His initial response was basically, “I married you, no matter how you are described!” He started reading up on autism though, and a couple of days later, he said very seriously that he had heard that many autists don’t like to be touched much, and since his “love language” is pats and cuddles and hugs, he wasn’t sure if he could handle that well. I replied that since we have been happily married for 38 years and have had three children, that I don’t think our snuggling habits are going to suddenly change. And they haven’t!

Thank you for posting this.

I wish I could upvote this more.

Thanks for the update. I hope you manage to get out of the U.S. eventually. I feel this place is going down fast.

I live in New Hampshire, and our downstairs bathroom vents out the wall. It works fine!

Good luck to you! I am impressed with your resilience. Hang in there.

I’ve been thinking about telling my parents/siblings of my diagnosis, but haven’t for fear they’ll suddenly think of me as “other”, “subhuman”. Happily, my husband knows and supports me utterly.

I wish I knew you irl, and could help. How old are you?

I was a library trustee for 9 years; I learned a lot about the town and how it works. Neat stuff!

I think your instincts are correct; you shouldn’t go to this meeting; it will just cause the clerk to resent you every time he sees you. I work at a school, and just went through some mandatory anti-bullying training. It said the teacher SHOULD NOT call out the bully publicly, or force the bully to apologize, or insist that the victim accept an apology. All these things just aggravate the situation. Quietly putting the bully into counseling, and separating the bully from victim is the recommended procedure. That is not possible at a coffee shop! Maybe, if you are willing, the next time you go in you could just behave as if nothing had happened. I’ll admit that I would find another coffee place.

hug

1. I’m not gonna look a memes or opinion pieces, just review genuine news articles to keep on top of things. For local elections, I may have to dig a bit, but I’ll try not to get down into the sewers.
2. I’m gonna vote for whoever is the least-bad option at every level.
3. If I actually find a candidate that I can support on their own merits, I will talk them up to neighbors, and support them monetarily.
4. I will remind myself that human nature has been the same for millennia, and nothing I can do will change it. All I can do is try to mitigate the fall-out. “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” “You do the job that’s in front of you.” (Terry Pratchett, “Night Watch”)

I was diagnosed just this summer, at 60. BeautifulMind says everything that I wanted to, but better. I am learning to unmask among family/friends and am finding it leaves me so much extra energy to do things I WANT to do.

That last point! It’s overwhelmed my entire life!