The Curious Incident of the Brit...

I got a treat in the mail today. My friend in England had sent me a packet. I didn't know he had sent me something. He sent me a CD with socialist songs from all over the world on it. Then he wrote me a long letter describing the background of each song. He had also clipped out an article from a newspaper about a socialist poster artist from last century.

This is what he said in the letter's last paragraph: "I'm happy to know you and it's always a great pleasure to hear from you. I send you hugs, affection, and my warmest wishes." Gawd, was he trying to make me cry? He's one of the kindest human beings I've ever met. His kindness is entirely heartfelt. I don't think he has a fake bone in his body. Maybe that's part of having Asperger's. I've read more about Asperger's. Apparently, people with Asperger's are known to be called "walking encyclopedias". My friend is. He writes me long e-mails pouring out his knowledge on different topics, mostly politics and language. Like, I could print out his e-mails and bind them into books and use them as references, no fucking joke.

Sometimes, I wonder if my father has some slight form of high-functioning autism. My dad's brain is an encyclopedia, he has a photographic memory that astounds me at times, and he has social problems. I don't think he has any form of autism, really, but it seems like he's close to it. I feel like my brain works differently than most people's, too, but I don't have an encyclopedic mind. I'm not very logical; I'm much more emotional. I've always felt different from other people. I've always seemed to experience the world differently than the majority. I wonder if my friend Melissa, too, has something different about her brain. She is so genuinely kind and earnest, she has no typical social fakeness in her at all, and she finds it really hard to deal with social situations. But she's not encyclopedic, either. She's artistic and and expressive like I am. Maybe my dad, Melissa and myself are just very sensitive people. I think that non-autistic highly sensitive people are the most like autistic folks.

Anyway, it truly touched my heart that my friend put so much time and effort into making me a CD. He told me he was going to make me one, but I'm used to people saying they'll do something that they don't do (and I am often guilty of doing that myself). But, when he says he'll do something, he does it. If you ask him to tell you about something, he'll tell you allllllll about it. I figured out how to record my voice on my cell phone and send the recording to my e-mail address as an MMS. I recorded several of my different voices and sent them to him. He thought they were funny. I have to say that they cracked me up a great deal and I kept playing them over to myself. I needed comic relief yesterday. His favorite voice of mine was the one I did of Gromit the dog. The voice I made for Gromit sounded like a sweet, very young English child. :) My friend told me once that he didn't like dogs. I asked why. He said he didn't like the ones who were jumping and biting or scratching him, but that he liked the calm, well-behaved ones. So in my little Gromit voice, I told him I would never bite or scratch him. :)

Talking to my friend is refreshing. He's so devoid of bullshit and unnecessary drama and games. He's just himself. What you see is what you get. He's truly an incredible and wonderful person. The only thing is that I don't want him to fancy me too much. I want him to meet a really awesome girl right there in his town, maybe someone involved with the socialists. I hope so. I want him to find a wonderful woman and marry her and live happily ever after. I want to find someone and live happily ever after, too. I don't want to wait until after I'm done with grad school. That would kill me. I want to meet someone NOW.