I have not gotten into the choir for which I auditioned. This is an unprecedented thing, with the exception of a middle school all-state choir that I knew I wasn’t getting into in the first place. I don’t know how to react to it. I was counting on that choir to be a place where I could make friends. A friend. One would be nice.

There’s a choir here in town that I would love to be a part of, but whose audition requirements essentially make it impossible for someone like me to join. I’m not being euphemistic about autsim stuff, though–I’m talking about musical experience. I am a chorister. I don’t sing solo pieces and never have. So requiring that I have a prepared aria means, well, I won’t even audition, because I have no means of preparing; my sheet music reading skills are substandard for the sort of music I’m capable of performing. Further, I’ll own that my voice often sounds reedy and thin alone, but I can bolster a chorus and blend well–and how can a director tell that from me doing a solo piece? Surely one doesn’t want a chorus entirely made of strong soloist voices? There need to be those like me who can shift from part to part and provide a depth of cover.

I hate it here.

I find that when people on the autistic spectrum fail to understand someone’s reaction, this is seen as ‘lack of empathy’ – but, when someone who is not on the autistic spectrum fails to understand the reaction of an autistic person, this is seen as a case of ‘autistic people are a puzzle’ and a justification for representing us as a jigsaw puzzle piece.

I’ll just leave that there. I read it here.

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Alright. FLORIDA.

The first day and a half were spent at Universal Studios. We arrived Sunday afternoon and spent the evening exclusively in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (part of Islands of Adventure), spent Monday morning at the original Universal Studios and then Monday afternoon back at Islands of Adventure.

Almost all of my pictures were from HP, because, um, awesomeness?

(This was taken from inside of the greenhouses while waiting in line for the awesome ride of awesomeness Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.)

After HARRY POTTER HARRY HARRY POTTER we spent Tuesday at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was, how shall I put this, AWESOME.

We were at the gates before they opened, along with a few hundred other people. The park opens with employees carrying a rope and setting a walking pace towards the far back corners of the park, so that guests can’t rush and hurt themselves, I suppose. We ended up walking with a pair of employees, both of whom had been with Disney for a long time. One was new to the park, though, and was being trained. We must have made a good impression, because Raphael, the man doing the training, took us to the employee entrance and let the three of us skip the growing lines for the Kilamajaro Safari. This is a long safari trek through a variety of African habitats with dozens of different animals out living as they might in the wild (the big cats have subtly separated habitats from the herbivores). We skipped the fast-pass line and the regular line and were placed in the second row of the very first bus of the day, behind another very friendly employee in the front row whose job it was to count the animals outside. Stina and Dylan told us to get on the first bus we could, as the cats go inside for most of the day due to the heat, but I don’t think they meant that! The employees called it a Magical Moment. I tend to agree.

(I feel like this ostrich is begging to be a tumblr meme.)

Brad took a lot of photos, too, and they are available on his picasa page.

That’s right. On Sunday, August 8th, I will be flying to Florida/the outer reaches of Hell and going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. We’ll also spend a day in the rest of Universal (meh) and a day in Animal Kingdom (woohoo!).

On Wednesday we’ll drive to my grandmother’s house, just south of Tampa. Expect lots of pictures. My brain’s brewing something interesting, so when it decides to use coherent English I’ll write.

If you are my real-life friend and you would like me to send you a real-life postcard from real-life Hogsmeade, send me your real-life postal address at ayagirl at gmail dot com or message me on the facebooks.

In May, the Autism Hub disbanded itself. One of the bloggers who had been a hub member was bullying others on the hub and many of my favourite bloggers removed themselves from the group a few days before it was officially disbanded. I’ve tracked down most of the blogs I enjoyed reading there, but find it much more difficult to keep up to date with them now. I’ve tried using an RSS reader, but I’m not very good at remembering 1. to add blogs and 2. to visit the reader to see if they’ve posted. The Autism Hub had been a really great website for a few years, a respository of science-based blogging about autism by people on the spectrum, parents of kids on the spectrum, and professional researchers and educators. It introduced me to many of my favourite blogs. After the hub came down, most of those bloggers have stopped writing.

In June, Jezebel got a new EIC. With her came bannings, destarrings, and general discord. I stopped reading. I’ve been to groupthink off and on, but I haven’t been on the main page much at all. In the past two or three days there’s been a few articles of substance, the most worthwhile writing in months. I’m really hoping that this trend will continue and Jez will return to its former glory as my absolute favourite website. In its heydey, Jez was full of smart, feminist writing with an eye to intersectionality. It discussed the political and personal with humour and research, and the commenters were snarky without being mean (except to trolls) (this is a difficult line to walk and one they’ve lost entirely). Corrections were issued if the Editors made an error, often quickly. The new EIC calls commenters assholes and seems to encourage bodysnarking.

In July, ScienceBlogs had its own implosion. I missed it; as I’ve noted before, when I’m feeling spoonless I can’t muster the energy for SciBlogs, even though it often renews my spoon pile. What appears to have happened is Pepsi bought a blog spot there without clear distinctions being made on said blog that it was a paid spot (Sciblings are invited and paid for their efforts, usually). Many of my favourite Sciblings have left the website as a result, though the Pepsi blog has been pulled. There’s a disaspora of science writing, now, and, again, RSS is not my friend.

Please, gentle readers, suggest places for me to read. I’m looking for political and sciencey blogs with a liberal, feminist bent, preferably explicitly anti-racist and anti-ableist. Hubs or group blogs are very welcome.

My major concern is falling into a pattern of presumed incompetence. It was coincidental that I found this blog post today about the least harmful assumption (presuming competence even when others do not) as almost all of the people I will be working with have been diagnosed with intellectual disability (and many of them with autism). I need to work and remember that their diagnoses may not be correct and that any communication is welcome. I hope I’m up to the task.

Just got done making a spreadsheet that shows the titles of the songs from which I’ve pulled titles, the songs in the official canon I haven’t used yet, the songs that are official or semi-official canon but are covers, and the demos which have any sort of name. This is actually the third spreadsheet of its sort, as I have one keeping track of the number of times I use a song and one that lists the song, the lyric, and the date.

So I’m feeling a bit compulsive and pleased, now. And tired. Tried to go to the library, but the lights are made of some sort of migraine-creating forcefield that also happens to emit visible light, because within ten minutes my eyes and head ached. I feel sort of spoon-drained now.