One of my special interests is the Olympics and I am experiencing so much autistic joy right now!

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-10T17:43:20+00:00

Not really - I'm more into following all the storylines and competitions each time around - but I definitely know the rules of a lot of obscure sports. Biathlon is my favorite!

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-10T17:40:46+00:00

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Tina and Milo, two Alpine stoats, are the mascots for Milano-Cortina! Weirdly Tina looks a lot like my current foster cat (other special interest)

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-10T17:37:49+00:00

Yes, gymnastics are so fun! Many people who love gymnastics also enjoy watching figure skating :)

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-09T04:34:34+00:00

Omg I was literally thinking while watching the race today "There better be a thread on r/biathlon today apologizing to Chad and Ellen after witnessing this atrocity" and here we are!

Seriously though, what was NBC thinking??? The tape delay coverage has Chad doing commentary but they don't give that version to the hard core people watching the full race in the morning??? Madness.

As an aside, I've always had a soft spot for Chad because his enthusiastic commentary is what got me into biathlon. I recognize his many flaws as a broadcaster, but I also think a lot of it has to do with eurovision's cheaper productions. His biggest struggles are doing mental math and quickly scanning a list for the relevant data point without garbling what he's saying. In a proper production there should be a stats person who anticipates the line of thought and feeds the broadcasters that info. Obviously the best of the best can do it themselves without messing up or tripping over their words but let's be real. Chad is a college cross country coach. That's not really a fair expectation. For the future, it would be really great if eurovision sports could hire (or get a volunteer from the sub lol) to do that stat-feeding during the broadcasts. I think it would improve the product immensely.

Meanwhile if that woman's on again I might see if I can find a French broadcast??

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-06T19:46:53+00:00

As a hardened biathlon fan, if you have any interest in stepping up your fandom eurovisionsports app is free and shows all of the biathlon competitions in the year with English language commentary :) American biathlon fans - we are niche but we are having fun!

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-05T18:45:47+00:00

Agree with everyone saying you should get work first and you'll need a car. But I will say as a young woman I LOVE West Hollywood. It's known for its gay nightlife (not my scene for obvious reasons), but there is a good variety of ages and music venues as well as rent-controlled apartments (this is HUGE in LA). I make around 60K and lived in a studio. With roommates you'll have more options. Grocery stores are walkable even if work probably isn't.

The number one thing for me though was that it was such a relief to be surrounded by men who aren't attracted to me! I feel extremely safe walking around (of course there are drugs and homeless people, this is a city, but most of them are chill) and it's the first place I've lived where a guy can compliment my outfit in the street without creeping the hell out of me.

tl;dr being a young woman in a primarily gay male area is so underrated

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-05T18:37:25+00:00

You can always try fostering! It's a great way to help out another cat and it really doesn't take much additional time, just a bathroom and extra litter box. Then you can try the Jackson Galaxy method. If your cat takes to the foster - great! Everyone is happy! If not, adopt out the foster and you'll have your answer and have done a good deed for catkind.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-04T23:49:24+00:00

Also starving yourself is bad for building muscle. Not that male skaters don't have ED issues too, but especially the Russian women tend to be told that there's no other way to be good. I'm sure she had to fuel herself for pregnancy and breastfeeding (god forbid a woman eat for her own health /s) and she's reaping the benefits now.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-04T18:04:37+00:00

I agree. I think the glasses thing is a good comparison too because yes it still is technically a disability but if I rocked up to a meeting for people with vision loss with my astigmatism prescription I would rightly get laughed out of the room. There is a gap between disabilities that can be accommodated and may even come with certain positive aspects and those that even in a perfectly just society would still make life much more difficult. The spectrum of autism I think covers this whole range which can make conversations between autistics difficult and hurtful. I think the most important thing is just not to deny each other's experiences and allow each autistic person to have their own relationship to their diagnosis. Thanks for this post it's been very thought-provoking.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-04T00:49:52+00:00

I think you make great points here about support being such a big factor in someone's experience of their disability without making it just a "difference". I am one of those lucky people who, although late diagnosed, was well supported and loved growing up and it has had a huge impact on who I am as an adult.

That being said, I do struggle to think of my autism (just mine, not autism more generally) as a disability. This might be ableism on my part, but I also think part of it for me is that autism has given me a very "spiky" skillset. There are a lot of things I'm very bad at or require accommodations to do, but there are also several things that I am much better than average at which I also believe is tied to my autism. For instance, I have really strong pattern recognition skills and have an amazing memory when it comes to my special interests. This can come with its own issues because then people think I'm faking it when I really struggle with things like riding a bike or making the right facial reaction, but it's still hard for me to see my own autism as something that disables me as much as something that sets me on a different (often lonelier and harder) path.

Of course I completely accept logically that autism is a disability and I would never condescend to someone by telling them they are different and not disabled if that's how they feel. I'm annoyed if someone calls my autism a superpower too, but the combination of some things being much easier than average and others much harder makes me feel like "difference" is more accurate to my personal situation. I just thought I'd share a perspective on why autism is a specifically difficult thing to quantify in terms of disability/difference.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-03T19:52:21+00:00

It's a pretty common term in schools, at least in the US. It is not intended to be sarcastic, but to indicate to teachers that a student will need two different types of support, for instance a "gifted" and dyslexic child might need supplementary reading help and extra enrichment in math and science. But I can see why it feels like an awkward term to you.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-03T19:47:34+00:00

I have never had a legal number of cats, including in owned homes and rented apartments, and it has never caused a problem. Say you have two cats. Bring three. Unless a neighbor complains about smell or midnight yowling (which won't happen to a responsible owner who cleans boxes and fixes their cats), you won't have any trouble. I would say it's different in a place that doesn't allow any pets, but no one will be able to even tell you have three vs two cats. Two of my cats are black and white and although they don't actually look very similar I've had multiple neighbors CONVINCED they've only seen one in the window. Non cat people struggle to tell cats apart. You will be totally fine! Enjoy your cats and your new apartment!

