I'm aware

Wooohooo! It's April. It's Autism Awareness Month.  Let's crank it up loud and PARTY till the picture schedule says it's time to finish it and go to the next activity. Ain't no party like an Autism Awareness party because an Autism Awareness Party don't stop!!!

Really, it does not stop.  Like ever.  Yep, it's that time of year where we have to tell all the rest of the world what we already know.  Autism isn't going anywhere and it sure is a whole lot more than wearing a certain color. Which at present I see there's the option of "Lighting it up Blue", "Walk in Red" and Au Gold.  Once again making me aware that just by wearing a certain color, you are walking into the dangerous territory of autism online wars.  Kind of like street gangs but without secret hand signs or the possibility of breaking out into song and dance like West Side Story.  

I'm aware that is never going to change either but as my family still insists on clean clothes, food and me showing an interest in their lives, I'm not dipping my toes into that pool of cray cray.  Feel free to go fight the good fight all you want. I have chocolate syrup to get off my ceiling.  I think I'll just stick to wearing black that day as I am very aware it's slimming and hides stains well.

I'm aware that there will be thousands of feel good viral greatest hits that will flood our social media newsfeeds.  I have a love/hate relationship with these.  I do love that they can lift spirits, bring awareness and open minds of those who are not in the know with all things autism.  However they also bug the crap out of me.  Well some do.  Like please for the love of God don't send me the ten thousand different studies of the autism cause du jour.  What am I suppose to do with these?  Hop in my Tardis and go back in time?  And they are usually based on ONE study.  Just one.  We know it's a spectrum.  Don't you think there's a spectrum of ways it could happen?  Yes, I know about Temple Grandin.  Yes, I heard about her books.  They give them to you in the swag bag when you kid gets diagnosed.

I'm aware during this month a lot of business go out of their way for us as families, which I think rocks.  Lots of stuff to do for free!  HOLLA!  I'm also aware lots of them say they are going to make a donation to an autism charity.  Here comes another fun debate.  Which one deserves it more? Or less?  We can't even all agree on that.  Here's an idea.  Send it all to me. I'm aware I need a massage. Sensory input for the win!

I'm aware I will get a note home from my son's school which will ask for him to wear "blue" on a certain day for awareness.  Let's think about that for a moment shall we?  They want to make my autistic kid more aware of autism.  Trust me.  We are aware but I will make sure a blue shirt is clean that day for him.  Team Quirky needs to represent up in there!

I'm aware we will see a whole mess of celebrities and TV show roll out their autism awareness.  It's noted who does and doesn't.  It's also something I will hold you to when you seem to forget about it the other eleven months of the year.  (Looking at you Steve Harvey.  Don't think I have forgotten.)  So don't be all cute about it this month thinking it's just something you can get a lot of retweets and "likes" for.  It's more than a social media trending topic for me.

I'm aware my Kiddo is only getting older and bigger.  An idea that scares the living crap out of me. I'm aware there is nothing I can do about that but try my best each day to prepare him for this world.

I'm aware that life is much easier when you simply don't give a flying fig about what anyone else is doing.  Eyes on your own paper.  You do you.  Don't worry about what anyone else thinks.  Everyone can be right in how they choose to raise awareness.  Autism is a spectrum.  So a spectrum of ways to promote and share information is all good.

I'm aware I need to go empty the dishwasher, so let me wrap this up.  Happy Autism Awareness Month Fries!