Showing posts with label Hooters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hooters. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Back From the Beach

Yesterday, we ended our vacation at the beach.  My son was on his summer break which began on August 2nd and was to return back to school yesterday.  So, our plan was to schedule our annual trip to Ocean City MD around his return to school yesterday.  The vacation itself was rather nice, but yesterday was another story entirely.

My son had been really looking forward to this vacation.  All summer long, he would ask us, "Where are we going in August?"  That was his way of prompting us to ask him that question so that he could respond "Ocean City."  All he could talk about was going to play miniature golf at Maui Golf and wanting to eat at Hooter's restaurant on the boardwalk.

We headed out to the beach on Thursday morning and got to the beach that afternoon.  After unpacking our things, we headed out to the boardwalk.  My wife was hobbled by a bit of a sprained ankle, so it took us about half an hour to walk the boardwalk to have lunch at Hooter's.  My son enjoyed his usual fare of hot boneless buffalo wings and curly fries.

After lunch, we did not have time to get a round of miniature golf.  We had to hit the grocery store to pick up some food supplies.  Another tradition that we have when we head out to the beach is to also attend some Delmarva Shorebirds games.  Thursday night was hat night at the stadium and my son wanted to go.  There was a fairly long line to get into the stadium.  My son, fortunately, got the last hat given out to our line and the rest of us were out of luck.  With the long drive, everybody was pretty worn out and we only made it through half of the game before we headed back to the trailer.

The next morning was a beautiful day.  We got out fairly early and headed out to Maui golf for some miniature golf.  Originally, my son told me he wanted to play two rounds of golf, which was fine with me.  At Maui golf, you pay once and can golf as much as you want before 6pm.  It took us about a half hour to play our first round of golf.  I was all set to get two more balls and play again, but my son decided that he didn't want to play again. We went ahead and got wrist bands just in case he decided he wanted to play again later.  Unfortunately, he did not want to play any more that day, or at all the rest of the week.  It was kind of surprising and a bit disappointing as he talked all summer long about playing Maui Golf.  Such is life.

The weather all week was about as perfect as it could have been.  Temperatures were in the low 80's and sunny.  We got to go to two more Shorebirds games on Friday and Saturday nights, both of which featured fireworks.  My wife was not up for going to Saturday night's game but my son was set on going, so we had a nice father-son night at the game.  We also managed to get in a few meals while we were out there.  Another staple for us is to get pit beef sandwiches at Bull on the Beach.  It was a bad few days at the beach for me diet wise as I gained a few pounds back that I had lost.  Back on the wagon today.

Sunday night, my son started getting anxious.  While we had not talked at all about taking him back to school on Monday, he must have known.  He was starting to get awfully cranky.  Monday morning, we wanted to go out for breakfast to the Little House of Pancakes and Ribs so my son could have some bacon and pancakes.  We also wanted to hit the boardwalk one last time to get some more Fisher's Popcorn.  Unfortunately, he would have none of it.  It was over two hours of him hitting and kicking my wife and I along with dropping down to the floor.

Eventually, we were able to get him off of the floor and into the car.  By this time, any thoughts of going out to breakfast or the boardwalk were out of the question.  Instead, we headed out to our final destination.  Originally, we had considered stopping at the Golden Corral in Easton MD for lunch, but again we decided it was better to not take a chance on having one of his behavior meltdowns there.

Once we got him to school he was fine.  He got out of the car and headed to his classroom.  While we were saying our goodbyes, he started asking "Where are we going in October," which happens to be his next break.  He already knew his next break on the calendar.  In fact, he knew the exact date of October 11th.  One day back and he is already looking forward to his next break.  Typical teenager.  






Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Happy but Busy Days

Today is one of those happy days.  I took the day off from work to go pick up my son for his scheduled long weekend home.  When I stuck my head in the door, the smile on his face lit up the room.  It looks like he has trimmed down a bit since being at school.  His teacher says he has been eating three meals per day plus snacks.  It is just that he has been a lot more active at school than he has been at home.

