Hey, I'm back

My Christmas has officially drawn to a close. Today I returned from my trip to New Jersey. It seemed shorter that past visits, or perhaps more focused. We watched an episode of Nightline that featured my autistic cousin Paul. The special focused on how Paul is functioning in the world as an adult with autism, and how unprepared we are as a society for the huge numbers of kids with autism who are becoming adults. Paul has it lucky, relatively. He can go to work, and function during the day with a high degree of skill. He does still have problems with social situations (like when he asked me if I was going to be marrying Theamazingjb, who was my traveling guest). What shocked me most was watching my aunt say on national TV that Paulie wouldn't be able to go on living if she and uncle paul died. I forgot to press on that point in person, but hey that's what email and the telephone are for.

Driving lost distances in the rain, when the road and the sky become one grey blur, isn't something that I'd recommend doing. I was pretty keyed up, but I managed to wind down by doing some cleaning and organizing. That will likely be a theme for the next few days. Another theme will involve browsing through my old journal entires. We all go through our periods of mocking Livejournal, but for me it has proved a useful tool for going back and seeing the road I walked during the year. Maybe my NY resolution should be to do these reviews at the end of each month, so I can save time at year's end. Heh.

Time to get a good night's sleep. I should have a half day tomorrow, which will be a nice start to my three day weekend.