Friday, May 1, 2020

Name change, and why do "good intentions" matter so much?

I think I have realized something in the past couple of months; when Support Worker sister offered to "help" me by telling me of the form that I did not need to fill out, and then writing on it that I needed maids/housekeepers/people telling me to do chores/to-do list-makers to come (something that I have learned does not actually exist, but plenty of people think that something like this should) she was high. High as in had smoked marijuana high. Who knows how much; she wasn't giggling, or eating, but rationality and intelligence was probably too much to ask for. She had made up a household chore, after all. So now, at least on this blog, her name is changed from Support Worker to Pot Princess.
I wonder if anyone knows that the part on that form they thought applied to me only did if I had already been in public housing already, and it was for some reason, not working out; and I would have gone to significant lengths to make it work out. And if actually reading the form was too much, one of them could have called the phone number on the first page. 
Calling that number would have been better than my mother's dismissal when I told her that nothing on that form actually said it was FOR me; it would have been better than the tug of war we had for weeks over this; it would have been better than me hearing her say that it wouldn't do any harm to fill out this ridiculous form, when it actually did; it would have been better than having Defender come out of nowhere, and "defend" Pot Princess as much as she did. As if I should accept the shoddy "good intentions" simply because they were offered to me.
Which brings me to my next topic: it seems like these same family members of mine think I should take it for granted that they always have "good intentions"; everything they do is or was based on "good intentions", no matter how ignorant, ridiculous or silly. It's as if they believe the "good intentions" they have for me are printed on their foreheads whenever they have one. Do I have to say that they aren't? That these silly and naive "good intentions" are childish and tacky? That their quality matches that of spray painted macaroni jewelry that were crafted at a camp somewhere?

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

My family will look different in 2025; it will not be because of newly arrived babies.

If my family gets to lead me down ridiculously long garden paths because of "good intentions", I get to say BS like the following:
In an earlier post, I predicted that one of my sisters, who works as a support worker, will have divorced by New Year's Day 2025, if not before that. I believe it will happen because my brother-in-law must have his expensive gadgets; no one can say no to him. He simply has to have them. It's the same thing with expensive groceries, alcohol and giving in to what their two children ask for; no is not a word that is said often in that household. She doesn't go without either; I'm pretty sure that she has regular nail and hair appointments. And she buys expensive clothes. Still, she isn't the spender that her husband is. And I think she is the one who can be persuaded to cut back on her expenses before the debt is too high; he won't until they have collectors calling. To add to that, I don't think they earn that much money, even though they both work. Part of my prediction is that they'll divorce over money and the spending of it.
The reason I think that they will separate and divorce, is that they have sold the house they were living in and are planning on, or they already have, moved into his parents' house. That means no more mortgage. If they have any fixed expenses at all, it will be utility bills and whatever they spend on renovations and yard maintenance. If they don't need to come up with a monthly mortgage payment, what will stop him from spending themselves into another hole? Which support worker sister will see that they're in before he does. Of course she will; she is slightly less oblivious than he is. Basically, what I'm saying is that they will, or he will, rack up the debt again; there's always more gadgets and tech to buy,  and most of it is expensive, especially if it's bought right when it comes out. They will divorce once it becomes clear that they're in a significant amount of debt again, and he turns to his family for a handout to pay the debt off with and doesn't get it. Or maybe it will be the fighting that couples who have high debts often do that does their marriage in...who knows.
And of course, if none of this happens, I will simply wave my hand and give good intentions as a reason I have predicted all this. The good intention being that we should all prepare ourselves for the upcoming divorce; assuming that brother-in-law's parents are both still alive when and if this happens, he will be fine, the two children will be fine. It's my sister who will be asked to leave.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Good intentions are not love

I am slowly coming to the realization that forgiveness for the pointless "good intentions" my sister and mother had for me, will not come. At least not while I am living with my parents; which puts me in a catch-22, because the rents in my city are high.
On a sort of related note, here is a spoken word poem I did for a class I'm just finishing up: https://viuvideos.viu.ca/media/Kaltura+Capture+recording+-+March+20th+2020%2C+1A57A20+pm/0_88ij8y1e
Don't watch it if you are proud of being an armchair expert, and would rather keep the illusion that good intentions are always needed and wanted.

