Tomorrow is Confederate Memorial Day. I am such a Yank. I had no idea. Worse, according to Wikipedia, it’s celebrated in Texas and I never knew. Guess I’m not much of a Texan or a Southern Girl. 
Who knew?
I always feel like I’m gunning against the clock when I do a short week at work. It’s like I’m cramming my two days off into the three I’m working. Ugh. So, I’m bogged and blue right now but I tell you, I can not wait for the break. I’m really looking forward to it. 
Happy Tuesday! (Oh, and I hope everyone got their taxes in!)
I opened my email and saw the usual junk items, random forwards, & emails from friends. And you know how Reunion.com sends out those emails telling you who’s been searching for you but you have to pay to see the names? Now, most of the time it’s someone from high school and I can’t guess because the info is too vague. And honestly, I delete them more than I read them. But this time I did read it and in that moment, my stomach started doing flips. The email details: Male, 55 years old & residing in Hermiston, Oregon. It didn’t take a lot for my brain to jump to my father. After all, his birthday was March 9th and he’d hit 55. I didn’t celebrate his birthday except to note the day on the calendar. And here he was. My father was on the internet (shocker) and he was searching for me (bigger shocker). I confirmed my suspicions by doing a search myself with his name. Yep, he resides in Hermiston. What are the odds and what timing! There probably couldn’t be more going on in my life right now. J offered to have us pay for a subscription to Reunion and get my father’s contact email but I don’t know. It’s been 11 years since I last saw him. I’ve married, had two wonderful children, and generally moved on with my life. I worry about upsetting the apple cart. And yes, I’m being selfish. I don’t know if I’m prepared to have him come into my life or my children’s sheltered world. They think that the stories I tell of my childhood really are just stories. I don’t know how they’d react if they met my father and found out they were true. I’m all twisted up inside and I just don’t know what to do.
No two kids with autism are exactly alike, but all types of autism share a common trait: “We’re talking about a fundamental difference in wiring,” says Fred Volkmar, M.D., a child psychiatrist and autism researcher at Yale and the author of Healthcare for Children on the Autism Spectrum.
Lost Boys: Autism and My Son is an incredibly good read if you really want to know some of the things we go through with our little Zacky. Hopefully they won’t take this down anytime soon as it is extremely informative and well written. And best of all, it’s coming from a parent’s view point, which you don’t find a lot. Well, at least not a lot that are this eloquent.
I can finally admit to really seriously enjoying Dancing with the Stars. I abstained from watching it the first and second seasons, but I wanted to give it a chance this season. I missed the first two episodes but got hooked in last week. I totally loved ballroom dancing before (anyone happen to catch Shall We Dance back in 2004?) but this really makes it look like so much fun. I told J that we totally need to take lessons at some point. He loves to see me dress up and it would be a fun excuse. Oh, and they say it’s awesome exercise!
In other randomness, it appears that ABC is quickly becoming my channel of choice with the few shows I actually watch. Who wouldn’t guessed? I used to be a total NBC girl. (I think I’m going to have to check out Notes from the Underbelly. It looks like fun.)