Today was an aggravating - and infuriating day. Yes - chicken was involved....but that's not what got me cheesed off....it was the nasty, evil witch at the No Frill's on Islington Ave. today.
Allow me to set the scene for you:
11:30 - Daddy at this computer...Nicholas mentioning the need for feed.
"Daaaaaaaad! I'm hungry!"
"Ok. What would you like? Pizza perhaps?
"No. Chicken."
"We don't have any chicken"
"Sure we do"
"No we don't"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah man....I would not kid you about chicken."
"Oh. Well. I want chicken!"
"Sigh....let's go check the freezer. Maybe we'll get lucky and find some"
No such luck....
"Ok. You want chicken do you?"
"YES!"
"Ok....you have two choices. We can go to McDonald's and get chicken nuggets - in which case you'll get to eat really soon. Or....we can go to the store and buy some chicken"
"Hmmmmm......so....I could go and get chicken nuggets - and a toy....or we can go buy some from No Frill's...hmmmm.....let me see....." Who said anything about a toy?
[Long Pause]
"Well Daddy. I think I'm going to choose Daddy Chicken! It tastes better!"
"Well....ok....just as long as you understand that it'll take some time to cook after we get home".
"That's fine".
"Ok...go get your shoes on and we'll get our chicken on!"
"Yaaaaaay!!! Daddy rocks!"
I do indeed.
So far, so good right? How hard can it be to get some chicken? People buy chicken all the time right? It's a no brainer right? Ha. Chicken was challenging today....
So - of course I decide to take Mommy's car (dumb dumb dumb!!!) because I had just driven it a while ago - and it would still be warm. Mistake. If you're going to take Mommy's car to No Frill's - always check the ashtray for a quarter first....for the cart that we simply MUST get.
And of course - there was no quarter in the ashtray...in fact there's no ashtray at all. Some dirtbag stole it the last time my wife's car got broken into. Scum bag couldn't even leave me a quarter. Not cool.
And getting a cart is a MUST. It's not an option. Sure - we're only getting one item - but a cart is thing that can be pushed around and ridden on - therefore....we simply must get a cart.
So what do I do? I try and get my son to panhandle a quarter. He's cute....I figure he can pull it off.
No such luck. The first old guy he asked just totally ignored him - and kept on walking. Nice.
The second lady we tried - said she didn't have a quarter....and that she didn't speak English at all. This being just after we saw her put her cart away and retrieved her quarter...and her response was in English. If you're going to lie to me - at least put some effort into it!
Dammit. This isn't going well. And my son is getting a little annoyed.
Ok. Plan B.
Let's go to Subway - buy a drink....and get the person to add a quarter to the bill so she can give us a quarter from the till. Sounds fairly uncomplicated right?
No. It was very complicated. I had to explain the plan three times....but at last we scored a quarter.
We are in good shape!
We go and rent a cart and Nicholas busts ass going into the store to score some chicken.
As I'm walking in....I happen to see a little sign saying that debit and credit card payment was not available for some stupid reason.
[Eyeballs rolling to heaven....asking God just exactly what is his problem today - and why can't we just buy some chicken?]
So my son is driving through the store at top speed....not knocking things over....and not maiming a single person. He's got good control of the situation.
I however do not. I figure I'll just beg the lady at the cash to let me take it - and I'll be back in 5 minutes once I hit the bank. I offered her my cell phone, my driver's licence....even my wedding ring. No deal. She was not going to spot me any chicken....
This is not good. I'm trying to explain this to Nicholas - who is starting to get annoyed about what has become the chicken fiasco. He's unhappy about the whole situation - and expressed himself....and then moved on to start pushing the buttons to move other people's groceries down the conveyor belt. He sadly did not score any chicken.
It at this point that some "lady" got in my face and asked me what was wrong with "that child"....and why couldn't he be quiet?
Ever hear the Rush tune where Geddy Lee sings "I see red" as the first lyric in Red Lenses? It's a really good tune.
I saw red. And what a lovely shade of red it was.
I won't go into the verbatim description of how I responded....I was quite verbose however.
I did tell her I was soooo sorry that my son's autism has offended her and upset her selfish daily routine....but in fact - I could care less what she thinks and that she would be better off keeping her ignorant comments to herself. I also mentioned something about her shitty attitude was bordering on a hate crime and that if she doesn't want to explain herself to a cop - that she had best just keep her opinions to herself. That's the basic gist of what I said....there may have been some profanity - and possible references to her faulty breeding and chromosomal deficiencies...I was pretty torqued up. I'm even not actually if what she said could even be construed as a hate crime....but I know I hated what she had to say. That's enough right?
I don't even think Nicholas heard me tell this lady off....he seemed to be all smiles after he returned from moving people's groceries around. I explained that we had to go to the bank to get some cash.
"Ok Daddy!"
I was really surprised how cool he was with this. Pleasantly surprised in fact. He wanted to walk to the bank - so we did.
Upon our arrival at the bank...lo and behold! That ATM was out of service....so we had to wait in line to grab some cash. Nicholas proceeded to take off his coat, plop himself into a chair - and play his Moshi game on this DS. I waited in line for 10 minutes...one eye on the Moshiman...the other eye on the teller who was just chatting about the weather with a customer. Dude!!! I need to get the chicken!
Finally....I get the money - and we headed back to the store to pick up our chicken.
The cashier was nice enough to set the chicken aside while we went to the bank. Nicholas handed over a $20....and voila! The chicken was ours!
We pile into the car and proceeded home. Nicholas is happy....I am not. Nicholas plants himself on the computer when we get home - I proceed to make chicken....and give my Calphalon cookwear a good scrub. I clean when I'm angry.
I know that this kind of thing is something that my son is going to experience throughout his life. But come on people. He's 10 years old. He's really damn cute. So what if he's a little noisy at times....he's actually got a lot of interesting and intelligent things to say. Next time - listen with your ears....and not your ignorance.
Good post. My favourite is when people tell you just have to discipline them better. I want to look at them and say "Oh so if I discipline her more, she won't get bothered by loud noises/din anymore?"
ReplyDelete"If I just just discipline her more she on't be so anxious about a change in routine/pattern?"
My daughter is not autisitic, but she does have sensory processing challenges and at times the reactions can be very similar. Most people just don't understand if they aren't affected by it. They are scared of what they don't know.