that's all we really want when the working day is done
I love thunderstorms. My mom doesn't, she's scared of lightning. I said, look, we can't wait under this awning till the storm blows over. If you're scared to run to the car by yourself, I'll run with you. It's okay if I get wet. Really. She said, no, I know you don't want to get soaked. I said, Listen, the thunder comes forty to fifty seconds after the lightning, it isn't anywhere near here, you won't get struck. I promise. Anyway, once you're in the car, you'll be safer than I am over here. And then she ran across the parking lot, and she did it like it was something that she thought was dangerous but she was doing it anyway, and I was like, Go, Mom! Go! Yeah! It was raining so hard I almost couldn't see her at all after a few seconds.
This afternoon I got what you sent to me. I had thought it'd come on Thursday, but I'm no good at guessing these things. I'm listening to an oddly melancholy cover of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," and I'm happy. I saw a boy I used to go to school with in the Goodwill, and he looked okay. He was with a girl, or woman, I guess, and I guess I should call him a man now, he'd have to be at least my age. Anyway, he was with a very pretty, normal-looking young woman and I wanted to think she was his friend or even his girlfriend, but I know she probably wasn't. He was making the same zombie-like noises he used to make, and the woman kept glaring at me when I looked over (obviously not as surreptitiously as I hoped), that defiant Haven't you ever seen an autistic man before? He's not a freak show, kid glare, and I didn't go over to talk to them. I don't know whether he'd remember me, and I wouldn't want to make either of them uncomfortable. And the fast-food pretzel place had free coffee today for some reason. You could just go in and get coffee, with fake cream and fake sugar and a wooden tongue-depressor thing to stir with. You didn't even have to buy a pretzel or anything first; it was actual free coffee, not the kind of "free" with strings attached.
All right, now, the offer I made in my last post still stands. Ask me questions! Don't be shy! It's not like I can't give evasive answers if a question makes me uncomfortable or something. The power's been a little sketchy at my house tonight, and one attempt at a post already got eaten by a sudden outage. I'd rather be brief for now. But I will answer everything in time. Promise.