Socialization with Strangers and the Usual Failiures

This is yet another problem I have struggled (maybe others can relate.) You try to go out to public places (retail, restaurants, etc.) and the objective is to socialize with a stranger.  The problem is when you realize there is an opportunity, you just immediately fumbled the football.
This problem can be one or more of the following:

  • You were trained as a child, and in your late teens to not talk to strangers
  • You were told to not give out your number, as some girls/guys could consider it stalking
  • You are insecure of yourself
  • You are afraid to divulge too much  information
  • You are afraid to damage such low level relationship

This has happened on several occasions within the last 3 months. One was at the local fast foot joint, where I have a “fake” ID badge.  Its not that fake, I had a IT services operation and while it wasn’t incorporated legally, but I wear it with an accompanied lanyard  to look like I was “busy”. But I didn’t take the business seriously for reasons not worth going. The guy asked me how was “work”? I fibbed and said “good”. For all I know, he was just doing his own personal SOP of being nice to the customers.
Another case was I went to a mall store around the time when the Boston Bruins was in the Stanley Cup, so sometime within the last month. I was wearing my Bruins hat, and the girl at  this store was complementing me about my hat, while I was in the store she essentially was flirting with me and asking me if I was excited about the series. I came off like I was a “casual fan” when in fact I am a true fan. For all I could say in return in complete sentences was that I told her I liked her belt she was wearing and how sexy it looked.
And most recently, a cashier at the local grocery store had shown interest in me. No, not romance or crushes, but just an acknowledgement in a friendly way of my presence. (If you know what I mean, you understand what I had to deal with for many years.) The last time I saw her was about a few weeks ago, because I have missed her on her shifts in the last 3 weeks. Its rare for a grocery store let alone the Northeast where someone is friendly with their customers and not rush to put the pizza in the same bag as the chicken. The problem is how can I go that next step into the “small talk”. I’m not like an Asperger type where I hate it, its really how to execute it, and how could I ask her out (if that’s even possible.)
I seem to never find the right time to act when I have an opportunity to interact with the outside world without having much fear. The problem for me is how chronic this social anxiety almost literally  freezes me up without getting cold hands or feet.
I think it comes from my upbringing of low self esteem, a lack of confidence of my professional interactions, and just the baggage of carrying my autism and all the negativity that the disorder has been wrongfully portrayed in the public.

Is it Sexist to Ask a Girl Out?

Would someone get charged for a Felony if he asked a girl out that he didn’t really know? Would it be just because he doesn’t “look” like the other guys?
This is a very confusing task for someone like me to do. There is of course the many pseudo-science things like “social capital”, “social pyramid” and the other cautious practices, because you know we can’t assume that everyone with a developmental disability would appear to be “normal” because we have to stereotype them as big, fat ugly young men.
And of course we got both men and women professionals or others that have to be skeptical to protect each others safety, the fear of course of the other person complaining against us!
The problem is there isn’t any positive social skills teaching us how to get young ladies, only because there are many excuses such as its not the paraprofessionals’ responsibility of teaching how to hook up with someone, and more excuses.  (and I say this gender specifically since many cases of autism and other DDs are 95% males – and of course I feel ashamed sometimes of being a guy since we are easy targets to get bullied by girls.)
I’ve heard the various ideas of places to meet other people like at the grocery store. Sure that’s  a great idea – only if you don’t live in a snobby town and most of the people aren’t walking the carts as couples.
The other theoretical  suggestion is well maybe flirt with the cashiers. Which makes me question at what point do you go forward? How do you do small talk (I have difficulties NOT because of my autism, but I was trained settle of socializing with snobby people.) How many weeks or months would you suggest to ask her out? What if I found her Facebook profile and she appears to be a bad girl but she acts nice on the clock?  Should I assume that shes taken? (since all good looking girls are taken, good girls are taken and bad girls are not) 
The logical response to all of this is to just go on Match or some other dating site since in like 30 years you’d look like you grew up in a sheltered life or that you are very old to remember how people met each other before the Web.
I don’t know because I never had any strong support to do so, only the depressing skepticism and skiddish kinda responses.  This is how I tackle it: no one would want to date me, to assume that girl is taken, and assume she’s a badass. I don’t make an ass out of u and me, because 99% of my encounters involve with bitches who can’t control her emotions or has some excuse to dislike me.  And 1 and 50 occurrences I deal with the opposite gender, I get some positive reaction. And that 1 and 50 cases happen probably 1 in 3 months.
I am simply confused. Trying to find my next best friend should not have to require being taught from someone with a PhD degree and requiring so much freckin structure.

