Oxford's in a blender

Many, many things have been happening around here lately. Things I know I want to or need to write about in this blog. I'm still licking the fresh wound of a horrible experience with my daughters' teacher which finally got me in gear to get the girls ADOS testing and setting up appointments with early intervention before they start kindergarten. And, I finally started a new job after leaving my previous job (which makes well over 35 jobs now). Also, I have been thinking about some other sensory issues I want to share about my time here on the spectrum-- the noses knows.

All of these things have been writing themselves in my head for weeks now. In some ways that is a good thing, because I can pull sentences out of my head like a magician pulls a string of handkerchiefs out his mouth. But, it is bad in the way it becomes overwhelming when I am trying to prioritize. Setting up the appointments for the girls is more important than WRITING about how the girls responded to the psychologist. Trying to acclimate into the mini-society surrounding my new workplace is more important than WRITING about the subtle aspects I am trying to catch. Planning a trip to Toronto to attend an international autism research convention because I am thinking about going back to school (again!!!) is more important than WRITING about my hotel reservations. Get it? I finally do.

As I mentioned, these things are all writing themselves as they happen. As a friend told me once, "You write like you talk." That makes me a great essayist but not the best Southern Gothic fiction writer like Faulkner. Well, I guess if all my characters where Pennsylvanian women who came from the Great Lakes rust belt, I could sell a book or two.

I want you to imagine with me what the inside of my head looks like as these things form. First, take a decent-sized edition of a dictionary-- Oxford's will do. Now, put it through a shredder, being sure to save all the little bits. Next, take your every day average glass fish bowl and dump all the papers bits inside. ALL THE PAPER BITS! Make them fit however you can. Okay, we're almost done. Take the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner, turn the cleaner on reverse, and stick the nozzle in the bowl. There you have it! Now, watch the bowl closely. Every once in a while you will see a word swirl by or even a couple of word clinging together to form a phrase.

When the writing actually takes place, I grab fistfuls of scraps from the bowl, taping them back together in an order that mimics what I am trying to convey. Easy enough. That all said, there are some things on my minds I am going to be sharing with you.