What’s Going On Here?

It’s time for a good old fashioned, rambling blog post. Yay. My house is quiet, and my chore list is short.

I got slammed with a winter bug, which isn’t Covid – just the usual stuff. Back when we were living under a rock with a mask, I never got sick. So, I’m feeling a little nostalgic for those old days of perfect health.

Being a totally baby about this cold, I’ve been pretty much on the sofa, doing dumb stuff, like reading about the Royal Family gossip and playing stupid video games. What are your favorite activities on sick days?

The past month has been a new chapter in my life. And I like new chapters. I’ve been building a new community for autistic people on the Internet with a website and webinars. After throwing myself into an election last year, I’m suddenly a member of several volunteer organizations in town. It’s booked up my calendar, but kept me very amused. I’m helping to build a new autism community program at the local YMCA, supporting sensory-friendly nights at town restaurants, and attending voter registration drives at the high school.

We also took Ian to see a play about autistic young adults, acted by autistic actors. Between that play, getting Ian ready for a summer at autism college, taking groups of them to the bowling alley, and all my other work, life has been super autistic-friendly lately. Nice, but maybe too much.

Which is why I’m really looking forward to our March trip to Mexico. I haven’t been to Mexico since our Girl Scout troop sold so many cookies that it funded a trip to the Girl Scout lodge in Mexico City. I’m obsessing about the right shoes and cute dinner dresses. I pretty much have the right clothes — linen pants, straw hat, frilly dresses — because I got that all last summer for our trip to Italy and then didn’t need it much when we came back home to shady New Jersey. Still, a girl needs a few new things.

Post 50, I have been thinking a lot about the remaining years and how I want to spend them. Maybe we have 20 good vacations left before things get difficult. How do I want to spend those years? For a long time, we dreamed about getting a cabin in the woods — a place to garden and take hikes and clear bush. A place to read books and write without distractions. A second home wasn’t in the budget when we were younger, but we might be able to afford a fixer-upper shack way up by the Canadian border now.

But we’re not sure that we want to get tied down to one physical place. Maybe we’ll get a teardrop camper for weeklong roadtrips. I want to travel North as far as we can go, up into the depths of Canada.

Steve and I are also planning on doing more solo trips without the autistic boy and his older brother. We’ll eat spontaneous spicy meals at restaurants that don’t have French fries on the menu. We’ll spend long afternoons reading every sign in dusty museums. We’ll stop to chat with strangers in the markets without children tapping their feet. We’ll be doing that this summer in Spain. We just need to nail down the week and buy the tickets.

Also back in the old days, I drank two glasses of wine every night. It was my reward for getting through a long day of writing articles, handling the kids, and then making dinner. I stopped first just to lose weight. Then, I found I couldn’t handle it anymore. I get drunk too easily. I gave up red wine for Lent, but it’s not much of a sacrifice. I’m finding that I don’t miss it at all. Besides, all that research about the health benefits of red wine turned out to be bogus anyway. Boo.

I really need to write about elections, but it’s all so depressing. More depressing that red wine research. And the fact that the East Coast is sinking.

Okay, that’s it for me. I’m going to take Ian to the gym, drop off a book sale at the post office, and then be back for a 1:00 meeting. Ta-Ta!