Today I went to Powell's Books to see him there about his book Look Me in the Eye.
I was a little upset when he talked about stereotypes. He said we are really good with math and we are good with electronics. I know that isn't true for all of us and I hope he knows that too. I wanted to tell him but didn't feel comfortable speaking up about it. I just didn't want all the other people there to think all aspies are good with math and they are into electronics and know how to fix them.
But he did say something I liked. He told us about how he found out he had AS and he decided he was going to change. He wanted to be accepted by people so he started to work on his AS problems and he got better at it. He did it without therapy or medicine. His son also has AS and he taught him social skills, so his son was eight and knew how to have friends because his father had taught him. But because John grew up not knowing what was wrong with him, he didn't know what was different about him, so he didn't know what he had to change. Not until he was 40 when a doctor told him something fits him to a T so he gave him the book, John read it and saw he had AS. After that he knew what he had to change.
When I saw him, he came off as normal. I saw him looking at us but he did look at the ground as he spoke. He even signed books when he was done talking and answering questions. I had him sign the book and I paid for it.
There were also two other aspies at the thing. One of them looked awkward and the other came off as normal. I don't know if mine was obvious. I was stiff and I was nervous, my body was sweating but not real badly and I rocked and moved around in my seat, smelled the book, etc.
At least I didn't interrupt or shout out questions like I used to when I was in high school. I could never wait to ask a question because I was afraid I'd forget it or the person would move on and refuse to answer my question.
27 Sep 2008, 12:55 am