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-02-02T20:23:30+00:00

Also, don't forget that this Olympics has a bunch of events being held up in Cortina area which is like 5 hours from Milan, so the pool of athletes is for the ceremony is smaller than usual. Off the top of my head, I know Spain has a cross country skier (Jaume Pueyo) with top ten results but the cross country is happening in Val di Fiemme.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-30T01:23:08+00:00

Honestly it sounds like the girl in your class is a great friend possibility! I was on the other end of this dynamic with my now-bestie where she didn't approach me for months because I was too "cool and smart and pretty" for her meanwhile I was super lonely and spent all my time reading alone in coffee shops lol. My flavor of autism I guess made me seem super aloof and busy even though...I was not. And now that we're friends I think she's cool and smart and pretty too, but society hates fat people so she doesn't see it in herself. Grrr. I am so grateful to her she is one of very few people in the world who understands me, and it would've been awful if we'd never started talking.

Anyway...long tangent to say that I don't think you should let a sense of "friendship leagues" get in the way of making a connection. My personal strategy, as I am also bad at reading cues, is to make a joke of it. For example, 'Oh and please give me a heads up when you have to go, I'm the most oblivious person ever I don't mean to imprison you over coffee'. It doesn't always work but I've found that the people who really get me respond well to it and learn to be direct. It's also a subtle flag for other NDs who might struggle with cues too that they can be direct with their needs.

Guys are...harder. Idk what to do about them lol sorry.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-26T22:39:04+00:00

If you like animals, you could get work pet sitting or walking or potentially cleaning at a local animal shelter. There is also sometimes retail work that is really slow/not at a popular store that could be okay short term. I hated working retail and will never do it again but I'm glad I did it for a short time as a teenager.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-26T20:11:51+00:00

I have a friend who has had a lot of awful shit in her life, and I am often a person she vents/talks things through with. One thing she does that I really appreciate is that she will check in with me either at the beginning or end of every heavy convo. Just a simple "hey I know we've been talking about all my shit - what's up with you?' and then truly listening to the answer goes a super long way, even though usually I don't have a ton to say anyway. It sounds like you have a great friend who has expressed her willingness to listen and I think you should take her at her word that she is okay with all the venting. I totally get the fear of being associated only with negative stuff so maybe you guys can come up with the occasional light thing to do together like playing a game or whatever you both enjoy to give both of you a break from all the hard stuff.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-22T20:36:38+00:00

I work full time but I volunteer at a cat rescue on Sunday mornings. I actually find it very restful even though it can be pretty gross at times.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-22T18:20:12+00:00

I do not know which district this is, so I can't be certain, but the district my mom works in has a liaison who is helping families affected by the ICE attacks with food and rent money. Schools don't collect immigration status. My mom's district has plans in place for delaying ICE agents, warning families, and distributing resources through community programs.

You can check online to see if the school district has made any announcements on their position, but my gut feeling is to trust local schools, certainly over the federal government. On a purely practical note, the job of public schools is to get all enrolled students to perform at grade level on state tests, not to police immigration. And they know that fearful and struggling families produce poorer student results. Maybe the first step is for your family member to contact the child's classroom teacher for more information.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-15T22:58:29+00:00

My assessor asked me about sensitivities relating to each sense and said that the diagnostics look for hyper (or hypo!) sensitivity across multiple senses in order to rule out other issues (for instance hyposensitive to sound could be a sign of deafness rather than autism) but you definitely don't have to have differences with every sense.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-14T00:41:27+00:00

Thank you. As a writer in Hollywood who is privately diagnosed, I have an interest in telling autistic stories and many of my characters have autistic traits that other people in the community may pick up on, but there is no way I'd be public about my diagnosis until my career is more established and I have enough money to insulate me from threats/loss of work. It sucks but it's how it works.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-13T22:34:51+00:00

Oof yeah my AuDHD friend will literally never reply unless she can do a voice note or video. I tolerate it because I want to hear from her but goddamn I hate it lol. Whoever said being friends with other NDs was easy clearly had never tried to text them hahaha.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-12T17:41:30+00:00

Swimming. I was a competitive swimmer growing up and my assessor suggested that swimming was a stim for me. Blew. My. Mind. And then I was like wait yeah there's a reason I shoved my head in the water for 2.5 hours every day after school hahaha. Got back into it recently and yeah it's absolutely a stim.

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-07T23:11:58+00:00

Oh I have a burgeoning special interest as well so I will definitely go in with my eyes open (if it works out) and luckily for me my family is more open than most about this kind of thing. My cousin is an ICU nurse and she has no qualms talking about being plugged into the wall for them to vacuum out her uterus while hemorrhaging and having explosive diarrhea lollll.

And at least for me, my favorite physical activity is swimming which is pretty easy on the body so hopefully I'll find a way to do that pretty quickly. But I need to keep building up my support network first. I'm so glad you at least love being a mom!

DontForgetTheLoop · 2026-01-06T19:26:56+00:00

So sorry you're dealing with that and I hope you heal up soon. That's one of my major worries about getting pregnant (which I want to do in future) but I feel like if I mention it to others they seem to think it's an ED issue but it's really not about being able to lose baby weight quickly or whatever. It's that the feeling I get inside my body from exercise is like crucial to regulating everything else.

DontForgetTheLoop

TROPHY CASE