#TravelingWithDC First Stop; Arlington and Washington D.C.

At the time of this trip (June 2017), I was bombarding my Face book page with so many pictures; I thought I'd wait awhile before writing about it - just to give everyone a break.

We went on a cruise a while back and after DC asked and I was made to recite the entire schedule for the week probably 153 times, I decided to try something new. I wrote it all out and posted it as wallpaper on his phone so he could read it anytime he felt the need to ask me to recite it. It actually worked. Instead of asking, he looked at his phone and recited it (probably over 152 times) out loud. I still had to listen to it, but I did not have to recite. 

I decided to try it again for this trip after his questions started to get to me; it did not work so well this time...... 

sigh.

Moving on... We arrived at our hotel in Beltsville well after midnight. I was already feeling overwhelmed with trying to schedule everything we wanted to do in the next 7 days and also looking forward to getting some sleep that night and taking our time in the morning before heading to Washington D.C.

Upon checking in to the hotel:

- the hotel that we had made reservations for quite a good long while ahead of time.... - the hotel that could have called us at any time before we arrived...

The hotel (yes THAT one) told us that they would be turning off the water at 9:00 am the following morning for some sort of maintenance! It was after midnight and at that point much too late to find another place.

I was not looking forward to having to get up, showered and out by 9:00 am.

Should we just get up, get ready, have breakfast and go?
Should we just get ready before 9 and hang out (as originally planned) with no water?

If I was not already feeling overwhelmed, it probably would not have been such a big decision, but I was tired and crabby so we just went to bed with no plan for the next morning.

Morning came, DC also pretty crabby, was angry that the razor I packed for him was the "wrong color blue". After the razor fiasco wound down, he went on to yell/order "I want breakfast" over and over again. He has been known to "mention" his wants over and over again, but yelling orders at me is just not him. 

Through it all (did I mention they only gave us two towels and time was running out? Should we make due with the two towels and hand towels or should we wait for someone to bring more towels?) I may or may not have been giving Doug conflicting instructions... 

So Doug, in the screechy voice he only uses in these instances when I expect him to know what I want to do even though I, myself do not know what I want to do said/yelled "I don't know what you want me to do? You're not making any sense."

After all of my hemming and hawing, we managed to get ready by 9, took DC downstairs for breakfast and were on our way.

(BTW, these #$*^ heads decided at some unknown point, not to shut the water off at 9, but I guess decided to keep it a secret. By the time we realized, we had already had breakfast and DC knew we were leaving, so there was no turning back)

Next stop Washington D.C and Arlington.

We visited D.C. around 5/6 years ago (maybe more) so we were only stopping to see the couple of sights that we did not get to see the last time. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial was still under construction at the time and due to Rolling Thunder, we did not get to Arlington. We could have gone after the procession ended,  but it was our last day there and did not want to wait due to the long ride home.

One thing that I did take away from this entire trip was that I am no longer "one with the heat".
It was HOT!

First Stop: Arlington.

It was hot and DC was bored, but we were able to make our way through more of it than I thought we would. I would like to go back again some day in the spring or fall.

Next Stop: The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Quite honestly, after Arlington I did not think DC would last very long here. 

Doug was walking the wall of quotes and DC and I were standing at the entrance/exit because he had already said that he was ready to leave.

While we were standing there waiting for Doug, DC noticed the quotes on the wall. He then proceeded to walk down the walkway to read each and every one of them!

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that"

I get a little bit teary-eyed every time I watch this video.

I am glad we finally got to see the completed Memorial.

We only scheduled the one day in D.C. so after we left the Memorial, we made our way to Virginia.

I promise you that the rest of our trip was not as crabby (but it was certainly HOT!)

To be continued.....

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This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts, for longer Face book statuses and apparently complaints about dentists and doctors :) . Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time   

10 things I hate today

The 10 things I hate more than anything.

This is going to be easy and maybe a little nit-picky. Allergy season has just reared it's ugly head and I am crabby (I have a much better word, but I will try to be nice). 

Ten things I hate more than anything else?  Maybe not. Certainly 10 things I hate more than anything else recently...  some more shallow than others and in no particular order.