Green Light Day – Sucessful Flirting!

Today my chick radar shown a lot of green on the screen!
All across the board, I got some female affection. I went out today, from the local mall, to the local hockey game and in between I got some girls attention!
I got thrown offguard by a couple ladies at one store who appeared to be showing interest. Often this one and a hundred occurrences causes me to get severely shy.
Part of it, was I had a sincere smile, enough to get the the girl to hopefully cave in and return the favor.
Regardless, lets file this little good news, and expect to see a repeating story in like 9 months, since this one and hundred cases have a long spread of time inbetween.

The Financial Impact of Being a Hopeless Romantic

I haven’t been keeping tabs on my spending. I do save all my receipts and normally at the end of the month I tabulate all of them. I am trying to implement an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planner) to link all my spending to line item, to the places I go to and do other cool statistical information of my finances.
I was in a day program up until this summer for the last couple of years. In many of those cases, I went to places to try to hit on a girl. I never explicitly said that because I feared I would come off as doing sexist practices.  I poured maybe about $60 a quarter (per place) in the places I went to try to impress a girl. This ranged from going to the local used book store, to the local pizza joint, to the local Dunkin Donuts to anywhere to get a girl to like me.
What could even be worse is I have tried a new style going to those fancy preppy stores like Aeropostale, American Eagle or Abercrombie/Hollister, and to spend pretty pennies to only be mute when I try to hit on a girl. My definition of “hitting” or “flirting” maybe different from your definition. That I need to look up the impact
I know its really shallow of me to even mention that I had done these things for the sole sake of trying to impress a girl.
Like I said before, I am closing this unknown chapter of my life by the end of the year. No Discussion. I am doing it whether if people like it or not. My future for any relationships is OVAH!

The entire tell all about my concerns about “relationships”

