Prepare to enter the wild and wooly world of an adult with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by intellignce, quirks, social difficulties and downright strange and oddish behaviours.

People with Aspergers generally are high functioning in everyday life but have great difficulty connecting with others due to the inability to read faces, body language and subtle verbal clues. They also tend to take words literally and have a hard time multi-tasking.

Oversensitivity to touch (clothing has to be soft and often the tags removed), light (do not leave home without the sunglasses), sound (loud noises and noisey places are avoided), taste (many Aspies have quite a limited diet and are frequently very picky eaters) and smells makes the everyday existence more of a challenge.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on in...
To find out more about what Aspergers is..please check out my earliest blog entries

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

I don't know how to play with dolls, autistic me

I don't understand dolls. I don't know what to do with them. Never have.
As a kid, I'd watch and wonder as my sisters would ask for and receive dolls for Christmas or a birthday. It just didn't make any sense to me. I figured something must be wrong with me as television advertised dolls all the time.
Oh, I understood those green Army men, even GI Joe's, I could play with and be entertained for hours. But around girl dolls, I was clueless.
I decided to try and fix myself. Around 9 I asked for a Mrs. Beesley doll, you know, the one that Jodi had from the tv show "Family Affair. I carried her around. Took her to bed with me but for the most part, I'd set her on the floor across from me and just stared at her.
I think I expected something magical to happen or for Mrs. Beesley to tell me her worth or what I should do with her. I was perplexed, stymied and at a loss.
Maybe I asked for the wrong doll. Maybe I needed a Barbie or a baby doll. Something just wasn't right. I wasn't like other girls. I went back to playing with my brother's Army guys. Them I understood...
I think one reason this topic has come up is because I'm enamored with the new Barbie Frida Kahlo doll. I want one! I am a big fan of Frida the artist, her colors, fashion and her life.
I'm sure if I gave in to my childish whims, I'd buy a Frida and she'd sit in her box and we'd have a series of stare downs. I'm not sure she'd make it out of the box or maybe she would and then sit stoically on my shelf. I'm not sure I'd do anything more than that...but maybe it'd be a start. Maybe it's okay to have a doll just to admire.
Thinking about it...