on the other hand

re: vacation from the vacation

On the other hand, I got to see Susan S' new house - beautiful!

And spend 5 minutes on the phone with Karen H.

And the Lincoln Presidential Museum is fantastic! We didn't really see the museum, unfortunately, because Andrew melted down the minute we set foot inside the "White House" and things got worse from there. Some guy accused Andrew of trying to "boost" his camera; then, in the "war room," a group of touring Asians kept swiveling around and craning their necks to get a look at Andrew and me in our hiding place off the main room, where I'd taken him to try to minimize the disruption to everyone else's Presidential Museum visit.^* Andrew was by then slapping himself violently in the face while I tried to hold his hands and figure out what a behavior analyst would do.

Finally I gave up and did what a parent would do, which was send Andrew outside with his father so I could purchase tourist merchandise from the gift shop in peace.^**

So we didn't see the museum, but we did see the documentary about Lincoln's life. It's a Sensurround-type deal, with flashing lights, rumbling seats, and extremely loud, sudden, explosion noises that seemed designed to overwhelm anyone with the slightest degree of sensory overload.***

Andrew was rapt.

He sat perfectly still in his seat, gazing at the screen, his hands clasped together as if in prayer. Jimmy had his eyes closed and his head down; he looked like a tortoise without a shell. I was jumping out of my chair & shrieking at every crack of fake cannon fire and every clap of fake thunder.^****

Andrew was transfixed.

Afterwards Ed and I realized that for Andrew the documentary must have been like PBS with sound effects.

...............................

^* I specify "Asians" because we have Japanese friends here who tell us they can't return to Japan because of the stigma attached to having an autistic child there, and because another Japanese family here in town stopped speaking to us and canceled a play date invitation to Christopher when Ed revealed that C's brothers have autism, and I've generalized from those experiences. The fact is I have no idea why the Lincoln Museum tourists were staring at us, but I felt Andrew and I had to go. I apologize to any foreign nationals who find this account insulting or hurtful. On the other hand, the camera-booster guy was in the same room with the tourists when we came in, and he scrammed out of there as soon as he saw us. Good.

^** This sounds snarky, so I need an asterisk. The movie is wonderful, and the sounds effects - and hologram! - work. The whole museum is wonderful; Ed (for newbies: Ed is a historian) thought so, too. He liked it so much he wanted to go back alone.

^*** two Presidential Museum mugs and a matching Presidential Museum t-shirt & baseball cap

^** My startle response is getting way worse with age, and no one seems to have the slightest idea how to fix it.