Update: 08-27-2012 @ 10:25pm/Eastern Time
I have created the page that contains items from this post. It has been edited and expanded and I will keep this post intact for the near future.
“RELEVENT” HISTORY
I am 25 years old. I have a form of a pervasive developmental disorder known as having a form of the autism spectrum disorder. So I am 25 (I may come off as a younger person and maybe fall as a minor with my looks and sounds) but I am feeling like I am getting old. I feel sometimes like a teenager with some rebelious attitudes. With my autism, I have had struggled with socializing when I was very young. I started to build some social skills at the second year of my fifth grade school year. Why was there a second? Because I had anxiety moving over to my local middle school, and to elievate the anxiety, the IEP team decided I should stay back so the transition to the local middle school would be easier.
Well it all went down to hell within two months, and I was placed out of district as per to my mothers demands having to go through that pain. At the same time, I noticed that the girl I had the hots for in the second year of fifth grade had treated me like crap by the end of that summer meanwhile an alleged hot-ticket-Itailian type would get away of verbally atacking me and just being very mean as those two months fell apart*
* I admit I was no angel, I remember attacking this girl of interest, but the girl just put a huge scar and those wounds haven’t (or may never) be fully healed
While in high school, I went to school in Massachusetts, an area that is one of the most liberal states on the East Coast.  My teacher was 25 when I came to her program, so this was 10 years ago – same age as I am today. However, she had a 6 or 7 year spread from her graduating her high school and prior to being hired at my school. She had focused on lots of mixed message on romance and friends. By Mass law, she was required to teach sex ed (or at least was supposed to ensure we got it in some way or another) but she opted to instead preach on psuedo science lessons like on “relationships” and “healthy” vs. “unhealthy relationships” and more and more pseudo BS about love and romance. I actally fell for much of her advice about relationships, but actually this came from someone still with a high school mind and instead of a wise and mature professional.
PEER PRESSURE  – EVEN TO THE SOCIALLY INGORANT
Even with my developmental disability, I still feel like I want to be like “everyone else”. I have been ether screwed by my ex friends or had to isolate myself to feel “safer” from being hurt because a) I didn’t go to a normal high school. I also didn’t retain the friends from elementary school, b) I didn’t build newer friends and didn’t go to college. c) I didn’t have a job since my 21st birthday so I haven’t been able to build from there  and d) I don’t have a significant other.
The latter is the one that really hurts
LOVE IS FOR THE SOCIALLY PRIVILEGED
I understand as much as I am different and it may be good to celebrate my differences, its very hard to find people like me. I can be very mature on different interests. Most 20somethings would rather play Halo than to build an Active Directory. Most “kids” would rather mess around with an iDevice rather than using an Apple with a fancy UNIX operating system. While most dumbasses would want to send texts (which has less personable communication than to email which in some ways replaced the handwritten leter) where its so easy to delete a message and is harder to retain compared to email. While most drama queens like their “friends” to be in the know on their Facebook profies, some would like a tiny ammount of a little off line, real world communication. I’m not asking for too much. But a pretty girl to look up or lets say just north of 30 seconds and acknowledge that a guy might be flirting with them by saying shes got a sexy skirt, even if the guy can’t fully say it.
So there is a syhtentic autism that is growing to the “normal” population, which is devestating to the legitmate autistic population. Its like the movie WALL-E happening in the real world less than 5 years after the release.
Onto the flirting, thats a whole other issue. Many people with PDD have experienced some degrading lessons on socializing with other people, in the sexual sense. Now in the PDD or the autism spectrum, you can have normal looking people and some “creepy” looking people too. But of course, since most SPED schools or programs could not do “indvidual” based lessons, they had to paint them with a broad brush that you had to stay restrained. The liberalism/feminist movement had really made issues a lot worse than actually fixing issues such as hostility at the work place. Thanks to the “sexual harrassment” laws, the special ed schools had to teach them because of course, the creepy boys would be the first target. After hearing that phrase over and over, it got drilled into our own BootROM. So since about 6 years ago, after one of my first sex ed lessons, my BootROM has essentially been drilled to stay away from being around girls or women, to avoid excessive (or any) flirting, and avoid using phrases such as “sexy”, “horny”, “hot” whatever, because it can offend women or even older men.
SEX – YOU DON’T THINK AUTISTICS AREN’T SLUTTY IN THE HEAD?
My thoughts on people and sexual types of questions keep popping in my head for my own safety and health (and just for plain ol curiosity). Like when I see these hotties whether or not they are in a group or alone, Is that chick thats with that guy her bf? When did she stop being a virgin? Did she start puberty early? because she look too mature for a 20 year old. How many times did they get screwed during their time at college majoring in partying? Do they have an STD? Should I even touch her? And what in the hell does it mean when you are “In a Relationship”? Does it mean you are a boyfriend or girlfriend? How serious is it? Are you fucking one another every night? Are you doing it with or without protection? How often? Does the girl take the pill to prevent any pre martial knock ups?
Then I think about her physical prefs. Is she dressing to just show off? Why is she covering her lower back if she knows if it exposes her area or her thong or tramp stamp? Why does she just tighten her belt to make her feel more comfortable? Why you are so offended at the people looking at your clevage. Its not my fault someone upstairs gave you a gift to be at least a hottie! Why do girls tease?
Why is it that I am told to be careful to look at girls in case I offend them when they are doing it to themselves? Why do girls get so damn offended on Facebook or MySpace websites of “creeps” “stalking” their profiles when they just pin themselves up for the same type of attention!
