Justin & DC
May. 13th, 2012 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zaichikarkyOn March 11, I set out to cross the entire length of the US by car. It took me 5 days. I talked about that a bit in my last few entries. Other than my bed flying off my car somewhere in Utah and me being unable to retrieve it, and being pulled over in Kansas for "hanging out in the left lane", it was mostly boring. I met a very cute 5 year old named Misty and her mom in a Subway. Her mom actually ended up trading numbers with me, hehe. I have decided recently that I do like little kids. They just have to be above the age of 3. If I ever have kids, I don't know how I'm gunna put up with little ones screaming regularly till they learn how to better communicate.
Then again, one of my irrational fears is that I don't want kids because I fear autism a lot because I'm not sure how I could handle that, especially if it happens to my first kid. My other fear is that I refuse to have kids over the age of mid 30s, so I might not ever have any to begin with. Got another 10 years to go! hah. Seriously, parents with low-functioning autistic kids really, really have it hard. It's not like any genetic test could catch that and then the kid ends up screaming and being unable to function. My dad has high-functioning autism and when he was little, teachers thought he was retarded. I most likely have Aspergers. That is manageable. It's a bit difficult, but manageable. I've worked with low-functioning autistic kids. The kid I worked with closely was one of my favorite students. He was amazing, even though I had a lot of anxiety when I was told I'd be working with him. His mom was very supportive, and very receptive of his needs and would notify me in case he was having a bad day. He only hit me once and even when I could tell he was having a bad day, usually I could calm him down. Usually I would just hold his hand and tell him "calm down" in Japanese. It always worked, even if I had to do it several times. He'd rock and repeat "ochitsuke" and would be ok. We weren't allowed to use Japanese with the kids at all, however in that case, I think my boss just overlooked it.
Guh I always go on these really weird tangents. I hope I didn't offend anyone reading this.
Anyway, driving across the US mostly was just very boring. The cool scenery ended in Colorado and for the rest of the trip, I was mostly just trying to find radio stations and truck stops along the way. For some reason, I didn't really listen to much of my audio novel along the way. I spent quite a few minutes talking to Justin while driving, but I mostly traveled during the work week so I couldn't really talk to him till 7 most nights. I literally told Brian that I was moving across the US (and a couple hours away from him) the night before I left(not completely my fault, he wasn't really reachable) and he said we can talk while I'm on the road. I tried to for the five days I was on the road, but I think he was in a bad mood for all 5 of the days and didn't really want to talk. Every day he'd send me a bunch of texts about what a crappy day he had and how he wanted to talk to me, then he'd promptly go to sleep XD. He finally did end up calling when I'd already gotten there, pretty much. Then got mad at me for something stupid and we ended up having a really crappy conversation.
Anyway, so I got to the hotel in the area and Justin came over the next night. For the rest of the time, we were looking for apartments. He helped me check out quite a few places, including some ladies who were renting rooms in their houses. I kiiiind of regret not subletting, but overall, I think I picked very well. Even I'll always feel like my apt is too big for me, I really like it overall.
I felt kind of bad that he came out to see me and we mostly did apt hunting, so we did spend some time hanging out in DC. One day we just basically saw all the monuments at the National Mall. The only crappy part was that this day was in the 80s with a lot of humidity. So I kind of hated the weather. Another day we ended up checking out the Smithsonians. Justin tends to be fairly clingy about some things, so he wasn't very happy about splitting up. But I really wanted him to spend time at the Air and Space museum(he's big into NASA and the Russian/USSR Space program too) and I wasn't really interested in it because of the three days I spent there with dad when we went to DC 10 years ago and I just really wanted to explore the History Museum. I've been to the Smithsonian American History Museum 4 times and I still haven't explored all the exhibits lol. I tend to get kind of bored with my ADHD wandering around in museums for more than 4 hours, so I have to pace myself or else I really won't be retaining any information.
That's really just about all we did. Oh, I made him see the Hunger Games one night and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He's not interested in reading it, but he is definitely interested in watching the rest of the series, so he would not let me spoil a thing. I loved the Hunger Games, of course. I read them all and I think they handled the first movie very well. There was only one scene I was pissed they didn't leave in, and that was Haymitch getting drunk during the reaping and falling off the stage. Haymitch is my favorite character, so I kind of wish they'd kept that silliness because the series itself is so dark that the bits of snarkiness/silliness the author included is well-appreciated. Otherwise, it was perfect. I especially loved Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, who is my third favorite character. I didn't know he got into acting. LOL.
