I am randomly craving Thousand Li candy (from China I think) and a dingdong dupe from a small pizza restaurant in the Carolinas. It's a very specific flavor of sugar and neither is available where I am.

So, while I'm exploring my health and looking at all the fun co-morbidities that I lost control of when my doctor took me off iron and my regular meds, I'm trying to factor in how much I need to know to get appropriate healthcare for myself.

I'm neurospicy, and I know that.

I have a checklist for ADHD and the only reason I wasn't diagnosed is because it was common for kids growing up in my era to be literally worked to death in school and I thrived on neglect, four hours of sleep, and hyperfixations.

In years past I've looked at the diagnosis, looked at my kids in good times, looked at the public verdict, and shrugged. It's not autism as I was taught to look for it.

But, if it is and my kids are only thriving because of systems I put in place mostly for myself... what does that mean?

We have two kids who doctors have said are autistic, and they exhibit very autistic traits under stress. But, when calm and in control of their environment... they're just like me.

And then people are surprised they're autistic.

So I've spent more time recently listening to people describe autism in their terms vs clinical terms. And we're finally reaching a point where autistic people with well-balanced and healthy lives are common enough that we're seeing their stories come to light.

It's a familiar story.

And I don't 100% subscribe to the idea that there is ND and NT like some binary code. I think it's far likely that we have a range of neurotypes and several of the more common workplace neurotypes have defined themselves as NT because that's their worldview as of 1930-something.

A lot of neurodivergence isn't what people picture when you say autism or ADHD. A lot of the behaviors and experiences that people picture are neurodivergence under extreme stress. It's like defining hunger as being near death because of starvation.

I'm an older Millennial. Autism was not a word we used when I was young. As a young parent I had autism described as a very specific set of negative behaviors, because autism was defined by the problems it caused (same as ADHD). But that's not accurate.

It's been a long day and I need the autism memes to stop being relatable.

Neighbor Posting on the Community Board: Where's a good beach with sandy beaches and blue water?

Everyone Else: Okinawa or Thailand.

....

Koreans, like Alaskans, will fly across an ocean for better beaches.

Writing is going fine!

Why do you ask?

I am going to go socialize for 20 minutes because I'm being dragged out of my apartment, then run errands, then finish this last !@&%$@*($@ chapter, than edit a couple chapters for my client.

Korea is relatively free of foods I'm allergic to so I general will eat things without asking what's in them very often. I'm sure this has led to ingesting some odd things over the past few years. No worries. But I would be love to able to identify whatever is being sold as raspberries.

Went by the local farmers market and saw a new vendor selling pad thai so I brought some home for lunch. It is 100% authentic. The kimchi is the mildest thing on my plate and it makes American hot wings look mild.

In other news, I can now breathe fire.

I'm going to take a break to run to the market for groceries and grab lunch. Then it's on to edits.

I would love to meet the person who can get 90 people off a plane, through customs, past the bathrooms, and to collect their luggage in under 20 minutes. That sounds amazing.

I, however, am budgeting at least 45 minutes for customs alone.

If I tell you a plane is landing at 4:25 and I need to move 90 people through customs and to get their bags, ages 14-54, what time would you want to schedule the bus if you were the bus company?

Because one company offered to have the buses there at 4, a full 25 minutes before the plane arrived.