Post Office Adventures – how much is your postcode?
Our local postmasters are wonderfully autie friendly. However I might get away with being meaning deaf, meaning blind, mono tracked, lacking simultaneous processing of self and other and tumbling pretty much what’s left, these people handle it well with everything from a good natured ‘chuckle with’ to turning a blind eye… CONSTANTLY.
They must be saints, these two. I have walked out without paying so many times (I always come back within the hour, day or week). I have been unable to remember which end is the back of the queue. I walk up to them with the task without saying hello or fail to answer hello to theirs, or I make mine then turn away. I have my vocal tics now and then and the occasional motor tic, sharp clap in front of my face thing which makes me look like I’m swatting a mozzie.
I never have my money ready, can’t learn the paper work, always miss boxes or jump lines on the various forms I have to fill out to post things. I talk over people whose mouths are moving with noise coming out because I can’t process that they are speaking. After all these years I’m still pulling the push and pushing the pull in relation to their door.
I have taken my goods away forgetting to leave them for posting and have arrived ready to post massive parcels without tape, scissors, packaging, anything, then realised I need some. I don’t know if others do so, but I help myself to packaging on their shelves then pay for it at the counter after using it. I hand over cents for things which are dollars and credit card for things which are cents.
But today, well today was a whole new level. You see, the postmasters call out the postcodes on the goods I send. So there was me, having used one of their posting tube thingies to send an artwork I’ve just sold. And as I’m lining up and I’m thinking, maybe today, maybe today I’ll actually get out of here without messing up. I was musing that people could place bets on whether I messed up or in which variety of ways and there’s be rare odds I’d have a day with no mess ups at all.
So the post master sorts out the postage, keys in the cost of the tube thingy, then announces 3042. I get out $3.42 and he tries not to chuckle but I can see a twinkle in his eye.
‘Er, Donna, that’s the postcode’, he said referring to our 4 digit Aussie postcodes.
I look at my money, nothing like the cost of the postage and tube and laugh, ‘Heck, I was thinking I just might actually make it out of here today without a Donnaism but this one’s a doozy’, I muse, ‘So that’s the price of the postcode’.
‘You’re alright, Donna’, he says, just like he always says, ‘have a nice day’. And because of these people, fact is, I do.
Donna Williams *)
http://www.donnawilliams.net
Ever the Arty Autie
author, artist, composer, screenwriter
Don’t you wish you could clone that man several hundred times and plant the clones all around Australia? And then the rest of the world?
Such tolerance…..and not just mere tolerance, I feel he genuinely enjoys your presence, doozies or none, in his post office.
I’m sure your presence makes his job less boring somehow, just through “simply being.”
I can’t say how, other than what I did say.
The Integral
Hello Donna,
I really enjoy your writing on the site. I heard two interviews on this site called foggyrock which is near me here in Maine. I have been voraciously searching for more on autism as i believe I have been undiagnosed most of my life (maybe aspergers). I have fallen through a lot of cracks, and muddled my way through a lot of things. But when I hear diagnosed autistic people talk or otherwise communicate about their condition, their lives, it hits a target in me, and i say “yes”.
I recall some writing or speaking you had done about place settings when you were young and how you were blind to anything on the left or right of the place setting, whatever…old words with new meaning, like meaning blind ….language blind…
I am hoping to meet with other people here in Maine soon to find some leads on understanding who i am, how i can be more social and feel good about social interaction.
One gut feeling I have is the importance of the contribution those with autism, on the spectrum, have to give or can make, and how annoying some of the language neurotypical people use to talk about autistic people – like there is something WRONG with autistic people and they need to work really hard to change.
Yes, there is some change that needs to happen, but it is so gloomy to hear some of their approaches. It really means a lot to here you speak from experience, and it rings true, perfect pitch, because it comes from the heart, …..from another planet, or from a cat in a dog world (I don’t really like animals, or cats for that matter…anyway), or from a stranger in a strange land….but it is alright
I am very literal , and i don’t always say the right thing (do I ever say the right thing?). But lately, hearing some other podcasts on my commute to work, and reading about the types of learning, and other pieces on autism, I can see things a little better and feel better about myself. The subjects are so far from the social interactions of colleagues, not that they would be autism unfriendly, but…
Don’t give up going right up to the counter and posting things.
I marvel at how well you package your paintings Donna. Every one of your wonderful paintings arrived (as you know I have fourteen of them)in pristine condition.I doubt that I could do such a good job of it myself. In fact I’m certain of it. Heck , I have trouble enough putting stuff in my trolley at the supermarket. I invariably end up with my bread out of shape, or my tomatoes squashed, through incorrect packing .
Yes, you surely have the makings of a small gallery there!
I see it as I’m sending my friends off on a journey, they’re going to a new home.
I pack them well so they can arrive safely.
But I have also used a courier for bigger works, who is marvelous.
My brother, Duel, has a new show coming up this June 7th-25th
at Lindberg Gallery,
48 Cambridge St Collingwood
Tues-Sat 11am – 6pm
I went to his last show, it was great.
I’ve got a show at present at Gallery 15,
15 William St in Melb
its M-F 8am-6pm and runs until June 5th.
I have 38 works there!
reckon you’d find it a buzz.
it’s really fab to walk about among art
art works are like different worlds
or maybe doors, keys to different worlds.
🙂