Sunday, August 9, 2009

Aspie mini-golf!

In case you're wondering, there isn't anything different in the rules for aspie mini-golf. I went to an event today for the Aspergers Society of Ontario, it was a fundraiser at a local indoor glow-in-the-dark mini-putt place.


My oh my. I left late, because I was nervous. But I got there at maybe 1:30 and the event was 1-4pm. Made sure I had my earplugs and a little clonazepam.

When I got there, it was immediately overwhelming! There were other people talking to the man at the desk and so I kind of just stood there. Eventually I got to buy 50/50 tickets and I got to meet Michael, the person I'd been corresponding with on twitter about this event and the 5K Charity Walk/Run happening in September.

I looked at the silent auction stuff. Lots of cool stuff, but then I saw... weighted blankets!

I played mini-golf with Greg and Jay, the other two adults who showed up. I won the game, even got a hole in one :)

I decided to put in a bid for one of the weighted blankets. I won it! It's a spiderman blanket, and i'm not sure how much it weighs exactly, but I got it for a great price. That was really exciting!

I also chatted a bit with a woman who has a teen daughter, she was eager to chat with me because I guess they don't get so many women through there (being 1:4 ratio and all). I found that interesting, and it was nice to share some of my perspectives with her about my childhood and growing up, and what specific things are challenging for me. I would've liked to talk more with her, and perhaps I will because I gave her my card.

I wore earplugs about half the time I was there. There was all this black light and glowy stuff, and the area where they have groups had these laser thingies which were kind of difficult to deal with. It reminded me of a snozelen room. But it was definitely noisy, with the music, the games, the kids. One of my main sensory issues is auditory. The earplugs made it possible for me to have conversations with people and not get near meltdown. A few times I had a pretty good startle reaction from a siren or bells from one of the arcade games though.

It was great to go out and meet fellow aspies. The staff with Aspergers Society of Ontario are great, and I felt welcomed there. It was nice that I got to attend an event so close to my house.

When I got home, I felt somewhat overloaded, but that's not so unusual. As happens with overload, I was sooooo sleepy, so I curled up under my new spiderman weighted blanket and had a great nap. Ahhh.

4 comments:

Jason Nolan said...

YAY. Thanks for the report. I assume you recognize my icon :)

I hope they have something going on south of bloor some day. Aside from a 5k run. I don't like being out in the sun. :)

Karen said...

yep, I did recognize your icon. so cool! i hope i do this blog thing. thanks for following it!

i think there's some lunch drop in thing at yonge and eg on wednesdays, oh every other wednesdays. not sure. never been. http://www.aspergers.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=41

and i think the adult outings are usually south of bloor.

aspieteach said...

Sounds like they did a nice job organizing activities and events! And that's smart of you to think of using earplugs. Are you still able to make out what people are saying when you wear them?

Karen said...

i was actually totally able to hear people talking. lemme see if i can find a pic of which ones i used... sort of like this: http://bit.ly/xH9q2
mine have been through the wash so they may not be working as well as they used to. But it was enough :)

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