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Jun. 9th, 2026 08:32 amBrian drove me to the mall at 11.
To begin with, given our planned celebration at Texas Roadhouse, I was not going to eat somewhere like Ford's Garage or The Cheesecake Factory. I was going to keep lunch light, and decided upon some popcorn chicken and boba tea at Kong Dog, but then I noticed an ad for egg waffles on the counter, and decided to try one of those out. Turned out to be still more filling than I expected.
Grabbed a small Nitro Cold Brew at Starbucks afterwards, before heading to Barnes & Noble.
There, my browse for the visit bled into the light novel section. Picked four of those out, and managed to read the prologue of Phantom Thief Red before meeting up with Mom.
Mom pointed out after I answered what I had for lunch, how filling what I chose was, and wondered if we should celebrate today instead.
-
Arriving at The Bristal after what consisted only of taking my weight, blood pressure, and some blood samples, the receptionist there took Dr. Mattimoe's paperwork and told me that Patrick will be sure to call me again.
-----
Even putting what I had ended up eating aside, Mom did suggest on the way home that we go to the beach instead to share the news at Dad's grave. However, Brian and Emily decided instead to have some time to themselves somewhere, and left Maris in her care.
Maris was kept busy watching Teletubbies and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I filled out some forms I was emailed a link to (still more of those remaining).
-----
Brian and Emily came back after we had dinner, and I pulled a few things up online to show them for the sake of Maris' upbringing, supplemented with Marie's D.A.R.E. book I had opened to a certain page about social rights.
1) A repost of an entry on someone's now-private blog called Love Explosions, about how she did and did not want her autistic daughter's aide and teacher to do their job, illustrating what an aide's purpose actually is. (Mom later described this secondhand from Brian as clickbait, but this was actually something Chelle once reblogged on Tumblr, not one of those things like all these YouTube videos that describe college as a scam.)
https://thinkingautismguide.com/2013/02/the-cost-of-compliance-is-unreasonable.html
(As a secondary point to the one I actually brought up, both Mrs. Bandows and subsequent aides' approach (along with someone else's once shared with me and the school psychologist), and the fact that I was expected until late in 11th grade to "earn" independence despite knowing how to manage my day despite any misbehavior that teens in general are only too well known for, contradict the real purpose both she mentions and I once figured out personally that an aide is supposed to serve.)
2) To begin with, it is well known that narcissists have a way to make each of their victims feel like the problematic party. What isn't talked about is how, while the importance of self-respect is brought up every now and then (what D.A.R.E. mentioned about rights being an example of that), it still isn't emphasized enough by the adults in your upbringing to help you actually identify when someone, even an adult, undermines them, and how to hold them accountable. This first Reddit post covers such a complex topic it in fairness is to teach children like that blogger's then-four-year-old daughter:
https://www.reddit.com/r/emotionalabuse/comments/1p4nehc/whats_typically_missing_that_enables_narcissists/
3) A much shorter Reddit post to conclude things, covering the reasons I had remained friends with Jake for so long. (One thing I didn't mention there, but did on a Google doc I had tabbed up and highlighted two different blocks in but didn't actually show them, was two instances of misadvice both a year apart from eachother early on.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/emotionalabuse/comments/1lgf9do/prioritizing_my_comfort_now/
There wasn't that much of a discussion, but Brian did mention other people criticizing his and Emily's already somewhat liberal parenting style, and that I had just more or less validated them.
-----
Went on to show everyone episode 2 of Killing Slimes. Maris started crying by that point, wouldn't shut up for long at a time, and Emily deduced that she was tired, mentioning that she didn't even have a nap earlier in the day, and took her to her parents' house less than halfway through the episode to put her to bed.
To begin with, given our planned celebration at Texas Roadhouse, I was not going to eat somewhere like Ford's Garage or The Cheesecake Factory. I was going to keep lunch light, and decided upon some popcorn chicken and boba tea at Kong Dog, but then I noticed an ad for egg waffles on the counter, and decided to try one of those out. Turned out to be still more filling than I expected.
Grabbed a small Nitro Cold Brew at Starbucks afterwards, before heading to Barnes & Noble.
There, my browse for the visit bled into the light novel section. Picked four of those out, and managed to read the prologue of Phantom Thief Red before meeting up with Mom.
Mom pointed out after I answered what I had for lunch, how filling what I chose was, and wondered if we should celebrate today instead.
-
Arriving at The Bristal after what consisted only of taking my weight, blood pressure, and some blood samples, the receptionist there took Dr. Mattimoe's paperwork and told me that Patrick will be sure to call me again.
-----
Even putting what I had ended up eating aside, Mom did suggest on the way home that we go to the beach instead to share the news at Dad's grave. However, Brian and Emily decided instead to have some time to themselves somewhere, and left Maris in her care.
Maris was kept busy watching Teletubbies and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I filled out some forms I was emailed a link to (still more of those remaining).
-----
Brian and Emily came back after we had dinner, and I pulled a few things up online to show them for the sake of Maris' upbringing, supplemented with Marie's D.A.R.E. book I had opened to a certain page about social rights.
1) A repost of an entry on someone's now-private blog called Love Explosions, about how she did and did not want her autistic daughter's aide and teacher to do their job, illustrating what an aide's purpose actually is. (Mom later described this secondhand from Brian as clickbait, but this was actually something Chelle once reblogged on Tumblr, not one of those things like all these YouTube videos that describe college as a scam.)
https://thinkingautismguide.com/2013/02/the-cost-of-compliance-is-unreasonable.html
(As a secondary point to the one I actually brought up, both Mrs. Bandows and subsequent aides' approach (along with someone else's once shared with me and the school psychologist), and the fact that I was expected until late in 11th grade to "earn" independence despite knowing how to manage my day despite any misbehavior that teens in general are only too well known for, contradict the real purpose both she mentions and I once figured out personally that an aide is supposed to serve.)
2) To begin with, it is well known that narcissists have a way to make each of their victims feel like the problematic party. What isn't talked about is how, while the importance of self-respect is brought up every now and then (what D.A.R.E. mentioned about rights being an example of that), it still isn't emphasized enough by the adults in your upbringing to help you actually identify when someone, even an adult, undermines them, and how to hold them accountable. This first Reddit post covers such a complex topic it in fairness is to teach children like that blogger's then-four-year-old daughter:
https://www.reddit.com/r/emotionalabuse/comments/1p4nehc/whats_typically_missing_that_enables_narcissists/
3) A much shorter Reddit post to conclude things, covering the reasons I had remained friends with Jake for so long. (One thing I didn't mention there, but did on a Google doc I had tabbed up and highlighted two different blocks in but didn't actually show them, was two instances of misadvice both a year apart from eachother early on.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/emotionalabuse/comments/1lgf9do/prioritizing_my_comfort_now/
There wasn't that much of a discussion, but Brian did mention other people criticizing his and Emily's already somewhat liberal parenting style, and that I had just more or less validated them.
-----
Went on to show everyone episode 2 of Killing Slimes. Maris started crying by that point, wouldn't shut up for long at a time, and Emily deduced that she was tired, mentioning that she didn't even have a nap earlier in the day, and took her to her parents' house less than halfway through the episode to put her to bed.