Work has been hectic for quite a while, and it has been well over a year since I have taken any significant time off for something besides the office being closed for a blizzard or last year when I had the flu for a week.  So, during this long weekend, I will be taking off work the whole time he is home.  I am thinking about getting a basketball so he and I can shoot some hoops while he is home.  We also will try to go to Dave & Buster's for skee ball and maybe a visit to Hooters while he is home.  However, it will not be all relaxation while he is home because we have a lot of errands to do with him. 

Today, we scheduled an eye doctor appointment for him to get new eyeglasses.  As usual, he didn't want to cooperate with the exam, but the doctor was able to get enough of a reading to adjust his prescription.  With his job at school, he receives a paycheck.  We have opened a bank account for him, but he needs a photo ID card.  Tomorrow we are taking him to the MVA to get that.  Friday morning, we have an appointment with the DDA (Developmental Disabilities Administration) to discuss benefits and transition services for when he gets older.

On a personal note, I am still doing pretty well with my dietary goals.  Yesterday, I had an appointment with a sales rep who I had not seen in several months.  He said I was looking good and that he needed to do what I was doing.  When I told him that I had pretty much quit drinking alcohol and eating junk food, he replied "never mind."  Tomorrow, I have a doctor's appointment to discuss my blood pressure medication and I guess to talk about a colonoscopy.  I checked my blood pressure a couple times in the last week, and it has been running 115/75 so he should be pleased.
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Sunday, February 13, 2011

I'm a Lucky Man

Hooters Calendar Girl Melissa Poe in 2004Image via WikipediaTomorrow is Valentine's Day.  In a lot of ways, I am a lucky man.  My wife does not like flowers, so I do not have to be concerned about getting her flowers.  She also does not like going out on Valentine's Day because she doesn't like fighting the big crowds that hit the restaurants that day.  So today was our big Valentine's meal.  More on that later.

We are closing in on the end of having our son home for a long weekend.  We are supposed to take him back to school tomorrow sometime between 1-7pm.  He has already said he does not want to go back to school.  Today was going to be the day we were going to try to go out and do some fun things for him.

He had been asking us to take him to Border's Book Store to get an iCarly or Spongebob Squarepants DVD.  We have been reluctant to take him to Border's because we have had some very unpleasant occurances there with him of late.  I mentioned to him the possibility of going to Arundel Mills Mall so we could go to Dave & Buster's to play skee-ball and then go to FYE to buy the DVDs.  That worked for us all.

Let me now backtrack to Valentine's Day and our Valentine's meal.  Earlier in the week, I received a short text message from my wife.  It read simply, "Hooters, Valentines day." (See, I told you I was a lucky man.)  We considered waiting until tomorrow to try to fit all these in, but I figured the more stops we try tomorrow, the more likely we would have potential issues with our son and getting him in the car to head back to school.

Something happened at Hooter's this afternoon with our son that shows the progress he has made and helps confirm that having him there is the right thing for him.  At home, he has been drinking out of a sippee cup and not out of a regular glass.  He is very much a creature of routine, and for him, milk is to be drunk from a sippee cup.  However, at school, he has been drinking water from a cup.  At home he drinks it straight from the tap.

My son did not want any food while we were at Hooters.  At first, he also did not want anything to drink.  However, as my wife and I were eating our meal, he asked for water.  Our server (would it be inappropriate to call her our Hooter Girl) brought him a big cup of water with ice in it.  Usually, when he gets upset, you have to figure out what has set him off.  Today, he immediately said, "I don't like the ice."  He drank about half of a rather large cup of water.

There were three things that were great about our lunch, none of which had anything to do with the food or ambiance of the place.  First, while we were eating he decided that he wanted something after all and was able to ask for it.  Second, when his drink came, rather than having a meltdown about it having ice, he was able to communicate what he didn't like.  Third, he showed us that he could easily handle a rather large cup and drink from it without a straw or lid.

To most folks, these may seem like simple things.  To the father of an autistic child who at times has been incapable of communicating even the slightest desire or dissatisfaction without getting at best, upset, and at worst having a complete meltdown, these are monumental events.  It would not have been out of the ordinary for my son to scream loudly about having ice in the water and then to refuse to drink it.  We take our victories where we can get them, no matter how small they may appear.
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