Yes, I'm the worst blogger ever born. But this is just for me and my own personal growth, right? Yeah, cause only one or two other people know I'm here, except for the occasional person who ends up here on accident after googling some bizarre phrase I may have written.

Anyway, I just got back from dinner out with the Autism Moms. So nice to get out with other moms who know what it's like. Not to mention that my friend Amy, whom I consider a darker version of myself, and I split a $60 bottle of Merlot which was fantastic. It was half price wine night at the wonderful restaurant we went to, so it was only $15 each, which is practically the same price as a getting a couple glasses of house wine. Woohoo! In addition to the wine, I had half of a very good sirloin steak sandwich (other half is in the fridge for lunch tomorrow), a chocolate dessert that could serve a small tribe, and a coffee with Frangelico liqueur. Yummy! My stomach feels like it may be about to burst open with an alien spawn soon, but it was worth it to have my last meal be so good.

Back to Amy. I consider her my doppelganger, but who only looks kinda similar. Like an evil twin, but not so evil. Maybe my more unihibited self? I don't know the best way to describe her, but we have a weird bizarro life. We are often asked if we are sisters. We aren't. We are the same height, the same build, usually within 5 pounds of the same weight, had both of our children within 6 weeks of each other, both of our older sons have Autism, we both have freckles, we both love lattes and good wine, but aren't wine snobs, etc. However, whereas I am the "conservative liberal" (meaning I am a typically a shy person, conservative in manner and prone to be concerned what other people think of me, though I'm liberal politically), Amy is the tattooed, extremely forthcoming version of me. She's not afraid to tell people what she thinks. She's the me that I can be if I have enough to drink to "lubricate my speech."

So, Amy and I, along with three other moms went to dinner at this great restaurant and talked about our kids, our husbands, the various therapies, supplements, bio-medical approaches to Autism, etc. that our lives revolve around. It's always good to get out and talk this way with other moms. And as I learned in an RDI workshop today, it's very important to find your group. I'm a maple leaf, apparently. I never knew I was a Canuck, but hey, I've spend half my life in Washington state and New England. Not too far off! This stems from one of the exercises we did, in which each person was to grab a shape from the bag, and not looking at your shape or anyone else's, find the group of people who had the same shape. My shape was a rounded, asymmetrical maple leaf. Pretty to look at after the fact, but very difficult to figure out what the heck it was through touch alone.

The workshop was fun, and a great day away from my "real life." Of course, Jay complained (more than once) about the fact that he had to be in charge of the kids ALL WEEK because I had the nerve to go to a PTA meeting Monday night, host my book club Wednesday night, go to a workshop today (for our Autistic son's benefit, mind you), and then go out to dinner tonight. On Monday night when I went over the stuff going on this week (I have very, very rarely ever had more than one night a week Jay is required to "babysit" AKA father for a few hours) Jay had the nerve to get huffy about having to do all this with the kids. And he didn't even have to drive 30 minutes both ways to get Hutton to speech therapy today, and wait 2 hours for him while keeping Harrison entertained, which is a regular part of my Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I pointed that out today when he forgot he was supposed to watch the boys while I did this workshop. He really doesn't know his audience if he complains to me about having to do a few hours of bedtime duty 3 nights a week. I mean, come on, Harrison was still in his pajamas when I came home at 4 pm! Blah, blah, blah....

So, at dinner, we happened to bring up the topic of bigamy/polygamy. And, in my "well lubricated" state of mind (two glasses of darn fine merlot), I really think that sounded like a good idea for us ladies. You have another woman (or more) around to vent to, to help with the cooking, cleaning and child-rearing, and on those nights you just want to sit up late reading and not do your "wifely duty" (HA!) you send the ole hubby to wife(wives) no. 2 (3, 4, ....) . Now that I'm a cynical ole woman, I don't think that sounds so bad! Of course, I'd have to be Alpha wife, and I'd get to choose my friends to be the other wives.