again and again

Now I am reading The Rosie Project, which is a bit like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, in that it is written from the perspective of a person with (undiagnosed) Aspergers syndrome.  In this case, the protagonist is an adult, and blessed with great intelligence.

There are a surprisingly high number of adults walking around in the world who have Aspergers and do not know it.  I think I work with two of them.  One of them is a Social Studies teacher, and he demonstrates a lot of the classic signs of austistic spectrum disorders including social ineptitude and walking on his tiptoes.  Another, an English teacher, recognizes that both her husband and son have Aspergers but seems not to have considered the possibility that she has it too, in spite of the fact that her behaviours, attitudes, and mannerisms are the same as theirs.

People like me wonder how to broach the subject when they suspect Aspergers in an adult friend, colleague, or family member.  I suggest you handle the subject openly and without embarrassment.  For example, you could say, "You're kinda weird, don't you think?  Maybe it's Aspergers," or, "I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure any layman could diagnose you, Aspie".

At times I have convinced myself that I have Aspergers too, because I find human interactions so impossible.  But the symptoms do not align, not really.  I have some other syndrome, perhaps one that has yet to be discovered, and might be named after me if the doctor who diagnoses me doesn't steal all the credit.


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I dreamed last night that Crazy Sue was back on the job.  She aggravated me by being extremely happy to be back, bragging about her recent trip to Japan and her newly found inner peace.  For some reason my inner Satan wanted her to come back destroyed and timid.  The fact that Non-Crazy Jennifer decided to leave for a better gig is certainly the reason my sleepy brain started imagining what it would be like if Crazy Sue returned.  But instead of Crazy Sue, we got DemiCup Cheryl whose bra is so much smaller than her breasts that she appears to have four of them.  I think DemiCup Cheryl will only be here for a week or so because once the semester changes over they will need to find someone who can teach both Art and Drama.  When DemiCup Cheryl arrived I asked her if she was okay or needed any help and she said, "I need a hook for my coat," which struck me as extremely strange because I thought it was abundantly clear that I was offering her help with teaching.  It is possible that DemiCup Cheryl also has Aspergers.



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