How this happened
This first blog post is 3 years in the making. I’ve had the domain since 2020 when my ex-girlfriend and I decided to roam the country for a year in a 1996 RV. Covid happened instead, but we still left New England in our little RV. Rather than adventuring though, we parked our home on wheels in a little town at the top of the Colorado mountains and decided to stay until the worst was over. Fast forward a bit to 2023 and we own a pizza restaurant together. In that same little town where we landed 3 years ago. We’re not a couple anymore. But we’re both in love with our restaurant, our friends & neighbors and our beautiful mountaintop lives.
The original blog was meant to be about me, us and our adventuring together. I am autistic. My ex-girlfriend is not. I was excited about chronicling our cross-country adventures and really looking at how we each experienced the experiences. I mean, how fascinating would that be?!? The entire premise of the blog will likely be different than that now. I suppose we’ll find out together what the differences will be.
A bit about me…
My favorite thing to do is think. My favorite topic is behavior and how we all interact with each other and with life. I won’t be able to help myself from chattering on about that.
I’m always working on “work-arounds” for this thing or that one. That’s what I’ve always called the alternative routes I take to do or experience things that would be beyond me if I had to do them the way neuro-typical people do. I’m not even sure it’s a healthy thing all the time. It’s always hard for me to tell if I’m to ask more of myself or if this thing I’m pursuing isn’t meant for me and I should leave it. I’m forever trying to convince the universe that I’d be fine with either answer if I could only tell which is truth.
I’ve been riding the fence so hard lately when it comes to masking, and I’d love to just deep dive into that with some thoughtful people who are willing to share their perspectives. This thing that I’ve credited with creating so many options for me in life, now sometimes seems like it’s trying to choke that very life right out of me. There’s this new, odd shame attached to it. As if I’m realizing the fight I’ve fought so hard was all an effort to replace who I was meant to be with someone more…productive? Palatable? Valuable? Easy? I’ve nothing to do with any of these thoughts yet but sit in this odd combination of horror and shock at the magnitude of it all.
And I truly love becoming a small town girl! I know more people and gossip than I’ve known the rest of my life combined! I’ve been in parades and worked rodeo concession stands. More than once, I’ve followed fire or police vehicles to find out what was happening and who we needed to look in on tomorrow. I’ve friends who check on me and who know I’m keeping an eye on them too. I’m living simply and gratefully and truthfully. It is good. And I hope you’ll stay around while I share some of my favorite peaks of it with you.
