Don’t ever be early for your appt, they won’t tell anyone that you’re there until 5 minutes before your appt., no matter how many times you ask.

And don’t expect any actual speech during the interview. The interview consists of someone well barricaded behind their desk typing. I am very curious if there’s any point to the interview other than seeing that you are a living person. Which, if this is the case wouldn’t the first hour of standing out there be enough proof?

As usual, there was one screaming child. The entire time. His guardian didn’t even attempt to quiet him. She ignored him completely, kept talking to her friend she came in with. I’m not one who is going to say that the ignoring the attention speaking child until they get bored is always wrong, but a crowded public place where people must remain for their own good is NOT the place to use such parenting tactics.

I did stop to think though if the child had autism. I don’t have any familiarity with autism in young children but I’ve read some parental blogs. Apparently young autistic children will throw tantrums that the parents can in no way stop. So I considered the option, but the way this child was observing his action on people and his very real awareness of where his guardian was and how much attention she was giving him made me think that he probably wasn’t autistic.

Another thing I noticed is that most people in the waiting room were either very heavy or very very thin. The few people who looked to be in the middle range were very few, and most of those were young children.

Anyway.. After spending much energy on not hyperventilating or panicking, I made it thru the gauntlet and am now safe in my truck again.

I think I’m going to stay parked here for a few hours as the end of the parking lot where I’m at is pretty quiet. I’m going to take a nap and hug Keegan until my adrenalin ebbs and I can think straight again.