Sunday, March 15, 2020

There is no magic form. Persons With Disabilities is designed to keep those on it in poverty. There is no workaround.

On Wednesday night, I was part of a Q&A panel of writers who had their pieces published in the anthology Disabled Voices. I was asked to read, and later, to be part of the panel, because I have a poem published in this work. Someone asked if there are things that we wish other people did not do to us. My answer was that every once in a while, on social media and in real life, I run across some idiot who firmly believes that I, as someone on the Autistic Spectrum, will always need someone who is not on the Spectrum, to run my decisions by. I posted before, years ago, about a roommate I once had, that actually believed this. I have run into others, mostly on social media, who also believe this. Of course, every one of them was either trolling, or were, and perhaps still are, notorious for being arm chair experts; meaning, they might know about a lot of things that they have had no real experience with. They also tend not to have any formal education in their favourite subject area, yet they don't see any reason for that to stop them from "helping people". Support worker sister is an arm chair expert. My former roommate was definitely an arm chair expert. Facebook and Twitter are full of arm chair experts.
Keep in mind, I did not rant about everything I have written here. We were tight for time, and we had issues with the microphone. Plus, I was not the only one who had given a reading; two other writers who had been published in the anthology had also read their pieces, and were part of the panel as well. I had to share the microphone, and the time allotted, with them. It did go well. I brought up support worker sister and my mom trying to make me fill out the form that would have led to nothing, in the past year, as the last part of an answer to a question. More specifically, the question I wrote about above. The editor, who had emceed earlier, and was guiding the dialogue we were having, added that there is no magic form; Persons With Disabilities is designed to keep those on it in poverty; and there is no workaround.
I wish that people knew this. I wish that people would remember this.
There is no magic form.
Persons With Disabilities is designed to keep those on it in poverty.
There is no workaround.
Only arm chair experts think that they can work the work the process somehow, and shake more money out of the tree.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

False promises

I hate them. I loathe them, in fact. I realized how much when I went with my mother on Saturday to visit a great-aunt of mine. On the way back, we stopped somewhere for supper. She then proceeds to tell me that she thinks she and my dad will have their debts paid down, have some money saved up, and be able to put a downpayment on a one bedroom condo somewhere.
I have a problem processing this, mostly because this promise has been made before. The only difference was the building the condo was in hadn't even been built(it's still not done), and buying it was going to be a joint effort between a sister and my parents. It was also going to be a "micro-suite" that I would have been renting. That fell through, mainly because my parents didn't realize how broke they were. I am not angry that the condo wasn't bought. I am angry that the promise of a condo for me to live in and rent was made in the first place.

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Still drowning, still angry, still tolerating

I still can't get past how unhappy I am, living with my parents. I need and want to move out, yet the rents in my city are ridiculous. My mother literally feels entitled to interrupt me whenever she feels like it. I withdrew from her because of the silly form that she wanted me to fill out, on the one worded "not a conversation" recommendation of my support worker sister, and my mother's half-assed reading, but not comprehending, it.
I will be forty at the end of April. Things have been by some family members that they want this birthday to be an "event". And yet, right now I can't process the idea or the image of celebrating my birthday, a day that's SUPPOSED to be for me, with people that I can only tolerate right now. There are four members of my family, three of my sisters, who I can't do more than tolerate right now:

  • There is the Promise Maker sister. I call her that because she and her husband love making promises, and have overpromised themselves before. It was her who said she would buy a new build condo and rent it to me for a price I could pay. So she promises and promises and promises, because she finds it fun or something, but keeping them is a different thing entirely. A part of adulting is learning how to keep promises, or don't make them if you're not sure you can keep them. My problem isn't with her not buying the condo, it is with her telling me that she would, with the help of my parents, then it didn't happen, because condos are expensive now. So they must have thought condos are the same price as nice posterboard from a craft store.
  • The Defender sister. This is the one who came out of the woodwork, defending Support Worker sister and my mother, and their Good Intentions, as if they needed it. I ask for them to not push them on me again, and she literally said, "Okay, we won't help you anymore," as if good intentions that lead nowhere is actual help. This sister apparently has no idea what the road to hell is paved with.
  • Of course, Support Worker sister. Who used to, at least until she told me that I ruined her floor by not wiping out the windowsills, would act like she knew everything that was disability benefit and income assistance related, because of a job she once had. Yet, all the jobs she has held since she quit her group tenancy, or whatever it was called, pay her much less. I doubt she's even making a third of what she used to make when she had this high paying job that led her to think she KNEW things. The reason she gave us for leaving that job was she that it was too hard on her mentally, or something along those lines. Now, she and her husband have so much debt they are being forced into selling their house and moving in with his parents. Seriously, if she had held such an important position, and she was able to gather all this knowledge, she could get herself a better paying job by using some of the valuable connections she must have made while working her group tenancy, right? Even if the funding for her position stopped, she may still have some leeway to get a better paying position. Unless she left under a cloud. Of course, I have no way of knowing, except for what she tells me. And I don't know how to find out.
  • My mother, who thinks it's okay to endlessly interrupt me. She once disturbed me to tell me that she was switching laundry detergents, then when she saw me again, proceeds to tell me exactly the same thing. Another time, she basically barged into my room twice in the space of twenty minutes to remind me what I was giving up by not pursuing eligibility for a local agency. I stopped because she insisted on putting her fingerprints all over the entire process, and I couldn't take it anymore. But then, this is the same woman who, when she and my father were in the routine of going out to the movies on Tuesdays with my aunt and uncle when they were staying in town for a few months, couldn't be bothered to close a sliding glass door upon leaving to see her precious movie with her sister. She would slam the thing, it would bounce open just wide enough to let in cold air and whatever bugs that our winters hadn't killed yet, and I would get up to close it. I asked her once to make sure it was closed when they left. She responds with she was in a hurry, she has to go, blah, blah, blah. I also asked her to find a course she could take on autism and Asperger's syndrome. She decides to buy books and join a Facebook group instead. I don't know why she couldn't do what I asked her to. I do know I asked her to do it because I desperately want and need her to see how much she hurts me when she acts or speaks without thinking. All three of my sisters need to take a course too. I wish they could see just how pointless that silly little form was, and that good intentions, even if they are, in fact, golden ones, won't get me anywhere if there's no research or actual knowledge behind them.
So anyways, I probably could celebrate my birthday with all my sisters and my mother if they can get over me only being able to tolerate them. If none of them have some useless good intention that goes absolutely nowhere. If they don't produce forms out of the woodwork, saying that it will help me get a thing. Basically, I want them to behave themselves.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

A few things

Still having emotions and stuff about formerly posted stuff. But I have realized some things. I need to move out of my parents' condo. I think the only reason I moved in was because my parents and another, different sister said they were going to buy a condo together and rent it to me. That didn't happen. By the time I was finally told about it not happening, it not happening had become an afterthought. As if they hadn't realized that I was counting on living somewhere that wasn't with them. I actually did enjoy living alone, for the months that I did. It was actually fun, most of the time. No constant interruptions when I'm trying to study. No one wanting to play music or listen to a story when I want it quiet. No sudden noises. I want to live alone, not with my parents. That will mean getting a part-time job somewhere. I can't afford the rents around here with just what I get on Disability. There is also the added bonus of having a job makes me look better on a rental application.
I have also read a study that most people on the Autistic Spectrum think they are bad; as in, genuinely bad, and that's why some people close to us, not on the Spectrum, are so angry with us. It's why they feel like they have to control us. It's why they feel like we are their "duty" or their chore, or their burden. I often feel as if I am not human when interacting with my family. I literally feel as if I am burdening them just by existing. When my sister told me that I damaged her floor by not wiping out the windowsills, I believed it for exactly three minutes. In those three minutes, I wanted to die. I cringed at my stupidity, at my carelessness, at my neglect. I thought I was a bad person for not doing a household chore that I hadn't even known that people did. Well before the time I got home that day, I realized that the damage to the floor was actually due to two different things that had happened while I was living there, the emotions started then; but I didn't feel as if I could purge them. My youngest sister was getting married that summer, and I didn't want anything to happen that would cause enough drama that she would "uninvite" me.