Pressing Puzzles

As I hope you've been able to read, I have had a difficult time with being able to function 'normally' in this world as an adult with Asperger's Syndrome. Some of the hardest things I have had to work through are the way I do things. Earlier I have discussed my thinking pattern, my dealing with other people and so on, but here I want to address the simple and complex way I do things like from driving a car to teaching a class; I don't always do it the same way most other people might perform the task. Everyone has an opinion on the best way to do certain tasks and in all fairness, the logic can be very sound, but when you have Asperger's, logic has a way of getting twisted. One of my wife's biggest pet peeves is how I generally drive a car. Technically you would use one foot to drive (unless you drive a stick shift). I however drive with two feet. Can I drive with one foot? Yes, I can easily drive with one foot, but there are times when I'm really pay...

Like I said before, change is hard. Of course, at the time, I not knowing I had Asperger’s, so I didn't know any different...except, change is hard for me. God bless Mr. Rogers, my former Principal, because he really saw a lot in me and how much potential I had. Again, Pierce City was a small town, not as small as Alton, but still at least there was a larger town nearby called Monett. However, we tried to do the same thing we did in West Plains, try to find a house in the larger town and I would commute to school. Well...it didn't quite work out as well this time around. The only house we were able to find was an old ( literally ) square box house. ( The spider house I called "The House of Horrors", this one I called "The Crackerjack Box House .) After three months, we decided that this wasn't going to work out, so we were able to surprising find a house in Pierce City and only just a block or two from the school. For much of the time, I would walk to schoo...

After I graduated in 1994, teaching positions were difficult to find so I was a substitute teacher for one year before I was able to obtain a teaching job. I was certified in Speech and Drama so let this be a lesson to anyone wanting to go into the teaching biz...make sure you are certified in other areas to cover your rear! The location of the school that offered me my first teaching job was in a tiny little town called Alton. If hindsight were 20/20, I would have been a little more patient because when I was offered the teaching position, I had two more offers come in right after that first one and they were in El Paso, Texas and the other one was right here in my hometown of Kansas City - Independence School District. ( OUCH! ) But, no…I felt like I made a verbal agreement to teach in Alton. ( Yes, it's in Missouri and No, I'm not making this up...it really is a town. ) So Jaimee, I and the four girls all packed up and moved to West Plains. ( There were some famous people t...