Funkonovo/Allison's autism Blog

Beyond broken: photograph of a window with broken panes double exposured with barren trees against a gray sky. Credit: Allison M. Kramer Content Warning: Abandonment, ableism and suicide, mental illness, trauma On my last blog site, I wrote about having a friendship with my boss (which failed due to allistic behavior and my official ending of that friendship via a handwritten note). I've written about how making and maintaining friendships is nearly impossible, because others don't enjoy spending time around someone who can't go most public places (resturants, movie theaters) due to sensory overload.  I actually had a few friends for a few years in middle school and high school. They were the initiators. One girl commented on how spicy the pizza in the cafeteria was. After commenting on the cafeteria food, I asked if we could be friends. She introduced me to another girl who in turn, introduced me to another friend. Unfortunately, there was socio-economic inequal...

Purple and red were the colors I chose the day the classical music played through an old, slightly warped and scratchy sounding record player. Peaks and valleys gave way to holes in the paper made by too much pressure from my hands. Us six-year-olds were asked to draw how we "saw" the music. Sight wasn't the first sense that came to mind. It was my hearing. I used the crayons to illustrate the stabbing pain I felt physically in my ears that wound up in my shutting down, hands over my ears and face down on the desk, near tears. I had a kind first grade teacher who had something many other teachers lacked: common sense. She genuinely cared for her students. Noting my condition, she asked to see my paper. "Oh my!" she said, asking for the paper. She later called my parents, not to complain, but to tell them that something was wrong and that she was concerned. The matter wasn't discussed further. I wasn't blamed or shamed by my teacher or parents. If ...

Some people do collect autographs. Some do it for fun, some do it for money. I am someone who only contacts someone I admire, and for their persoanality, not just their talent or physical attributes. If a celebrity finds it too stressful to accomodate autograph seekers, it is totally understandable. When they mock the very people who help keep them famous, then they cross a line and deserve to be called out. I made a list of celebrities who don't sign autographs, because I don't want there to be any hyper-emotional people like me out there who get their hopes crushed writing or tweeting a celebrity. To those who consider autograph seekers "sad": They are the same people who make and keep you rich and famous. They may be going through a rough time in life. You don't need to make things worse by behaving like a douchebag. You were once a "nobody", too. Chances are YOU longed for someone's John Hancock of whom YOU admired. If autographing/ta...