This Saturday we celebrated Ryan's 27th birthday. I drove him up to Disneyland with his little brother and Heike. I dropped them at the gate and drove away with trepidation. It was the first time I had ever left him in the care of 2 young caregivers separated by miles instead of feet. Not on my watch. (Yes, he lives in a group home. Yes, he lives his life miles away everyday. Yes, it is hard for a Mom to let go.) Milestone.
On my watch, we have been to Disneyland many times. My autistic son has a hard time waiting in line. We have seen him wait with patience, and we have seen him lose it and lash out in violence. Disney did away with letting handicapped people go to the front of the line. So, as the 3 "kids" skipped off to have a fun time at the happiest place on earth, I drove to Starbucks to center myself with caffeine. I do not like to waste time worrying. So, I did some Internet research and found some LYS within a 7 mile radius of Disney and went on a yarn crawl. Waiting for the phone to ring and to race back to the park to pick them up. Quiet anxiety was my companion.
The first yarn shop had gone out of business. No more "Sit N Knit", FYI. I was bummed out.Then over to Newton's Yarns. A warehouse of machine knitting supplies and mostly coned yarn. I wandered around and decided there was nothing there for me. The owners were sweet and invited me back next weekend to a special demo and sale. I have bought yarn from them at shows in the past. Just not today. I may have been too distracted to buy yarn. This was a first for me. Milestone.
On the way to the next shop on my list, I stopped to call the kids. They were doing great. All was well. I was stopped next to a cinema. I decided to do the impossible and go to the movies. I took my knitting in and saw not one, but two features. "Burn After Reading" was good in a Coen Brothers way. "Flash Of Genius" was good in a motor city native way. I knit more than half of a future handbag and passed four hours. Called the kids again. All was well. Wow.
Now I needed to do some more time management. I walked around a TJMaxx store for awhile. No money was spent. This shopping w/o spending is so new to me. Milestone. Finally, I settled down back outside of the Disney entrance at a restaurant. With knitting book and notepad in hand I ordered dinner and relaxed with my research.
I picked the kids up at 8pm. Almost 12 hours had passed since we left the house. I was exhausted from waiting and so proud of my boy. The kids were exhausted from running around their favorite theme park for 10 hours. And they were proud. Proud of themselves for undertaking this trip. Ryan was proud for doing well and enjoying himself. We drove home triumphantly. Milestone achieved.
