Last Tuesday started out like a relatively normal day, with the exception of having Lauren home from school recovering from a stomach bug. I had several errands to run and told Lauren I would have my cell phone on in case she needed me for any reason. My first errand was going to the library. I needed to run to the restroom quickly while I was there because I had four other errands to run before going back home. I entered the restroom and I'm pretty sure there was a little kid next to me in the stall. Just as I got into my stall and locked the door, they ran out of the restroom and turned off the lights! The restroom was pitch black and even though I knew where the exit door was, I couldn't seem to find the handle or the light switch. After about 30 seconds, I was able to find the door. I get claustrophobic sometimes, so those 30 seconds felt like 30 hours. I pulled myself together and checked out some books and left. My next three errands were uneventful and then it was on to Kroger. I had pulled out my phone to check messages and dropped it, not once, but twice. Both times the battery flew out. I tried to reinstall it, but it wouldn't go back in. I got kind of stressed, because I had Lauren at home, recovering from her stomach problems and was worried Dominic might get what she had because he drank out of her cup of water on Monday. I half expected a call from his teacher saying he was sick too! I couldn't call Lauren because my phone wasn't working. I was about a half hour late coming back home and when I got back home she told me everything was fine, but she was getting ready to call me since I was late. I made her and I some lunch and ran another quick errand up to our church and then came back home because I had to take Lauren to a sports practice. I took the freeway to practice and had a woman cut me off as I was trying to merge into traffic. I got kind of ticked and Lauren said something like, "well, if that's the worst thing that happens to you today, you're doing okay!" I told her being in the restroom in the dark was the worst thing until the lady cut me off. After I dropped Lauren off, I had a small pocket of time to toss our dinner into the crockpot before Dominic got home on his bus. I was still putting on my shoes when the bus pulled up. I got Dominic off the bus and into the house. In the process of getting him inside, I tripped over a pair of my shoes by the front door and fell down on the carpet in the living room! I twisted my ankle, but not real bad. Dominic said, "uh-oh, mommy fell!" I told him I was fine because I didn't want to get him upset. I picked myself up, dusted myself off and went about my business. The rest of the evening was smooth sailing. I think when you have a day where everything seems to be going wrong, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You think in your head, "well, bad things keep happening, it's going to be a bad day." In the great scheme of life, the events of the day weren't all that bad. As hard as it was for me on Tuesday, I kept trying to remain upbeat. I'm happy to report Wednesday was much better!!
When Dominic was diagnosed with Autism at 2 1/2, I went to our local library and took out every book I could find about Autism. Sometimes I would bring back 20 books. This was 2006, so a lot of the information was very "dated." I guess I was looking for a book that would tell me what I should do next, like a "manual." Autism doesn't quite work that way! The saying is, " if you know one person with Autism, you know one person with Autism." Every mom to an individual with Autism follows their own "path." I think as moms, we judge ourselves much harder than anyone else does. I was 41 when I had Dominic. Did he get the diagnosis of Autism because I was an older mom? because I drank a lot of pop? I could sit and think about that every minute of every day. I am pretty integrated into the Autism community around Lansing and have told more than one person that it took me about two weeks to come to terms with Dominic's diagnosis. It is so incredib...
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