1. Allergies: Mine have gotten worse over the years and nothing seems to help. I tried Zyrtec last year but after reading Kenya's post, I stopped taking it immediately. Because we had nothing but cold and snow (3 times just last week) I was not ahead of the game and in a preventative frame of mind...

Now I am sure I will die before the Flonase starts to work.

2. The Group Text: The friend that texts you and 28 other people at 7:00 AM just to say "Happy Whatever Holiday" it might be - There is a way to opt out of the 28 replies (or how ever many chose to reply through that text instead of  replying via a NEW text to just the sender) in Facebook messenger, but if it's just a regular text, text - there is no way to do that. 

3. Hot Flashes: I am DONE. This is cruel and inhumane.  12 years of no sleep. 12 years of being drenched in sweat 24/7. Thousands of dollars spent on cooling pillows, blankets, ice packs, portable fans. No Sleep - did I mention that? I NEED Sleep!

4. Volunteers: People that volunteer for the wrong reasons - especially with my son and others like him. I originally gave this particular volunteer the benefit of the doubt and thought that maybe she was shy. But after looking at the whole picture.... no, that wasn't it at all.

I just wrote about this last week, so this is just an excerpt:

A shy person would say hello. A shy person might maybe look in his general direction once in a while. A shy person would at least acknowledge his existence. She does none of those things.... not one. If you were there to see this, you would understand that this is NOT just a case of her wanting to spend time with her friends.She treats him as if he does not exist, as if he is not a person.You have to wonder what motivates her to even volunteer with this team.Common courtesy would motivate a person to at the very least,  say hello. Apparently some people do not see our children as real people. This is a problem.

5. Inspiration Porn: (From that same post)

Doug works as a job coach in a transition program. Like the program that DC attended through our school system (18-21) but located at a local college, the program Doug works for is also through that town's school system and is located in their local college. Doug will also volunteer his time to DJ dances for his students.A little while back, while on our way to one of DC's events, I asked him how the dance went the night before. He said that it went well. Then he began telling me that one of the college's sports teams had to do some community service hours - I thought he was going to say that they volunteered at the dance, but no.They opted to have dinner with some of his students in the cafeteria before the dance. Basically, they took 45 minutes < Insert Sarcasm Font> out of their busy day to have dinner in the cafeteria with these kids <End Sarcasm Font>.So........ having dinner with one of our kids is now considered community service???I wonder if there will be a video?

6. Meatloaf: We talked about this a few weeks ago - Hate it!

7. Weight: Mine! We've talked about this as well. Some of the difficulty in losing any of it may swing back to the whole Hot Flash section, but it is never not on my mind. I am uncomfortable all day, every day. I have gained and lost weight plenty of times over the years but never anything like this. I have not even come close to anything like this since I was pregnant with DC when it was like someone gave me a license to eat. I gained the whole 25 lbs. allowed for the entire pregnancy in the first 4 months. By the time I was through, I had put on 60 (maybe 70/80) pounds. Now, in my defense - when I was pregnant I worked for Baskin-Robbins in the office in the plant where they made and shipped the ice cream. The production guys would actually ask me what flavors I wanted in the lunch room every day (Be nice to the pregnant lady). There is NOTHING like the tubs of ice cream that have just come off the line. Nothing. Trust me.

I have no excuse this time around except "Oldness".

8. Telemarketers:  (I was just reminded about telemarketers so this list item has been edited) The only people who call on my landline are my mother and DC's father, every other call is a telemarketer.
I am being traumatized by my phone. My cell is worse and I feel as if I have to answer because I have a child with autism and a seizure disorder. How could I not answer?
The worst thing about these telemarketers is that they call my son's phone a good twenty times a day (no exaggeration). He barely understands how to use the phone and these people are just proving to confuse him. He gets so many calls and texts that I am sure that his number was on a list that was sold by our provider to these companies. I had to put his phone on Do Not Disturb, which was the last thing I wanted to do because I want to be able to reach him when I need to. There is a setting to allow calls from the people in his contact list but what if something happened and I had to call him from another phone or something? Why does something as simple as a telephone have to be this difficult for him?

