Posts under ‘there is no normal’

Autism as an Invisible Disability

As promised, I am over guest posting today on Amy Julia Becker's blog Thin Places about autism, invisible disability and acceptance. And here's your teaser... My son Austen* looks like most nine-year-olds, except perhaps a bit taller, with long legs that carry him swiftly across the ground as he races you to the car or [...]

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Are Bloggers Like Me Crazy?

Image credit: Photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons "I hate that you don't have a blog," said a woman about to undergo heart surgery, as she gazed sincerely up at her boyfriend, "I hate that I don't know what you're thinking." Mark and I burst into raucous laughter and had [...]

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Warning Signs

Image credit: Photo by kaladan on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons I went for a checkup recently, and as I waited for the doctor, I read some of the brochures in the office about heart disease, diabetes, cancer... And found that in nearly every brochure, one of the symptoms listed for cancer was "no symptoms [...]

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Background Noise

Image credit: Photo by fd on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons "The level of sexual imagery in modern life is astounding. I knew intuitively this was true, but when you tune into it, you just can't believe it. I click on the Yahoo! finance page, and there's this blond model in a low-cut dress looking [...]

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A Problem Is a Problem

Image credit: Photo by Esther_G on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons Eight years ago, in spite of the fact that we were both exhausted by caring for our infant son, I found that my husband Mark was staying up later and later at night. He had to be up at 5 a.m. to get ready [...]

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War. What Is It Good For?

Image credit: Photo by LuluP on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons I'm pretty certain that everyone who passed my daughter Janie's elementary school at dismissal time a few weeks ago now knows me by sight. Yep, I'm that woman whose daughter threw a tantrum so gigantic and so spectacular that it took us over a [...]

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There Is No Normal

Silly me!  I thought, once the kids are back in school, things will get back to normal.  You know, normal being where everything goes perfectly and no one gets sick and there are no pressing crises and I have the luxury of little time each day to sit in front of a laptop and tippity-tap [...]

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Ellie’s Towel

Image credit: Photo by limonada on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons A few years ago, I was visiting my friend Ellie and was a guest in her house for the first time in my life.  I had just taken a shower and was standing in her bathroom, a wet towel in my hand, at a [...]

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What Autism Is Supposed to Look Like

Image credit: Photo by cproppe on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons We took the kids to a pool party at the home of some friends of mine recently. The hosts, as well as several guests, moved a fair drive away from us several years ago, and several more guests were visiting from out of town. [...]

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Lingerie, Sex Toys and Me?

Warning: this post, and the site I link to, may be triggering to sex addicts. Image credit: Photo by kchbrown on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a woman named Paula Saardchit. She told me she'd found my blog while doing research for an article she was [...]

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