The most interesting conversations take place between a mother and her teenage daughter while driving in the car:
The Mother (who had already heard the story from The Grandmother, but played dumb to see what The Daughter would say): What do you mean? There are many different kinds of disabilities. Is she in a wheelchair? Blind? Deaf? Mentally challenged?
The Daughter: Yes, she’s mentally challenged. That’s it.
The Mother: Ah, I see.
The Daughter (who has Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder under the same umbrella as Autism): I used to have mental challenges, but I got rid of them.
Then, a few minutes later:
The Mother: Uh, Megan, you can’t just go out and ‘get’ a boyfriend like you get a new pair of shoes.
The Daughter: Well, I told my friend Tiffany that I like him, and she said he said he’ll see me in second period. Then I can ask him to go to the Homecoming Dance with me.
The Mother: . o O (Oh, I am *so* not ready)
The Mother (out loud): So what’s so great about this guy?
The Daughter: I like him. He’s nice. And he’s funny. I like funny people.
Can’t fault her for that, I guess.
She brought home a permission slip the other day…for a 4 day trip to Myrtle Beach at the end of April for a Choir competition. All I could think about was the last school trip that I went on. I was a 17- year-old senior in high school, and our orchestra was participating in the International Music Festival in Nassau. It was a great trip – a 5-day stay in the Bahamas…the sun, the sand, the blue water, the Booze Cruise, being hit on by a guy with a Bahamian accent and a wedding ring who tried to convince me that he was in the US Navy and that I should take him back to my room, the late evening game of hide-and-seek through the hotel, sitting in the middle of the hallway on the 5th floor of the hotel passing around a bottle of rum (we were leaving soon – we had to get rid of it!)….*sigh*…good times…
Uh…ok, I gotta go. I have a permission slip to tear into shreds! Have a great night all!