9. The Pile: The pile of mail and forms and things that I have to fill out or things that I'm not sure that I should throw away. Fortunately there is only DC and me that have to sit at the kitchen table or we'd have to get a bigger table. (It's not just the table that is cluttered. You can not imagine how much paperwork one has to fill out and save when your disabled child becomes an adult. I don't know where people put all of this stuff.)

10: Shredding: Rather; emptying the shredder. This may circle back to the piles of mail on my table. I will go to great lengths not to have to empty the shredder. 

Bonus: I also hate how I can not spot my own typos. When I proofread, I find myself not reading what I typed but "reading" what I know it is supposed to say instead of paying attention to what it does say. I miss a lot. Since I wrote this rather quickly and do not have time to proofread even once, I am apologizing now... 

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This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday Listicle. 10 things I hate more than anything hosted by Kristi Campbell of Finding Ninee and , Kenya G. Johnson of Sporadically Yours.

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This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts, for longer Facebook statuses and apparently complaints about dentists and doctors :) . Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time   

Attention Awareness, you missed a spot

Two in one weekend

Doug works as a job coach in a transition program. Like the program that DC attended through our school system (18-21) but located at a local college, the program Doug works for is also through that town's school system and is located in their local college. Doug will also volunteer his time to DJ dances for his students.

A little while back, while on our way to one of DC's events, I asked him how the dance went the night before. He said that it went well. Then he began telling me that one of the college's sports teams had to do some community service hours - I thought he was going to say that they volunteered at the dance, but no.

They opted to have dinner with some of his students in the cafeteria before the dance. Basically, they took 45 minutes < Insert Sarcasm Font> out of their busy day to have dinner in the cafeteria with these kids <End Sarcasm Font>.

So........ having dinner with one of our kids is now considered community service???

I wonder if there will be a video?

Awareness....... FAIL!

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DC is a participant in a few sports teams. He had an event a few days ago. As with most of the teams he participates in, each participant is assigned a "Buddy" who carries their equipment, directs them to what they are supposed to be doing and where they are going and helps them out during the game.

DC has a buddy who does not acknowledge him at all. She doesn't say hello, she really does not even look at him. I thought maybe she was just shy at first, but she has no problem talking to her two friends (who are also ignoring their participants for the entire time we are there).

DC knows he is supposed to stay with his buddy, so he got a little bit nervous when she and her two friends walked through the halls on the way to the gym in the front of the line and DC was way in the back (they are supposed to walk with their buddies). Later in the "holding area" where they were waiting for their turn, she stood with her two friends, back to DC who just stood there alone - the entire time. Twice I had to go and move DC over because she had his equipment over her shoulder and I was sure she was going to hit him in the face with it each time she moved. I thought maybe she would get the hint, but she did not. She never even acknowledged he was there.
This is not the first game where I noticed this and Doug (who notices nothing - his words not mine) actually brought it up to me more than once.

When it was finally their turn to play, they went out to the gym (no, she did not walk with DC), had their turn and then........ she just walked out of the gym leaving DC standing there in the middle of the gym by himself. Fortunately I was close enough to get to him before he ended up in the middle of the crowd at the doors, where if he got that far, I would still be looking for him now.
She did not even turn around to see where he was - she just left.

I did report it via email to the coach (after we left the building because I just did not trust myself to be civil to this girl and just wanted to leave the area).

After I got over the whole safety issue of him getting lost in the crowd (I have nightmares of him getting lost in a crowd - always), I began to realize that this was not about her being shy, this was not about her not knowing what to do - this was about her treating him as if he were not a person.

A shy person would say hello. A shy person might maybe look in his general direction once in a while. A shy person would at least acknowledge his existence. She does none of those things.... not one. If you were there to see this, you would understand that this is NOT just a case of her wanting to spend time with her friends.

She treats him as if he does not exist, as if he is not a person.

You have to wonder what motivates her to even volunteer with this team.

Common courtesy would motivate a person to at the very least,  say hello. Apparently some people do not see our children as real people. This is a problem.

AWARENESS: Fail!

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This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts, for longer Facebook statuses and apparently complaints about dentists and doctors :) . Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time