 2014 issue of National Geographic Traveler, the Winter 2013 issue of Parabola, the November/December 2013 issue of Afar, the Winter 2013 issue of Buddhadharma, and the December 2013 issue of Saveur.  I learned about National Geographic Traveler’s Photo contest winners in their magazine and thought I’d check out their photos and submit some one day. I also went to the Pathless Land where I meditated thinking of changing the world while going over the Padmasambhava mantra in my head and I did the dedication of merit. I got home and heard Mom say the budget cut’s support would end in 2014. I fed Peter after that. Then I started working on my vase and incense burner made from a bottle

                The next morning, I found I got my Lonely Planet Mozambique book in the mail. I also found some places to visit in my book. Then I went to my grandmom and granddad’s house and worked on my bottle cap figurine. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner while I said a grace by Thich Nhat Hanh. After dinner we talked to Uncle Todd, Aunt Laura, Abby, and Eric over Skype. We also had Thanksgiving pie. I also decided to make Buddha wall art from bottle caps. I got home and called Erin and wished her a happy Thanksgiving. Then I worked on my bottle cap figurine. 

                I went to work, and I decided to make a wind chime out of bottle caps in my collection. During my breaks I got a new Snapple cap for my collection. I got back and found a new bottle cap for my collection in the stash Cam gave me. After dinner I buried Polly in our backyard, and I said a few words about what she meant to me. The next day I went to Chipotle with Dad and Cam and found out Dad’s giving me a ride back to school tomorrow. Then Dad and I went to Half Price books and got a Lonely Planet book on Rajasthan, Delhi, and Agra, where I learned about some Buddhist caves in southern Rajasthan, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Visual Companion. Later I worked on my bag woven from Walmart bags. I also learned autistic girls may compensate for their lack of non-verbal social understanding by a “sixth sense.”

Getting a Driver's Permit

               On the first day of June I went to work and got the schedule which said I work the next day from 7-1:30, Monday from 8:30-1, Wednesday from 10-5:30, Thursday from 3-7:30, and Saturday from 3-7:30. I also found out the schedule had been changed so I worked from 3-7:30. I went home and slept for another hour and after I woke up, I carved a banana from a stick. I went to work later that day, and I realized that the UCM and JCCC Autism Spectrum Support Groups should help autistic people find better employment thus raising tax revenue until eventually the government will have no excuse for not providing autistic people services made hard to find by government bureaucracy.          

               The next day when I went into work Phil told me the schedule changed again so I didn’t work until 1:30-10, and I used the time I had to sleep in some more. Before I went to work, I went to the Prairie Village Art Fair where I saw several good photographs which inspired me to keep doing my photography.  I also picked up something for my mom from RSVP. Later on, I went to work.

                On Monday I went to work and on my way back I got a Lonely Planet book on China with a section on Tibet and when I got home, I rode my bike for about an hour. The next day I found some good Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Inner Mongolia (not to be confused with the country Mongolia), Yunnan, and Beijing and some good cycling and rafting places in China. I went to my appointment with Dr. Mays, and I got some cookies, eggs, ice cream, and cheez-its at the Prairie Village Hen House near my neighborhood. On my way back I saw several ducks in the creek nearby and got a good picture of them and I realized my Buddhist practice of miksang photography, taking pictures of things when you have a fresh perception, might go well with my pictures I do when I do birdwatching and wildlife-watching. I later took some pictures of flowers in my mom’s garden, and my mom and I agreed to go take my test to renew my driver’s permit on Thursday, which was a little nerve-racking to me. Later I heard my granddad say when I talked to him on the phone that he found another issue of Smithsonian from this year that he wanted to give me and the story of how he found it which he took as a sign that the universe wanted me to have it. 

                I went to work the next day, and I saw that the store was selling a National Geographic special issue called Mysteries of the Maya and a Time magazine special issue called Special Ops. I got a new USDA cap on my first break and saw a coffee drink near the snack section that had a cap like those in Frappuccino’s that I could add to my bottle cap collection. My granddad picked me up and when I talked to him he told me something that made me realize how the trouble autistic people have finding services in a whole bunch of government bureaucracy when he said that for impoverished people to get a free meal from this charity in Lee Summit there was a lot of paper work that asked everything from the name, race, and so on about the person getting it which costs so much money. He also said that next time I went until 5:30 he could just pick me up and take me home from work so I could get changed. 

                I meditated with the others at the Pathless Land on how I came to “the path,” what my view of enlightenment was then, and how it’s changed. I guess after being engorged in Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the remote Eastern feeling that I once associated with Buddhism felt so familiar to me and its peacefulness appealed to me while my friends fought in my middle school years. I heard one woman there who was a regular member for years say that she was brought there after she found out her husband had Alzheimer’s which made me realize how important it is to appreciate your time with the person you love. I also realized that pictures on food and drink, like I get at Roasterie Coffee with Granddad, would be a great subject for my miksang photography as they are like Tibetan Buddhist mandalas-art that’s impermanent. After the Pathless Land, my granddad and I went down to Roasterie Coffee where I got some pictures of my brownie and my smoothie and as we drove back home, me feeling a little nervous about my driver’s permit test, I remembered a line in a song by Ross Lynch from the Disney Channel’s Austin and Ally, which I saw with Tyler quite a lot, “It’s just a journey/and I’m not in any hurry.”

