Zeroing (In) #AtoZChallenge

I made it!

I have reached the rest of the alphabet.  I zeroed in on my goal and achieved it.

I have 26 more posts than I had on March 31.

Now what?

I go forward, perhaps, and rethink blogging a book.  To do so, I am going to reread a series of A to Z posts I found in one of the many new blogs I read this month.  Shirley ran a series called Build a Better Blog, and it is chock-full of advice (such as this nugget).

Ironically, because I was too busy blogging (with A to Zing with two blogs - yikes!) I never had time to sit down with each and every one of the posts and really concentrate.

But for now I will zero in on the parts of her advice that speak to me.

And from there...I'll continue on my Unknown Journey Ahead.  Now that A to Z is over, I plan to resume my normal once a week (Friday) posting schedules.

But first, I would like to thank my new followers, and those who had already discovered my blog, for following and reading me.

A virtual bouquet of violets for you.

Zee End.

The Wisdom of "Gone With the Wind"

Today, for Friday Reflections, I am pondering this quote:

“Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.” - Margaret Mitchell

This is a quote from the American classic novel "Gone with the Wind". The full quote is taken from a conversation between the heroine of the book, Scarlett O'Hara, and a man she once thought she was in love with, Ashley.

Once they were young and idealistic.  Then, the United States Civil War came, bringing suffering, poverty, death, and more suffering.  Now, after the war, Scarlet was speaking.

“We’ve come a long way since those days, Ashley,” she said, trying to steady her voice, trying to fight the constriction in her throat. “We had fine notions then, didn’t we?” And then, with a rush, “Oh, Ashley, nothing has turned out as we expected!”

“It never does,” he said. “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it’s no worse than it is.”

Years ago, when my husband and I were in our late teens, we never dreamed how the future would turn out.  We were self-absorbed. My brother-in-law with autism, "Bil", was invisible to us in our youth, someone who spent all his time hidden in his room.  We never dreamed of how, one day, he would cause us hours and days of worry. 

There is much that is uncertain right now.  I haven't blogged about a lot of it, and I should.  But, briefly, he was on a list to get housing when his mother can no longer care for him, and the list no longer exists.  There is another list, years long, and, due to a "catch-22" (another literary expression!) he can not be put on that list.

Other options are limited.  And, with budget cuts, his options are shrinking.  In the meantime, he wants to live on his own, which will not be possible without extensive support.  That takes money.

And we are all getting older.  The clock, as they say, is ticking.

We know now what we didn't know then. We and (he) have quite a journey ahead of us.  I intend to write about some of that, and other of my thoughts about Bil, in April, for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  I hope to write a book one day, and hope that A to Z can help me focus on just what I want to write about.

My theme is - Journeying Through the Unknown.  

This April, I will blog daily, Monday through Saturday, and on the last day of April.  On April 1st, the topic of my post will begin with the letter A.  On Monday, April 3, it will begin with B, and so on.

After that, we'll just have to see where this journey is taking us, and Bil.  I'm not giving up - no, far from it, but we must take different directions, and some are unproven.

Join Sanch Vee and Corinne Rodriguez each Friday for #FridayReflections.

Summer Reading Autism List

It is interesting that "teen with autism" seems to have become a sub-genre of young adult literature.  It doesn't take much guessing to figure out why - with 1 in every 166 births resulting in a child on the spectrum, this becomes a very natural trend.

Here are a couple of books I found out about recently that have teens or adults with autism/Asperger Syndrome as the main characters.  Do I plan to read them?  Yes, if I can fit them into my summer schedule.

1.  House Rules by Jodi Picoult.  This won't be the first "autism mystery" book I've read.  A couple of years ago I devoured "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Joe Haddon.  I enjoyed that book very much:  the teenage narrator's thought processes were quite believable and a twist in the middle of the book only added to the suspense.  It wasn't a book about autism; it was a book that happened to feature a teen with autism as its main character. (note, the book itself does not identify the narrator as someone on the spectrum, but to me it is pretty obvious.)

I read some of the reviews of House Rules on amazon.com and the only thing that concerned me is that a reviewer with Asperger Syndrome thought it did not ring true, that it was more a work of someone who did a lot of research but hadn't really been exposed to people on the spectrum.

I've counted myself fortunate in knowing several people on the spectrum, including a very good friend of my son.  And, people on the spectrum can vary quite widely.  So I'll have to read and judge for myself.


2.  "Marcelo in the Real World" by Francisco X. Stork. This was recommended by the reviewer in #1 above.

Some of the plot of this book seems a bit strange but sometimes those kinds of books are the most rewarding.  Other than that, I didn't read the other reviews.  This one will be a "surprise me!" book.

If I do read any of them, I'll let you know what I felt about them.