An Aaron Story - Aaron and the Rhino

Aaron is my 4 year old son. Last year he was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, which is high-functioning autism. He's been going to a special ed preschool since last September.

He's been obsessed with this wooden toy rhino at his school. It sits on a small round platform and when you push underneath the platform, the rhino moves. The husband said that Aaron's made several attempts to take it home by putting it in his backpack. The husband and Aaron's teachers are pretty good at preventing it though. However, Aaron actually succeeded once during one of the times I picked him up. When we pulled into the driveway of our house he said, "Rhino. Backpack." I opened up his backpack and sure enough there it was.

Anyway, today the husband called and told me that Aaron's teacher told Aaron that if he put the rhino in his backpack he wouldn't be allowed to play with it anymore for the rest of the school year. Aaron proceeded to unzip his backpack. He then picked up the rhino, looked at the teacher and then put the rhino in his shirt.

There's An Asian Pecking Order!

I never knew this. From what I've gotten from that young Asian forum I frequent, it seems like the Japanese and the Koreans are at the top of the totem pole. Everyone (and by everyone I mean a lot of the members of that forum) envies the Japanese and/or Koreans for their style/beauty. And I've noticed that the Japanese members have a sort of snobbish-I'm-so-better-than-you-attitude. It's all so strange. I mentioned this to the husband and he said that it makes perfect sense. The Japanese have kicked everyone's ass in everything in the past. And the Japanese and Koreans are the most industrialized. More wealth = more beauty.

I guess us Filipinos, Cambodians and Laotians must be the bottom feeders with our short, dark, flat-nosed impoverished selves.

Another thing I didn't know, that the husband actually told me about when we first got married, was that Koreans hate Filipinos. I don't remember why or if he even told me why. I just thought that was the most interesting thing. I guess I was just surpised and entertained by the idea that there were tensions amongst Asian nationalites.

Then I asked him why some folks on the forum used the term, "Taiwanese." Wasn't Taiwan a part of China? Why not just say "Chinese"? A gasp escaped from the husband as he told me to never call a person from Taiwan, Chinese. He then gave me a brief history lesson - China took over Taiwan in 1949. And I guess the Taiwanese have never gotten over it. I don't remember the specific example the husband gave me, but it reminded me of the time I called a coworker Mexican and she shot me a look that could kill as she explained that she was Guatemalan.

I then asked him where Hmong people were from. That answer he didn't know. I guess I'll have to google it myself.

The husband told me that he thought he was a bad Asian. But apparently I'm even worse than him. I make a very bad Asian. I had to agree as I told him that sometimes I forget which is the "good" Korea.

I Must Be The Biggest Wuss

I had my teeth cleaned at my dentist two weeks ago. Well, turns out I also had two cavities. I just got back from getting those filled.

Ouch!!!! I know they give you injections and stuff so you don't feel anything. But it seems like every single time I get a cavity filled, my pathetic ass is wincing and raising my hand or trying to say, "It hurts!" (however possible that is with your mouth wide open and hands and tools shoved in your mouth) to my dentist. Because dammit, I still feel the pain!

I honestly have no idea what the inside of a tooth looks like. But I imagine my dentist drilling down the enamel and exposing all these super sensitive nerves (kind of like coral in the bottom of the ocean) that he then drills down, too, without realizing that the anesthesia must have missed a few of them.

Anyway, he gave me an extra shot probably because I complained too much. And now I'm at home trying to eat a Kit Kat. But instead I keep biting my tongue somehow and drooling down the left corner of my mouth.