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It's been a bit of an interesting weekend.
On Friday my friend Marci from the Pat Pat arrived in town. I picked her up from the airport and put her up for the night here, and then on Saturday morning I took her down to the Kissimmee Greyhound bus depot where she caught a bus to Clearwater on the gulf coast. Presumably she is lounging on a beach right now doing a whole lotta nuthin', and she will be back here on Tuesday. I plan on picking her up from the bus depot and then dropping her off at Epcot. I'll need to put in a few more hours at work, and then I'll hook up with her for dinner somewhere in the World Showcase. We'll catch the Candlelight Processional and just kinda hang out exploring the World Showcase, she'll crash at my place again, and then on Wednesday I'll take her back to the airport. It's kinda nice to see a familiar face.
So anyway, yesterday Ben and I went to the Magic Kingdom as usual. Of course, yesterday they were also filming on Main Street for the Christmas Day Parade that airs on ABC. I swear to god everybody in the world was at the Magic Kingdom -- I have never seen it so jam packed. The walkway in Fantasyland between Peter Pan and Small World was completely impassable, a bottleneck caused by too many strollers and too many people trying to go opposite directions at the same time. Needless to say, we stuck either to the Snow White area or else over in Tomorrowland.
While standing in line for Snow White (for, I think, the 7th time) we met a very interesting person. When out in public, most adults who encounter Ben are very nice; they can tell right away that he is not "normal", and are very kind about whatever he did to draw their attention (most likely stepping in front of them or running into them as if they were some inanimate object). The second most common reaction is an ignorant "control your child" kind of glare, and it takes all the self control I can muster to not get right back in their face to tell them what an ignorant wanker they are.
But every once in a rare while we encounter someone who recognizes Ben right off the bat. They don't recognize him personally, of course, but through some kind of personal experience they take one look at him and immediately recognize not just that he is different but that he is specifically autistic. Jonathan was exactly that kind of encounter. As we stood in line for Snow White, Jonathan was in line immediately in front of us holding his young daughter (at least I assume she was his daughter). Ben was doing his standard line-waiting behavior, things like looking at the mural and screening portions of it with his hand, talking to himself, that kind of thing. Jonathan looked back and took in Ben for all of three seconds, and then he struck up a conversation with me. He asked where we were from, what I did for a living, just general kind of friendly chit-chat. When I asked the same of him, it turns out he lives in Boca Raton (that's about three hours south of here near Miami) and he runs Advanced Pediatric Systems. He specializes in speech and sensory integration therapy. He was not the least bit surprised to hear about Ben's reaction to the park, nor was he the least bit surprised to hear that we had moved here to take advantage of that reaction. One assumes he encounters parents every day who are willing to do whatever it takes to help their children.
So anyway, we chatted until we got to the front of the line, and then he gave me his phone number and said if I had any questions or needed any help with finding local services to give him a call and he would be glad to help, no charge. He seemed like a heck of a nice guy, perfectly suited for his chosen career. I'll be giving him a call tomorrow.
On Friday my friend Marci from the Pat Pat arrived in town. I picked her up from the airport and put her up for the night here, and then on Saturday morning I took her down to the Kissimmee Greyhound bus depot where she caught a bus to Clearwater on the gulf coast. Presumably she is lounging on a beach right now doing a whole lotta nuthin', and she will be back here on Tuesday. I plan on picking her up from the bus depot and then dropping her off at Epcot. I'll need to put in a few more hours at work, and then I'll hook up with her for dinner somewhere in the World Showcase. We'll catch the Candlelight Processional and just kinda hang out exploring the World Showcase, she'll crash at my place again, and then on Wednesday I'll take her back to the airport. It's kinda nice to see a familiar face.
So anyway, yesterday Ben and I went to the Magic Kingdom as usual. Of course, yesterday they were also filming on Main Street for the Christmas Day Parade that airs on ABC. I swear to god everybody in the world was at the Magic Kingdom -- I have never seen it so jam packed. The walkway in Fantasyland between Peter Pan and Small World was completely impassable, a bottleneck caused by too many strollers and too many people trying to go opposite directions at the same time. Needless to say, we stuck either to the Snow White area or else over in Tomorrowland.
While standing in line for Snow White (for, I think, the 7th time) we met a very interesting person. When out in public, most adults who encounter Ben are very nice; they can tell right away that he is not "normal", and are very kind about whatever he did to draw their attention (most likely stepping in front of them or running into them as if they were some inanimate object). The second most common reaction is an ignorant "control your child" kind of glare, and it takes all the self control I can muster to not get right back in their face to tell them what an ignorant wanker they are.
But every once in a rare while we encounter someone who recognizes Ben right off the bat. They don't recognize him personally, of course, but through some kind of personal experience they take one look at him and immediately recognize not just that he is different but that he is specifically autistic. Jonathan was exactly that kind of encounter. As we stood in line for Snow White, Jonathan was in line immediately in front of us holding his young daughter (at least I assume she was his daughter). Ben was doing his standard line-waiting behavior, things like looking at the mural and screening portions of it with his hand, talking to himself, that kind of thing. Jonathan looked back and took in Ben for all of three seconds, and then he struck up a conversation with me. He asked where we were from, what I did for a living, just general kind of friendly chit-chat. When I asked the same of him, it turns out he lives in Boca Raton (that's about three hours south of here near Miami) and he runs Advanced Pediatric Systems. He specializes in speech and sensory integration therapy. He was not the least bit surprised to hear about Ben's reaction to the park, nor was he the least bit surprised to hear that we had moved here to take advantage of that reaction. One assumes he encounters parents every day who are willing to do whatever it takes to help their children.
So anyway, we chatted until we got to the front of the line, and then he gave me his phone number and said if I had any questions or needed any help with finding local services to give him a call and he would be glad to help, no charge. He seemed like a heck of a nice guy, perfectly suited for his chosen career. I'll be giving him a call tomorrow.
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From: (Anonymous)
Did you call him?
~Kris~