Asperger's Issues

Someone I don’t know very well mentioned randomly to me a few days ago that I should write an autobiography.

Now, I’ve been writing about my life more or less since I’ve had one. but I knew that someday I would actually write the whole damn thing out, I was just not expecting that feeling of “readiness” to come this soon.

I turned 30 earlier this year, and I feel like I’ve had about four distinct lives at least. I’ve had a lot of experiences that are fairly unique, and I’ve had mundane experiences in rather unique ways. And I relate both through an unusual filter. I think people would be interested in it.

Moreover, as I see the big, belted shirts with leggings slowly disappearing and everyone showing up for college classes is torn jeans and flannel, with feathers and beads in their hair, combined with the youth political involvement the likes of which have not been seen since the 60′s, I feel like the “too young to write an autobiography” fashion coming back around. Think Elizabeth Wurtzel and Susanah Kaysen. Add to that the recent success of books like Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling, and I think I’m seeing a time when my voice might be welcome.

A few things from my life:

I have bred, raised and sold aquatic snails for fun and profit

I was married to a paranoid schizophrenic for 11 years

I’m the child of two musicians who were in a band together

I spent the first 25 years of my life with undiagnosed Autism; now I just have regular Autism

I am a mixed race genderqueer woman who has done a fair amount of amateur drag

I have authored 20 years’ worth of unpublished, unseen illustrated poetry

I spent the first four years of my life on a semi-abandoned farm in rural Pennsylvania

I grew up in a Southern California ghetto speaking English, Spanish, Vietnamese and a bit of Korean (latter two languages forgotten by my teens)

I have had sex while dressed as Abraham Lincoln

I’ve lived on my own since age 16

I have been institutionalized twice

I have had an actual sociopath as a part of my family

It was discovered I could already read and write, do mathematics up to square roots, and draw passably well when i was 2 years old

I was an active Riot Grrl and Third Wave Feminist in my early teens

This one time I tried very hard to be promiscuous for about three years and failed

I have been a janitor

I spent 2001 taking Vicodin and playing Diablo for Playstation

I had a very popular blog for several years

My first non-ear body piercing was my clitoral hood

I have been playing guitar awkwardly since I was 13 years old

I have an extremely eccentric and accomplished mother

I cannot tell left from right

I was unbearably gothic from age 14 until 16

I lived in Florida for 4 years

I dunno, I think my life’s been even more interesting than John Elder Robison’s and his ass made guitars and pyro for Kiss. I’d read about that shit.