National Mall pics here-
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100312780686858.2469473.6702534&type=3&l=f9664c6a65
Kinda annoyed my Taglit shirt was the only one that was clean at that point. I think I look really bad in it. Oh well!
Then again, one of my irrational fears is that I don't want kids because I fear autism a lot because I'm not sure how I could handle that, especially if it happens to my first kid. My other fear is that I refuse to have kids over the age of mid 30s, so I might not ever have any to begin with. Got another 10 years to go! hah. Seriously, parents with low-functioning autistic kids really, really have it hard. It's not like any genetic test could catch that and then the kid ends up screaming and being unable to function. My dad has high-functioning autism and when he was little, teachers thought he was retarded. I most likely have Aspergers. That is manageable. It's a bit difficult, but manageable. I've worked with low-functioning autistic kids. The kid I worked with closely was one of my favorite students. He was amazing, even though I had a lot of anxiety when I was told I'd be working with him. His mom was very supportive, and very receptive of his needs and would notify me in case he was having a bad day. He only hit me once and even when I could tell he was having a bad day, usually I could calm him down. Usually I would just hold his hand and tell him "calm down" in Japanese. It always worked, even if I had to do it several times. He'd rock and repeat "ochitsuke" and would be ok. We weren't allowed to use Japanese with the kids at all, however in that case, I think my boss just overlooked it.
Guh I always go on these really weird tangents. I hope I didn't offend anyone reading this.
Anyway, driving across the US mostly was just very boring. The cool scenery ended in Colorado and for the rest of the trip, I was mostly just trying to find radio stations and truck stops along the way. For some reason, I didn't really listen to much of my audio novel along the way. I spent quite a few minutes talking to Justin while driving, but I mostly traveled during the work week so I couldn't really talk to him till 7 most nights. I literally told Brian that I was moving across the US (and a couple hours away from him) the night before I left(not completely my fault, he wasn't really reachable) and he said we can talk while I'm on the road. I tried to for the five days I was on the road, but I think he was in a bad mood for all 5 of the days and didn't really want to talk. Every day he'd send me a bunch of texts about what a crappy day he had and how he wanted to talk to me, then he'd promptly go to sleep XD. He finally did end up calling when I'd already gotten there, pretty much. Then got mad at me for something stupid and we ended up having a really crappy conversation.
Anyway, so I got to the hotel in the area and Justin came over the next night. For the rest of the time, we were looking for apartments. He helped me check out quite a few places, including some ladies who were renting rooms in their houses. I kiiiind of regret not subletting, but overall, I think I picked very well. Even I'll always feel like my apt is too big for me, I really like it overall.
I felt kind of bad that he came out to see me and we mostly did apt hunting, so we did spend some time hanging out in DC. One day we just basically saw all the monuments at the National Mall. The only crappy part was that this day was in the 80s with a lot of humidity. So I kind of hated the weather. Another day we ended up checking out the Smithsonians. Justin tends to be fairly clingy about some things, so he wasn't very happy about splitting up. But I really wanted him to spend time at the Air and Space museum(he's big into NASA and the Russian/USSR Space program too) and I wasn't really interested in it because of the three days I spent there with dad when we went to DC 10 years ago and I just really wanted to explore the History Museum. I've been to the Smithsonian American History Museum 4 times and I still haven't explored all the exhibits lol. I tend to get kind of bored with my ADHD wandering around in museums for more than 4 hours, so I have to pace myself or else I really won't be retaining any information.
That's really just about all we did. Oh, I made him see the Hunger Games one night and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He's not interested in reading it, but he is definitely interested in watching the rest of the series, so he would not let me spoil a thing. I loved the Hunger Games, of course. I read them all and I think they handled the first movie very well. There was only one scene I was pissed they didn't leave in, and that was Haymitch getting drunk during the reaping and falling off the stage. Haymitch is my favorite character, so I kind of wish they'd kept that silliness because the series itself is so dark that the bits of snarkiness/silliness the author included is well-appreciated. Otherwise, it was perfect. I especially loved Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, who is my third favorite character. I didn't know he got into acting. LOL.
National Mall pics here-
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100312780686858.2469473.6702534&type=3&l=f9664c6a65
Kinda annoyed my Taglit shirt was the only one that was clean at that point. I think I look really bad in it. Oh well!