                My granddad took me home and gave me the Smithsonian issue he found which turned out to be the travel issue with some good articles on Africa. I remembered then what my Granddad said about how he thought the universe wanted him to find it. I watched an episode of Corey in the House that night, at the time when it was Tyler’s and my time to watch Wizards of Waverly Place and at the end of it the president of the United States said to Corey, “If you believe in yourself, things will get better.” I also remembered my mom told me a story about a girl with a learning disability who was able to pass the test taking it on a computer.

                The next day my mom and I went to the DVM, packed to bursting and found out it would be about four hours before I could take me test. I went home and rested a little and after about five hours plus I was finally able to take my test.  I took the eye test and got my permit picture taken. Unfortunately, the computer on which I was to take it went down, and it would be a while before they could get back on. I had no other choice but to take the test on paper. 

                I turned the test in a few minutes later and a woman at the counter graded it. She circled five questions and wrote -5 on the paper. I asked, “Does this mean I pass?”

                “Yes,” she said.

                I practically jumped for joy.

                “I passed!” I kept exclaiming for the next hour and a half.

                I went home to change into my work clothes and then my mom and I went to Culver’s Butter Burgers to celebrate. Then I went to work and got the bottle cap from that drink I saw during my break. Unfortunately, I found out those drinks, Real Coco Aloe, weren’t coffee drinks but some kind of drinks made from kelp or something judging by their taste, and I quickly got a soda from the machine in the break room to wash the taste down. That is ok, I thought. Part of the fun of bottle cap collecting I’ve learned is getting to try all sorts of new drinks.

                The next day my mom told me about this exhibit called Trash into Treasure with recycled artwork from a guy named Just Colcord on display at the Toy and Miniature Museum over the next two days. Later I deposited my paychecks though I took a little out for myself and I returned my Lonely Planet books on Mongolia and South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho to the library when they were due and I got National Geographic’s Mysteries of the Maya, Time magazine’s Special Ops, and the newest issue of National Geographic which I thought I’d start collecting to. I picked up a prescription at Bruce Smith where I saw the issues of National Geographic Traveler and Afar which made me realize travel would be a good place for miksang photography. I took some pictures of some ducks as I went back home and then I called work and found out I work on Sunday from 10-6:30, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11-7:30, and Friday from 2-10:30. Then I packed for Dad’s and we ate at Mia Ranchito in Overland Park and I practiced driving with him in a parking lot and did pretty well. We also agreed to go to Trash into Treasure.

                I went to the exhibit with my dad and grandmom and introduced myself to Just Colcord and told him about my recycled crafts projects, which he thought were pretty interesting. I saw wands that he’d whittled, and I saw some of his animated films which he made with figurines he made from repurposed trash. Later we went to Spin Pizza and when I got home, I worked on my travel plans to Inner Mongolia. After that I went to work, and I got a new Sweet Leaf Tea cap from my drinks on one of my breaks. Afterwards I went to Homer’s where I got a new Nantucket cap from my drink. I also decided I might travel to Uyghurstan with its Silk Road towns since the Silk Road helped the spread of Buddhism. I read at Homer’s coffee shop my Lonely Planet book and found several Buddhist sites, places that sell fruits and ethnic musical instruments, and a museum with the Caucasian mummies that outraged the Chinese government since they were obviously not Chinese but could have been European and may have helped Buddhism spread into pre-Christian Europe. While I was there listening to the live music, I realized I could practice “mindful music listening” by being transformed by the songs you hear.

The next morning before I went to sleep, I realized that finding your purpose in life makes life feel a lot easier and therefore the UCM and JCCC Autism Spectrum Support Groups should help make life easier for many people with autism.  I went to work that day, and I realized that “mindful music listening” can help you learn a person’s story and a little bit about the story of the people who listen to them. I got three new Sweet Leaf Tea caps from my drinks during my breaks and when I got home my mom offered to pay me to pull weeds from the patio and I agreed to take it. I got some sticks to carve after that and then I got home and carved some of them into wands. My granddad also agreed to pick me up after work on Wednesday and he’d bring me some Winstead’s to-go and then we’d go to the Pathless Land. 
             The next day I went to work and got a new Sweet Leaf Tea cap during my break, and I realized that me leading the UCM Autism Spectrum Support Group demonstrates to people what a person with autism can do. I got back home, and my mom offered to pay me for pulling weeds out of the backyard.  I also realized that mindful music listening can help you connect with people like a lover, when listening to their type of music.