#WeekendCoffeeShare (July 12, 2025)

Hi everyone. It’s been a full week since I last wrote a blog post. I really would like to write more, but I’m struggling massively. Today, I’m once again joining #WeekendCoffeeShare. It’s 7:30PM, so no more coffee for me. I didn’t end up having the green tea I mentioned last week, but I might today. Let’s have a drink and let’s catch up.

If we were having coffee, first I’d talk about the weather. Honestly, I can’t remember what the weather was like early in the week, but the last few days, it’s been good: partly cloudy with some sunshine and daytime highs around 25°C.

If we were having coffee, next I’d tell you that I’m still going strong with my movement goal on my Apple Watch. I never ended up doing those fitness mat exercises I mentioned last week, because I had to cancel my movement therapy session this week. I’m hoping I can do some exercises next week.

If we were having coffee, then I’d share that I’ve been quite depressed lately. On Sunday, I was even talking ending my life and, on Monday, I had a meltdown in which I self-harmed.

The staff who witnessed me talk suicide and who was the only one able to comfort me after my meltdown, asked the behavior specialist and team manager to come and talk with me. This meeting took place on Wednesday morning, but another staff attended it with me. I was masking heavily during the meeting and constantly rationalizing my feelings away. The team manager at the end said that he was glad I was doing okay, because there’ll be a time when he won’t have time for a meeting. That plus something about things possibly getting worse. This caused my thoughts to spiral and this got me intensely desperate. I was able to tell the staff who’d attended the meeting with me, that this comment caused me distress and she would try to relay this to the team manager.

When, about an hour later, the staff who’d witnessed my meltdown etc. came on shift, I expressed my despair to her, By this time, I was inconsolable. I cried and cried and cried and was intensely hopeless.

Finally, the staff contacted the behavior specialist, who came again to talk with me and this staff. This was an okay meeting. I’m still skeptical things will improve, but not entirely hopeless.

If we were having coffee, I’d share that I’ve been reading some books about autism by autistic authors. One is The Autistic’s Guide to Self-Discovery. I’m unfortunately struggling quite a bit to concentrate on it, which in turn reinforces the belief that I’m too broken to benefit from it.

If we were having coffee, lastly I’d tell you that my best friend’s mother came by on Thursday. She brought the new nightstand that she and my best friend had bought at Ikea to replace the one that broke when I fell over it several weeks ago. She also brought me a birthday present: some colors of Sculpey Soufflé, which is a brand of polymer clay I don’t have yet.

We went to have lunch at Hema and then went to the supermarket to buy blueberries and candy bars for me and carrots for her. I also told her about my state of mind, since she’s currently my informal representative. I do want to make my best friend informal representative for me too, especially once we’re formally divorced. I still want my now mother-in-law on it too because she has the capacity to attend meetings with me. However, I mostly want to make sure that in no way are my parents or sister contacted to make decisions about me.

Gratitude List (January 17, 2021)

It’s nearly 2AM and I can’t sleep. I woke up about two hours ago after only an hour or two of sleep. I’m kind of worried. To calm my mind, I decided to do a gratitude list. I can’t find the Ten Things of Thankful link-up, but that doesn’t keep me from being grateful.

1. I am grateful for my one-on-one support. I’ve been a bit stressed lately and thankfully, they help me manage it.

2. I am grateful for a financial positive. I won’t believe it till the money is actually in my bank account, but if I’m correct, I won’t have to pay a higher long-term care copay this year. This means my net paycheck will be higher than it was last year.

3. I am grateful that I felt comfortable ordering some new soaping supplies. I ordered almond oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, beeswax, Dead Sea salt and some water-soluble colorants for my soap and other bath and body products. I am hoping, once they arrive, to be able to make bath melts with the oils, butters and beeswax and bath salt with the Dead Sea salt.

4. I am grateful for heart-shaped candies. Last Monday, my staff had a team meeting and one of them brought these, then put the leftover candies in a box with my name on it. The other clients, after all, can’t eat hard candy.

5. I am grateful for cookies. Like I said yesterday, my one-on-one helped me bake those. They were really good.

6. I am grateful for Mexican bean wraps. My day activities staff and I made those for lunch on Wednesday and they were good.

7. I am grateful my bath bomb turned out pretty good. I will have to check whether I placed the image correctly in my last post, but oh well. I didn’t end up taking a bath last evening, but I might today or sometime next week.

8. I am grateful for a lot of Christian self-help books. I’m still struggling with my faith, but they definitely help me realize that I can’t and don’t need to be alone.

9. I am grateful for a nice phone conversation with my father. I was a little stressed about it at first, as I hadn’t spoken to him in a few months. However, it went really well.

10. I am grateful that I have the right to vote. I am not yet sure whom I’ll vote for, but I’m so glad I live in a democracy.

What are you grateful for?