So I have some odd turn ons or fetishes – again “odd” compared to the “normal” people. But flirting does entail complementing someones physical looks (even if it comes off as sexual.) So I been so shy (thanks to the liberal establishment) to hit on a girl to say she’s got a hot belly piercing, not only could get worse if a guy is nearby protecting his friend or girlfriend. I’ve had thoughts of asking (again: asking) to kiss her belly I found it sexy. I like some girls who wear short shorts or skirts showing off her sexual attractiveness. I can’t even say shes “got hot legs” or “I like that sexy skirt.” Or what if shes wearing a nice belt, depending on the type. I feel awkward to say I love that sexy belt, or how snug it looks or how comfortable it feels, etc. Or if a girl is wearing a nice push up bra and her bust is nicely lifted (read: I love your sexy cleavage – or your are making me stiffy.) Since those tight fitting chokers are not in fashion, sometimes those can be a turn on and I can only say I like your necklace. I could go further with such sexual thoughts as flirts, but probably they are bedroom material. But of course, that will not happen, because who would want to date an autistic or even fuck with them?
While I am on the sexual note, I feel if I get older and are a heluvla lot less people my own age* that are single, I fear that my dream girl (that isn’t really that far off from reality) won’t be around. Again, I want substance (maybe not in the department of managing office phone systems, or understanding state and local government – again because they arent that many hotties that are smarties) but I also want a strong sense of style. I like the ladies in the Hollister outfits, the American Eagle tiny shorts or the skimpy tank tops from Aeropostale, or some evening dress or dresses from the juniors department at the local anchor mall store – or last but not least a girl wearing cutesy PINK outfits from the collection at Victoria’s Secret. I do like all types, some curvy, slender, but not boney skinny and not any kind of athletic build, as some are boney in some senses too. Girls are not supposed to show bones. And girls** start to peak of their sexual attractiveness at their mid 20s. So their bodies start to change after then. I see lots of couples get touchy and feeley (as I could press charges at them for “sexual harassment” ) and I feel like I am missing something. I’d love to be touchy and feeley (but maybe not in public as much to be modest.) I’d love to hug, kiss touch a part of her leg and get all frisky and stuff.
* It has been preached on many occasions that we should stick to people around our own age (remember the “2 year rule” as a 14 year old? This practice was still pushed in my late teens in the high school program ) because of the creep factor)
** no intention of degradion of such class of geneder is intended.
FRIENDS (“They won’ t be there for you”*)
* The TV Series was so overrated
So as I mentioned earlier, about my “friends” and how they had made me a massive fail. Friends is a vague definition, and it is open for translation. Temple Grandin (the know it all on autism, since she herself is a proud autistic) defines a “true friend” as “…true friendships are built on shared interests, or shared ideas, or shared principals, that you both hold meaningful; there’s always some common thread that binds you together.” Well the hard problem is there is no concrete definition and I can say that the “normal” groups are likely the ones that are abusing the definition.
When I moved to another town almost a couple years ago, whether or not it was by coincidence, my “friends” were starting to drift away. I admit that I was at time a nasty individual, but I also felt felt forgotten. I was still reeling over the mess from the previous decade and the post 21 debacle (thanks in part to inferior over regulations on the state and local level prohibiting the school support staff to be humans instead to be bureaucrats above the law) but even that, they should had understand. About 2007 and onwards, people had no idea on how the depth of a potential Doomsday would happen on ones 21st birthday, other than they are legal to get drunk if they so choose to.
I will use one example, a friend thats now an ex who allegedly has Asperger Syndrome, graduated at his original class back 7 years ago. He’s a bit over confident, admitting he wants to have a triple digit IQ. He has since gone to a local community college, and is getting transferred to the state university. In the summer of 2010, he started to make references of a “girlfriend” which got more and more serious. Recently they had their “2 year anniversary”, something that should be inappropriate for a boy/girlfriend “relationship.” This girl does exist, and she lives in the area, and it wasn’t any of his old alleged “girlfriends’ he had chatted on whatever IM client he was using. So this really was boggling my mind and to this day I still can’t fathom. Meanwhile another friend of mine (who happened to be that high school teacher that we started to become “friends” after her dismissal of the school program) she is an extreme liberal. She still subscribes as of 2010, the pseudo science of psych-o-logy. She had treated me as a mute and dumb person as per to the actual DSM definition of PDD, Autism or whatever current definition mute and dumb is. As I moved to my new town she said on the way back to my old home from a lunch (which was our only get togethers out, since I wasn’t good enough for her for anything else – maybe it was my bitterness) “Now that you don’t live in [XXXX ] anymore… now I won’t see you much anymore”
Wow, what a promising statement coming from such a whiny Valley Girl type! By this time my original Facebook account created in March of 2007 was already purged. By that fall she wouldn’t return constant phone calls and after number of failed phone tags, I started to give up. By that January, I wrote an email entitled in the Subject line “Termination of ‘Friendship'” she would reply back that her father was getting sick and she couldn’t get in touch with me. Well her alibi was allegedly false, meanwhile at that time, she had her public website, mentioning that she opened an art studio for special needs and was in local hyper media outlets during this alleged claim.
So my “friends” prior to the end of 2010 – were not meant to be for today. If figuratively my house was burning, they wouldn’t come for help. They had such attitude of arrogantly being independent, I’d be dead. Friends are supposed to be there when you need them the most. And these people had excuses upon excuses. And maybe I lived too far, but that shouldn’t had been an excuse. So the theme song on the TV series Friends would not ring true for my cases of such social courtships
To sum it up: I came to a damning conclusion that I might not have a hopeful social future in 2010, 2011 came to the realization and in 2012 the acceptance phase that I need to kiss having “normal” people with “normal” interests, having a healthy balance of work, family and friends, and most importantly a “girlfriend”.
Well after 2,400 words in the 1st draft, I think I got some story web of thoughts and emotions, and most importantly, the cement mixed up to start the foundation of this new blog. Lets kick this bitch off and hopefully we can hit many posts well into left field like I did with my other blog, on family, friends, romance, sex and damn the negative bias known as “social skills” to hell where it’s supposed to be! To screw the autism elite! To give the salute to the morons making socializing a pet project! To shut up the damned far-left liberals and their “zero tolerance” and their thin skinned approach of everything being “offensive”!  Let’s upgrade this bitch to Beta stage and open the doors to this blog and do a grand opening, of a go-live, a premiere date of September 10th!