Autistic Reality

Dear Santa, Me  with Santa Claus Aha! This year has been quite an adventure! Multiple things have happened on the personal, professional, emotional, mental, and other fronts, but you know what? I’m still here! Me Being the Y in Joy at the 2020 Downtown Silver Spring Holiday Display I am currently living in a hotel in Silver Spring, Maryland, as I wait for my new address to clear up. This has been a fascinating year, and for many reasons. I feel like the virus outbreak and the ensuing quarantine have actually brought my friends, family, and I closer together, and not further apart. Normally, I focus these letters on the members of my biological family. However, this year, I would also like to focus in on the beautiful, wonderful friends who make me shine and thrive so many miles away from my said biological family. My Mother Decorating Her Christmas Tree My mother has finally moved into an assisted living facility, although she is currently in what is su...

Dear Santa, Santa with Me at Enchant Christmas DC 2019 This year has been absolutely amazing. A number of wonderful things have happened, and they leave me humbled, and thoughtful about my life and what others mean to me. Tari Hartman Squire, Me, and  Jd Michaels In January of this year, I was inducted into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame along with my colleagues, Jd Michaels and Tari Hartman Squire. I am extremely thankful for this wonderful honor. Jd and I have just finished our working relationship, at least for the time being, but we spent the year very busy helping people with disabilities get their books published, including my very dear friend Denise. Tari also had me as a mentor at her Lights! Camera! Access! disability and media summit. I am very thankful for both Jd and Tari for helping me become who I am today, and now it is time for me to spread my wings and fly! Me and Liz Prichard Presenting on Autism and Creativity at New Y...